A "Two Bike" Cycling Workout

On Tuesday, I had some time after my 2nd class of the day before needing to get the boys. So I took advantage of that and decided to turn my "long trainer workout" into a ride outside on my mountain bike ENDING with a trainer workout - that way I could bike LONGER but yet be LESS BORED. Win-win.

The only issue was that some freezing rain started near mid-day. So we had a fresh layer of ice. I got home to ride and it was JUST starting to disappear because it had climbed to 32 degrees:

Crunchy, frozen ice everywhere, with a bare spot melting up ahead.

My workout was "now or never," so I headed off on the slickness. It had just started melting, so going down Marshall Hill was WET. My pants and both pairs of bike shorts soaked through on my butt. It was soggy and gross. I knew that if I had waited (if I COULD have waited) another hour, it would have been much better... and sure enough, it got better over the course of my ride. The Greenway around 4 miles in just had damp spots:

A few minutes later, the sun came out and things really started to melt. Here was the view around mile 11 crossing the Ford Bridge:

Partially frozen Mississippi River.

And then the trail on the St. Paul side of the river was practically dry!

The handlebar shadow is the only proof I was on my bike.


I thought I was going to have more crap on my face.


A river loop with extra down the Greenway, to Minnehaha, and a bit north of home.

Then I took about 5 minutes to park my bike, get a drink, carefully take off wet clothes, and hop on my bike on the trainer in the basement. (It was less than 5 minutes from after resetting my Garmin post-ride until I started my trainer ride, but probably just over 5 minutes after stopping my ride because of the time it takes to save the workout and get back to my normal watch face to see the actual time of day.) I didn't spin too hard, but I added in 2 efforts of 15 minutes:

Nothing fancy.

That gave me 67 minutes outside at a moderate pace, and then 90 minutes inside at a slightly easier pace, for 2 hours and 37 minutes of decent saddle time for the afternoon! Not bad! And all that riding gave me a 2-day total of 764 "intensity minutes" to start the week! I *think* that's my 3rd biggest 2-day start to a week, behind a big week in March 2 years ago, and my PR of 899 intensity minutes after a Monday and Tuesday this past summer when my car was in the shop. (The funny thing about that last one is that you'd think I'd have a HUGE week of "intensity minutes" after a start like that, but I had a race later that week, so I didn't even double that 2-day total with the remaining 5 days that week.)

This weekend will be a bit smaller, so we'll see how big my "intensity minutes" are for the week once this strange week is over. But I was happy for a big Tuesday ride!