I\’m still plodding along. If anything, today\’s ride was slower than last Sunday\’s!

This past week I missed two days\’ riding; and then I had the after-effects of the second dose of COVID vaccine. Today I still didn\’t feel like doing much; so I didn\’t push things. Well, not pace-wise; I did put in a little over 30 miles.

Unfortunately my not pushing things happens too often. If I really want to improve my pace, I need to push myself harder and more often. So many days I feel sort of tired, and that means frequent \”sorta hard\” rides. Mediocre training leads to mediocre performance.

I\’m not training for an event, which means I don\’t have much incentive to train hard. Even if I were working up to, say, Tour de Cure, I probably wouldn\’t be doing much better. History repeats itself, as they say.

Today at least seems a bit more Spring-like. It was about the same temperature as yesterday, but the clouds were less dense; and the sun actually came out during my ride. Of course I had a headwind on the way home, and as a result I did quite a lot of low-gear spinning.

But I wonder: do I need to eat more during my long rides? Would that help me to ride a bit faster? Today my Garmin showed post-ride that I had burned 885 calories; and I ate 736 calories\’ worth of bars and GU-Gels. That\’s a calorie deficit of 149; and I don\’t think it\’s enough of a deficit to cause real problems. I certainly didn\’t feel bonkish!

Monday, as a rule, is off-bikes day; but it looks like bad weather will be moving in by Tuesday. So I think I\’ll do a bit of a ride tomorrow, even if I\’m still plodding.