Start Me Up

150 miles. 10 hours. 6,000 feet of climbing.

That was my March. It may not sound like much compared to the last couple years, but after what I’ve been through this off-season, I’ll take it.

The rides have been short and often slow. My longest ride of the year was this past Saturday’s 30-miler.

What’s weird is that I still have some fitness. I’ve noticed that on short sprints, my performance is comparable to last year. Only the endurance isn’t there, so the harder efforts don’t last very long. Overall I still feel surprisingly good from a fitness perspective. On some of the weekday group rides I can hang with the lead pack for a short while until usually getting dropped on the hills. Little by little, I am coming back.

Even though I’ve been given the green light to ramp up activity, the injury still lingers. On some rides I will not feel it at all. In fact, after a couple rides, it has felt even better the next day. There have been two rides where the soreness was noticeable during the ride, and it lingered for the next few days. After these rides I’ve given myself some extra rest time. It can be frustrating to have this level of soreness, and sometimes I wonder whether this thing is still healing, but my doctor does not seem too concerned. Usually after a couple/few days the soreness goes away.

This week I am heading to Spartanburg for a short reprieve. Even though I would like to ride, it looks like the weather will not cooperate (100% chance of rain tomorrow, 40% chance Friday). I’ll bring my bike just in case. This Sunday I may participate in a metric century with the Carolina Cyclers. This will double the mileage of this past weekend, but I know the effort will be a lot easier. This is more of a social ride.

Even though the progression is slow, it is happening. I’ll keep pegging away, and hopefully come out stronger on the other side.