Tis the Season?

A few days ago, I noticed that the cherry trees had not blossomed yet. A couple of years ago, they already had. Micha told me she saw on the news that they were 10 days late this year.

I remember, too, that this weekend last year, I did my last big ride with Chris. It’s odd because that ride was about 55 miles with two pretty big climbs, and, although it was tough (I did the biggest climb a full 10 minutes faster seven months later), I made it through the ride in pretty good shape as i recall.

But here I am, a year later, and I’ve done my second 100k (actually, 108 today) in as many weeks, and I was really feeling it at the end. As i was last week too. The legs were just tired.

So I took a look back at last year to try to figure it out, and it turns out that I was already doing 30-mile rides on weeknights starting in March. By the end of that month, I was about 75 miles ahead of what I’d done over the same period this year. As a matter of fact, I’d done a 28-mile ride just the day before that 55, so it seems my conditioning was better at this time last year.

And then again, I’m a year older. And it’s not a minor thing at my age. Things get tougher, faster when you get older. Recovery isn’t quite what it was. I must admit, too, that I’m just not into the swing of it yet. Like I said, last year, I was already doing longer rides on weeknights. This year, the only time I get in a longer ride is on the weekends. I need more consistency to build up my stamina again.

Enough about that, though. Today’s ride was a great ride, and even getting rained on at the southern end of it didn’t really dampen my spirits. The winds were light (although not as I had expected when I planned the route — and they got downright ferocious about an hour after we got home), and the temps got up into the 60s (they hit over 70 later in the afternoon). It was a route that I’d taken much of before, but we saw some great views and sights. It’s never a bad day on a bike, and this one was typical good.