Today is officially the end of Summer and it certainly felt darker this evening out on the road. Pleasantly warm though, so not all negatives. Its rapidly getting to the point where I’m needing lights on my bike to be out in the evening. In truth I’d buy them now, but I haven’t been paid in over 5 months at this point so I’m not exactly flush with cash. And those lights aren’t cheap.
Tonight’s ride was, if I’m not mistaken, the exact same workout as last week’s 1 minute intervals ride. Following a workout, even out on the open road, is definitely more interesting and a good way to take my mind off the miles (heh, kilometers but that doesn’t alliterate so well) when doing these routes I’ve done several times already. The route tonight was nice and flat, largely uninterrupted by traffic lights, and generally alright road surface. Oh, and fairly wide cycle lanes, which is always welcome.
By and large I had no issues with the one minute intervals. The only time I found myself really working was when I’d had to stop to turn back out at the 15km mark, and unable to pause my workout, I found the 1 minute intervals started again whilst I was stationary. As such I decided to ride 3 minutes on to make up for it. That involved holding about 250w for 3 minutes. I’m not quite sure what that equates too in watts per kilogram at the moment (writing this from my phone so hard to check) but it was taxing. Interestingly this made me wonder how I’d managed to get to (almost) the end of the last SST session I did, as that was keeping me at that intensity for 5 minutes, and the recovery phase wasn’t much less, either. Ridiculous.
I gave my bike a full clean on Sunday including toothbrushing the cassette, and scraping the accumulated gunk off the jockey wheels and giving my chain a full lubing. Saucy. Typically. I lube the chain every few rides but last week I didn’t do it all week. Today everything felt so much smoother and nicer. A nice way to finish off the Summer.
The final thing I’ll say about today’s ride was that it was a good way to de-stress. My current day job isn’t much fun. It’s nice to have work but this is a bit of an unappreciative death march. Let’s just say I turned the air blue several times whilst venting my frustration, and in a couple of places really gave it as hard as I could sprinting, and cursing. Bike therapy. Cheaper than a psychiatrist.
