17 July 2008
Last night I spun the legs out on the road bike for about an hour and a half and they felt pretty good. I'm still a bit sore form last weekends ten hour race. The legs feel okay but I'm pretty sure I've got a case of the bruised ribs. I took two pretty good falls during the race that set me back a bit, but I'm assuming the adrenalin kept me from thinking about the pain. The day after I was a bit sore but I expected that. Now, five days after, when ever I take a deep breath I still have a nasty pain in my side. Regardless, what I really wanted to get at was how enjoyable a recovery ride can be.
I like to spin the legs on the road bike. What makes it even better is when you have no agenda, no time limit or route, you simply peddle because it feels good. Cyclist can come and go. You don't chase anyone down or hammer any climbs. The thought of "training" is so far from your mind it's quite peaceful.
Being in such a blissful state can be a great thing. What's even better is that during this time of the season, it's quite possibly the best training you can do. When you find yourself racing every weekend, and sometimes once or twice during the week, you're body needs to rest. Time off the bike can help, but not too much. Time on the bike at a very moderate pace, with the cadence high seems to help me the most. When you're racing at such high intensity and so often, sometimes the best thing to do is just rest. Take that opportunity to ride because you love to ride, not because you have to train for another race.
I've always understated my training and for the most part, have done just enough to get by. The past few seasons, I've put in a lot of hard, inconsistent efforts to try and make up for lost time in the saddle. This season has been much different. I started pretty early and tried to get in some easy base miles. When the benches began to dry up, I pulled out the MTB and spent 98% of my time on that. I did a lot of short (because of my lack of time) hard rides, focusing more on higher watts. I continued this through most of the season and I think it's kept my fitness fairly stable. Unlike years past, I've put very little time in on my road bike this entire season and it feels good. I'm happy to have more hours on the mountain bike because it still makes me excited to head out this fall on a few epic five to seven hour road rides, or even better... five hour MTB rides.
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