ridelog - It looks like spring is finally here.

Temperatures seem to be staying in the 40's, so I've been trying to get out a little more. I've done 3 rides in the past couple of weeks. I'm still sticking to the easy group rides, but I figured some riding before them would get me a little more exercise. Last week I did the time trial course and then came back to meet the group for a Lilly ride. It seems like doing the TT course was a great warm up - I had a lot of energy after that and my legs felt good.

I did another easy ride on the Kerber route this week, although I think it was a little quicker pace than what I'm used to. I took a few pulls, but the wind and several little hills burnt me up at that pace, and I was struggling a bit towards the end.

Last night I went out to use up the remaining daylight and see if there was a feasible place to do hill repeats in town. I think this was kind of a failure. Heading down the hill into town is generally ok - I usually only catch the red light at 9th street. Getting back to the hill is a pain though because there are about 4 stops/lights in a row. Regardless, I went up Ferry Street the first time, partially in an attempt to figure out what gearing I need to put on the fixed gear bike so I can still make it home. 52/25 is doable. anyway, I went back for another lap, and returned deeper though downtown so I could go up State Street. Traffic was a little sketchy at 9th and main and as I was hammering away from the light, my freakin rear wheel fell out! I could feel it give, and then it locked up, and I skidded sideways a bit. Fortunately, as I let off, It settled back in and I made it to the hill. I didn't feel any stronger up the hill than the last time I'd ridden it, back when it was warm, but, I did recover from the big climb faster. By the time it leveled off, I still had some energy to stand up and go a bit.

observations:
1. my endurance/aerobic capacity still sucks. I'm going to try and figure out how to increase this, probably just using a higher heart rate for my steady state on the trainer.
2. I really can't maintain much of a tempo. I struggled to keep around 19mph for 20 miles. I need to figure out how to bring this up. It's probably related to the aforementioned endurance issues. Must train harder.
3. Remember to tighten the skewers! I didn't eat it this time, but my bike got roughed up a bit. The cassette took a bite out of one of the chainstays and I think I might have bent the derailleur a bit.
4. I really need to work on a sprinting cadence. I've been getting increasingly more comfortable on the road bike, and find that especially in town, I'm riding it like a BMX bike; standing up and hammering big gears from a stop. This is all fine and good, and I'm sure I'm putting down a lot of power this way, but the power is chunky, and it's not all getting to the ground because on my upstrokes, I'm pulling the back wheel off the ground. I think the answer here might be doing slower cadences in big gear on the trainer, but I'm not sure.