Tandem Workouts

In response to my friend Elaine's question about whether I get a good workout on a tandem ride, I offer my stats from Sunday's adventure, which was a really easy effort:

In short, Elaine, the answer is unequivocally YES. Contrary to popular opinion, riding the back of the tandem is not a walk in the park - I have to match the effort of the captain, or I will definitely hear about it. Of course, I could always put up the HR stats from one of the tandem TTs if you still have any question ... ;-)

First Tandem Ride of the Season

After a long week of training (including hill repeats, intervals, 2x20s after work and hard efforts in the snow yesterday), Mike and I pulled down the tandem for its inaugural ride today. With both of us training, we don't get a lot of time to ride together anymore, and the tandem gives us the opportunity to do just that.

Captain and stoker!

The skies were gray and the temps were in the low 30s, but we dressed appropriately and headed out from the house for what ended up being a really solid ride. We were out for almost 4 hours with just over 3.5 hours of riding time, covering 62 miles and about 3000 feet of climbing (click here for an interactive map of the route).


Taking a break for a snack; still no blossoms (still not spring!)

We also recently found out that our friends Wayne and Jean have a tandem, and we are all looking forward to riding together this season.

Hooray for DST!

I am so glad that last year, legislation was enacted to make DST longer in the US:

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. beginning in 2007, though Congress retained the right to revert to the 1986 law should the change prove unpopular or if energy savings are not significant. Going from 2007 forward, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. begins at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of November

Why am I so excited about this? I can ride OUTSIDE after work in the LIGHT! Last night, I met up with Mike, PK, Rich and AA to do hill repeats (not so exciting). We started at 5 pm, and were able to fit in 4 intervals in just over two hours of riding. It was great to end a weekday ride, in March, with 33 miles completed!

I'm still waiting for it to warm up, but I'll take it one thing at a time ;-)

Time to Ride!

Great ride with the girls today! Started out in Billerica and made our way through Wilmington, Andover, Boxford, Middleton and North Reading (see details here). It was a little breezy though - average wind speed for the ride was 21.6 mph!

Walking dogs - normal; walking horses?; MMM - cake!

Great rides deserve a just reward, and Jim and Brooke provided us with a yummy chicken and barley dish followed by birthday cake (Happy Birthday Brooke and Cris!). Nat - I need to know where that bakery is! Who says I like to ride my bike - I just like to eat ;-).

At least today's ride was drier than yesterday. Determined NOT to ride the trainers again, Mike and I jumped on our singlespeeds for a trip in the bike path and back in the POURING rain. Cold and wet pretty much sums it up, but at least we went somewhere besides the basement!

Now with DST arriving, I'm hoping for some after work rides in addition to the weekends. If we could just get some warmer, drier (less windy) weather.

Brought to You by the Letter "S"

Today's post is brought to you by the letter "S" - snowwoman, snowmobiling, snow shoveling, snow biking. Sense a trend? ;-)

When we pulled into the driveway in Bethel on Thursday night, we were both flabbergasted at the amount of snow! There is literally no more place to put it, and it was supposed to snow another foot there today... Despite having someone plow the drive, it still took us over an hour to shovel the entry way and dig out the snowmobile trailer.

Bethel has constructed the world's tallest snowwoman - Olympia (named for Maine Senator Olympia Snowe). She stands at 122 feet tall, and bests the previous world record for a snowman (also held by Bethel) of 113 feet. Friday was the dedication of Olympia, and she is literally a sight to behold - fir tree arms, skis for eyelashes, and truck tires for buttons.

Mike and I took Friday off from work to head out on the snowmobiles and drove over to Errol (trying to avoid the minefield of frost heaves along the way) so that we could ride some wide open trails. This was the BEST riding we have done all season! The trails were in awesome shape and despite it being NH school vacation and the first day of the Snodeo, we didn't see that many people on the trails - could it be because it was only -5F?!?!? At one point, my handwarmers stopped working - that was cold. Thankfully a blown fuse was the culprit and we were able to change it and warm up my freezing fingers! Returning to Errol, we ended the day with 175 miles of awesome riding.

We headed back home on Friday night to beat the storm that was coming. Got home before it started to snow, but went out riding in the flurries this morning. Tomorrow, we're heading out for a road ride - should be fun!