After a miserable rainy and foggy weekend, today we were back to our unseasonably warm January temperatures. It was as good a time as any to try out my training for a little solo jaunt around my favorite haunt. After running 8 miles over the last few days, this was the first time I could test my cross-trained legs.

Let me just tell you right now that running works. I figured it would, but never expected to see results this quickly. I was shot out of a cannon today. There have been times where I’ve gotten on the bike and been surprised by my conditioning, but this was on another level.

The first thing I noticed was that my heart rate was lower. There are a couple climbs where I’ll typically hover around 170 during the hard parts and will peak around 180 if I really push. This time I was in the mid-160s and maybe 170 if I pushed.

Recovery was also much quicker. There is a long stretch of road with four lengthy rolling hills, both up and down, where I can really test out my strength. My little game is to try and hit 30 mph on all of the descents. It is sometimes possible if I pedal hard. This time I was bursting down the hills and would get winded when I hit the upswings, but a momentary pause and I would regain my strength and begin pushing again.

I noticed when looking at the Strava reading that I had my personal best on that stretch by about a mile per hour.

It is hard to tell if today was just a great day, a fluke, or what. It felt pretty amazing and if I keep this up, I’ll have a good season.

Strava GPS link (a little off today because of Garmin satellite issues)