Hybrid Workout

Yesterday my coach gave me a two hour outdoor ride, but it was thankfully set up in a way that was also easy to spin- warm up, 20 minutes in C, 20 minutes easy, 20 minutes in C, steady B to end. I've done plenty of outdoor riding this winter, but the one thing I won't do is ride in cold and wet/raining conditions, and it was a wet morning. So while my coach was on his way to Tucson, I popped in Stargate SG-1, the Ark of Truth, and started my workout. Because the downstairs TV is beyond its last legs, the only way to really see anything on it is to turn out the lights, making the basement dark enough you can see the TV.

Shortly after I started my second set in C, I noticed bright light. It was coming in through the basement windows and with 45 minutes left after the set, I decided that even though I was enjoying this straight to DVD treatment of the Ori saga (I know, geek alert), it was time to hop on the Elite and get outside. I didn't want a long transition, so I just threw on tights, a jacket, gloves and a hat and got to it.

Of course, it looked nicer from inside than it was on the outside- so typical this time of year- you want it to be nice so badly that you maybe force it a little, but then again, even when it's bad, it's not really that bad. It was sunny, but not all that warm. I started out with the wind at my back and I was flying, chasing along with the cars and feeling really good. For not having been outside in two or three weeks I was surprised at how strong I felt and I was thinking that all the spinning I'd done really was paying off. Of course it's easy to feel good with the wind at your back. That didn't last. As soon as I got into the crosswind I nearly fell over and for the rest of the ride I was off more than on the aerobars, fighting the conditions and not feeling like I was mid-season shape anymore.

It was still a good forty-five minutes outside and probably in some ways the best part of the two-hour ride, however, towards the end, when my feet were cold, the wind was blowing me all over the road and I was climbing a hill, I couldn't help but think back to how I'd been on the trainer sweating, watching a movie with warm feet, and how that was preferable to being cold, and wind-blown at 12 mph.

Which was why it was good that I had to throw the bike back in the basement, grab my running shoes, and head out on my brick run. There's no better way to get the feeling back in your feet, after all...