First ride on "new bike"

After several days of having my nose to the grindstone, "non tri" workouts, and fulfilling social obligations (aka a wedding), I have resumed my workouts. This is my first workout since Thursday. In the meantime I have done a little "crosstraining". Friday and Saturday were rest days for me. Sunday I played in a pretty intense hockey game. The pace was fast and really got the blood flowing and Monday, I played 18 holes of tournament golf. The golf tournament was a charity event I signed up for several months ago. I knew it would be a long day and would not be able to get in a good workout, so I decided to walk the entire time. (Six hours, only sitting down once). Not a get your pulse going workout, but I was pretty tired at the end of the day. Besides, I needed a little energy to stay awake to watch what I thought would be a lackluster Patriots - Broncos MNF game. To my surprise, the Pats dominated the entire game from start to finish. Way to go Matt Cassell and the entire defense!!

On Thursday, I was fitted for my bike and had some aerobars installed. I was very anxious to see how a road bike modified to a tri bike felt. Either way, it was going to be completely different from my mountain bike I am used to. When I ride a mountain bike, I feel like I ride through or over anything. The front shocks absorb most of the vibrations from the rocks and roots and even small trees and branches you encounter when on the trails. I learned today that a road bike is completely different. It weighs almost half the amount of a mtn bike. You feel every bump in the road even if you can't see it coming. As I said earlier, my road bike has been modified to setup more like a tri bike. Until Thursday, I had absolutely no idea what that meant. The difference is the the way your body is positioned on the bike. A tri bike has the seatpost almost completely vertical, whereas a road bike has a little backwards lean. This is to really put an emphasis on working the front of your legs (quads) vs. the back (hamstrings). This allows you to save your hammy's for the run later. I can now speak from experience today: THIS IS TRUE! My quads feel like they are on fire! For only my second time ever on a road bike I feel I did well. I was able to ride 18 miles and decided to call it quits because I really did not want to get lost or because it was an "out and back" I did not want to make it out and have Sara come get me on her way home because I could not make it back. That would have been a little embarrassing. Even though my legs are pretty fatigued, I am contemplating a short run or even an easy treadmill run to reacquaint myself with Sportsclub. Everything I have read says not to push yourself too hard at first, but it is just so much fun!! What a great sport. I love being a triathlete.