Groovy. Groving. Feeling it. Rolling along. Looking ahead.

Pretty much my state of mind right now. I’m over the three days of rest… Thank goodness. Lets just say those three days were rough. I wasn’t really prepared for the mental rollercoaster I’d be on. Turns out that my training stress was pretty intense and then combine this with force time off the bike, and I went a bit loopy. Kind of went into a bit of low mood state. Just not excited about anything and feeling kind of down. Strange. But apparently quite normal. So suffice it to say, I am so happy to be back in the full-on riding groove.

Headed out on Thursday for a 90 minute opening ride. Nice to get out there and put a bit of ache in my legs. It was chilly though, and I was a little under-dressed. Didn’t think of the headwind I’d face on the way home and how this would make my hands feel. Yep, they were cold. Bright red and with limited dexterity in my fingers when I got in. Another lesson learned….

Today is measurement day. A chance for me to see where I’m at regarding my fitness. Normally I do these tests on my Computrainer, but we’re changing things and I’m doing the test outside. Bit nervous about doing it outside but I know it will be okay. Besides if things are a bit off, I’ve got another test in four weeks.

Got my new training program for the month ahead. It is awesome. Lots of long rides. Lots of time on the mountain bike. Lots of yoga. Really enjoying this phase of training. Only bummer is that I still have to hold off on the NRC training crits. Ah well, I understand why. Makes sense. I’m looking far ahead to September and ultimately Jan. 30, 2011, so the training crits will have to wait for a couple of more weeks. Good news is that I’ll be out doing the mountain bike series this summer.

Tomorrow I’m hitting up Kanata Lakes for a smooth mountain bike ride. It has been a long time since I’ve ridden at Kanata Lakes. Totally looking forward to it. Soon enough I’ll be hooking up with Ottawa’s fast young mountain bike guns for some rides and lesson. Also going to be doing some training out at the Creative Wheel Center. Loving this forward momentum right now.

Had a great talk with my coach yesterday. One big thing that came out of this talk is my on-bike nutrition. Turns out that I’m not eating enough during my rides… Funny because I thought I was eating enough (Friday’s bonking session notwithstanding). So now I’m aiming for 200-300 calories per hour on rides longer than two hours – and if there are intensity components to the ride, I’ll be eating even more. Lucky me.

Things are looking good for the summer ahead. Going to do a bit of road racing and crit racing. Double days will start soon. Running shoes might even come out of the closet soon as well. Running is one of the weakest aspects of my cyclo-cross skillset. For now, it is all about the base phase. I’ve got lots of four hour rides on the schedule and even a five hour ride. Can’t hardly wait.

Well, I’m off. I’ve got a warm mug of chai tea here and a bit of writing to do before I head out for my ride. I’m sure I’ll be posting tomorrow about my test and how it went. Best of luck to the Ottawa crew racing this weekend in Mansfield. As for Almonte-Roubaix – I won’t be racing but I plan to ride out to the race and watch the finish – I’ll be cheering for you!