80 miles and the training you can’t measure
Sometimes the purpose of training is to strengthen the muscle in your head.
A rare February day in the 60s and I planned to ride 80; it would be the longest since September and the first hard ride since December and … well, let’s just say I had a tune-up on my right atrium.
It’s two weeks until Rouge Roubaix, a 105-mile race I abandoned last year with a mechanical. So I’ve had work to do — not to be competitive, just to finish. Today’s route was through Washington Valley, probably my favorite, and the goal was pacing to finish. And while I’ve missed the camaraderie of my Six26 Cycling teammates, today needed to be solo. I won’t be able to hang with the pack at Rouge so I needed to simulate that effort.
And 75 in I knew I’ll have enough to finish it, finally. And that the real training wasn’t hard miles in my legs. It was what you can’t measure: confidence.