Good time for a rest week.
For those of us who have followed a traditional training plan, that being, train hard for either 2 or 3 weeks, and then take an easy week for the body to adapt to the training load, a rest week is a very familiar concept.
This week was time for a rest week, following several hard weeks of increasing mileage and time. As it turns out, perhaps this was the pre-ordained to be a rest week.
Spring weather in New Mexico is sure to bring at least one constant… WIND! This week did not disappoint in that regard.
As a result, Ray and I took full advantage of the winds from the west during the week to get in some very early morning rides, and to work on our climbing abilities. Every day this week saw us up early to ride to the top of Soledad Canyon with our nearly fully loaded bikes. The round trip from our houses gives us about 1900’ of climbing in about a 12 mile, one-way to the top. Getting in 25 miles and almost 2000’ of climbing is a great way to start the day!
That leads us to this weekend. Saturday started out windy from the get-go! We got a fairly late start, making it to the Loves Truckstop at about 0830, after departing our homes at about 6:30. That’s 2 hours to go about 20 miles!! Why so slow? WIND!
After a quick bite and a breakfast drink at the Truckstop, as well as a conversation with an “interesting” individual, one we could not determine to be a trucker, drifter, or just a passing motorist who had a comment about everything we did, including a rant about our bikes being “Pedal Ponies”, we decided to resume our trek west. That is, until we rolled around the side of Loves and couldn’t see across the parking lot due to the dust. Maybe it was the wind, or perhaps the rest week, but we decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and headed home, not wanting to breath in the better part of Western NM!
We figured Sunday might be a better choice. WRONG!
Sunday was even more windy. We decided to hit repeat on our weekday rides and head up Soledad Canyon with the wind at our back. This was a good choice…for a while. We got to the top warm and a bit sweaty, only to find the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees and it was now 32. A few snow flakes were falling as we turned to head downhill and into a strong headwind. After about 2 minutes we were frozen, so we decided to head down Ladera Canyon Road for a little exploring. That turned into an even colder ride, this time accentuated with dirt road and washboards. More training opportunities!!
At any rate we finally descended Soledad Canyon and headed home, content in the fact we had ridden, and looking forward to a better week of riding ahead.
Ride On!
Shane and Ray
Rest week?
