More Fun In The Winter Sun

Some weekend for February, huh?  I spent Saturday afternoon hiking through Lac Lawrann Conservancy and Royal Oaks Park, then hopped on the bike today for a 22-mile spin through the countryside southeast of West Bend.  Each day began with European professional cyclocross streaming live on the Internet.  Shortly after today’s cyclocross race, I watched streaming coverage of the final individual time trial in the Volta ao Algarve.  The ’cross coverage was in Flemish and the TT coverage in Portuguese.  “Something something something, Niels Albert.  Something something something, Richie Porte.”  Good enough for me.  Thanks, CyclingFans.com.

Tomorrow it’s back to work for the company that pays my bills—no three-day weekend for me—but it should be a routine day that gives me an opportunity to ride outside late in the afternoon.  Mondays are technically the end of each week of my 12-week training plan, and they’re supposed to be rest days.  But I’ll ride outside if I can.  I’m nothing like “overtrained” at this point of the offseason.

I started this year’s training plan a week later than last year’s, reasoning that I don’t have any important races until July.  I wonder if I’ll regret that decision on April 7.  I will be in eastern Pennsylvania that day and I’m thinking about registering for the Fools Classic, a 79-mile sportive that includes roughly 18 miles of unpaved roads and has around 6,500 feet of climbing.  It’s billed as a “tribute to the Ronde van Vlaanderen” and “ideal preparation for those who plan to go to the Tour of the Battenkill.”  It would be a hard ride any time of year, so in early April I would expect it to kick my ass.  But it might be just the thing to jump-start a full week of training while I’m on vacation.  Registration opens tomorrow night.