Spring training

This time last year my wife was off on Maternity leave with our new born baby and as such I had full access to our car to get myself to and from work. As a result all cycling was done either when I got home or, more often than not, on the weekends because I was too tired and too into playing with the baby to go back out again for a ride. The upshot of that, according to my statistics on Garmin Connect, was that I did a total of eight rides last April (actually, between March 22 and April 23 to be exact) covering a total of 153 miles (or 246 kilometers in Canadian).

This year I'm back on the bus and with March still bringing snow I decided that from the beginning of April I would start to bring the bike with me on the bus to work (no showers in work to justify cycling in) and take a good ride home. 20 to 30 miles per day was the aim where possible and I never told myself that rain would not be an excuse.

And so that proved to be. On one of the first days riding home from work and with the temperatures a little over freezing, I got soaked to the bone and arrived home with my feet numb. Such rides once complete and once warm and dry are good for the moral, however.

Unfortunately my weekends were pretty busy to the point that I didn't get much riding in then, but when I did I did as much as I could with the target being to get about 300 miles in before the first mountain bike race on April 28.

I had done plenty of riding in the gym in the first few months of the year but had desperately hoped the weather might turn enough in March to allow me to get out. When it didn't -- and often it wasn't great in April as Spring refused to arrive -- I got too disheartened to continue going to the gym. As such, by the time I finally got going in April for what I referred to as 'Spring Training' I had a lot to do just to make sure I didn't show up at that first race and finish the first lap with my lungs screaming on the ragged edge of exhaustion.

In the end I got out nine times between March 29 and April 23 -- all on the road. I did a total of 278 miles (448 km) at a solid average speed of 18.2 mph (29.3 km/h). Most of that was riding home from work with an 8-10 lbs bag on my back. I varied my route a little but for the most part stuck to the same route that tried to avoid traffic as much as possible -- impossible to do entirely when riding through Mississauga during rush hour.

As the rides went on my ability to ride faster when I needed to grew and my average heart rate would drop. At first my heart rate was staggeringly high for those training rides home but by the end of the month it was much more respectable ... comparatively speaking, that is.

Compared to last year I've done much more riding than I did before my first race of the year and so we'll see how I go. It's just great to be back out cycling again and after a few cold rides the weather began to turn and before long I was riding in shorts, riding in fingerless gloves, and arriving home sweating with an empty water bottle.

This is what we suffer a long, cold winter for here in Canada and now the good weather and good riding is just around the corner.

2013 TOTAL
9 Spring Training Rides (All road)
26 days (Mar 29 - Apr 23)
277.93 mi
15h 15m 42s
7,123 ft
13,346 C
30 mi per ride
18.2 mph avg
792 avg ft per ride
170 bpm
1,482 C per ride

2012 TOTAL
8 Spring Training Rides (4 road, 4 mtb)
33 days (Mar 22 - Apr 23)
152.34 mi
10h 52m 04s
7,388 ft
10,564 C
19.0 mi per ride
14.0 mph avg
924 avg ft per ride
166 bpm
1,321 C per ride

2012 ROAD
4 Spring Training Rides (All road)
26 days (Mar 22 - Apr 23)
103.77 mi
5h 49m 28s
3,720 ft
6,857C
25.94 mi per ride
17.8 mph avg
930 avg ft per ride
1,715 C per ride