Trials & Tribulations Thursday

Despite not feeling one hundred percent, and at full strength when I awoke this morning, almost to the extent I was slightly nauseous, I felt amazing out on the tarmac today. I was able to maintain high speeds for longer distances, and was consistently speeding through segments I normally have less energy when tackling. It is an interesting dichotomy, but somehow I brushed that annoying feeling aside and ended up really enjoying today’s ride.

Although my speed average for the entire ride is not where I wanted it to be, I felt considerably faster today than usual. There were a few segments, in particular on the return trip, where I consistently maintained 30kph+ speeds, even hitting 37kph for a fairly long stretch. This is definitely not normal for me but it felt outstanding.

There was a substantial amount of vehicular traffic for the last 10k, causing my overall average speed and cadence to suffer. I bet if I were to analyze the rest of the trip it would be a far more compelling set of statistics. This traffic slowed me considerably, having to start & stop, peddle little, and be more cognizant of my surroundings to ensure I did not get into any accidents.

When I returned from my ride yesterday I had my heart set on completing a full metric half century today. But yet again, work gets in the way of cycling. Meetings, bloody meetings prevented me from spending an extra 30-ish minutes required to do the additional 16k needed to hit the metric half century mark. Seeing as we are on the cusp of the weekend, I will absolutely ride 50k either Saturday or Sunday – potentially both – barring no unforeseen weather roadblocks

Overall, I am very pleased with today’s performance in spite of how the morning started. While my overall mechanics need improvement, I consider today an all-around success.