Last week, The Captain and I embarked on our longest ride of the season, thus far. Our plan was to head out at 5:00 a.m. and do one massive, massive loop. Once we completed the loop, we would see how we felt and either add some more time on the road, or head home and jump onto the trainers and finish up on the trainer.
The ride started off great. We left the house by 5:10 a.m., which was a few minutes late, but not too bad. We decided that since this ride was out longest to date, we weren't too worried about speed. Our goal was just to make sure we got the miles in.
Somewhere around mile 62, we stopped to refill our water. It was only about 100 degrees outside by this point, so we figured we could use some water. Once we had reloaded the bottles, we began riding again. We decided that we felt pretty good and we were going to try and add some extra miles outside before heading home to jump on the trainers.
We reached the point in the ride where we needed to decide whether or not to head back or continue. Since we had already discussed trying to continue on, that's what we went with. About a mile later, we realized that it was pretty freakin' hot out and our tempo had slowed quite a bit. So, we made the executive decision to head home and finish the ride on the trainer.
When we got back to the house, we set up our trainers in the living room and got to work. We had ridden just over 76 miles outside, so my goal was to do another 14 on the trainer to make a total of 90 miles. It was pretty ugly, but I got it done.
After we were finished, we ended up averaging about 18 mph for the ride, which I'm pretty happy with. We didn't really push our tempo and work excessively hard, and it was quite hot out. It's a bit slower than my goal race pace, but I've still got some time to get there.
Congrats to The Captain for finishing this ride! It was a tough one, but it will only make the next one seem that much easier...right?
The ride started off great. We left the house by 5:10 a.m., which was a few minutes late, but not too bad. We decided that since this ride was out longest to date, we weren't too worried about speed. Our goal was just to make sure we got the miles in.
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| The map of our really big loop |
We reached the point in the ride where we needed to decide whether or not to head back or continue. Since we had already discussed trying to continue on, that's what we went with. About a mile later, we realized that it was pretty freakin' hot out and our tempo had slowed quite a bit. So, we made the executive decision to head home and finish the ride on the trainer.
When we got back to the house, we set up our trainers in the living room and got to work. We had ridden just over 76 miles outside, so my goal was to do another 14 on the trainer to make a total of 90 miles. It was pretty ugly, but I got it done.
After we were finished, we ended up averaging about 18 mph for the ride, which I'm pretty happy with. We didn't really push our tempo and work excessively hard, and it was quite hot out. It's a bit slower than my goal race pace, but I've still got some time to get there.
Congrats to The Captain for finishing this ride! It was a tough one, but it will only make the next one seem that much easier...right?
Whew that's a long, hot ride! Nice job!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of trainers, I'm going to be needing one in a few months since biking in winter in Chicago doesn't happen... What kind do you have? Do you recommend a trainer or rollers? Any advice will help in my search :)
Hey David! I have a CycleOps Fluid 2 trainer. I love it. There's a package deal on Amazon.com for $395.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Cycleops-Fluid-Winter-Training-Kit/dp/B000WOILD2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1311279492&sr=8-4). I haven't used any other trainers, so I can't really speak out of personal experience with other trainers. However, there's a crap-ton of them at PerformanceBike.com. They're almost all probably pretty good. Just find one for a price that might be in you budget and do some Google searches for reviews.
ReplyDeleteThe best product out there is probably the CompuTrainer, which links with a computer to simulate actual Ironman courses. Unfortunately, this system is super expensive.
I've never ridden on rollers, so I also can't comment on that. If you're going to be doing a lot of indoor riding, a set of rollers might be a little more interesting. With rollers, you also have to pay attention to your balance and staying on track (unlike on trainers).
The most important thing to consider for you might be the amount of noise produced by the trainer or rollers. If you can, see what people say about noise levels before making your purchase.
Good luck in your search!