2004-09-07 - 8:52 a.m.
Yet another personal record broken.
Yesterday I put down 30 miles. I rode to Herndon and back. It was a good ride, although I am paying for it a little today. My quads are a bit sore. I also broke my previous speed record or 24mph by laying down 29mph. It was pretty sweet.
All in all it was a good weekend for riding. In the past 4 days I have logged 70 miles. Man it feels good. Shame I am not loosing any weight. But it will come eventually.
Now all I need to do get up to doing 35 mile trips regularly. That will make me very happy. Cause if I can roll out 35 miles with out to much pain�I can roll a metric century. I am sure of it.
I can only imagine how much my riding is going to improve once I get my new bike. Though I am beginning to think that it is going to be more of a mental thing for me than the bike itself actually making much of a difference. I find myself often looking at the sweet road bikes that go whizzing past me on the trail�awed by how quiet they are, captivated by their shiny color, impressed by how smoothly they shift�and jealous of how effortlessly they climb. And when the bike has passed I focus back on my blue beast�with its dull chipped paint, troublesome shifting, incessant clicking, creaking and whirring �and most of all I feel every ounce of the bike as I try to drag its mass as well as mine up hill after hill. But I am happy for what I have. Some wheels are better than no wheels. I have already proven that to myself. And I will continue to ride the beast until I am lucky enough�rich enough�or have sacrificed enough to get the LeMond that waits for me at my LBS (local bike shop). And then my riding will move to a new level�at least in my mind. Cause then it will be me who will be sailing effortlessly along the pavement�hammering the hills�pushing through the pain�constantly looking for harder and harder rides�I will be able to concentrate on the ride finally and not the bike.
Heh�its kinda funny. Greg LeMond once said that Training never gets easier, you just get faster.
When I first started riding I thought that quote was mostly crap. But I am beginning to understand how wrong I was. There is nothing easy about serious riding. You are always pushing yourself to the very brink of your ability. The day that you find that the 20 mile ride that your used to is getting �easy� you find your self pushing yourself on to 30�or 40�or more. You get to the point that you can cycle for hours on your regular flat routes you begin to look for the hilliest road you can find�just so you can experience the pain that rips through your body as you push it past the point where your minds say�ok fool�this in enough. And when you can hammer away on those roads, you try to do it faster�and faster�and faster.
Heh�is it ever enough? I don�t think so, but then I haven�t been riding long enough to know.
I am pretty bummed today. The weather is pretty shitty, and it looks like it is going to be like that for the next few days. This means that I am not going to get to ride much in the next few days.
Yeah I am still planning on riding�but I get pretty cold and miserable riding in the rain, and since I don�t have any rain gear�I get really wet too. But I just can�t not go. I just have to accept the fact that I am not going to be doing any 30 miles rides in the next few days�
Hmm�perhaps it is a good opportunity to work on hammering the Clarks Gap ride. 6 miles all up hill�I am averaging 12 mph on that ride now�perhaps over the next few days I will try and push myself to hit 14 or even 15.
Well it is back to work for me. I have mock training all day�a bit frustrating since I haven�t finished the manual yet�Oh and because the class room does not have the new updated version of the application. Yeah we are going to mock training the Old app. Yeah I think it is dumb too. I would rather be working on the manual also.
Bah�I want to be riding.
Miracles of Miracles...I got my clearence today! I can Finally Travel! HOT DAMN!
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