A good weekend

Winter is finally letting up a bit around here, and I can sense Spring just wanting to assert itself. These are the days where I find out if the hours and hours of time spent spinning on the trainer pay off or not. Discussions were had, plans were made and it was determined Sunday would be the day to ski. Very well, that means Saturday is the day to bike.

Sunday was supposed to be the nice day. Saturday would be warm, but the forecast called for ferocious winds. Unfortunately for once, the weather people got this one right. After waiting as long as I could, I finally rolled out of the house around 3pm and headed due west into the teeth. Outfitted with my incredible new gadget, a PowerTap, I could see it was going to be slow going into the wind. I was making good power, but I was going nowhere fast. I was struggling to hold 14-15 mph, but I kept my head down and powered through. I did a 32 mile loop out to Rabbit, up the climb and then back to the house with a bit of added mileage for good measure.

The way back was FAST. Even with watts under 200, I was powering out 25mph big ring turns pretty effortlessly. Arriving back at the house after about 2 hours in the saddle, I was chilled from the 40 degree temps but very satisfied to have gotten in a good ride.

And just because I can't help myself, here are some of the fascinating graphs that my new gadget produces for me.

This is a power distribution chart, basically showing what % of my time I output a certain wattage amount.


The next is what they call Quadrant Analysis. I won't go into detail about it, but I'll say that I evidently spend a lot of time pedaling with with low force & high velocity.



Today would be a stellar day on the slopes, one that we've been waiting for all season. We were up at the resort at 8:30, and the crowds were big already. Warm temps, blue skies, no wind and 2 feet of new snow in the last week. Oh yeah.

Sarah & I pounded out run after run from just before 9am till right at 1pm before we had to bail so Sarah could get back. We rarely stopped, and didn't wait in lift lines very much either. In the 4 hours of mountain time, we tracked a bit over 40 miles and knocked out 20,000 vertical feet. I'm confident we could have done 60 miles today had we not had to get back early today, but it was nice as we avoided the masses and gridlock on I-70.

Just a quick Google Earth rendition of our travels on the hill today.


I thought about putting in some miles on the bike when I got home today, but instead I decided to just be lazy and hang out with Jill, who is sorely missing her outdoor freedom. So back to the bike tomorrow probably with Big Monday Kansas vs Texas as my entertainment. Active weekends are good for the soul.