It's Still Cold At 5:00 AM

Woke up today at 5:00 for a planned tempo ride through the swamp. When my feet hit the kitchen floor my eyes hit the thermometer: 41.7. Gay.

I debated while I ate my cereal. At this point I can't take the trainer anymore so I trudged into the basement, threw on another layer, and grabbed my winter gloves. No more trainer unless it's raining. And maybe not even then. Maybe I'll bust out the duck boots and umbrella on those days.

The ride was cold. Surprised? It caught up to me about an hour in, which left me uncomfortable for about 25 minutes. It was a pretty low-key ride so no big sweats, no soaking clothes, thus I wasn't freezing. It was a beautiful morning but by the end I was happy to be in the house eating half of a sesame bagel and drinking a cup of coffee. Some days food & drink tastes better. Today that bagel and coffee was perfect.

The transition from basement to road before work is going to take some time. I managed it once last week and once this week. Those lights I bought 2 years ago are starting to pay off. The blinker Cliffy gave me is too. You know, I think I may have left the blinker on. Well at least nobody will run into my bike in the shed.

I have to remember to take the camera on these rides. Sunrise was gorgeous today. Since I don't have an actual picture of what I saw it looked sorta like this:

Big Volume Weekend

So my first real race is 3 weeks from yesterday (Sunday) and my plan was to put together a big volume weekend as part of my prep for the race. It is a 4 hour mini-marathon. My goal this weekend was to do a pair of 4 hour rides, one on the road and one off-road. The results:

Road: 3:55:35, 65.35 miles
Mountain: 3:34:27, 30.7 miles

That adds up to 7:30:02, a little short of my 8 hour goal but close enough. On Monday morning my various contact points are unhappy enough with the total time. More on that later.

The rides were decent. Saturday was a good paced ride, maybe a little brisk for that many miles. I rode up to Denville to meet Albert at his house - I left mine at 5:35 so was able to ride right down 202, a feat impossible by day. Then we meandered back to my house where we happened to run across Nick and Dave who are 2 guys I occasionally ride with and rode back to home with them. Three of us live within 2 miles of one another.

Sunday I met Woody at Lewis Morris and we did 3 race laps then a little Patriot's Path to pad the saddle time a little. Well it turns out Patriot's Path is not flat going west and it wasn't long before Woody announced that he was cooked. So we turned around and went back to the lot. I added one more race lap after he split despite feeling burnt myself.

So how are the 5 contact points this fine Monday morning?

Feet

My feet are fine. Over the years my feet have always started to go numb on long rides. On the road they say I should get different pedals. The spd style does not spread the contact points out across enough of an area. But this I'm used to so everything is fine today. No harm no foul as they say.

Hands

My palms were raw by the end of yesterday's ride which makes me wonder if I need new gloves, new grips or both. Ergon grips are hot right now but this is partly because one of the active members of the enduro forum is promoting them. I also may need better gloves or to change gloves mid ride.

My left wrist is hurting today though. I think the super rooty/rocky teal trail downhill got the best of me on the last lap. I had my tires up to 45 which is a bit high for me. I think I need to adjust the squish setting to make my front fork a bit softer if I'm going to run that high. After talking to the race promoter this morning I don't think I'll be running the tires that high anyway.

Bits and Pieces

Yeah, things are sore down there today a bit. This is all new territory for me so it can be a painful process. I have Udderly Smooth udder cream to help my bike shorts fit oh-so-smooth, but I'm not yet in the habit of always putting it on.

Also, I'm caught between large and medium bike shorts which translates to the large shorts moving around too much and starting to chaff over the course of the day. Not so much a problem on the road. But the movement off road gets you after a while, especially when you sweat a lot. Even Little Mr. Man is chaffed this morning.

OK so I need to go with the medium shorts for sure. Swap gloves, maybe new grips at some point. Less tire pressure, possible more squish in the front. Chamois goo for the downstairs.

So anyway that's where we are Monday morning. Other than the contact points, legs feel fine if only just a hair tired. I may take today and tomorrow off to let the overcompensation goodness seep in, and to give everything some time to heal a bit. Still need to figure out my next 3 weeks but endless laps at Lewis Morris is not my idea of fun any longer.