I had pretty much made up my mind that I wouldn't do the Frostbike when I saw the forecast wasn't 25 degrees and sunny. That being said, its the tail end of winter where I usually start getting bored of the trainer. December through February aren't bad, but once mid-February rolls in, i have a tendency to get pretty restless. I struggle to do rides over an hour and a half, not due to fitness but rather my focus wanes, and the quality of the workout disintegrates rapidly.
So I figured I'd give it a go and see what happens. The plan was to do some iteration of my planned commuting route. A nice backroads route with some gentle rollers. The goal was a 2.5 hr ride for fun at whatever pace i felt like.
I bundled up, made my gatorade with warm water to offset any freezing that would occur, packed some snacks and head out.
My training distribution for the last two months looks like this.
Pretty much tempo and threshold.
I completely forgot how little rollers and head winds have a tendency to induce spikes well over your threshold.
Todays ride looked like this:
Pretty much anything above the threshold range (260-280) hurt like hell. My HR would go through the roof and I felt like a beached whale gasping for breath. While im not concerned since its early season, it still managed to serve an ample portion of humble pie.
Overall the ride was refreshing, the tactile feel of tires humming on the road, the sound of salt granules chipping the paint, and the sound of oxidization of the drive train. Good times.
I've seen more vivid colours in dryer lint.
All was great until about the halfway point in Waterloo. I munched on the trail mix i brought and then went to wash it down with some Gatorade. Oops. Frozen.
40km out from home, and thirsty as truck.
Sigh.
I took a picture of the Grand River to console myself.
I rode home into the changing wind directions that ensured my out and back ride was 100% into the wind.
My pace slowly fell as dehydration kicked in. I stopped in Maryhill to find their one convenience store was closed. I soldiered on home.
As I rolled in to Guelph, I stopped off at Subway and grabbed a 5$ sub and 9 liters of diet coke. Best fast food deal out there. I sat down and warmed up indulging in the 5$ feast I had purchased. Some 12-14 year old kids were giggling at my winter cycling apparel that had me looking like some sort of spaceman. Little shits. This however was offset by an attractive woman about 20 something, who was clearly impressed at my perseverance and tenacity to ride in such abysmal weather. (Obviously.) I made eye contact. She smiled, then left, as her presumed boyfriend picked her up. Fuuuuuuuu....
I finished my sub, rode the last 5-6k home and took the warmest shower of life.
Despite the bottles freezing up, it was great to be outside.
In other news Ive scheduled a VO2/LT test for March 11th. According to WKO+ im ahead of where I was last year, but itd be nice to get some VO2, RER, blood lactate results as well.
