Pre-Season Rides (2008 Cycling)

My outdoor rides this year, all five of them, have been characterized by strong winds and a lack of stamina. My legs are stronger than last year thanks to several hours of hard indoor training, but I’m way behind last year’s pace for average distance, and my climbing skills are still on vacation.

For 2008, I will blog my rides to provide a kind of diary for myself and to provide some public benchmarks for other recreational cyclists. Among recreational cyclists, I’m near the median for speed and distance, so I think most other rec riders will find these numbers useful for comparison.

Saturday (2/9) featured sunny skies and mild temperature for February (low 60s), but winds were strong. I headed out at 3:00 PM with no lunch and one Power Bar–not the best strategy. I cut my route short:

(1) Plank Road
(2) Turn right onto Raines Tavern Road
(3) Turn right onto Hwy 45
(4) Turn right onto South Airport Drive
(5) Turn left on Plank Road–return to start

Distance: 12.74 miles. Time: 0:41:01.

Outdoor totals for 2008: 5 rides, 93.87 miles, 5:12:54.

My cyclocomputer’s speed sensor is connected to my rear wheel, so I can measure speed and distance for my indoor training rides.

Indoor totals for 2008: 17 rides, 309.19 miles, 14:46:41.

I’ll have more on my indoor training with the next post.