And Now, Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Program

I've finally been getting some decent training hours in. I rode to work a few days last week, got a couple of short (1/2 hour) runs in, got two 3 1/2 hour rides in on the weekend, two short runs this week and a commute today. I would have ridden every day this week but I was on a business trip to long island monday thru wednesday, and yesterday it was supposed to rain all day. It turns out it only rained between 9 am and 3 pm, so I went home and ran for about 45 minutes, half of it with my dog. I got another 45 minute run on the treadmill in the hotel gym on tuesday.

The rides last weekend were fun, though they started out a bit cold. We stayed around the gently rolling terrain of southeast NewHampshire with slight excursions over the Mass border. I made it a point not to fight on the hills. I picked whoever was leading up each climb, and paced him unless he was trying to prove something. In those cases, I just stayed with the ride leader.

A couple of times each day the ride leader coaxed me into setting a steady hard pace on a hill. Not as if we were racing, but a smooth steady, intense effort, more of a long interval. I did maybe two of these each day.

At the end of sundays ride, a couple of the guys got frisky, so I went with them. The first one eased back a bit and when the rest of the group got on another guy took off. He stayed out for a while until the next series of small hills. When we caught him, I was pulling the group along but not hard. As the hills started I simply kept the pace. I turned to see who was with me nearing the top of the last climb, and the road was empty. I kept the pace until the next intersection, waited until I saw them (~ 30 seconds later), then headed out. From there I never saw them again. I wasn't hammering, but I was keeping a pretty steady high aerobic pace. I kind of surprised myself that I was able to sustain that effort after two days of riding.

Disturbing was that I felt some twinges in my achilles on monday, not painful, but definitely reminiscent of this time last year when I tore my achilles. I felt no pain during either run this week, but this mornings ride gave me that same sensation I felt mondy morning. Again, not painful, but it's that 'I can feel something I shouldn't be feeling' type of feeling.

Tomorrow is another day. I'm scheduled to ride a hilly 70 mile ride with a group that is notable stronger than last weekends crew. Last weekend out of the two days there were three guys total that race regularly, and only one of whom is regularly stronger than me (though not in the hills). Tomorrow the whole group will be guys that race at least as often as I do, and two of them are usually stronger than me. The other two, sometimes stronger sometimes not.

This will be a good test of my achilles, to see if I'm just suffereing from some muscular induced not-really-pain or something to do with over-use again. I just hope it doesn't flare up 30 miles out.

Also being debuted tomorrow is my new steed. I won't ruin it for the two of you that read this blog, but I weighed the thing last night - with older ksyriums, but no bottlecages or bar tape - 7.00 KG, 15.4 pounds. I have a few things to do to it tonight (bottle cages, bar tape, ride the trainer and tweak the seat and handlebars), but if all goes well I'll be stylin' (or 'posing', anyways).