Wolume

Not yet, but soon!

The Friday emails announcing Saturday team rides have been steady and will continue until June.  In an effort to log the all-important back to back to back long rides I got up thirty minutes before o’dark thirty (that would be straight up o’dark, and it hurt) and spent two hours on the trainer Friday morning before work. 

Look who joined me for a three hour ride Saturday!

Then, I added some good hours in the saddle Saturday and Sunday, and come Monday morning the stairs at work seem taller than usual.  The legs are tender. There is a mountain of bike clothes on hangers, air drying, in our laundry room.  Welcome to spring.

The law of accumulation says, “Everything counts.”  The individual ride may not matter, yet what matters is all of the individual rides.  Read that slow until it sinks in.  Those rides are, by the way, referenced by hours as opposed to distance.  Just about every ride starts with two bottles and pockets full of food.  “Put a foot down, eat something,” is our slogan.

This is the phase of the buildup that is daunting.  This is when you often find yourself with ten to twenty km to go and thinking to yourself, “I would not mind being done right now.”  Yet those “stretch” rides pave the way for the final part of the buildup when you ride for five or more hours and finish ready to do it again the next day. 

Right now, the next day starts with heavy legs and hungry muscles.  It can take nearly an hour to get on speaking terms with your legs.  Even then, any out of the saddle efforts trigger an instant reminder of the prior days exploits.    You become constantly aware of what training zone you are in.

The days of going from riding very little to high volume are long past for nearly all of our clan.  Everyone has been on some kind of methodical build up as our summer adventure approaches.  McWoodie is following a plan that is so detailed it accounts for moon cycles, his bio rhythms, the Mariner’s game schedule and solar flares.  Cramps (the man formally known as Whiplash) follows his plans like a Zen master.  If some of us get excited on a Coffee and Lies ride, Cramps doesn’t get tempted to join in the Reindeer games unless it is part of his plan.

It is a complex mix of riding alone and riding with others that leads to the fitness that is the price of admission for our summer adventures.  There is peer pressure to show up fit enough to finish the rides.  Speed on those rides is a personal matter, but showing up out of shape borders on disrespect.

It is all about the party!

This past Sunday there was a 110% chance of rain.  NOAA told us we would start damp and end wet. Typically that would have meant a smaller crowd.  Eight brave/foolish souls set off creating rooster tails as we rode on the wet roads.   A flat tire early on ensured hypothermia would be along for the ride.  A few of us had hoped the rain might let up (contrary to all known data) and we could add some kilometers.  In the end we just did a single loop on the Isle of Mercer and dashed back for coffee.

It wasn’t a great day for training.  It was just a ride.  One of many.  Hopefully, one of enough.