Weekly Ride Report - 6/2/14 - 6/7/14

Date	Route	Course	Ride Time	Total Time	Distance	Avg Speed	Altitude	Max Altitude	Max Speed	Odometer
06/02/14	Rose Bowl Laps	Flat	00:52:26	00:56:36	16.4	18.8	591	958	28.3	32743
06/03/14	Rose Bowl Laps	Flat	00:52:01	00:57:47	16.4	18.9	627	956	30.6	32759
06/04/14	ToC Circuits	Climb	00:56:40	01:01:54	16.6	17.6	887	982	35.3	32776
06/05/14	Glenoaks Blvd	Climb	00:51:24	00:57:20	13.6	15.9	961	1404	32.2	32790
06/06/14	Rose Bowl Laps	Flat	00:52:08	00:57:16	16.4	18.9	734	952	29.2	32807
06/07/14	Lida-Chevy Chase-St. Katherine-Loma Alta	Climb	01:26:41	01:27:30	20.8	14.4	2722	1769	34.1	32827
		Total Time	05:51:20	Total Distance	100.2	Total Climb	6522

The last week of strength training and muscular tension for a while, and thank goodness. I'm tired. Heh. Three weeks of riding a heavier cog with a slower cadence may have been good for my personal records, but it messes with my form and rhythm. On my flat course, I set a record for the year so far, and it's only 3 seconds off my all-time record, and that was set with a couple more months of training in the legs last year. It looks like my training plans and schedules are still working for me.

It wasn't until I got serious about my form and fitness on the bike 4 years ago that I understood what the pro cyclists mean when they talked about feeling "good sensations" in their legs. My reaction was always, "you mean pain?" Because putting a good hard effort on a course always meant more pain. But like appreciating different kinds of bitterness in beer, different kinds of pain and tension can also be sensed and appreciated in a hard effort.

An example for me is when I'm climbing a pretty steep section of road, and I'll know I'm in too heavy of a gear because the bulk of my concentration and effort is near the top of my pedal stroke as I'm pushing down. If I'm strong and in the right cog, I won't feel the strain of the pedal until my foot is near the bottom or 6 o'clock position. If I'm not even aware of the "clock" on my pedal stroke, then I'm cruising comfortably.

Yesterday, on a particularly steep section of Chevy Chase, I felt my "clock" at the 3 o'clock position, when normally I would feel I was "sitting on top of the clock." This was a "good sensation" because it means I'm getting stronger, and the climb wasn't going to tire me out as much. Now look: I spent more than a paragraph trying to explain how the pain and strain of a certain situation on my bike was improving. If I ever want to boil that down into a sound bite, it will turn into "I feel like I'm improving and I'm feeling good sensations in my legs." Heh.