Biking "Up North"

I mentioned an interval workout that I did up at the cabin in Saturday's post, but I also did a lot of biking. Well, not a lot for many people, but a LOT for me. Especially for this year.

I've been OK with spinning my legs on the trainer lately, so I haven't been pushing to get outside. I've also been on a handful of shorter rides with my boys on my "commuter" bike. In terms of "actual" rides (on my tri bike), I've only been on FOUR this year before this past week, and that totaled 81.12 miles (around 20 miles each). But then look what happened when I was at the lake and I had family who was able to watch my boys so I could get out for a ride:

Weekly distance starting mid-March (when the gyms/pools closed down).

I got out for 3 rides that more than doubled my yearly distance. That's impressive and depressing at the same time!

To get a bit more of an accurate picture, here are the same weeks shown as TIME. It shows a lot of strength work, and it shows the red-ish trainer time as well:

Biking time still way up on the final week, but strength time way down.

Well, at the time I'm writing this, Garmin is in like its 3rd or 4th day of being down due to a ransomware attack. I can't download my info from the past week, but that's no biggie because I still have a functioning device that can give me my splits, so I wrote down what my Garmin recorded.

The Garmin Connect webpage.


When I clicked through for more info, it showed EVERY aspect was down.

Here were my 3 bike workouts:

Last Sunday, I was just going to "ride." It was windy, so I planned to start by going on the open flat trail into the wind.

Eiffel (my bike) with Big Ole (the viking).


A selfie with Big Ole riiiiiight on the edge of being inappropriate.


Crossing over clear lakes around Alexandria.


I love that there's no guardrail - just straight into the lake if you swerve.


Super clear water with weeds dancing in the current.


Recently seal coated.

I hit the turn-around after 12.5 miles into the wind with an 18.7 mph average. I used the push of the wind to turn that into a 20.5 mph average after 25 miles. (40:08 out, 32:57 back. With my slowest 5 mile split out being 16:31 [18.1 mph], and my fastest 5 mile split back being 12:43 [23.6 mph].)

On Tuesday, I got to ride a bit with my cutie! And then I broke off and did 3x5 mile intevals. Here's a selfie before we took off:

I didn't snap a shot as we chatted for 5 miles, but here's the trail a bit farther out.

Like 2 days before, I started into the wind. We rode 5 miles together in 20:06 (14.9 mph), and then I started my 5-mile intervals. Here's how they went:

- 15:51, 18.9 mph (into slight wind, but not as bad as two days ago).
- 3:01 easy, 0.85 miles, 16.8 mph.

- 13:29, 22.2 mph (with the wind).
- 2:49 easy, 0.75, 16.0 mph (turned back into the wind in order to be able to start a final interval with the wind and not finish in Alex).

- 13:59, 21.4 mph (with the wind).

There's no point in averaging those out as 1 was into the wind and 2 were with the wind. AND at the start of this ride, I found my brakes rubbing. They needed to be tightened from inside the wheel well. It's an unusual braking system that came with my bike all those years ago, and there was no way I could fix it away from all my tools (I just had a few basic bike tools with me). So I dropped it off at the local bike shop before leaving town.

On Thursday, I went into town to get my bike from the shop, and just figured I'd go for a long-ish ride. Nothing fancy. So I stopped by Jake's:

Social distancing barriers out front.


Waiting for them to run my credit card.


The wind was out of the southeast, so I rode the other way out of town.


Turning around after 15 miles.


Back on the edge of a trail with the side of Jake's Bikes in the background.

"Out" in 43:37 (18.6 mph), and "back" in 36:15 (22.3 mph), with an overall average of 20.3 mph. I got in 30 miles on the day! That's my longest ride since before I got injured 11 months ago.

Nearly 83 miles over 5 days.

So I've got 188.29 outdoor miles in a saddle for 2020 so far: 24.38 miles with my boys on my commuter bike, 81.12 miles previously on my tri bike, and 82.79 miles last week alone. (And LOTS of time on the trainer.)