Spring in Baden-Württenburg

It appears spring has finally arrived and it couldn't have come early enough. I was getting a little bit exhausted with the cold, rainy rides that I've experienced since moving here. My bike is enjoying the change too. Hopefully the weather will hold out and spare my brake pads and other components from complete destruction. It's been sunny the past two days and highs around 20ºC. Some wind but one can't complain about the temps and the SUN! I took the sunny weather a little bit for granted in CO. I've actually received a bit of a psychological boost. I guess its true that they say the weather does have an impact on the head.

Yesterday, I rolled out some town far east of here. The goal for training was to work on sprinting. So after a proper warmup, I started nailing down some sprints from different speeds and gears. After 5, I kept it in a big gear and plowed through the next hour which included some nasty climbs that put me in the hurt locker but I survived. I did some more 10s jump sprints while climbing at threshold. These hurt but should be beneficial to the plan. Fortunately, on the way back I had a nice cross/tail wind. Kept in the big gear and worked on leg strength. I've always struggled with this. I think I often tend to rely more on my aerobic side and less on strength. Shawn and I addressed it early last fall and did some great work on it. So I'm kind of fine tuning it and "attempting" to improve it.

Today was another gorgeous day. After a proper amount of coffee and muesli I headed out for an endurance ride. More of a ride of "how far can I go, then get lost, then find my way home." Its pretty much the norm when riding in a new area. Fortunately, my salmon returning upstream to their birthplace honing skills paid off and I made it safely back to Backnang. Got to see a great deal of the great German countryside along with about 1000 towns. I covered up the SRM with a cue sheet of key towns I wanted to hit. Well that plan went South after I reached Murr. But nevertheless, I was able to pull my big boy pants up and press on. At some points I tried to follow the regional biking network which routes cyclists along "more cycling friendly confines." This plan worked well some of the time. Other times, it landed me in field with no real signs of anything. But that's what its about right? In Belgium, I always carried my trusty Michelin map with me during riding. Here, no such possession. But the team has provided me with a Garmin 705 that I have yet to install. Waiting on getting the team bike and getting it built up. Don't want to outfit the Lemond with another computer. The SRM is already enough. With the Garmin, I'd appear that I was working for NASA. Don't want that.

There is a race on Sunday...hoping that I can race it. The German way of doing things is that you must always register beforehand, like 2 weeks beforehand. So hopefully there will be space to "drive" on Sunday. Keep you posted.

Chow,
Claw