What a New Year! It has been in the 50’s touching 60, the snow is melting, slowly on the grassy areas (good thing) and the rides are on. Folks it’s January in Colorado.
I have been able to ride a few times, 77 miles worth, just about enough to get the Holiday weight off of my posterior. Most of it anyway, 2 more pounds and I’m back to pre-Christmas goodies splurging.
The down side of this is my fitness level. Back in November I had talked about being sick and not riding, but had not lost my fitness. Well after the Holidays, the below 40 degrees for weeks on end, not to mention the snow piled up on all of my good ride routes, the fitness has slipped. October through December I only had 4 rides for 70 miles and I’m already ahead of that in three weeks. I have definitely felt it though.
On the up side, on my ride yesterday, I actually passed someone. Yes it was on a long down hill, yes the bike did not appear to fit him, and the over sized nylon jogging suit he was wearing was creating a lot of wind resistance not to mention a god awful flapping noise. But the point is I did pass him and he never caught up with me to pass me back. OK so maybe he did turn off and take another route but it was the first pass of the season. I will keep it, I have given more people a target to catch and pass than I have for six months, and I get this one.
Speaking of which, I have been passed by so many old guys (yes, even older than me) that it is bewildering. How do they go so fast? Even with my lost fitness level I have cruised down some flat’s at 18 -20 mph this month, feeling good, feeling confident, enjoying the breeze and the scenery. Then what sounds like a car behind me in the distance, goes some “old guy” by me with about a 60 rpm cadence. I look down at my 84 rpm cadence and thinking this can’t be real. Sad to say it is. It is also in gear selection; gear selection is the finesse of bicycling. Having the legs to turn the bigger gears is where it all starts. That is what I’m doing this year, building the legs. More intervals (even if they are old guy intervals), more standing and sprinting over summits as well as just using the gearing in a different way, ride in the high gears.
In the mean time and to continue the trek to powerful (not to mention good looking) legs I am shooting for a 100 mile month. Wow, I rode the first day of winter, New Years Day, and now looking at 100 miles in January, Colorado you got to love it!
Ride, Ride Hard, Ride Safe.
Be courteous out there.
“G”
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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