Bike, Bike, Bike, and Bike Some More

This mild late-winter has been AMAZING for my biking. After last week, I hit 225 miles outdoors on my tri bike for the year. (And another 7 hours and 22 minutes on the trainer.) I've had more trainer miles by mid-March in the past (4 out of the last 7 years), but NEVER so many outdoor miles! Here's how the last 8 years look for trainer time and outdoor bike miles through March (there's still 11 days left in March this year, so 2017 numbers WILL grow):

2017:
7:22 trainer time
225.51 miles outside

2016:
12:04
124.42 miles

2015:
7:51
71.38 miles

2014:
9:21
8 miles

2013:
3:18
0 miles

2012:
1:16
102.26

2011:
9:47
0 miles

2010:
4:42
35 miles

So in the 7 years from 2010-2016, I biked a total of 341.06 miles outside from Jan-March. If I get in a few more rides this month, I hope to be around 300 miles outside in the same stretch from 2017 alone! WHAT A NICE WINTER! :)

Also, I looked at what month I hit 225 miles of outdoor miles for the year over the last 8 years. It was May 4x, June 2x, and July 1x (when I was injured last year in April and May). And this year, it was mid-March. Double nice.

Anyway, here's what the last 2 weeks of training looked like:

I was taking it easy the 2nd through the 7th because of a sore knee, but then I was back at it pretty solidly this past week. On the 12th, I had a quick, easy trainer ride while my wife did a longer ride:

She likes me, I swear. She was just really into a movie she was watching.
And the light glimmering off my nipple was a bit too much for her.

On Thursday the 16th between classes, I got out for a quick 4x3 mile interval ride down the greenway. (I usually like to do 3x5 mile intervals, but I didn't have time for that - being it's an odd number, I end up a long way from home when I'm done and have a long cool down.) Here's what my pace chart looked like (with the intervals highlighted in red):

When I finished my ride, I saw that most of my interval was a "segment" on GarminConnect, and I ended up on top of 3,500+ by nearly a minute:

(And just a few weeks ago, I ended up at the top of a shorter segment here in St. Paul.)

My intervals were good. I didn't think there was much of a breeze, and I thought I was going out INTO it. I was at 24.0 mph for my first interval for a bit before it dropped to 23.6 mph. I thought I was a stud. But then when I turned around for #2, I realized I was NOW going into the wind. Dang. Here were my average speeds for my 4x3 mile intervals:

- 23.6 mph
- 20.6 mph
- 22.8 mph
- 20.5 mph

- 21.875 mph average

Not great, but not bad for mid-March in Minnesota.

That night, I had a check-in with Robert at Element Wellness Group for some acupuncture. He said it wasn't a "pretty" treatment, but he worked on my tight calves:

... and stuck an EXTRA big needle in my hip. He said half of that gold-ish needle was inside me!
(And it took him a few "pushes" to get it deep enough in my fatty/delicious hips.)

Friday I ran with Charlie. I mentioned my Wed and Fri runs in my weekend post. Some "nice" numbers to those runs. :)

Saturday was an swim of 3x500. I really tried to go hard, and post-workout, I tweeted this:

Last month, I did this swim at Hamline between classes in 7:33, 7:33, 7:36.

And then Sunday (yesterday) I did a St. Paul loop twice (River Road to Shepard Road up Ramsey Hill and down Summit Ave). After 2 Ramsey Hill climbs and lots of stoplights/stop signs, I still ended a 34 mile ride with a 19.8 mph average. Nice end to the weekend!

Let's keep these numbers going in the right direction. Happy training!