“Hard days hard” are much easier in the sub of Andalucia!!
Just over 10km run this morning, first 5km were steady out in 21 mins followed by a sub-20 negative split for the second 5km.
Breakfast and then a long walk for coffee that was promptly binned for being rancid.
Then on to just under 2hrs of ride time, with the focus being a descending vo2 max block of 8, 6, 4, 2 mins with the rest between reps being the descent. (power numbers highlighted below).
Hopefully, i’ll stick to a bit of chilled z2 tomorrow…
Charlottesville is about two hours drive from where I live but my organization seems to like to do Off Site meetings there every 3-6 months or so. I went to college there, too, but wasn’t cycling at the time. Love that place and am happy to go every chance I get.
Nearest gravel to my house is about a 30 minute drive / 60 minute ride, which is a little surprising given how rural my county is. Well worth it, though, and easy enough with a little advanced planning.
Wright Peak -2 outside today, savoring the good weather days of November when we get them! Bridged the 1-minute mid interval break to make it a 3x31min workout.
A group ride for me today on the winter/commuter bike. The forecast two days ago was more right than the one last night it was supposed to be wet after 10am but when I turned up at the meet it was:
And whilst it greyed over and looked bleak in the distance we got no more than moisture blowing in the wind.
We took a shorter way back when it looked like it was going to turn grim. I had sat in on the way out but with the motivation to stay dry I went to the front, and after I left them I kept the pace up; it shows on my HR. Lol, but again there was nothing more than spits in the wind.
Quite glad I took the winter bike out, it cleaned up fast when I got back and I had wanted to be fast given the forecast to turn torrential the back of noon. Lol, the skies actually started to turn blue and only long after my shower was there a few spits of rain on my windows, and that never lasted long and its been cloudy blue skies since. The only thing the forecast got right was the wind.
3 hours of mostly Z2 HR work today with 5x8 Tempo on the gravel bike. Was foggy and 55F at the start, but that made for a fun ride that felt like I was on vacation outside Texas! I’m so jealous of those of you who get 50s and 60s in the morning during the summer!
Two hours of winter gravel on snow packed, hard frozen roads and some patches of clear ice. First hour before the sunset and after that with lights. The weather was perfect: 4-5 degrees C below zero and almost no wind.
Instead of the gravel bike, in snowy/icy conditions I now always ride my Epic hardtail with studded tyres.
Last MTB ride of the season? I was the only person at the trailhead early this morning. Probably something to do with the 34F temp!
Perfect conditions for desert riding. Rode the Horsethief loop twice. That’s such a good section of trail with great views over the Colorado river. Maybe someday I’ll attempt the lower section of the infamous drop-in….
A magical nighttime ride in the snow. Although - I did have to psyche myself up for this first snow ride of the year. It’s not easy putting away the mountain bike for the year. Hot tub beer afterwards is a better experience when it’s cold out.
The only chatter on our group ride’s WhatsApp page last night was from folk who couldn’t make it or would meet us at the cafe. Given the dramatic change in two days from 14 deg C to 1 deg C I didn’t really expect anyone to turn up and I was right.
I set a pace which kept me nicely warm for minimum effort. That was a mistake though, whilst the legs and body felt good, the hands gradually went numb!
I was glad to see a mate at the cafe and another one joined us. Cycling back from the cafe was in much more sensible temperatures
A bit under two hour gravel ride today, as the weather is colder now. My Garmin recorded 10-11 degrees C below zero, but with the wind today it felt colder. We had some fresh snow in the morning, but not too much to make riding hard.
The image was taken just before the noon, so the sun is as high as it gets here in November.
and my “son” on the left, and in the middle Lachlan Morton… apparently he moved out here, and was at the Worlds but taking it easy.
I was taking it easy after 6-hour back-to-back days (Friday/Saturday) of hauling stuff down a ladder, out of the garage attic, cleaning gutters, cleaning leaves out of the roof valleys, putting up a couple trees inside the house, putting lights on the house, etc. etc.
Friday started at 5pm and called it quits at 11pm after finishing the gutter cleaning and gutter lights:
Another chilly one today. Some great views before it clouded over but I only dared t take my gloves off once and that was probably too often. My body was perfect but not long after the chemo damaged hands were numb again. I routed to grab a few OS tiles and it turned into a total mudfest.
