Confusion Tuesday

This Ride: 20.1 miles
Kona Distance: 2,993.7 miles
Month to date: 654.8 miles <– (New monthly personal distance record)
2010 Total: 3,460.2 miles
Pace to 5,254.8 mile goal in 2010: (191.3 miles ahead of goal pace)

I’m so confused.  My legs ached this morning, so right out of the driveway I decided to take it easy and do a recovery ride today.  I’ve been pressing these legs to do more miles in a fairly steep increase in miles, and I’m feeling it.  But it was so wonderful out this morning.  Temperature was 68!  That’s nearly perfect!  Soon I found myself trying to push the legs in higher gears and at the peak of the Naval Academy Bridge I discovered that I had averaged 17 mph for that 11 mile stretch.  That was quite the motivator for continuing that effort.

Yes, 17 mph isn’t going to win me any races, but with the fatigue I feel and 3 days post blood donation, I’m quite satisfied.  On the return, I noticed that my chain was slipping a little, so there were two or three quick stops for fine-tuning the rear derailleur, and I continued to try moving the gears up rather than settling into my comfortable 90 rpm cadence.  The last 5 miles, I worked at it harder, and was able to achieve 18.2 mph average over that distance.

The bike noise is still there.  I’m not sure when I’ll be able to take the time this week to attempt an off bike diagnosis.

And yes, the morning was gorgeous.  The sunrise is now pretty late into the ride, and the heavy clouds made it much darker this morning.  There was a sometimes gusty breeze out of the north that only impacted the ride when out in the open.  High school students were out waiting for the bus.  The possible rain was nowhere to be seen.