Did You Ride Today?



Not riding much, about 3-30-40 minute trainer sessions a week. Mondays ride was 16.3 miles/275 watts/889 max/96 cadence/24.5 mph. I'm guessing zwift adds 2-3 mph accounting for a pack, but I would like to somehow verify my power numbers. 275 could be accurate, I've always been more power than skill out on the road, but I need to verify.
 
17 more miles on the Ribble R872S this afternoon with around 550' of climbing in 37 degrees sunshine! The wind was up at a steady 15 MPH with gusts to 29 MPH.

The Ribble felt like it wanted to go so I opened up the throttle with a tailwind and for 5 miles we flew over the road like it was Summer time!

We only received a dusting of snow overnight, but the County road crews must have need something worthless to do, so they spread a fresh coating of cinders and pea gravel. Completely unnecessary...

Anyway, it was a fun ride and the Ribble is responding to the gas pedal more like the Wilier than the Emonda and that's a good thing. Very quick to change pace. It also climbed under power well. The fork is stiff and so is the BB and rear triangle. Even as stiff as it feels under power it still is seeming to do an excellent job of dampening bumps and cracks in the pavement. Over 17 miles x 2 rides...not a lot to go by. Almost any frame can feel decent over an hour. Let's see how well it does on a 6 or 7 hour run this Spring.
 
2" of snow overnight and light flurries all day with the thermometer at 28-30 degrees and the wind going a steady 15 to 20 MPH with gusts to 30 MPH so...only a hard trainer ride of 47 minutes.
 
1 hour on the trainer. It got up to 40 degrees today and the winds were gusting up to 41 MPH! Steady state winds of 18 to 26 MPH all day with just a little drizzle for a couple hours in the afternoon. Just an L-S-D ride.
 
31 Miles in sunshine! It got up to 43 degrees today and the roads were dry. The wind was a slow 5 to 7 MPH. Let's ride! It was a medium tempo ride with only a couple of short efforts thrown in...just spinning along and enjoying the Winter sunshine on the first day of the year. Besides, my legs were fried from the trainer workouts anyway.

Everyone must have been hung over and at home. The roads were empty and the 1200' of climbing was light and easy. My overall condition is still really good and I can't wait for the temperature to come up so I can start rolling the outdoor speed up.

The laundry's done, the chain is cleaned, the bottles washed out and the go-bag is packed and ready for the next ride Old Man Winter let's me get in.
 
Rain, drizzle and fog all day so 41 minutes on the trainer at warp speed. Boring, but effective training.
 
An hour on the trainer at a very low wattage but gotta start somewhere.

From doing pretty much nothing apart from swilling ale for 18 months I have about 12 weeks until the start of a Super Brevet series (200, 300, 400 and 600km and ends in May, just in time for a 1200km in July.

Me thinks I better give up the beer for a while and get pedaling and some bike specific fitness work done pronto!
 
At least you have a Neo to get in shape on. Get Zwift if you're going to use that thing this Winter. It may just keep you from going insane.
 
The weather today was a repeat of yesterday. Fog, thicker fog, drizzle, rain, harder rain. It got up to 48 degrees...waster of a warm day!

Another 41-minuter trainer session. My Training Adviser on the Garmin said I was only 'Fair'. My legs told him to shut up and I rode myself blind. Good workout.
 
Same here all week. Trainer and Blue Tooth headphones. The white death from above is on the way Friday along with brass monkey weather so more trainer and a few turns on the skis.
 
I was in an offsite meeting today and two of the engineers at the company got smart training bikes for Christmas. Both were already in pretty good condition...one rides mountain bikes and the other is an avid hunter.

The one fellow got some sort of recumbent computer trainer and the other got a Tour de France trainer...I think it's the middle of the line model: https://www.proform.com/tour-de-france

Sweet! I'm jealous of that TDF bike!

It's going to be getting a little colder here, too. Cold I can ride through. Snow? No way! And we rarely get enough in my area to do XC skiing anymore. And if I'm driving out of area, I'm setting the heading for South and going for warmth and Winter sunshine!

Speaking of which, a harbormaster says I can buy gutted sailboat for about a grand, paint it and update the interior a bit (he'll put it up on dry dock stands for me) and dock it in Fort Meyers for $300/month + $50 for use of showers, electric, etc. Cheaper than an RV, but immobile unless I blow big bucks and learn to talk like a pirate. Sell the boat after a couple years of Winter use and call it time to try another area to cycle in.
 
It was 21 degrees.

The wind was blowing a steady 14 to 24 MPH.

Gusts were reaching 38 MPH.

The roads were dry and clear.

PERFECT! Let's ride!

Just 11 miles in the Maydog-esque temperature under an overcast and darkening sky. The wind flattened me, but it sure beat sitting on that damned trainer. Hardly any climbing...225'...on a flat out & back run. Fun!
 
Finally back !

Thank goodness the holiday season is over, haven't seen my bike since the middle of November. So I'm doing the same routine as last year and hitting the treadmill 6 days a week for a half hour and the indoor trainer for an hour 4 days a week. I found a GNC hour training video that I ride to and it worked really well for me last year. Will sneak out on the open road when available. So I treated myself to a few new item.
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42 Minutes on the trainer and medium tempo with a fast last 15 minutes.

17-19 degrees outside with light snow all day. Roads are FUBAR.

Nice un-boxing, Zipp! Nothing like new shoes and new shoes for the bikes!
 
After a 5 degree morning it got up to 17 degrees today. And dropped right back down to 11 degrees currently this afternoon.

I hit the trainer hard for 42 minutes. The last 20 minutes were hard. I kept hitting the wall, getting a micro-recovery and going at it again.

My ****ing Garmin bricked itself, again, yesterday for about the 10th time in the year or so I've owned it. ****ing Garmin software/firmware just plain sucks.

After finally forcing it into mass storage mode and doing a factory re-set i got to spend an two hours re-configuring the Activity Screen, adding files, installing the two App's I use and then spend another hour adding 8 sensors on four bikes to the system.

**** be upon Garmin.
 
I broke the Record Of The Hour!

OK, so 1 Hr. and 1 Min. on the trainer. No fun, but a decent workout. The legs are now shot.

It's currently 10 degrees here in Ohio and dropping down to around 0 degrees overnight. The day was sunny and bright, but it only got up to around 14 degrees this afternoon. I was out in the barn this morning installing a new ignition switch on one of the tractors and the air temperature inside the barn was showing 8 degrees. My hands kept going numb...
 
14 degrees with a windchill of -1 degree. Sucks!

42 minutes on the trainer feeling used and abused. I kept them turning and churning, but just barely. The workout tempo kept getting away from me and it was a constant fight to bring it back. No fun, but the conditioning is solid, very solid for January.
 
Loaded Newfound Gap rd on the trainer and did half of it 7.5 miles 42 mins. or so. 4 degrees here and in the below zero temps in some locations. Lots of ice and snow still on my road. Newfound Gap rd is 441 across the Smokies for those that don't know. A Cat 1climb.
 
My niece is in Ga. and they had 5 degrees. Guess southern Florida or the Keys is the only warmish spot left to hide in!

Showing 13 degrees here at 6:30 PM. Supposed to hit 50+ F on Thursday, but rain and some ice/snow are in the forecast for 4 of the 5 days in the work week ahead.
 
46 minutes on the trainer. Started too hard and my legs were howling. Took an easy five-seven minutes and jumped back in the gas until the end. Damn! Good workout! Nose running...legs shaking...lungs heaving...does it get any better when it's 25 degrees outside and the roads are a mess?

A little more snow overnight with freezing rain/ice mix in the morning that's supposed to turn to rain as the afternoon warms up above freezing. Fun.