In anticipation of my first mountain bike race, last month I spent a fair amount of time working on skills. I needed to develop them—I still do—but it almost felt like I wasn’t really riding. Generally, I ride better as I ride more. The sluggish pace with which I was building my mileage total was, for me, cause for alarm. During the week of the Greenbush race I rode only 61 miles, including the race itself.
But with the race behind me, I’m back to what I really do best: chewing up miles. I covered 229 miles with 5 rides in the last 7 days. Monday’s time trial was the high-intensity portion of a 50-mile ride. Tuesday was a planned rest day. On Wednesday I did an easy 25 miles before my softball game. (The right quadriceps, injured on May 11, held up fine and my team improved to 4-1.) Thursday unintentionally turned into another rest day as a combination of factors kept me off the bike. On Friday I put in a solid 50-miler on the Eisenbahn State Trail, riding to Eden and back for the second time this year. On Saturday I did the Washington County Bicycle Club ride and today, with a smaller group, I went back to Port Washington for the second day in a row.
The new week will start with rest on Monday, then on Tuesday I will make a more intense effort than this weekend’s rides required. On Wednesday I plan a short-but-intense lunchtime ride to break up my workday; I have a 6 p.m. softball game that will prevent me from riding after work. Thursday? We’ll see. It might be time to reintroduce a spirited West Bend-based group ride on Thursday evenings … more on that soon.
I’m still trying to find the right schedule to accommodate endurance rides, high-intensity efforts, and skill-building days on the mountain bike trails. And I’m still undecided on my next competition goal. The WORS race at Wausau is now just a week away and that seems too soon. I’m tempted to make the June 19 Wisport race at Fort Atkinson the focus of my training during the next two weeks. I did the inaugural Ride the Rock in 2007 but haven’t been back since.
Tonight I unwound by watching the Critérium du Dauphiné and the TD Bank International Championship on Versus. (Unfortunately I didn’t realize that earlier in the afternoon Versus showed highlights from last weekend’s US championships, won by Dave Zabriskie and Matthew Busche.) Versus will have same-day coverage from the Dauphiné throughout the coming week, plus Tour de Suisse coverage next Saturday and Sunday.
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