Return of the Fair Weather Roadies

Road Bike 61 miles

Another sure sign that spring is here in Juneau: All the "hardcore" road bikers in their blindingly bright outfits are finally out and about on their bikes that are worth more than my road, mountain, and touring/commuting bikes all added together. What I don't understand is where do all these people go in the winter? I can't imagine being so into biking as to spend as much as some people do on fancy bikes and fancy clothing, but yet, not into it enough to do it unless the weather is perfect. I guess I must have a higher tolerance for crappy weather than a lot of people.

The weather was great again today and I got out for almost 4 hours. Out to the end of "the road." Here in Juneau there is really only one road that goes more than 10 miles out of town so everyone just refers to it as "the road." It goes nowhere so there is little to no traffic on it so it makes for the best road riding in these parts. The scenery is amazing:

I also took some pictures today while I was riding. Jeff Kerkove has posted some photos like this on his blog. At first I thought they were a bit strange for some reason but then I found myself always looking at them whenever I checked out his website. I wish I could say these were the only pictures I took of me riding, but it actually took about 5 or 6 to get a couple decent ones. It's a little more difficult than you might think.

I didn't feel as strong riding today as I had expected. I wanted to try to average 17 mph for the ride but ended up struggling to reach 16. I was pleased that I rode the second half quite a bit faster than the first half, but overall my pace was noticeably slower than I had hoped for. There was a little breeze and it was a fairly hilly ride, but I know I should be able to do this ride at 17 mph without too much effort. Being that I am a naturally gifted runner I feel like I should be able to simply get in shape on the bike and be a strong biker as well, but I'm slowly realizing since taking up biking 5 years ago that it's going to take more than that, that my natural gifts as a runner do not carry over into biking. The 24 Hours of Kincaid will be the first time I have ever tested my ability as a biker against a clock or against other riders. I'm not expecting much, but hopefully if I get a lot of riding in over the next 6 weeks I can at least enjoy the ride.