Back in the Saddle

Wow – what a crazy time it’s been for the past 6 weeks! Very little training but still very intense. Work has been out of control (what else is new!), but more manageable this year than in the past. The guides have been enjoying their time in the Netherlands, so that’s a huge boost to my confidence.
But really – the training has sucked ass. So as of Thursday last week I’m:
- back on my training diet of no coffee, max 1 beer per evening when I’m going out, and nothing but GOOD FOOD all day long – not the most complicated diet, but you’d be amazed how much it helps :o)
- riding to work as a minimum, even in the rain (so what – it’s only a bit wet!)
- slowly building my legs back underneath me with some rides that test my fitness, including some long distances, sprints, and hills

It doesn’t help that the weather has been incredible here – good and bad. Last Thursday it was 25 degrees C – wow! The leaves started to bud, the cherry blossoms were out, and spring was definitely in the air. But then on Saturday it was hailing, snowing, and super windy all day long – so it knocked many of the leaf buds off, which when mixed with the hail/snow/water on the roads made for a very slick conditions!

So combine that with work and I was still only able to get marginal training in this weekend – NOT what I was looking for. Oh yeah, and it was Queen’s Day, so all the Dutchies were out drinking, and unfortunately my apartment is on one of the main streets out of the downtown area, so I got woken up every night several times between 11pm and 4am by shouting drunk pricks. Not too impressed :o(

Monday dawned with the sun shining and a clear head, so I decided I’d go for a long ride after work. That came into question by about 10:00 when the clouds had moved in and the rain was falling – but this wasn’t the normal Dutch squall. Instead of intense bursts of hard rain and wind, this was a constant rain with steady winds. It lasted all day – ALL DAY. Pretty weird for here.

But by 5pm I was itching to ride, so I popped on my iPod and hit the road. A quick swing by home to drop my bag and switch bikes (I needed one with fenders!) and I was off again. The riding was actually really great – I was testing myself still with some sprints that were loosening up my legs, and I was happy since I hadn’t felt this good in a few weeks. After about 1.5 hours I ran across the University cycling team out for their Monday training session, and since I know and ride with a lot of the members I decided to join in.

That turned out to be a great decision, as we proceeded to do seated power drills up the hills, seated power along the flats, and some medium to high intensity flat riding all the way back to Nijmegen. And it all felt wonderful.

Sure my legs were burning, but it was definitely the right kind of burn and I was happy to be feeling that again. All in all it was a 3 hour ride with rain the entire time – we were COMPLETELY soaked when we got back home. But it was such a great feeling to have my legs under me again and feeling strong.

So tonight is the Tuesday jam session, but I think I’ll just sit in the fast group. I can already tell my legs are pretty fried from yesterday, but the good kind of fried :o)Keep the rubber side down!