back on the bike

After taking eighteen full days off from training and exercise, it has felt wonderful to ride the past two days. My coach planned for me to take some time off after cyclocross nationals, but I ended up taking a bit more off than planned when I got sick. I cannot remember the last time I took so much time completely off from training. It was nice, but I was getting pretty itchy to get back into it. I don't know how "normal" people do it. I just don't feel good when I don't exercise almost daily. I guess I've been doing this too long to be normal anymore, in more ways than one!

I got a new trainer for my birthday, which makes riding indoors much more tolerable than it had been for the past year. My old trainer was given to Rusty for Christmas probably ten years ago, and it was sounding worse and worse. I had to turn the TV up to its max volume just to hear during an easy spin. An interval workout? I just accepted that I wouldn't hear a thing during those. Hitcher would sit behind the baby-gated threshold and whine, letting out an occasional howl. I don't think he understood what that horrible sound was, and what it was doing to his mother. For the past six months I would hop on the trainer, half expecting my resistance unit to explode a la Ben Rhodes. I just hoped my unit wouldn't put a hole in the wall or ceiling.

When I rode inside yesterday, I couldn't believe how quiet my new trainer was. It is fantastic. The volume on the TV was not even half of its max!

Today we even got to ride outdoors, and we're riding outside again tomorrow in Lewiston. I will say that taking some time off makes you really motivated to get back out there. Now, if the snow would just stop coming...