an outdoor ride has arrived...

Thursday evening:

After my annual eye doc visit mid-afternoon and this year my eyes were dilated for the testing I drove home with my fisherman style dark Oakley glasses as vision was slightly impaired ;-) I arrived home to change into my cycling clothes to then head out for the LBS (Village Cycle Sport) Thursday night group ride for one mile repeats.

This was only the second time I have had the Ridley Dean out on the roads as our Chicagoland winter has been ever lingering as I have been icthin' to ride this beast for a couple months now. I used the ride for some simple base mileage and acclimation to the new bike as I rode either off the front of the group or well behind them since drafting does me no good in the TT/Tri/Du world of racing. The aero position on the Dean is slightly more aggressive (to say the least) than my 'ole school Tri Cannondale.

I got in a solid, base training ride as I was conservative because of my eyes and tired running legs. Total time per the Polar was 1:01:45 which got me a total of 18.8 miles in for the night before sunset was kicking in quickly. Average pace was at 18.4 mph and during one of my mile blast repeats I spooled the bike up to a max of 30.5mph...not bad for this early in the outdoor riding season. My average HR came in at 131bpm with a max HR during the speedy solo blast of 159bpm...not bad for my torquey heart rate range...built like a diesel motor it is. The funny thing is I was riding by PEL as I couldn't focus on my Polar watch on the mount between the Vision TT aerobars :-)

The bike just gets better each time I ride it...

My typical techy graph:
http://www.twodogzdesign.com/cycle09/040909.JPG

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