2010 is finally on the road

As you can probably guess from the title, I finally got out of the garage and out on the road. However, last night I was back in the garage but what the hell.  That’s winter for you. And even though I can now say I’ve entered the open road, it was a very gentle entrance. More like turning into an elementary school driveway and less like entering the freeway.

My first road activity was actually a run. Last Friday I went out for a short little 3-mile effort. It was my first run since the horrible cold and sinus infection that took me out for most of December. In the six weeks since then, my focus has been getting strength back on the bike. Still, I wanted to bring back the cross training.  How did it feel? In the end, the best I can say was it fell into the it-hurt-but-was-worth-it category.

Saturday was the first road ride of 2010. I met friends Sarah and Soda at Flying Goat, where we chatted and drank coffee for a bit before heading out. The plan was to head towards Healdsburg, ride part of Sweetwater, and head back. I think we all assumed the ride would end with more coffee at Flying Goat.

Once we got going however the plans changed a little. Sarah was racing the Early Bird Criterium the next day and so we did not want to push it too hard. So we skipped Sweetwater and it’s very hard climb altogether and rode on to Healdsburg. We were actually having a great time riding even though it was very cold and grey. Fortunately, our conversation and laughter help ward off the cold as we rode back to Santa Rosa.

As we neared the end of the ride we realized that none of us drove to Flying Goat so we really didn’t need to go back there. We decided to add one more little climb and finish with coffee at Centro Espresso. You gotta love a ride that starts at one of your two favorite cafes and ends at the other one.

The plan on Sunday was to sleep in, eat Belgian waffles, and then take The Vegas (my single speed sled) out for a spin. The plan worked perfectly until I started down the street on The Vegas and heard a really weird noise coming from the rear hub. So back home to grab my other bike and I’m off again. This was a recovery ride and fairly routine. I did do two time trial intervals for the fun of it. Well, that’s not entirely true. One of the intervals was to stop from getting caught from behind. I was originally planning on 40 miles or so but it was yet another cold and grey winter day so I settled on 27 miles instead.

As I was heading home I considered calling Sherry to see she wanted to meet for coffee. I ultimately decided against it and instead decided to just head home, change out of the bike gear, and then go out for coffee. Of course, in thinking about all this I now wanted coffee. It was then I saw the little drive-thru coffee stand, Highway Espresso. Sherry had a cup from there recently and spoke very highly of it. So I roll up, order a double espresso, and drink it right there at the window all without ever clipping out of the pedals or getting out of the saddle. It must have been a pretty funny sight.

Last night it was back to Coach Tim’s garage for another episode of cycliste de garage. I still love the social aspect of riding on the trainer with a group of people. We are supposed to ride this weekend but it looks like rain. If it does, a bunch of us will again set up in one of the garages for 2-hours of riding and chatting.

There you have it. A little running, some easy riding, and Belgian waffles on a Sunday morning. You could definitely argue that I’m not in the fast lane yet but I at least I am now heading in the right direction.

Ciao!