that was less than smart

About 11pm I was bored, had no work to do, and my legs ached from not having ridden for 3 days. I'm only supposed to ride 3 days a week to hold some form coming off cross before having a full week of riding and then taking some time off around the holidays and then when I head to Italy, so 3 days off wasn't a big deal, especially as I had to write a research paper, do a problem set, and take a quiz in the past 3 days.

Regardless, I felt like riding, so at 11:30 I grabbed Fleche Wallonne 2005 from morgan (thanks). The one where Voigt has a ride like, well....voigt, gets caught at like 3km and di Luca takes the win. After some computer issues and getting dialed in on the trainer I was off right around midnight. Not the smartest thing to do by any means, but I would have sat in bed for 3 hours thinking about riding or something otherwise.

I put in a good hour of hard riding, about 85-90%, like im supposed to be. Well, actually, harder than I'm supposed to be, but I felt REALY REALY good. I mean the best I have felt on a bike in at least a month. Perhaps one of the top 10 "I really feel good today" training rides of the year. I held that for an hour, but right around 1:03 I cracked. Maybe it was Voigt taking off solo from his breakway group with 55km or so to go, maybe I didn't feel as good as I initally thought, whatever. I eased off for about 5 minutes, then tried to get going again. It just wasn't really happening, and I felt more like I have in the past 2 months, "there, but not quite there." So I took down the cadence a bit, pushed a bigger gear, and worked out the legs (I felt like I was doing more aerobic workout in the first hour than power). If I can get that feeling come spring and on the road, I will have a fighting chance in 4's for sure.

I put in a good 15 minutes out of the saddle in a 10 and 5 minute effort, something I often forget to do on the trainer, and then after a week inside wonder why my climbing isn't where it should be. Right around 1:30 the race was over, it was 1:30am, and I decided it was time to shower and bed. I decided to post because it was one of the less than smart things I have done recently, I could have easily waited untill tomorrow and rode (I will have plenty of time), but I chose to ride tonight. Some digging through my floor and desk netted me enough change to hit up the vending machines for a honey and oats granola bar 2 pack and a thing of fig newtons. Add in some water and you have a little post race feast.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll take a forray at rollers, since I need to get better and riding them will be good for me. At least then I will have Sarah for company.