Tapping Out

Ok, so yesterday I put up this great post about how I was going to stick with the "big boy" gearing of my standard crank and 11-23 cassette for my road bike.  I was talking all this smack about how I'll just get used to it and since, back when I was strong, I was riding that gearing easily, I was just going to go with it.  Well screw that!

I decided to take a recovery spin today and realized that with that gearing there was no such thing as a recovery spin.  My legs might have been fresh yesterday, but damnit if they weren't tired as dead wood today.  So, with my tail between my legs, I'm admitting to being a meat-headed pedal masher and succumbing to the lighter gear setup.

Maybe I was a bit too ambitious and maybe I thought I was stronger than I was, but at this point in my newly re-discovered like for road riding, I'm just not up to pushing gears that big.  My knee started to hurt a bit and my legs felt like they were dead.  I had no pop, no get up, and certainly no go.  It's the right decision, it's just a little humbling having to make it.

Because of my lack of money, as well as my desire not to let anything go to waste, I'm gonna go back to the 12-27 cassette for the time being.  If I had the cash, I'd spring for something like an 11-25, but for the moment, I'll just have to deal with it.  At the end of the day, 12-27 isn't such a bad gearing, and still affords me plenty of range to push things when I want to, or lay off and spin up hills when I need to.

As for my ride today, it was nice.  A little to hard but nice.  Temps were just above freezing and the wind was howling, but it was nice to be on the bike even with the cold weather.  I'll probably wind up riding again tomorrow on the road, and then hopefully enjoy a nice, snowy mountain bike ride on Sunday.  We're looking at getting a dusting to 2 inches of snow, which will be perfect on the already frozen ground.  I'm looking forward to getting back on the mountain bike and back on the trails, but right now the priority is getting fit again-meaning plenty more road miles to come.

I've been a little lazy in the gym this week.  Work and life stuff have just taken so much of my time up, and getting back into regular riding had got me pretty tired-moreso than usual.  I'll take this week as an "off" week from the gym, and start back to hitting it hard again next week when, hopefully, my body is a bit more acclimated to everything.  I need to stay healthy and injury free, so being careful is the name of the game right now-at least that's the plan anyway.  I'm sure I'll find a way to push it again!