Sacrificing Toes For The Greater Good

My toes went painfully numb.  Then it spread through to the arches.  Then I could feel it all the way in my heels.  They hurt like they've never hurt before.  But it was nothing compared to the pain of warming up in the shower.  If I'd been alone in the house I might have screamed.  Getting my tattoos hurt less.

I should have admitted defeat and submitted to my frozen toes after about 45 minutes.

But that would have been quitting.

I'm weak when it comes to a lot of things.  Sometimes I don't get my butt in gear for every single workout.  But I am not a quitter.

Let's face it, there's no bragging rights in quitting.

I'm not particularly humble.

So I rode my 2 hours.  Approx 5 minutes to get from parked car to loop.  11 loops at 10 minutes a loop.  Approx 5 minutes to get back to car.  The hardest part of that ride was those last 5 minutes.  Nasty steep hills.

I am proud of 2 things.  I rode in aero practically the entire ride (second time riding in aero on the road ever).  Just a couple sections I had to pop up for sharp corners or stop signs/traffic.  My first lap and my last lap were the same pace, and every one in between too.  Consistent pace.

I would have liked that pace to be faster than 15mph.  But I will settle for that  as a baseline.  This was  my first outdoor training ride, so I should cut myself a little slack.  But it's not like I've been sitting on my ass for the last 4 months either.   This wasn't a flat loop but the hills were pretty gradual.

Goal from here until Canada...one hill workout a week.

My bike computer isn't working anymore.  So I need to pick up a new one.  It was working rather spottily last week.  It would either give me my cadence, or my speed, but rarely both at the same time.  And then it would cut out on speed for long sections, and then kick back in again.   But it seems to have decided to give up completely on me now.

I highly recommend training for aero on rollers.  15 minutes on my rollers is almost torture trying to stay balanced.  2 hours on the road and not a wobble.  Corners going downhill?  Piece of cake.  Looking back to check on traffic?  Not a problem.  One arm in aero and one hand shifting?  Super easy.  Heck, I even signaled a few turns still in aero.  I worried and stressed out for nothing.

I also moved my seat back to it's proper position.  After a training ride the other day I noticed I was using my quads too much, not my hamstrings.  So after moving it to where it should be I was back to using my hamstrings and butt like I should.  But I still need to get back to double check I have my aerobars in the right position for the right angles.  And after yesterday's ride I'm not too concerned that it's not very comfy riding on my handlebars because I should only be there for the steep climbs and really sharp corners.  And yes there's a lot of long steep climbs but.... it's not the whole 56 miles so I think I'll be ok.

And now let's all pray for no more snow so I can get more road.