that 30-30

I owe the readers of this blog a real blow-by-blow of what happened from days 16-30. But since time and patience are limited commodities, I must sum up.

How did I fare in my crazy training schedule?
For all days but one I rode the minimum of 30 miles. The one day I rode fewer miles was the night before my weekend of riding over 90 miles two days in a row. I think the excess of what followed justified a little leniency. I discovered that weekend that I am getting much faster in my cycling. On day 20 (96 miles), I rode through heavy headwinds and still finished in the top ten percent of riders. On day 21 (93 miles), I finished in the top five percent. There is something to be said for the kind of long-term endurance over many days that I now have. It's great.

Any Injuries?
In the last ten days of my 30-30, my recoveries got longer. Often, I felt fatigued for the first ten or fifteen miles each day. It took me until Thursday (day 25) before I felt good again, and even then I felt like I was always edging close to an injury. My final weekend of longer rides was scary. Clearly, pushing it into my threshold would have resulted in injuries to either my ankles or knees (hello I-T band!). Nothing happened, but the last few days were scary.

Fundraising?
I finished my 30-30 incredibly close to my fundraising goal. I did not make it, though, and I will likely not raise enough money to earn a fancy AIDS / LifeCycle jersey.

In other news, I have joined Team Marriage Equality (although my name is not on the team page yet), a Life Cycle team that aims to draw attention to marriage equality rights for gay and lesbian couples. I'm not sure if we are going to order team jerseys or anything, but I am very excited about this.

** Next post: Bike to Work Week!