After riding the trainer on Wed., and the single digit to below 0 temps we had earlier this week, I was more than ready to get outside on my bike.

Case in point:

Thursday, it was 19F outside, but I put on multiple layers and headed outdoors. I’ve been basically doing the same ride for multiple days in a row. I decided that I need to ride flat roads for a little while. Mountain biking is a lot of up and down, and when I ride the road, I usually ride up a canyon to the top of a mountain and ride back down it. It’s easy for me to keep my effort where it needs to be on a climb. Right now, I am only doing upper zone 2 since I am doing my base. After several hours on the bike, day in and day out, it actually takes quite a bit of effort to get my heart rate where it needs to be on a flat road, and to keep it steady. I also tend to struggle on road sections in mountain bike races, so I am trying to remedy that as well.

These photos are from Thursday, when the roads were frozen. Today, they just had a few wet spots.

Brrr.. it was NOT warm. (but it’s good for you to get out in less than perfect conditions)

After only 1.5 hours, my bottles were frozen. I couldn’t get a drop out of my second bottle! I started with hot water, and that failed. Sinjin suggested that I ride with my bottles upside down. I rode 4 hours the next day, and that definitely kept them in a liquid state for longer. I think putting some Elete in the bottles would really help the situation! SAALLLLT!

Today was 5 hours and about 80 miles. I love my new Suunto T6c. It rocks!

This is the only time of year that I get sore from riding because of the low intensity, high volume.  It made a huge difference in my season the past year, so I’m back at it again!

Two more weeks of long base miles, and then it’s on to more specific matters!

Go to the Source – sonyalooney.missingsaddle.com