Daylight Savings Time: Thank You! (Sort of...)

There are obviously some obstacles in training that we face with Katelyn in school and me working a full time job.  When I get home, there is rarely more than an hour of daylight left to ride.  Katelyn

Longer days mean longer rides to cooler places! 
We always find time to stop though!

is typically still working on homework and it tough to feel like we have a limited window in which to ride.  We have really suffered in training consistency because of it.   Last weekend, when DST kicked in, it gave us an opportunity to step things up a notch.  Now I am not a fan of this whole "spring forward fall back" stuff and I still am having a difficult time adjusting to losing the hour in the morning.  But having the sun go down after 7:00 now?  Fantastic!  DST also means the return of all the group rides that take place here in Ripon and they will help break up the monotony of the two of us riding by ourselves. More on that in a minute.

We also introduced Katelyn this past week to the wonderful world of interval training.  For those unfamiliar with it, interval training involves switching between short rest periods and all-out max effort periods.  The idea is to train your muscles and your cardiovascular system to step up during those quick intervals; and in doing so, your body will see improvements much more quickly than someone who simply goes out and puts in the miles and hours on the bike.  These intervals can vary depending the ride.  For example, someone may choose a 2 minute interval with a 30 second rest in between.  Another may choose a certain distance interval rather than a specific time.  Regardless of the type, I would argue that someone doing strong interval training would see stronger results in less than half the time as someone simply riding to ride.    

26 MPH was a solid push on her interval--
the sign gave her extra motivation!

The fastest time she recorded: 27 MPH!

With Katelyn, I started slowly--a solid effort followed by a substantial rest--I didn't want to scare her off before she even started.  We had a 3 mile loop and we rode one mile steady pace followed by one mile with max effort and then one mile rest following that.   Katelyn knew the stop sign where the fast interval began and she did a good job of ramping up her speed.  On the first interval, she was spinning cadence was much too fast (because she had never gone that speed before) and we had to work on how she adjusted her gears to manage higher speeds.    She also learned on the first interval that if you go out too fast early, then you will burn out before the end of the interval.  I was happy that on her final four intervals, she improved her time and seemed to push hard all the way to the end.

So is she getting better?  That question was answered last Monday.  We decided to join the Monday night group ride--a beginner ride that does about 21 miles each week.  It was a ride that Katelyn and I did last fall together, but we only did 15 out of the 21 miles because Katelyn was so tired from the ride.  This time, Katelyn and I went and rode a slow 6 miles as a "warm up" before meeting the group.  As the group ride began, we stayed towards the back and drafted behind the riders in front holding about 19mph.  I looked over at Katelyn, who was not in any type of distress, and said, "this is a pretty boring 19 miles per hour, huh?"  She smiled and agreed.  Yet just one year earlier it was all she could do just to hang with the group.  As we continued the ride, I asked her if she wanted to go to the front of the group,  and so she stayed right behind me as we passed the riders and went to the lead and stayed there for a large portion of the ride.  I think she earned the respect of a lot of the other riders for her ability to ride hard and to control her bike (another thing she really couldn't do last year was ride in a straight line).  At the end of the ride, we had ridden 27 miles and she felt strong--rather than tired--at the end.

Group Riding:  definitely more fun and more motivating!

What is next?  Well, with longer days, we will start shifting to rides in the foothills.  It is one thing to ride on flat roads but the Pacific coast is anything but flat.  The sooner we get hills in, the better.  Also, this coming week will have me towing the bike trailer for the first time this year so we will see how that goes.   70 more days!  Time to step it up!!