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Sunday, September 10, 2023

Wow, Was I Wrong!

When I said in my last blog post that there would be “a lot of bike riding in my immediate future,” I wasn’t counting on the weather turning sour. We had a couple of summer-like days, then somebody turned off the heat and threw in a little rain. We should be hitting 75° in the afternoon, but we’re not. Tomorrow we’ll be lucky to hit 60° and it’s going to rain all day.

I also didn’t factor in my supplemental cyclocross practice on Tuesday at Riverside Park. It was good to work on skills, but it did nothing for my fitness. And I failed to account for waning daylight. We’ve been losing 3 minutes per day and it’s really noticeable now. Tomorrow begins the last week of 2023 in which sunset will be after 7 o’clock.

I did a 31-mile road ride today to finish the week with exactly 100 miles. That’s my lowest total since June 19-25. I need more long, fat-burning, Zone 2 rides. I’m stuck on 199 pounds, 5 pounds heavier than I was on this date last year. It’s probably time for me to flip my schedule again. I prefer to sleep immediately after my workday ends at 7:30 a.m., then ride late in the afternoon. But afternoons aren’t long enough anymore and I can’t afford to start riding at 5 p.m.

The Royal Oaks cyclocross practice series concludes this week. That will turn my Thursdays back into opportunities for long rides. And because Thursdays and Fridays are my “weekend,” there’s probably no better way to spend them. I spent only 6 hours, 41 minutes on the bike this week. I will lose fitness rapidly if I can’t get back to my usual training load of 10-14 hours.

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