Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

I was THRILLED to get outside for a 37 mile ride 10 days ago! I felt like spring had sprung! I was watching the forecast, and I planned to go for a 45 mile ride a week later on the day before my 45th birthday...

... but the forecast kept dropping.

I wasn't excited about going outside on a windy day for a long ride in 39 degree weather. The ride the week before started in the mid-50s, and I wore my heaviest/warmest socks. And I STILL got home with 2 toes turning white on my left foot. With all of my year-round biking over the last few years, I've learned that it's easy to get out in ANY temps for a 30 minute ride. But a long ride on a fast bike needs nicer temps. Call me a wuss... I can live with that.

So I hit the trainer. The goal was 2 hrs and 30 mins, which would equal 45 miles if I had an 18 mph average. (I don't have a power meter, but I know that most of my trainer workouts would average over 18 mph.)

I did a decent warm-up, and then I did efforts of 10, 9, 8 minutes, etc down to 1 minute with the SAME TIME spinning easy between the efforts. (I've done this workout a few times before for long rides [like this time last month to just get over 2 hours], but I usually do easy spinning of 50% of my most recent effort, but I lengthened my easy spinning to 100% on this ride in a way to make my ride longer.)

I finished the last 1 minute effort at 2 hours and 10 minutes, but then I spun easy for longer than I had hoped, and finished with one of my longest trainer rides ever:

2 hrs and 45 mins total!!

Happy birthday to me!

The following day, I didn't know how I'd feel. I told myself if my Garmin gave me a "training readiness" number of 20 or higher, than I'd hit the track for some intervals (like I did the week before), but I wouldn't have been surprised if gave me a "5" when I woke up. Well, first it wished me "happy birthday..."

Dark and blurry at 5:30 a.m.

... and then it gave me a "training readiness" in the upper 20s. I was heading to the track! I actually felt pretty good.

But I hit the track and was SHOCKED. The track was SO ICY AND SLICK even though the sidewalks weren't too bad. This shine on the track is all frozen ice:

Not safe for my old knees or heels. Can't safely run fast on this!

I actually cut across the football field and left the track after just being on it for 100 meters.

I thought about doing some hard running on the trail along River Road, but the winds had been so gusty that branches were down everywhere:

Easy to see in this photo... hard to see in real life.

Our rain barrel had blown into the alley, lots of trash bins
were tipped over, and a neighbor had a fence blow over. Wild!

(Also, we saw a 30' pine tree on top of 4 cars in the St. Kate's lot on the way to school, and Summit Ave was closed near Lexington because a full tree had blown across the road. It was nasty overnight!)

The speed workout just wasn't meant to be. I just ran easy for 6+ miles. And with the 30+ mph SUSTAINED winds, my Garmin shows me going SLOW on the way out (to the NW) and then going FAST on the way back (to the SE) all because of the wind:

31 mph winds. 50+ mph gusts! It was NASTY!

So I was happy I got in a good long birthday ride the day before, but then my birthday run the following day wasn't anything special.

I started the tradition of "biking my age" 5 years ago: here's my 40 mile ride when I turned 40; I did 2 hrs and 13 mins on the trainer just before my 41st birthday; I did 2 hrs and 16 mins on the trainer turning 42 shortly after my birthday; I did 2 hrs and 12 mins on the trainer a month after my 43rd birthday; and I got outside for 44.45 miles last year when I turned 44.