Getting Ready to Ride!

After a few glimpses of spring and summer back in March, April has been a bust for riding outside. Warm weather (high 70s) this week melted the two feet of snow we got last weekend but I was traveling so wasn't able to take advantage of it. Today is a rare cloudy day in Denver and it's been raining off and on. We need the rain so I can't complain. It's just that I haven't been out on the road since mid-March!

I have been diligent about putting in the miles on my CycleOps Fluid2 trainer. I've logged over 800 miles to date...well ahead of where I was last year at this time (following the accident, surgery, etc.). Riding on the trainer is a great workout but can be very boring, especially when my Garmin Edge 305 runs out of battery power (as it did today).

Even though I am stationary so the GPS-enabled functions of the Edge (like the turn-by-turn directions and full mapping capability shown in this picture) are of no use on the trainer, I still use the Edge to track my miles (it has a wheel magnet backup for the GPS), RPMs (the Edge includes a magnet that attaches to the crank and gives a real-time readout of RPMs) and heart rate to make sure I am making the most of my workout. I try to keep my RPMs between 88 and 92 and vary my heart rate between 114 and 142 beats per minute.

Hopefully May will bring warmer, dry weather. I'm planning to start riding to/from work in May (as I did last year). My goal is to log 2,000 miles prior to the start of Ride the Rockies on June 14. That means I need to average about 170 miles per week over the next seven weeks. This should be doable unless my travel schedule keeps up at the pace I've been going!

The sun is peeking through the clouds now so we're going to take Casey for a walk. Maybe it will clear off tomorrow so I can get out on the road tomorrow after church.

Ride on...

Daren