Learning to hurt

So, after going on the group ride on Thursday i was not sure about going out for a ride on Friday. However, the weather was so nice and cool I couldn't resist. I decided to go on my "default ride" which is a route I have been riding for years and is like an old familiar friend. One of the problems with that is I tend to not take it very seriously. I know each little incline and turn so well I could probably ride it in my sleep. Originally I had intended to ride this as a recovery ride, but when I got a bit more than a mile into it and was on a slight downhill in the big chainring I decided to just do the whole ride in the big chainring. I still shifted through the gears in it, but it purposefully was harder than it normally would have been. And a funy thing happened - I rode much better.

I do the vast majority of my riding alone. I think one of the dangers in that is that it is easy to get complacent. There is no one there to spur me along, so I tend to ride just hard enough to keep from hurting. Going on the group ride pushed me, and pushed me hard. I was worried I was going to be toast the next day so I picked an easy ride. But once I got going I realized what had been going on and what had been missing from my riding. I NEED to hurt. I NEED goals. I NEED something to keep me working hard. I was never going to get better riding to keep from hurting. So doing the whole ride in my heavy gears turned my usual easy ride into something that while most of the time wasn't super-hard, was harder than it usually is. And instead of being really wiped after the hard day on Thursday, I rode strong. It was like a lightbulb going on. I also committed to pedalling more. I have a tendency to coast a lot. So I was riding in a heavier set of gears and pedalling much more than usual and I loved it. I also rode it much faster than usual, by about 1.5mph faster than normal.

The other thing I did was to work on standing up to climb. I have a tendency to sit for climbs, and as a result the muscles used in standing are seriously under-worked. So even when I want to stand to get some kick on a hill it hurts too much to really help. Something else to work on. I have gotten better with pedalling faster in a lighter gear most of the time. So many places for me to improve, and I have let most of the summer go by without seriously committing to anything. Ugh. Well, I have a couple more months of decent riding weather and I am seriously considering a trainer for the winter, though the idea of cycling indoors doesn't appeal to me much. We'll see, I guess.