A Bicycle Riding Sandwich
Yesterday was a three ride day, with a ride before dawn, lunchtime, and finally late evening. Unlike a sandwich where the highlight of the meal is between the two slices of bread, I had a peaceful early ride and an adventurous late day group MTB sandwiching a boring but challenging mid-day trainer workout.
Enjoy the Silence
Part of me feels uneasy with all of the recent summer-like weather. I know that a record warm day doesn't prove global warming, just as a record snowstorm doesn't disprove it. However, when I got dressed for yesterday's 5 AM ride wearing just shorts and a light jacket, attire that I'd normally wear on an early AM August ride, I knew something wasn't quite right, and I made a mental note to remind myself to think more about how I can replace more miles in the car with bicycle miles instead.
Despite my uneasiness with the weird weather, there was no denying that it felt great to be out on a bike, especially for a pre-dawn ride. I'm an early bird, so over the years I've logged quite a few hours of riding in the dark, and most of yesterday's 75 minute ride required the use of a headlight.
Riding in the dark is a great way to introduce a little variety to your rides, transforming your normal rides into routes that look entirely different with just the light from the moon and your headlight. It tends to also be a more peaceful time to get out, allowing you to hear sounds otherwise masked by traffic. And believe it or not, I also believe it is a safer time to be out riding. There are fewer cars out on the road. When a car does approach you on the road, the driver often gives you far more clearance when passing as there's no oncoming traffic to manage.
Interval Time
The morning's ride was just a calorie burner for me. Over the last few weeks I think I convinced myself that I temporarily became a crit racer, and I started to eat like one as well. I need a few more calorie burner rides over the next few weeks to get me back down to my target racing weight.
The lunchtime ride had a much different purpose -- interval time! I donned my shorts again (this time no jacket) and quickly reconfigured my office and setup my bike. Hopped on the bike, queued up a few racing Youtube videos (like this one from a recent Bethel race posted by SDC), did a little warm-up, and then cranked out the intervals. An hour later I hopped back off the bike, reconfigured the office, and it was back to work.
Falling Record
After finishing up a day at work I quickly gathered my gear, woke up the girls and Mrs D from their naps, and then drove out to the nearby trail system at Case Mountain. I had been there bunch of times over the last six month for hiking with the family, and I never saw more than a couple of cars in the parking lot. When I arrived yesterday after work, I found myself parking a couple of hundred yards down the road as the weather seemed to have called out all local MTB riders to come and enjoy the day.
Despite the fact that this was now my 3rd ride of the day, I felt pretty good at the start of the ride. I knew the pace wasn't going to be tough, so it really didn't matter even if I did feel a bit of fatigue.
Last night's ride was my first group MTB ride with five guys & a gal who clearly were not like me. I showed up wearing my normal tight fitting team kit, whereas most of the rest of the gang had much more casual clothing -- stuff I couldn't distinguish from clothing I'd wear walking around town. Another thing that set me apart from the majority of the group was my fitness level. I won't be offending anyone by calling a few of them "fat and old", as they used the words on a few occasions to explain why they were breathing so hard. The final thing that set me apart was the fact that they had MTB skills, and I did not!
I logged my first fall within a hundred yards of the parking lot, and during the course of the next two hours (about 75 minutes of riding time), I probably fell or did a quick unplanned dismount at least another ten times. In fact, the ride leader, Steve, declared that I set the record for most falls only half way through the ride. I intend to file an official protest to my record though -- the only other guy to fall on the ride was also the only other guy wearing a team kit. I swear that my record breaking number of falls could only have been achieved if someone was giving me credit for his falls as well.
In any case, despite the scrapes and bruises, I had a great time out in the woods. There was a lot more talking & joking out on the ride than in a normal group road ride. I got to see parts of the trail system I had never seen before while out on hiking. The ride ended about 30 minutes after sunset, so even some of the trails I had done in the past looked a heck of a lot different without the sun. And, thanks mostly to Steve, I learned a few things along the way that will definitely help me when I try out my first MTB race in less than two weeks.
So that's it for my tale of three rides, and as I type this post, I'm thinking that today will be a tale of no rides. The body feels a bit banged up from yesterday's MTB ride, and a general feeling of fatigue from more than 3 1/2 hours of riding yesterday -- time to rest!
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