I had my first bike ride in over three weeks this evening. It was only an hour on the bike trainer, but it felt tough.  It shouldn’t have been hard, but I have to remember a couple of things, that help put the ride into context.

The first thing to remember, is that I did a very tough trail run on Monday.  That run included 1,600 feet of climbing and 1,600 feet of descending.  That degree of elevation change on a run, combined with the uneven surfaces of the trail, was very demanding on my legs. They were sore yesterday and I could still feel the fatigue in them, while riding this evening.

Secondly, our flight home to Pittsburgh was always going to be a late night flight, but it got delayed quite badly.  This meant that I didn’t crawl into bed until 4.00am this morning.  Naturally, I woke up around 8.00 am, and only managed a couple of very broken hours of dozing after that.  A lack of sleep, will also impact performance.

When combining these two things, it is clear to me why my bike ride this evening felt tough.  That is why I am perfectly fine with how I felt.  A few days of recovery, and I will be feeling just fine again.