Soreness from a long ride...

Saturday, March 9, 2013
I walked out the door to grab the paper to brilliant sunshine.  The day’s forecast said that it would be in the low forties by noon, though I was tempted to get out before the clouds returned.  I ate a good breakfast knowing I would likely be riding long and decided to do a thorough cleaning of the house before Holly’s return before riding, which ended up taking me until the early afternoon.

I dressed for the cold…a little.  I went with the tights, gloves, two pairs of socks and a hat.  After 30 minutes of riding though, I knew I was overdressed.  I also began to feel soreness in both calves after an hour of hard riding and climbing.  Being on the trainer so much has my conditioning at a high level and I was able to push the pace, but getting out of the saddle and working hard up the hills put a strain on my calf muscles that was beginning to tell. 

I rode for over two hours, sweating heavily.  When I arrived back home, both calves were quite sore, with the right one particularly so.  I decided to load Dakota in the car and head to the park for a hike to loosen them.  After an hour of tracking through the woods off-trail, I concluded they were going to be sore and I’d have to live with it.

I stopped at Patterson’s Fruit Farm and picked up a fresh cherry pie…Holly’s favorite…for her ‘welcome home’ gesture.  I don’t like cherry that much, but with a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream with natural bean specks, I can force it down.  She’s trying to lose some weight too, so eating some of it would be the least I could do.

Bike duration:  Two hours and 10 minutes.  Hike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm biking and 80 hiking.
Calories burned during workout:  1825 biking and 350 hiking.