Riding update

I've been pretty busy riding, lately.  But it hasn't been all that interesting, really.

I've ended up having to send my power meter in to have it looked at (it was mostly working, but occasionally flaky).  I might have to do the same with my speed/cadence meter; it's flaked out a few times recently (though that might have been purely a battery issue; it bears further investigation).

I did figure out that having a well-lubed chain makes a big difference.  I let it go a little too long (which I knew I had; it was a bit noisy), and was feeling really terrible while trying to push.  When I lubed it again, I felt an immense amount better the next day.  I was shocked at how much difference it made.

I'm still trying to figure out what's been going on, though, as far as power and fatigue are concerned.  Lately, I've been feeling really tired except for the day after recovery days.  And I've taken more of them.  I feel like I'm doing something wrong, but I don't really know what.

Basically, my climbing has improved (markedly), but I feel like the rest of my riding has gone backwards.  Not sure what to make of it, but I don't like that I haven't been seeing 18.5-19mph speeds recently.

In any event, I'm going to try for a full century tomorrow, on the same course where I came up a little short a couple months ago.  I figured out that I'd done a hair over 500 miles before that last attempt; now I'm a bit short of 2200 miles.  Plus, I've done a number of thirty-five mile rides, at pace, whereas I'd done only one ride that long back then, and that was at a very relaxed speed.

But my legs are a bit tired, so we'll see how it goes.  I need to do 18-ish mph when I'm moving, and I haven't been going that fast lately.  But I've been doing a lot of hills lately, so that might be part of it (I hope that's the entire explanation, but I suspect it isn't).

In any event, while I still enjoy the riding, it does feel tough, especially afterwards.

But when I'm in the moment, it's fantastic.  Almost meditative.  I frequently find songs from church going through my head, which is a lot more spiritual than I'd've expected from myself (while I've always been a firm believer in God, my feelings tend more towards deism than more humanistic feelings).

Anyway, wish me luck for tomorrow.