Maybe we get summer? Maybe not. Our weather has turned cooler. The predictors who predict weather are saying we might see the coldest May in a while. For us that isn’t all that cold or tough to deal with. Arm and leg warmers and maybe a gilet.
I started back with the Join Cycling training. This will take a while to teach myself to ride to the powermeter. I figure this is my best shot at regaining my lost power from last year’s accident. The first two rides of the month were group rides and I pushed a bit here and there. I still seem to live in zones one and two. I figure the training app will get me into some real work. The first ride with the app didn’t go great, I couldn’t figure out how to read the workout screen. After a couple of stops and playing around, I figured out that screen was zoomed way in and not showing the power, so I zoomed out and there it was. Next was trying to ride in a steady power. Harder than it seems.
I need the week of training rides on Thursday, then used my Friday rest day to work on a home construction project, building a rock on sand terrace. It turns out that is hard work. It left me beat hard. Then the Saturday group ride which saw just three of us riding the medium and a low enough pace I spent 92% of the two and a half hours in zone 1. Very light. I did screw up the route at an intersection where Wahoo was confused with the imported route from Ride with GPS. We made a left that became a clear wrong decision so we u-turned and continued. What we should have done was ride straight on through the intersection because the route climbed and lopped back around where the left was taken. We were fine with missing the additional climbing.
With the two hour training routines it made for a light ride week for distance. Just 237km. I’ve backed off the construction effort a bit I don’t need to hurry that much. I took Sunday as another off bike day, but of course construction work. Then I have a PT appointment on Monday for some evaluation for the knee. I think the knee is going fine. It is tight, but old and such. The pain I had is gone so just a tight knee at points. No more of the earlier pain.
I managed six days of the Join Cycling, half of those this week. Not a lot of distance. Then decided I needed a couple of days to focus on a garden terrace project. The Apple Health app on the TV has yoga so I’ve been doing stretching for twenty minutes in the mornings. Between the yoga stretching and the physical therapy whose scope has been expanded to include both sides of my body, my knee is feeling good. Well, good for a 73 year old beat up knee.
I figure maybe a week or so left of lifting, moving and hammering stone, carrying sixty pound bags of sand from here to there, to there to there and finally spread it so I can then get it just right to fit the next odd shaped stone to be sort of level with the others around it so that maybe stuff I set on it later won’t wobble much. I’ll ride the group ride on Sunday. I’ll need a bicycle break by then for sure.
Progress with the terrace project, but that meant taking a few days off the bike. I figure there are around five more days of work for me on the main part of the terrace, then a day to do the strip along the driveway. This is satisfying work, but hard on my whole body. I end the day completely tired and sore. No, joint pain really, just sore muscles that haven’t done this sort of work in decades.
167km for the week, but distance wasn’t the point. It was the workouts, but more pointedly training myself to ride to the powermeter. I’m still not good at riding to the powermeter, but I am maybe getting better. I can say, I’ve managed to figure out what means what on the display now. That is a help. I’ve got a few more days of work on this terrace project, then I can do some riding. I think I’ll pause the training workouts for a short time while I work the terrace and do some relaxing riding to stay sane more than anything else. Once we’re through our family visitors and some travel my training can be more consistent. That won’t happen until mid-July really.
I finished the terrace and I pushed to get it done so I could get some riding in. I am very sore all over, but I figure riding will feel great.
I paused my Join Cycling training to just ride for a bit and slowly workout the stiffness from all that heavy work. I began that pleasure riding with a short, easy two hour spin. The next day I rode off with no plan and ended up riding for four and a half hours, running out of food and electrolyte as I got close to home. I felt pretty beat after that. So, Friday became a rest day. I’m not sure if I’ll do any of the group rides come the weekend yet. From Strava the big driving metric is always distance. I’m finding it hard to ignore, but, ignore it I will when I return to the join workout.
Started off the holiday Monday by skipping my planned Join workout for a pleasant ride with friends. We aimed toward Las Pulgas and made it there and back. A bit of a tailwind that made for a much less welcome headwind on the way back. But, as always I consider wind just something to use to practice being aero when I need it and balance when it tries to push me around. A short but good ride.
Sunday we did our South County 5th Sunday Remote ride from the transportation center in Anaheim, known as ARTIC. We rode the Santa Ana River Trail, or SART to PCH, Pacific Coast Highway then north to Huntington Beach near Main Street for a doughnut at Parlor Doughnuts there and back.
A good ride where Holden, John, Joey, Ken and I did some work. Holden and I eventually going good and hard enough to drop everyone, including me. Hahaha.
I’m feeling pretty good. If I compare my power curve from this last day it is still down over my 2025 power curve by about a third. Anyway a good month of riding and recovering. We off to begin June tomorrow.
Totals for the month:
Distance: 1,000km
Climbing: 4,973m
Time: 40hours, 24 minutes
Along The Way 