Did a hair less than 80 miles today. It was supposed to be a 2 hour workout. Think I got the proper benefit.
Taking full advantage of this period to get out ‘there’ and explore some new routes. Found a beauty today. What does concern me is the groups of cyclists I continue to see. Wonder what it’ll take for the message to really hit home?
Bit of a chilly start with a solid headwind and 4C. Wore shorts and was getting a little cold, though acceptable. After 30 minutes of headwind turned and warmed up almost instantly with cross/tail winds. Ended up being a pretty good ride. I Geiger+2 as an outside workout, and managed to track decently but definitely miss having power.
Got out for a gravel ride on Saturday. 36 miles in 3:42. Elapsed time was 4:21. When I do this solo, there is <15min between ride & elapsed time. This time, I was with my neighbor (on a full-suspension 29er) and when we stopped at the cows pictured so he could eat a bar, he actually sat down on a bench! 
A usual track for me, Höllgrotten trail. My bike is leaning against a wooden bridge from the early 1700s, behind is an arched bridge from the late-1800s, and behind that is another bridge from the mid-1900s.
Since my riding companion sat down, and the cows were taking in interest (they stopped by the time I took this pic), I took this pic. 180* behind me is a view over pastures, forests, and Lake Zug. After this point, we pass a former Swiss missile base and then enter another forest with single and double track where a suspension would be handy.
This viewpoint overlooks Lake Zurich, with Zurich above and very slightly to the left of my saddle at the end of the lake. This is actually below the peak of the day’s climbing. The only real climb left is short 16% ascent along a canyon wall, which isn’t too hard to find on the elevation chart. There are two options to descend from here, one set that includes gnarly rutted and rooty single-track and another that is not deadly to a rigid bike.
Sunday was Tallac+3 outdoor on the road bike around Lake Zurich. On the right is the medieval old town, and castle, of Rapperswill. There’s a 70.3 that runs through there, including a “fun” stair climb.
And on the causeway back to the otherside of the lake. Below and to the right is the passage used for the 70.3 run. Fun memories, especially since the hottest day since the previous summer seems to occur on the day of this race.
After the 40mile trip around the lake on the road bike, which my Garmin described as “maintaining” in the training status, I scarfed some food and went for an easy ride on the gravel bike with the wife on her ebike in the forest. This ride was, to my Garmin, “productive.” 
A nice end to a nearly 900 TSS week with no running or swimming. Now to stop procrastinating to get back to work.
I just installed a powermeter on my mtb last week which happened to be the last work week of my mtb marathon specialty plan. My first race was scheduled for May 9 & the 2nd on May 17 but those aren’t happening & I doubt I’ll be racing at all this year. Regardless, TR got me as race ready as I can be & I plan to do a couple of race pace 100k rides soon to celebrate.
In any case, I’m in a recovery week so I hit the trails with my girlfriend last night. Tonight will be a similar ride albeit possibly a bit quicker with my 15 year old son.
Mostly threw my “rest week” workouts out the window this week but had a nice weekend of riding. Saturday morning did a couple hours of moderately hard riding and got sucked into the trap of testing my fitness on some Strava segments (got some nice PRs so happy about that).
Saturday Morning Ride
Beautiful morning today in the midwest US so my 9yo and I went on a fun ride on our local rails-to-trails system. Perfect weather and we both had a blast. Great to enjoy some time on the bike without focusing on power/cadence/speed etc. This weekend was a nice mental health boost.
Sunday Morning Ride
The gravel bike had the 650b wheelset on it with kobbies, so did some exploration of fire roads and a nice singletrack loop. In hindsight, totally could have used the 700c wheelset for all it and likely rolled a bit faster on the pavement… Next time…
The single track climb out of the valley had some nice views. It is that time of year when the grass is still green, soon the dryness and yellows will set in.
First outside ride in about 5-6 weeks. I mixed it up a bit by taking my cross/gravel bike out through some neighborhoods, down to the Trinity River levees for some gravel, through downtown Dallas and Deep Ellum (artsy district) where the streets were eerily deserted (set a new PR down Main Street, so there’s that), then onto some paved trails for a bit before dropping in for some singletrack before heading back home. Not bad for a day’s work.
Went for a quick blast on the MTB. Had seen a new Strava segment, well, I’d done it but not realised it was a segment so went for it and got 4th 
Then got within 6 seconds of another PB but there was a bit of a headwind so it was always going to be a tall order. Ended up with 7 PBs out of 9 off-road segments. Happy with that.
I love her bar tape, what’s she riding?