12 Mile Bike

This was easily the best biking session I've had.

I didn't have much time so I went out for a quick 40 minute ride.  I'd been really starting to worry that my biking was going to be super slow and losing a lot of confidence in how I would do in my upcoming races.  Today I told myself that I was going to go as close to all out as I could for as long as I could to see what would happen.  I think my problem in the past was I didn't know what level of exertion was necesary for a solid bike leg, so I just putzed along and ended with times that were waaaay too slow.

Today I pedaled strong, got out of the saddle, whatever I had to do to keep my cadence and my speed up.  I ended up increasing my average speed by a few miles per hour and while I was more tired, it was still managable.  In other words, today was a great confidence booster on speed.

No, I'm not going to be a front of pack biker in these first few races, probably not even a strong middle of the packer, but I have confidence that I can keep up and work hard enough to continue to improve.  I just wish I'd discovered this "ah-ha" moment a few months ago so I could have been practicing more efficiently.  It's OK, I'm a total novice at this so I'll just roll with it and keep getting better.  I can't wait to get back out on the bike.