It was a heat wave...

I really didn't want to do my 3:45 moderate ride indoors today. I did a 3:40 indoors ride last Monday and it was tough. I also find outdoor riding it a truer measure of performance and the more I riding I can do outside, the better.

Today the weather warmed up to a very palatable - 7 C with wind chill and if at all possible I wanted to do my ride outdoors. The only problem is that it gets dark at about 5:45 pm.

I was able to leave work early and got on the road by 3:30 pm. It was a stop and go ride because my cell phone kept ringing and I had to keep stopping to answer it. Work never stops. No one asked where I was or what I was doing, but I'm sure it sounded like I was in a wind tunnel.

I managed to get just over 2 hours in by Sundown and had a big decision to make. Do I go home and finish the last 1:45 indoors or do I ride in the dark. I decided to go for another hour in the dark. I felt safe because I had two high powered blinking red lights. One on the front and the other on the back. They worked, cars were giving me a wide berth.

After I finished, I ate dinner and pushed myself out the door to do weights at the Y. When I returned home home, I completed the last 40 minutes of my ride. I was mentally "toast" by the end of it. To keep me positive during the ride, I kept motivating myself by the thought that I only have one more ride before flying to California and warmer weather training.

As I got off my bike I noticed a big chunk of tire was missing, like it chipped off. Someone asked me if cold weather riding effected my tires and I said "it's a non issue". I guess I was wrong. The rubber looks like it's continuing to flake off and I can see the reinforced webbing underneath. It's amazing I didn't get a flat tire.

Now that I think about it, I did feel a constant bump as I rode. I just thought the wheel needed to be trued. Truth be told, I've been more concerned about the frame and areo bars and how they would respond to the cold weather than the tires. There was a few downhill bumps that scared me. I envisioned hitting a bump and cracking the bars or frame and wiping out.

I don't want to keep sounding like a broken record, but my biking sucks. My legs are so flat. It seems that everyday I take my legs to the extreme, empty them and then I do it all over again the next day. I'm also finding these slow bike rides are mentally draining. I keep repeating my mantra "let the chips fall where they may and you still have 5 weeks of riding until race day".

That's the one thing about triathlons, you never seem to have all three disciplines firing on all cylinders at the same time very often. It's always something like "I my running and swimming is great and my biking is lousy" or a "my biking is great and my run and swim suck". Triathlon training definitely keeps you humbled.

Mod Bike - 3:45:10 / 104.35 km / 27.82 kph / 119 avg hr

Weights Chisel - 30 minutes