Becoming Speedy

Saturday I did the longest bike ride I have done since IMAZ last year. Actually, each week I do the longest ride since then as I am adding more time to my long ride every weekend. This weekend was a little different though.

I have been doing my long rides on Sunday while working on completing long runs since I’ve struggled with running so much this season, but alas the runs are becoming “easy” and now I’m back to the long Saturday rides typical of most triathletes’ training. This change brought about 1 change for me, lots of cyclist on the roads.

Cyclists seemed to be out in masses! But I was out alone on my 4 hour ride having a blast. The weather was perfect and with all the people, there was rarely a stretch of road that I was really alone. It was very similar to a race. You pass a few people, say hello, then keep up that strong steady pace.

The biggest difference for me with all the people on the road was how many of them I was passing and how very few were passing me. This was a GREAT feeling. I’ve been working so hard in my training and the results are clear and very exciting. I’m so used to being passed like a sitting duck over and over, all day long, by young people, old people, boys, girls…everybody! Today though, I was tearing up the road! With all the stop and go from lights and stop signs, etc, I still averaged a full 18.0 mph for 4 hours, covering 72 miles. The total elevation gain was ~2300 according to my Garmin.

I’m feeling really good about my training so far. I still have a ways to go (like 40 more miles), but that’s ok. I still have 10 weeks! Oh…and then I have to run…hummm. I guess I need to work on that part ; )