Building Base: Better Late than Never

The gravel pathway of today's ride.

Joy here...Last year The Man bought me a Stevens carbon cross bike for my birthday (which I named Cross-Eye), and I rode it often in the spring this season, but it's been collecting dust in the basement since April sometime.  Well, today, I had a long, steady, endurance ride planned--around three hours--and I was looking for relatively flat terrain for this ride.  The Man said, "hey, I know a great gravel trail we can take...do you trust me?"  Well, if your husband/wife/partner ever asks you that, you know that it's a trick question.  The only answer can ever be "yes," so you better hope that it's also the true answer.  I'm lucky enough that at this point when it comes to bike rides, I do trust him.  I trust him to know what kind of ride I can handle, and I trust him to know what kind of ride will likely make me sit down on the curb, head in hands, crying.  So we packed up the bikes into the car to drive out to the start of the gravel pathway for our ride.

And he didn't disappoint.

Our ride was relatively flat, with any ascents or descents being no more than around 3%/-3% gradient, and because of the rough surface, we really had to ensure that we kept our power consistent and strong to roll through the gravel.  There was no chance for coasting or for rolling easily at all.  It was just pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal for hours on end.

Here I am, ready to start...watch out gravel,
here I come!

When training, there are different kinds of efforts (which I've blogged about before), and typically the easy, long, endurance efforts (like today's) come early on in the training cycle.  For instance, I should have been doing long rides like today's ride way back in January and February inside on my trainer.  But what was I doing in January and February?  Well, I was gripped in the steely hands of Seasonal Affective Disorder, curled up on the couch under the blankets raging internally at the injustice of cold, snow, ice, and darkness.  I had no mind or heart for training and was generally pissed off at the world.

But what was I missing?

Well, I was missing the kind of ride I had today:  A ride where I could end up not really noticing the kilometres ticking by; a ride where I would slowly feel the effort building up in my legs making my feel satisfied with my workout; and a ride where I could enjoy myself, knowing full well the benefit of the workout.

So instead of building endurance base back in January and February, here it is in August, and I'm finding myself out on an endurance ride!  Well, better late than never, right?

Part of my new plan with my new coach has me doing various kinds of efforts during the week--shorter time trial efforts and longer intervals--with long, endurance rides like today's ride on the weekend.  And even though I feel a little heavy in the legs, feel unused to riding on gravel, feel tired after what was supposed to be an "easy" ride, I know that once I have a few of these kinds of quality rides under my belt, I'll begin to see some real progress.

Today, therefore, marks the real start to my new regime...let's see where it takes me!

Cheers!  The Man and I enjoying our post-ride recovery drink!

Here are today's ride stats:
Time:  3:15:45
Distance:  73.7km
Avg. Speed:  23km/hr
Max Speed:  36km/hr
Perception of Effort:  Easy/Moderate (I was getting tired at the end)
(Note:  Riding over gravel is like running on sand; it's a much harder workout, but the speed and distance are not directly comparable to a smooth surface; so today's ride is more like a 100km smooth surface bike ride!)

Over and out,
Joy