Laboring

Today's ride was a labor of love: spirited but not strained.

How was your Labor Day Weekend? Got some extra time off, did you? It was otherwise with me; I worked more, but at least it was my choice to do so. And I was fairly compensated. Working 12 hours of overtime from Saturday evening into Sunday morning pumped enough extra cash into the coffers to cover all of my race registrations for the upcoming cyclocross season. Priorities!

The downside to the extra shift was that I missed a Saturday bike ride for the first time since June 15, and the 8 hours I spent in the saddle last week constituted my shortest effort since June 10-16. Cycling was still very much on my mind—I made time to watch the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and Stage 8 of the Vuelta a España—but Saturday was a day of rest otherwise. I began Sunday by watching Stage 9 of the Vuelta, then got some long-overdue sleep, then got back on the bike for a 35-mile solo road ride. And, as I do on the first of every month, I weighed myself. At 188 pounds, I am 1 pound lighter than I was on September 1, 2018, and I’m down 15 pounds from my offseason peak. That’s a good way to go into the cyclocross season, during which I will drop a few more pounds. As I look in the mirror I fancy that I’m starting to see abs, and there’s a little idea forming in my head about how I’m going to keep from getting fat again when winter arrives.

Today began with some home and garden projects, but by mid-afternoon I was knocking out the ride you see above. That’s my fastest ride since Race The Lake on August 26, 2018. As a solo rider I live in the 17-18 mph range on ordinary training rides, but today I had the company of two other riders and we pushed each other a little bit.

Now to get some dinner and a couple of hours of sleep before my new work week begins …