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Hello Spring.

I can see the grass in my lawn.  Less cars are decorated in masks of mud. Grizzly tracks have been sighted. I can’t get the taste of Cadbury Eggs out of my mouth. My bike has a tire bag and a bento box on it.  These signs can mean only one thing: its spring in Montana!

Today, the landscape is bathed in sunlight and the temps are in the low 50s. With the sleet/snow junk we’ve been getting day after day, today’s weather is pretty much as exciting as the second coming of Jesus. To celebrate, I decided to roll the boulder off my pain cave and head out on the open road for my first ride on the new bike.

First, started off the afternoon with a quick two mile warm up run on the treadmill. Quick as in the sense of getting it out of the way, not in pace. It took me 18:35 to get loose over two miles. After that, off I went into the wild blue yonder.

Not a cloud in the sky. Apparently a UFO though

Of course, I knew my carbon P2 was going to ride different than my aluminum P2-SL. What I didn’t expect was that the difference between the two would be like comparing a Ford Escort with 125K miles in it and a fine tuned Mercedes. Gone was the bone jarring rattle of the road. No more constant clinking. No more nausea inducing yellow. My new ride is like a good cup of coffee: smooth and black. That being said, I have a few adjustments to make. The clearance between my rear tire and the frame appears to small. As soon as I ride through any noticeable dirt, I am greeted by a temporary grinding noise. That would be the sound of sand/gravel on my tire rubbing against the back of the seat tube. Position needs some adjustments as well.

My only goal was to finally log a ride on Strava. I have been using the service for near a month now, and almost all of my runs and rides have had no real data because I have been trapped in my garage. After I got back, I uploaded the data to Strava to see how I stacked up agaisnt my fellow Kalispell riders. Much to my chagrin, I ended up earning a King of the Mountain crown for a local hill. FUN! Really, is not big deal, but still fun to play around with. Having some virtual competition is the best part of Strava so far. I think the service has a LONG way to go to get better. Let’s hope they keep developing the software more.

Cool

I know what intel you are really after. My readers know I have been working my FTP up over the past winter. What you really want to hear about is how things felt on the open road after all the hours on Trainer Road. I am happy to say that the normal buffet of hills in the area seemed much easier. It was also much easier to get up and moving between 70-80%. Speed seemed faster in general. I have a lot of work to do in order to be able to hold 225w, my FTP, on the flats, but this is a good start. I certainly feel stronger than when I ended last season.

Looks like the temps are on the trend upward and I am hoping to get out some more this week, at least on the runs. Stay tuned for more exciting data!

Trying another new ride.