On Thursday I put my mountain bike in the car and hopped in the car with Marc for a drive out to Kanata. He worked in his indoor office while I worked in my outdoor office… I hit up Kanata Lakes for a smooth recovery ride. I wanted to get out on the trails to do some skill work and I also needed to escape the heat of the black asphalt for a day. I had a fantastic ride. I had moments that I think mountain bikers probably really crave – where the bike and trail feel like one. The bike just floated over the trails – I rode up steep climbs that previously I was stalling out on and I descended some tricky stuff that just last week I was getting off and walking down. All this seemed to happen so fast, I didn’t even realize I was accomplishing these small successes. In my opinion, a sign of a great ride.

Again one of those rides when I just didn’t want to leave. I could have stayed out there all morning riding and pushing my technical limits. The other thing I noticed during this ride was my brain. It was quiet. Silent. No meandering about supper plans, laundry, writing jobs, to do lists, or the ‘cross season. It was quite simply along for the ride, soaking up the experience. Perfect.

Today it was back to the road bike. I got the results of my test from last week so with some new power zones to work with it was time for some fun on the road bike. Luckily the crazy heat of earlier in the week has backed off a bit, so the ride was not so sticky. For some extra spice I had sweet spot tempo intervals on deck. I love these intervals – basically floating out of the top of my tempo zone into the bottom of my threshold zone. These kind of efforts are just enough to put some fire into the legs and lungs. I really felt super strong today on the bike. (Much better than Thursday when the heat really sucked me dry.)

There really is nothing quite like two solid training rides in a row. Rides like this put a smile on my face and make me really look forward to the future.

Many many thanks for your support with my fundraising efforts for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada. Thanks to your amazing donations, I’ve now raised $570! Thanks to Gregory, mom and dad, Sophie, Ross, David, Skip, Mike, Lisa, and the anonymous donor. Your support really is overwhelming. If you’re new here and want to find out what I’m so excited about, check out my epledge page for the Heel ‘N’ Wheel-A-Thon on June 13.

Saturday is looking pretty good. Some crazy intervals on deck in my three hour ride. Then I think some relaxing might be in order. Perhaps a wander around the Glebe with some people watching thrown in. Or maybe I’ll just hide out in the suburbs…. Sunday will be jam-packed – four hour road ride in the morning and then I’m off to the Creative Wheel Centre for some mountain biking fun. I have a feeling I’ll be hitting the sack early on Sunday!

Have a great weekend and be sure to get out and enjoy this great weather. Hopefully you can do it on your two-wheeler!