Had planned to break the 3 hour barrier today...
Looked out the window this morning: 45 degrees F, dark grey skies, a light drizzle and a strong SW wind. Encouraged by the the relatively ease of riding 2.15 the other day, I thought it was time to search for new limits.
Decided to ride one of my favourite 65 miles rides, that would bless me with a tailwind for the last 10 miles. I met less than 20 cars on the small country roads and rode effortlessly in the first 3.15 hrs. Then my hip flexors gave up, the wind had picked up and unfortunately changed to a nasty headwind - a much unwanted combination.
I didn´t worry too much about the weather as I was already soaked, but not being able to pedal continuously is somehow a problem facing a howling wind as I was immediately halted when not pedaling.
I was encouraged by the possibility of breaking the 4 hour barrier - weird macho way of motivating yourself and definitely not appreciated by my screaming hip flexors. Well, I rode 107 km (67 miles) in 4.01 with 650 m of elevation. I wasn´t tired in the usual way, after riding the first +100 km ride in base training, but was limited by locally fatigue: the hip flexors.
I don´t blame them, they´ve adopted way faster than I would have thought a week ago and.Now I just have to apply some rest days and common sense and "normal" base training could be possible.