Training?? Or Just Ride?

Not sure if this is an accurate assessment, but my training seems to have fallen apart, at least  scheduled, organized training. Instead, pretty much all I do is ride my two beautiful bikes (yes, one at a time.) Twice a week I learn a lot, riding with groups of (mostly) faster, far more skilled riders. This has been very satisfying since I've acquired so many new skills and techniques, and become a much stronger rider. It has also sometimes been fun, sometimes demoralizing, as I chase, and chase to keep up, or catch up.

 
Huge, unlimited thanks go to all have taught me techniques, given me tips. I've learned so much! Equal thanks go to generous, strong riders who have returned to pull me back to the group, or ride with me. I'm not always chasing though, and have also ridden with many people in these groups who I've only recently met, which has been a blast.

 Hopefully if scheduled training has fallen apart, fitness will nonetheless have resulted. I'm not racing, after all. Statistics tell me: 2700 miles this year, 71,000 feet climbing since I bought this bike computer. When was that?? Mmmm, sometime late spring.



There have been some beautiful rides with friends, beautiful solo rides and lots of strength training.

 Next week I won't ride much, but today included 2500+ feet of climbing: 6 times up one local hill for 1000+ feet and 3 times up another, for 1500+ feet. To repeat an image of my own, my neighbors must think me either crazy, or a modern incarnation of Sisyphus, as I ride up, turn and roll down, turn again and ride up.
 




The past week also included a lovely ride,  part of which has been described here before.  It provided the photos for this post. 43 miles, 3500 feet climbing, beautiful countryside, none of the climbs very steep. There was never much traffic, and virtually none on the more rural sections.




The only disappointment was that a road I wanted to ride was closed, a tree had fallen and brought down an electric line. No traffic was permitted, including, drat!, no bicycles. That shortened my ride by perhaps 10 miles. The detour involved a road that mountain bikers would like: steep, wooded and featuring a rough, sometimes loose gravel surface.




The day  was gorgeous, the sun felt great, and here are some photos. I intentionally didn't include landscapes, they are in the previous post. What you'll find here is largely the hand of man, including several potentially great fixer-uppers.






Next rides probably will just be easy spins, next posts probably the start of a trip.