Finally, the first ride of the year outside...

Today was the day for my first outdoor bike ride of the year, the weatherman said it would be sunny and up to 13 C.

I slept in and had a good 9 1/2 hours of sleep. When I woke up, I had a good sized breakfast in order to prepare for today's 3 hour ride outside.

I was nervous about today's ride. I wasn't sure how I'd feel. My buddy John told me that wind training is not the same as riding outside and it is not uncommon to be slower than you would expect.

I got out the door around 1:00 pm and headed for the Niagara Escarpment "hills". There is hundreds of hills that I rode over today. There was a good wind and even though I was dressed well, it was still a little cold.

The ride went better than expected. I rode fairly hard, the same speed I do for only my one hour rides, and figured I'd let the chips fall were they may regarding my physical and mental state afterwards. By the end of the ride, I felt, surprisingly, pretty strong.

I averaged 17.5 mph for the entire ride and ended up doing just over 53 miles. Until I started the ride, I forgot how many hills there are in the escarpment. Last year, most of my long rides were between 15 - 16.5 mph, which shows I'm already ahead this year. As a matter of fact, most of my 1 hour rides last year were under 17.5 mph.

On the bike I made sure I ate every hour and tried to keep the heart rate under 139 bpm. I find that when riding outside, especially with hills, it is pretty tough to keep it under 139 bpm.

I also ended up seeing a lot of triathletes out on the road today.

After the ride, I ate and watched a little TV, then I started to get tired. I was on the fence as to whether or not I was going to do my 4000 meter swim today or tomorrow. I ended up doing it today and I was glad. I figured that there is a reason that both are on the same day, which totaled over 4 1/2 hours of training today.

After the swim, my inside left calf started to feel a little tight.

Now, to top of a good day of training, Alice and I are going out for dinner.I'm going to have a nice cold beer, after all, you only live once!