This week was definitely a let down performance wise. A very severe cold and a moderate repair issue managed to put me off track on my goals. But I did learn a few things this week:
- Fifteen minutes into a ride is a bad time to realize that I left my canteen on the kitchen counter
- If my canteen is on the kitchen counter, I will probably find this out because my unsecured pant leg just got snagged on the empty bottle cage, and I will nearly wreck my bike discovering this.
- I really do ride in, and around a lot of traffic.
- I absolutely need to get a helmet.
- Now that the air has gotten cooler and dryer I should apply lip balm before riding
- The little handy-dandy emergency repair multi-tool that I have is pretty freaking useless for any real maintenance tasks.
- Riding a bike with severe head and chest congestion sucks.
- My local bike shop is manned by a pretty awesome guy.
All of this aside after I did manage to bike the fiddling small sum of 17.1 miles this week bring me to a fourteen day total of 72.1 miles. This is 11.9 miles less than my expectations. I am trying not to beat myself up over this, I was ill after all. I do suppose this is where I should take advantage of leaving for work ten minutes earlier whenever possible to tack on an extra mile or two.
My average pace was 5:41/ mile still under my goal of 6:00 flat but four seconds slower than last weeks average. Based on the pacing of the ride I attempted while heavily congested, which came to six minutes forty-five seconds I should be thankful for the bent rim keeping me off my bike until I could recuperate a bit as forcing myself to ride would have both put me in worse condition and ruined my average pace for the month. I am still not feeling tip-top so while I am going to be keeping pace I am going to watch how hard I’m pushing myself for the next few days.
As I mentioned before the weather lately has been cooler and drier, going into winter I am going to need a set of gloves to keep the wind off my knuckles. I hadn’t really thought much about wardrobe when I started this little project; also, as I’ve already said, I will be looking into purchasing a helmet by the end of week three. My budget isn’t the greatest but, I think this is definitely one piece of gear that I should not be buying off the used rack.
Between being sick and fixing my wheel I really haven’t put much thought into expanding my exercise routine, just yet. I am still mainly into the cardio workout that cycling is giving me and will be mostly concentrating on that; I will keep my options open though. It is hard to evaluate any noticeable change in my overall fitness as circumstance had me spending little time on the bike. Once the repairs and recuperation were done my endurance definitely seemed to have dropped off significantly, while my speed and strength seemed to change little by comparison. One concern of note is that due to not riding as often, my bad knee seems to have regressed in it’s flexibility quite a bit.
Halfway through the month I am still in reach of my goals but I do have a bit of ground to make up. Though this week has been a bit disheartening I can take some satisfaction that It wasn’t a complete stall out. I’ve missed being on the bike quite a bit, this week has driven home how important riding it is to me for my over all mood as well as physical health. Going forward from here I am still confident of reaching my goals for this month.
Corned Beef Hashtag 