Perfect 10?

I had a good ride today: two hours with my Raleigh on country roads southeast of West Bend.  I felt good even when going uphill or into a strong headwind.  I got home with new tan lines and watched the 3-hour broadcast of Paris-Roubaix on Versus.  Week 9 was a solid week of training with an 81-degree Sunday afternoon as its exclamation point.  But it wasn’t perfect.

I’m happy with what I got done but I worry about the things that I didn’t get done.  Cheesehead Roubaix is next Sunday and I still haven’t painted the roads or copied the cuesheets.  And even though I test-rode a 29er today, the ride was too brief and too restrictive to be conclusive.  With less than a month to go before the WORS and WEMS seasons, I still have no race-worthy mountain bike.  I really need to borrow a 29er to test under real-world conditions at Glacial Blue Hills.

The trails at Glacial Blue Hills are actually rideable; state park trails at New Fane and Greenbush are still closed.  (It’s a good thing I didn’t make it to New Fane last Wednesday.)  I need to get out there soon to build not only fitness, but also trail riding skills.

Will the coming week be a perfect 10?  Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day.  Tuesday and Wednesday will be hard-working days followed by another rest day on Thursday.  Friday will be a fairly light effort in advance of a longer endurance-pace ride on Saturday.  Right now the weather forecast for Saturday is absolutely awful: windy with rain and snow showers and a high of 40.  If that proves true I’ll put in a little trainer time to stay limber for Cheesehead Roubaix, a ride that is going to tell me what kind of fitness I really have.  It will be my longest ride so far in 2011, and I’m hoping that my fellow riders will encourage a hard effort.