Two and a half hours on the bike trainer today; my longest ride of the year so far.

Winter in Pennsylvania, means that pretty much every ride on the bike, will be done inside using a bike trainer. This means that there are some long sessions, as I build towards race season.  It’s funny, but the transition to rides longer than two hours, makes me feel like race season is just around the corner.  It’s actually only eleven weeks until 70.3 Chattanooga in May, so not that far away.

I was fortunate to have the US Olympic Team Marathon Trials to watch, while doing my ride today.  It’s amazing that the men easily completed their race, before I finished my ride!  It was fun to watch, with the men’s race being very different, on a tactical basis, to the women’s race.  I thought it was great how some guys in the mens race just went for it, pushing it hard out front.  You kind of knew it wasn’t going to work, but I wanted it to work; of course it didn’t.

I can’t say I was too pleased, when the whole thing got interrupted for a certain politician.  If you look closely, you can see a little power spike for about five minutes, where I got a little angry about it.  It was if the interruption was timed to coincide with the most critical part of the race….. ugh.

I must say that I really like the fact that the first three to cross the line in each race, get the automatic slot to go to Tokyo.  It just seems like a great way to do it.  Much better than having a selection committee pick who goes.  It might be tough on someone who might be injured or something, but at least those going to the Games, know they earned it.  I guess that’s why I like the way you can get a Kona slot in Ironman… win your age group and your going.

Anyway, I was happy with my ride today. It went well, and at the end, my butt wasn’t too sore…