As many of you probably dont know I nearly gave up biking when I was forced to actually get a job and work for a living. From September to mid January I was only getting one or two really short rides in each week. The guys I ride with maintained their fitness level while mine steadily declined. In January I was able to transfer to a permanent benefit position that pays halfway crappy but has a great schedule alternating weeks of 4 days on 1 day off and followed by 6 days on and 3 days off. I go in at 5AM and AM off by 12:30 PM. So
that combined with our PNW draught emergency has allowed me to get the jump on the season.
I started road riding again in late January and was disgusted at my poor performance barely managing 16 mile in one hour and way too winded while I was doing it. The weather has been great so I have been able to get out on the road 3 or 4 days a week while still getting 2 days of trail riding in. My average ride is now only about 20 miles, previously my shortest rides where 36 miles but its going to take a few more months to get back to that level.
I had decided to be conservative and rack up at least 500 base miles before I start any sort of intervals. Im about there now so this last Monday I decided to push my limits on my usual 36 loop. I managed to average 17.14 MPH in about 2:05 and I was exhausted. This route has hills but nothing long mostly short sprinters, last year I averaged about 18.6 for my fasted loop so I have a ways to go yet.
I am planning on doing the STP 200 mile ride this year I want to do it in one day finishing in around 11 hours or less. To that end I put the aero bars on the Serotta and took my first 50 mile ride today. The weather was awesome; sunny and in the mid 60s. From the shipping forecast I knew that the winds would be steady 10-20 MPH from the NE. I headed out of town due north for 25 miles and turned back the same way. Needless to say coming back was much faster About 1/3 of this ride has hills and the rest is flat. I concentrated on maintaining my spin and getting used to the aero position again. I was able to stay on the bars for about ½ the ride. Maintaining my spin rate was no problem as its become natural to me now.
I ended up doing 50.6 miles in 3:02:24 averaging 16.6.
Now I am tired.
I started road riding again in late January and was disgusted at my poor performance barely managing 16 mile in one hour and way too winded while I was doing it. The weather has been great so I have been able to get out on the road 3 or 4 days a week while still getting 2 days of trail riding in. My average ride is now only about 20 miles, previously my shortest rides where 36 miles but its going to take a few more months to get back to that level.
I had decided to be conservative and rack up at least 500 base miles before I start any sort of intervals. Im about there now so this last Monday I decided to push my limits on my usual 36 loop. I managed to average 17.14 MPH in about 2:05 and I was exhausted. This route has hills but nothing long mostly short sprinters, last year I averaged about 18.6 for my fasted loop so I have a ways to go yet.
I am planning on doing the STP 200 mile ride this year I want to do it in one day finishing in around 11 hours or less. To that end I put the aero bars on the Serotta and took my first 50 mile ride today. The weather was awesome; sunny and in the mid 60s. From the shipping forecast I knew that the winds would be steady 10-20 MPH from the NE. I headed out of town due north for 25 miles and turned back the same way. Needless to say coming back was much faster About 1/3 of this ride has hills and the rest is flat. I concentrated on maintaining my spin and getting used to the aero position again. I was able to stay on the bars for about ½ the ride. Maintaining my spin rate was no problem as its become natural to me now.
I ended up doing 50.6 miles in 3:02:24 averaging 16.6.
Now I am tired.
