60

Miles. Is how far I rode today. :)

I had planned to ride for about 45 miles. Today was an absolutey gorgeous day. Even better than last week. It was sunny, just a slight breeze, dry ( despite a week of rain ), and in the low 60's. It was probably the last day of seeing fall color, so I grabbed a disposable camera I had, and decided to get some pictures too. Since it's a disposable ( real film! ) I unfortunately don't have any pictures to post today, but I'll put 'em up once I get it back. If they are any good. I've not taken pictures from a moving bike before, so I'm not sure how they'll turn out.

Anyway, the ride was just awesome. Everything seemed to click. My pedal cadence was high ( ~95 ), my pedal stroke was smooth and circular. I was just flying along, with what seemed like not a lot of effort. I wasn't pushing it too much, more a moderate intensity, since I planned to go for a longer distance. My HR averaged 149 for the ride, which is low. During a race, I usually keep it around 165-170, so there was room for me to push harder still. I'm just doing long/slow rides this winter building up my aerobic endurance base, so I held back a bit and didn't.

Was at about mile 45 at the turnoff to head home, when I decided to go for it. I still had one full water bottle on the frame, a bit left in my aero-bottle, and a Gu packet, which was enough to carry me another 15 miles. So, I just kept on trucking for another 15 miles.

2 miles from home, there is a *big* hill. I hate this hill. This hill means pain. I have to crank down to my lowest gear to get up it. I can still only manage about 60 RPM at that gearing ( though that's more than I used to do ). But this hill makes me stronger. I've ridden it just about every ride for the last 6 months. I used to only average about 6mph up it. Today, at the end of a 60 mile ride, I cranked up it at 12mph. It still hurt, but not as bad it used to. I figure I keep this up, and I'll be in great shape for next season.

Oh, the significance of going longer today? I'm doing at least one 1/2 Ironman distance race next year. That is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 1/2 marathon run. Not sure if I felt like I'd be up for a 1/2 marathon after my bike ride today, but I've got 9 months to train up to it. I'm already there on the swim distance, and the bike now. Running has always been my weakest leg ( HAH! ) so I'm focusing on that this winter. Probably only a few more nice days like this to ride, so I had to take advantage of it, then it's back to running.