SUNNY & WINDY

distance 119 km | time 4 h 19 m | avg hr 153 bpm | avg 2.487

This week ride was on the Saturday because of the forecasted great weather as you can see on the picture above, taken from the only stop I did in the 119 kms ride. Great sunny blue skies. And to complete a hard training, a strong wind was coming from the South, which guaranteed  a cross-wind a good resistance.

O treino desse final de semana foi no sábado por causa da previsão de bom tempo, como dá prá ver na foto acima, que tirei na única parada de toda a volta de 119 kms. E para completar o treino foi realmente bom com um vento forte vindo do sul do país, o que garante vento cruzado por todo o tempo e boa resistência.

Spring is here. After a series of very wet rides, it was great to have a good weather day. I don’t mind riding on rain, but only getting rain was too much. I checked the forecast and the expectation was to get 35 km/h south wind. because of that I decided to face the wind first thru the lekdijk, which would be cross coming from the right, and then come back home via the inside rodas which are more protected by the trees.

The ride on the Lekdijk in windy conditions is always hard. You are on top of a dike totally exposed to the wind and is totally flat. So you need to push the whole time, especially being alone. I really like this type of training because you do at your own rythm and there is no place to ride. The secret is to avoid softening and start slowing down. I manage to keep my heart rate between 158 and 165 bpm and speeds went from 25 km/h to 28 km/h.

At the end of the Lekdijk I went to Rhenen to climg the street of Paardenveld, which is the steepest around with a 8.5% inclination. I felt good and managed to push up to the top and continue after, with no relaxing. From there I started going back to tackle the Amerongseberg climb and from there straight home. At the bottom from the climb I pass one of the Nike colleagues, Sander,  but he was going too deep against the wind and didn’t hear me calling…

Everything was going really fine and I was pushing the whole time. I only stopped once for a very quick adjustment of my shoe that was hurting my ankle and that was all. But with 20 kms to get home my legs started to hurt really bad. It was a strange muscle pain, only really happening when I had to stop for a traffic light. While riding it didn’t hurt at all. I hope this is just muscle adjustment as fitness is going in the right direction again. And all in all a great ride today!