Week #9 The cold snap finally snapped

 

Week #9 - 437 miles

We finally got some relief in the weather after a bitter start to the week. The weekend brought some mild temperatures and I was able to get in 126 miles on Saturday and 106 miles today. I plan on doing another big day on Monday before a few rest days are in order. I will get in over 1800 miles for February, which is the most I have ever done. As of today, I have done 14 rides over 100+ miles for the year. I still need to get in a real long ride in March to prepare for IWAR. Hopefully I hope I will be able to get in the 225ish mile range for that ride.

Week #8 Easy week / Big weekend

 

Week #8 - 456 miles

After some recovery days early in the week, I got two big days in this weekend. The weather turned cold and windy during the week so it was good to get in some easy days and got back into the park on the mountain bike. This weekend I rode with Randy and Chad on Saturday where I got in 101 miles on a chilly and breezy day. Sunday turned out to be the best day weather wise of the whole week. Chilly at the start but it warmed up nice and I got in 140 miles and all most 7,000 ft of climbing. I need to get a few more of these rides in like this in preparation for IWAR in April. It looks like we have a few more cold days coming so a few easy days of riding will work in there nicely. This is going to be my biggest February so far in mileage and right now I am up almost 350 miles for the year over 2020. So far this year I have done 12 rides over 100+ miles compared to 11 in 2020.

Week #7 Another BIG week!

 

Week #7 - 535 miles

Biggest week so far into 2022. Good to go down to Kansas and get some great riding in on some hilly roads. This is great IWAR training and I need more of it. It was on the chilly side but nothing too bad. On Saturday I ended up with 137 miles & 9:45 hours of ride time, then Sunday I capped it off with almost 65 miles with 13,000 feet of climbing for the 2 days. I need to make sure that I keep up with getting this kind of elevation in so those Iowa hills may not feel so hard, even though they will be hard. Looking forward to a little down time next week with only one ride of 100+ miles planned.

Week #6 January was a big month!!

 

Week #6 - 405 miles

January - 2002 miles

Even though it was cold on many days, we did have a few warm days in January. It is nice now that I can get out and get those long miles in on any day of the week. I didn't think I would be able to get in over 2,000 miles for the month but luckily it happened. Not having hardly any snow on the ground made a world of difference. The roads and trails were good to go every day and all I had to deal with was the wind and cold temperatures. Comparing last year, I was struggling to get those long days in the saddle. Hopefully this will make a big difference when Iowa Wind and Rock happens in April. It helps so much to have the confidence of those big miles under you when the race is so long. Also it will give me a great base come July which is still worries me a bit. It is going to to be a lot of back to back long days!