Leap Day

February 29, 2012 / Susan

Today was the type of ride I should take more often. Slow and easy. Riding along with my bud side by side on country roads where we saw way more cows and horses than we did cars and trucks. Just talking and enjoying the spectacular weather.

We rode a little over 21 miles but it was almost effortless. We usually ride the same speed or at least with the same effort: putting our heads down (most of the ride) and pedaling hard.

I know it’s best to vary your effort to get stronger and faster but I tend to forget that when I’m doing a training ride. And if I am on certain routes (east and west training routes) I only know one speed.

But this time of year is all about base miles so I even have a reason to ride slower.

When I ride around town on Condor, my commuter, I never put my head down and go, it is always more about getting somewhere or just enjoying the ride. But put me on my road bike and I get locked in to riding hard.

I’m glad we had this kind of ride today, it served as a good reminder to slow down and just ride. What about you, do you tend to ride all out when you’re on a training ride?

Related

training, why we ride

4 Comments

Brian
February 29, 2012 at 8:15 pm

I don’t really do training rides, but I frequently ride all out when I use my road bike on my commute. I do slow things down a little and enjoy the ride more when I ride my 3 speed. The small group I’ve ridden with recently does more of social rides, so the pace is fairly relaxed.
- Susan
  February 29, 2012 at 9:17 pm
  
  Do you ride on one of the OBS rides?
  - Brian
    March 1, 2012 at 5:14 am
    
    I have been riding the Floating Crapgame Rides that happen on Saturday mornings during the winter. Three of the four start locations are such that I rode to them from home, almost doubling my mileage for the ride.
    - Susan
      March 1, 2012 at 11:34 am
      
      I’ve never done an OBS ride although they seem like nice rides. They just don’t make sense for us because of where they start. From where we live we can be out on fairly deserted but good roads within 5 miles and that’s what we do – either going east to Arcadia or Jones or west to Deer Creek, Peidmont or Okarche. Sounds like you’re in a good location to captilize on several of their rides, that’s great. We may do some of their FW training rides later in the spring, I think they ride along our east route.

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