Just riding a bike

Yesterday I just rode my bike. No intention of training. No intervals. No set training route. Nothing but riding. You know what? It was great! Damn, every now and then I need to take a step back and remember why I ride in the first place. I think it was my slowest average in about forever, covering 22.85 miles at a pace of 15.5mph. It took me an hour and a half to ride what would take an hour on a very bad day on my time trial bike. But I loved every minute of it. Not staring at the power meter constantly, I was able to take in the sights and hear the sounds that I usually block out. My "big ring" was used only once while heading north as I had a tail wind pushing me along.

Before I started racing (read: training), I would go out for long rides and basically solve all the world's problems in my head, have conversations with myself and wave or smile to drivers, people doing yard work, etc. Lately, it's been a non stop quest of power. Now I love the power meter and don't intend to ever ride without one again, but it gets in the way sometimes. Struggling to get the last interval at the right wattage, blowing a great 20 minute interval because if that dog that jumped out of the ditch. Dammit, doesn't that dog understand the importance of FTP??

After my latest DNF Sunday at Vandervort's corner (10th OVR DNF in a row I think), I called it quits to category 3. Monday morning I submitted my latest batch of results - which was pretty easy, at just three letters repeated over and over again D N F - and a request for downgrade to category 4. It felt like I either needed to do that or just quit road racing entirely. Paying $30 to get dropped on a overpass 10 miles in is not exactly fun. My request was approved by Monday afternoon. I attributed last year's suck fest as just being married and trying to get used to that. One year later, no luck. Then I attributed it to my training program and overhauled it entirely. Same result. I'm lighter and stronger and STILL getting whacked on any bump in the road that's greater than a 0.0001% grade. Will category 4 be any/much/totally different? I'll find out Sunday.

Regardless, it was a great ride yesterday.