Long, long weekend of riding. 75 miles on Saturday and 50 miles on Sunday, all endurance. Is it really worth it? We'll see in April once we start racing again.
On Saturday, I started out at about 8:30am with a few people from NY Velocity, but we stopped several times, and when it's that cold, the side of the road is no place to be. I broke off just before Piermont and continued up 9W and rode the hills behind Nyack College. I struggled with keeping my hands warm. When I wear big gloves or "lobster claws," my hands sweat and the moisture stays in the gloves eventually making my hands cold. There's nothing worse than having wet clothes stuck to you in 30 degree weather... except maybe being wet and then getting a flat, crashing or having a mechanical. On the other hand (no pun intended), when I wear lighter gloves, the wind kills my hands. I need solutions. I refuse to go indoors unless it's below say 28 degrees.
After hitting the hills, I felt so good, I decided to hop back onto 9W and continue on up to Congers, just past Rockland Lake State Park. By now, the temperature had gone up to close to 40, up from about 32, a heat wave, so the ride was infinitely more tolerable. On the way back, I ran into some teammates and Reed from Avenue A Razorfish and enjoyed comfortable group pace back to the GW Bridge.
On Saturday, I started out at about 8:30am with a few people from NY Velocity, but we stopped several times, and when it's that cold, the side of the road is no place to be. I broke off just before Piermont and continued up 9W and rode the hills behind Nyack College. I struggled with keeping my hands warm. When I wear big gloves or "lobster claws," my hands sweat and the moisture stays in the gloves eventually making my hands cold. There's nothing worse than having wet clothes stuck to you in 30 degree weather... except maybe being wet and then getting a flat, crashing or having a mechanical. On the other hand (no pun intended), when I wear lighter gloves, the wind kills my hands. I need solutions. I refuse to go indoors unless it's below say 28 degrees.
After hitting the hills, I felt so good, I decided to hop back onto 9W and continue on up to Congers, just past Rockland Lake State Park. By now, the temperature had gone up to close to 40, up from about 32, a heat wave, so the ride was infinitely more tolerable. On the way back, I ran into some teammates and Reed from Avenue A Razorfish and enjoyed comfortable group pace back to the GW Bridge.
I was feeling ambitious after the ride (it's the Ironman in me) so I went over to CP to do a 45 minute slow run on the trails. Slow pace, high heart rate and probably too early in the year for that kind of work, but it was nice outside. My freakin knee is still bothering me, not as much as previously, but enough for me to think I should make a doctor's appointment. I'm hoping it's just a strain. I can't do another serious injury.
Anyway, I paid for that run the next day on the bike. I got a late start, the weather was still kind of miserable and I wanted to get back in time for the Giant game. Right from the start, my legs were completely dead. There would be no tempo, no fast pace, just strictly endurance. I made a conscious decision to not wear use my iPod and to stay focused on the training. I could've used the distraction. Finally, on the way back going south on 9W, just past the NY/NJ state line, a guy from Princeton Review zoomed past me and I decided to have a little pride and stay close to him back to the G dub. It's not that he was riding all that fast, it's just that I needed something to distract me from the burning in my legs. For the most part it worked - I was able to keep pace and get my ass back to the bridge within a reasonable amount of time. Got home, Giants were up and Eli was marching the troops down the field for an 8+ minute scoring drive. Nice way to cap off a day of riding.
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