41 Miles for my 41st Birthday

My wife turned this into a tradition when she turned 40 about 1.5 years ago. Last year, it was 53 degrees on my birthday, and I rode over 40 miles to celebrate my 40th.

I turned 41 over the weekend, and when I wanted to do a long ride, it was 12 degrees outside. (This winter has DRAGGED on.) So I decided I'd go for an equivalent of 41+ plus miles on the trainer for my birthday.

My 3 longest rides in the last few months were all 1 hour and 40 minutes. They were actually my longest 3 trainer rides possibly ever. And all fall and the first half of winter, my "long" rides were 1 hour and 20 minutes. So planning to go over 2 hours was a daunting thought. But I got through 2 hours and 13 minutes:

Sweaty aero pads, floor, and SOAKED through shirt after my last interval.


I came upstairs and Henry said my chest hair and (head) hair were WET.
So I took this unflattering selfie. Your welcome. Hello 41.


Long warm-up, 4x10 min efforts, easy for 15 mins, then 10x1 min efforts.


Nothing too hard - I wanted to last 2+ hours!

Oh also, 2 things showed up on my Garmin for the first time ever. I think it's because I recently had my first 2 outdoor runs with this Garmin I got for Christmas. But it told me I had a solid VO2 Max:

This is apparently an "excellent" number for someone 20-24 years old.

It also showed me that on my last day of being 40, I had a "fitness age" of 33:

I did the math based on 19 mph: if I averaged that speed/effort, it would take me 2 hours and 9.5 minutes to hit 41 miles. So that was my inital "goal," but I ending up going for 2 hours and 13 mins - which would be 41 miles at 18.5 mph, which would be about right. (I'm in a bit better shape this year than I am compared to last year's birthday ride, and in last year's ride, I held a 19.0 mph ave through 35 miles [ending with a nasty climb and into the wind for the last 4 miles dropping it to 18.3 mph].)

We finally have some steady temps that will promote some melting, so here's to getting outside more often in the near future!!