Road Cycling

It has been such a great May this year. With the exception of a few days of rain here and there, the weather has been cool, sunny and pretty much perfect. For the last few years it seems that Spring is becoming less and less of a season and more of brief transitional period between Winter and Summer. It always seemed that one day we were having snow or freezing rain and then next the temperature was pushing past 80F. What's even better is that the rain we have been getting is sticking to the weekdays, leaving the weekends open for anything.

Anything for me was a trip out on my road bike, something I have neglected over the past year. The great thing about Conshohocken is that my house is literally a stone's throw away from the Schuylkill River Trail, a mostly paved section of trail that runs parallel to the Schuylkill River from the Art Museum in Philadelphia all the way out to Oaks, where is joins with the Perkiomen Trail and continues even further west. I can take the trail until it makes this transition and pick up a solid 10 miles before turning home. I kept things relatively light, just trying to make myself comfortable during the ride. On the turnaround, I threw in a 9 minute tempo ride, courtesy of Crossfit Endurance. Since the speed and distance function on my bike computer is temporarily disabled, I relied on my iPhone to track the data. The best thing about this is that I can ride solely based on feel. The bad thing is that sometimes you "feel" like you are riding a lot faster than you actually are. In 9 minutes I only managed 3.1 miles, according to my GPS, which to make myself feel better I will assume is slightly off.

For the day, about 21.2 miles in 84 minutes.

Road Cycling Hill Repeats

10.4 miles total in 47 minutes.


5 X 0.20 mile repeats at 11% grade.


60, 56, 53, 51, ??, did an extra at 53.

Workout comments: Did not record the 5th repeat, so I had to do an extra one. The hill should probably be a little longer and steeper if I plan to this workout in the future, but it's one of the few hills with little traffic so I can safely make the U-turn down the hill. Speaking of rest, I only rested during the ride down, which averaged roughly 45-60 seconds. Felt good to ride the bike again, even though the weather was cold and windy. I defintely need to spend some more time in the saddle to get all my "bike" muscles back into shape. I'd like to spend significantly more time mountain biking this summer as well.

Paleo faults: 2 slices of wheat toast,

Like riding a bike...

Workout: 24.5 miles of road biking: 1:34


A long tempo run was scheduled for today, but since I had done hill repeats yesterday, I decided to give myself an extra day before attempting it. I got a text last night from Santoro asking about a long ride, and since I haven't ridden my bike in almost 6 months I figured why not. I've gotten away from road biking and swimming during the last half year in favor of trail running and Crossfit. I forgot how much fun it can be to ride. Of course I also forgot how much it drains your quads, especially if you haven't ridden for a while. Regardless, the weather was pushing 75 degrees and it was worth every minute. Santoro showed up with his shiny new tri-bike and I would be lying if I said I didn't want one. It looks so much more comfortable than the conversion I made out of my road bike and T2 handlebars. I told myself I wanted to get back into longer distance triathlons, but haven't had the motivation so far. The races are so damn expensive and there is often a bit of traveling involved, especially if you want to get involved in the longer distance races. I made myself promise not to get any more gear until I've entered (and done well) in at least several races in a single season. For now I'm just content to get out there in this great weather. I got a great farmer's tan as a souvenir.

Along this course:

• Body: Generally fine. No more lower back soreness, although I was expecting it for sure after the deadlift workout. My quads and hamstrings are definitely feeling tired after the ride today.