First outside ride of 2023

Wow the days go fast. sheesh.

I did start this post back on Monday...and its already Thursday. Whew. 

Looking back, last week was solid. Not the best...but was still good. Had a busy week with appointments, a big birthday for my girlfriend and a lot work. (more on that later). 

After the party, I did manage to get outside and ride on Sunday. It was amazing weather for February in Michigan and I grabbed the TCX and headed out for some gravel. The roads were not the best. Riding outside is so much different than the trainer. Sure the trainer can simulate hills, but it can't deal out the punishment's that a soggy and pothole riddled gravel road can. 

The ride to the gravel is about 5 miles of pavement. Then a right hander onto the first gravel. Ugly. Soft and lumpy. I already started to rethink the ride. But I forged ahead and eventually the gravel got a little better. Funny that the east and west roads were in better condition than the north and south. But areas in the shade were terrible with mushy sandy gravel, streams of dirt, and dirty water filled potholes. 

Eventually I had to turn north to head back home. I cut my route down from 30 to 20 because of the road conditions. Glad I did, because I didn't realize there was a tailwind for the first 10 miles. Almost the whole way back to town I was riding right into the wind. Added to the soft gravel, I was thankful when the nasty gave way to pavement for the haul home.

Great to be outside. Natural vitamin D, dirt, fresh air. Just a good ride overall. Solid week riding and positive results on the scale. Progress.

At the end of the month I am going to travel to Germany for work. I am looking into renting a bike and getting some miles in while there as well. Even a short cruise around town, just to say I have ridden a bike in Germany. Rad! 

This week has been a rest week on training. While I know I need it, I don't really like it. I feel like I am being forced to hold back. The gains that I will see by having a recovery week will be so helpful, and I am following the structure. Just funny to feel like I want to go harder.

Dirty 30 in about 8 weeks. Barry Roubaix in 9. So the long races start. Just gotta keep building that base and get this weight down. Keep on chuggin.

Interesting week so far

Life....am I right?

The weekend was good. And Monday was a much needed rest day. The plan on Tuesday was to have a scheduled workout.

1 hour and 15 minutes

1 x 10 min Steady

4 x 6 min Brisk

Not terrible. I got started and it was going pretty good. But about 45 minutes in my mind hit a wall. This time I wasn't able to shake it. I had a rather stressful day in court with my ex-wife. Won't go into the details other than to say that the 'time heals all wounds' might be true...but there hasn't been enough time yet. 

Still wanting to ride I got on the bike Tuesday night and forged ahead. Warmup was good. The 10 minute steady effort was good. Even the first brisk interval was good. The second brisk push was harder. My mind was all over the place and my focus left. So I slowed down....and just stopped.

The plan wasn't working today. So I decided it was in my best interest to just cut it short and take a minute to mentally decompress. It was the right choice. I still got some saddle time, and then took time for self care as well as time for my daughter. Priorities. The goal is still the same, and a minor swerve doesn't mean the wheels come off. Just means you slow down for a minute. 

Like Albert says below.....balance is only found if you keep moving forward. Wednesday I got back on the bike for an hour training session. This one went much better as my stress level had evened back out and that balance was back to normal.

Don't let a bad day ruin everything. If life knocks you down you have to get back up. You have to dust yourself off. And you have to try again.

 Keep moving friends. 

Great start to February

 January was pretty good. February is off to a great start. 

While the week before was a rest week and light mileage, this past week was a heavier week. I was over 113 miles for the week. My goal is 70 a week, and I actually covered that in 2 rides this weekend.

Sunday I had a 1:45 ride on the training schedule. I did ride less than time than that, but I knocked a big loop off of Zwift and called it a day. The main reason was that my legs were already pretty fatigued, but I also finished that ride at the top of volcano climb....which is lies. The loop ended at the top, but knowing I had a long descent I kept going for a few more miles. :)   Gotta get that pay off for the long climb.

Saturday was the goal breaking ride. I had a 2:15 ride on the schedule. I set up my custom workout to be 90 minutes. Knowing it was going to a long ride I picked a longer route with the hopes to knock it off. I picked the Petit Boucle which is a roughly 38 mile route.

Having done Lumberjack in 2015 I know I am in for a lot of climbing. I am not a climber. So how do you get better at climbing....you climb. This route doesn't have a ton of climbing with just over 1400'. As an example the Barry-Roubaix 36 miler has roughly 2700' of climbing. So...this route is a bit longer and has about half the climbing. The difference is this....Barry is spread out. Yeah there are some bigger climbs, but on this zwift route I was climbing for long stretches of time with no break on the legs. 

Back to the ride. When I got to 90 minutes my custom workout ended and then it showed me how far I had to finish the loop. It was quite a distance left. So I just plugged away. When i got to the 2 hour and 15 mark I knew I had a few miles to go....but they were all uphill. That Petit KOM climb was staring me right in the face. So roughly 36 miles in and a tough climb to go....I forged ahead.

As I reached the top I was just over 38 miles into a ride. Having completed that longer loop and looking at only 2 miles to 40....I just kept going. I was done....I was ready to be done....but I pushed and pushed ahead to the 40 mile mark. Yeah, it took a long time...so what. I did it. I will never be a speed demon, but this was a Major win for me.

We need to do hard things. This was a hard week. This week won't be easy by any means. But I noticed that workouts are working. The first few weeks kind of primed me up. Now I have a big pool of sweat after my rides. And yes, they are longer rides...but the pool is bigger on a shorter ride too. So I am burning fat. I was down a few pounds this past week. I know I have work to do....but I am making positive progress.

Longest trainer ride by mileage

Longest trainer ride by distance

Longest competed loop on Zwift

Longest ride of 2023

January is already Done.

January came and went in a hurry. Dang time can go fast.

So....how did January go? Well...pretty good. 

17 Activities

19 Hours of activity

267.2 Total miles

While 1 of these activities was a ski trip to Crystal Mountain I did have a pretty solid start to the year. A total of 241.4 miles on the bike. Not super impressive, but a great start. Especially when you look at my total of 656.8 total miles last year. Yeah, almost 37% of my total miles from last year was covered in a single month. Better. ;)

Feeling pretty good. Remembering what its like to have focus on a goal. Remembering what its like to have the drive to get that ride in. Doing my best to stay on track.

So we are midway thru Week 5 of 2023. About 19 weeks to go. I know I have work to do. The progress is starting to show, I guess. My girlfriend told me that even though the scale isn't showing progress that she notices I am losing inches. Wait...hopefully she is talking about around my waist and not...elsewhere ;) (sorry, couldn't help myself)

But she said that she noticed when she hugs me that I am easier to hug. So that is a good sign. Slowly converting the mass into a useable form of power and strength. Trying to get that power to weight ratio more in my favor. 

Getting there. Big goals coming. One day at a time.