Sunny, Warm And Bicycle-Free

Perhaps the only time it is good to be a Fred …

This would have been an excellent day to be on the bike, but I needed a day off.  Here’s why:

• 7/16 — 35 miles with Ozaukee Bicycle Club
• 7/17 — 32 miles on West Bend’s Thursday evening ride
• 7/18 — 47 miles on the Eisenbahn State Trail, to Eden and back
• 7/19 — 63 miles, 30 with the Washington County Bicycle Club and then 33 solo
• 7/20 — 66 miles with the Cream City Cycle Club

That’s 243 miles—almost 14.5 hours in the saddle in the last 5 days. Back-to-back metric centuries are actually very rare for me, and Sunday’s ride was uncommonly hilly: more than 3,300 feet of climbing, according to the Garmin of one of my fellow riders (my Garmin always under-reports elevation data). Feeling a little fried yesterday, I promised myself some rest today no matter how nice the weather or how likely the possibility of rain on Tuesday.

If rain does come tomorrow, then I may take a second rest day and I won’t be any worse for it. But if there’s an opportunity to ride, then I surely will. Tomorrow is probably going to be the hottest day we get all year and I don’t want to miss that.

On Wednesday and Thursday I expect to do group road rides. Friday might be a mountain biking day if I can’t use the trails tomorrow. On Saturday I will officiate at the third of four Washington County Bicycle Club time trials before I head out for my own ride ... road, rec trail or mountain bike. The state road race championship is on Sunday. I won’t be in it, so maybe I will do another very hilly road ride in sympathy. Doing hills is almost never a bad choice in my loosely-structured training plan.