Ride Report
I finally did some climbing, and boy do I feel out of shape. I definitely do not have my climbing legs right now, and on top of that I put on a little extra upper body muscle in preparation for some bikepacking, so I felt very slow. Hopefully I can keep on climbing and get back in the groove again.
Nevertheless, it felt great to be out there today. I can't wait to explore more of the roads around Cloudcroft as the weather gets warmer.
Ride Report
As mentioned in the video, I have bad news for my yearly goals already. I decided to take a new job in Alamogordo, mainly because I'll be working 3 12-hour shifts per week. It may sound crazy, but that's been a big goal of mine for a while now because I love the idea of having 4 days off every week. I can take a lot of random trips and ride in new places more often.
The downside is that I will not be doing the Trans Am this year as planned. It sucks to miss out on such a big goal, but I think it's the right thing to do in the long run. I'll be able to have more fun all year long as opposed to just cramming most of my fun into one month.
I'm going to need some new goals, and I have some ideas. I'm thinking of trying a non-stop ride across NM, which would be just under 400 miles. I also want to do some point-to-point rides. The first one that comes to mind is to ride from Tucson to Alamogordo. That's about 450 miles and I could do it in 3 days. I already have a route planned out. Things will be a little busy for a while, but hopefully I can do something in April.
Also, even though I don't live right next door, I do plan on heading out to California in May to watch at least 1 stage of the Tour of California.
Ride Report
I broke 5 hours again on a solo century. That's only the 3rd time I've ever done so but the 2nd time this year. This one was mainly about good timing, though. I managed to leave early enough to beat the wind when I was riding south and then the wind picked up quite a bit not too long before I hit the halfway point and turned around to ride north. Last time I was very tired after the ride. Today's ride just felt like a normal weekly ride. I've timed the wind poorly enough times in the past that I don't feel guilty about today's ride.
Ride Report
I did something I've only done once before: I rode a solo century in less than 5 hours. Like the last one, this wasn't a planned attempt. I hit my turnaround point at 50 miles, was close to 2.5 hours, and knew that I usually have a tailwind on the 2nd half of the ride, so I went for it. I was fortunate enough to make it.
You never know what's going to happen when you get out there and ride. Sometimes you have big plans and your legs aren't worth a damn. Sometimes you feel super strong when you haven't been training hard or anything. I suppose there's a metaphor for life in there somewhere. Sometimes bad things happen unexpectedly and you just have to keep pushing. The next good day could come at any moment.
Ride Report
It was cold and windy today, so I headed south towards El Paso for an otherwise easy ride. You may be looking at the weather graph and asking yourself, "What do you mean, 'cold'?" That's the beauty of living in Alamogordo this year.
