Bike 40k PR today!

Yesterday I didn't get to do the brick I was planning, and it was a beautiful day....a beautiful day to spend at the golf course for the Marine Corps League's annual fundraiser golf tourney. I don't golf, but it's an important day for our Marine Corps League. We use the funds raised to help out various former Marines in financial need, assist as needed at the veteran's home, and sponsor various things around town like Simplot Games and such.

But today was different. After church, I wanted to bike on another beautiful Idaho spring day. 60 degrees and sunny without much wind. So I headed out for a 40k cruise. I quickly realized that I wanted to hit it as hard as a could. Maybe it was some wind that pushed me to my fastest speeds on a flat by Century High School, but at that point I wanted to go for a PR. And my legs felt good even after a good hill workout on Friday.

I came in at 1 hour 11 minutes, the best for me ever on 40k. My only race 40k was 1:12 at the Bear Lake Brawl last year. The previous best on the course today was 1:16. On the way home, there was a fair amount of wind, so I'm calling this an average wind day and counting it as a true PR. In November, I decided my goal for a race was 24mph at cadence of 88 in my second highest gear. Today, I pushed the 24mph in the third highest gear at cadence of 88. Not sure how that all works out, but the main point is that I was holding 24mph on the flats, which is good for me. I also maintained a good pace on the ups, which is always nice. And even better, my legs weren't fried at the end. My average cadence was 87, but I felt it should have been much higher than that. I was pedaling 95 or so for what I thought was much of the course. I'm truly realizing that I need to think I'm averaging a cadence of about 93 to actually hit 88.

It was a good end to a wierd week.

Pool is closed all this coming week. More time to focus on the bike I guess. If I could get up mentally, I could go jump in Jensen's Grove, but I can't bring myself to do it. The water is probably about 55, which is doable, but I would prefer above 80 degrees on land so that I can warm up when I get done. Then I have to ask myself "How bad do I want that goal time?"