February 27th, 2006
Back in the Saddle Again
On Saturday I finally climbed back onto the Raleigh for the first outdoor ride of the year. Friday night was the monthly poker tournament, will write on that tomorrow, and my friend Ron came to play and invited me to ride in the morning. I can say that i dont advise staying up until three drinking and playing poker and then getting up to ride at 9 the next morning. Overall the ride didnt go as bad as it could’ve gone considering the previous nights activities.
It is still pretty cool here and I have purchased no winter riding clothing to this point. My thoughts were that Spring is so close that i could just do base mile training on the indoor trainer until the weather warmed up. So i ended up riding in a pretty motley kit, a kit for those that dont know is basically saying the clothing you wear. I was in a longsleeve shirt i got at a bar giveaway underneath my Pearl Izumi jersey. I had on my REI bib, bike shorts that have suspenders over the shoulders, but as soon as i arrived at Ron’s he told me I was going to be an ice cube by the end of the ride. Luckily he had an extra set of long legged fleece bibs which he let me borrow. If you’re going to do cold weather riding the right clothing is vital. I wasnt cold walking around in my shorts but i know if Ron hadnt lent me his thermals i would have been absolutely miserable.
We got on the road about 10:30am and did a slow pace averaging 15 miles per hour over the course of the ride. Another friend Dave rode with us as well, both Dave and I have not put in the mileage that Ron has so far this year. Hence we decided to do a nice and easy training session. In the end we rode 34 miles in slightly over two hours. I must say that being outside again is completely different that being inside on a trainer or stationary bike. So when training for your Livestrong Ride, make sure to do the bulk of your training outdoors though im sure most will do so anyway.
My rump hurts and my legs feel a bit worn out but I wouldnt trade it for anything. My passion to get back outside on the bike has been reignited and i cant wait to hit the blacktop again.
