Paying my dues

Miles, hours, and quarts of sweat continue to pile up as I end the first month of my prep for TransIowa. I've been putting in between 10 and 12 hours a week on average this month, almost all of it on my Tacx trainer, other than a couple of outdoor rides when the weather was decent, as well as the Triple D Adventure race last weekend in Dubuque.

I wasn't really too concerned with Triple D this year for some reason. Not sure if it was due to the weather, or just more confidence in my fitness levels. The one thing that I was not prepared for was all of the ice that covered the course due to the unseasonably warm temps the day before the race. I felt really good physically coming into Dyersville, but I was absolutely petrified by the thought of having an accident on the ice somewhere on the course. I already had a couple of close calls on the way out, one of which almost took out my friend Guitar Ted. Plenty of other riders were able to break through their fear and just turn loose, some on cross bikes, but I was among their ranks. The chance of not showing up in Grinnell in April due to a broken wrist or collarbone wasn't worth the risk to me this year. I still ended up with a good hard 30 mile training ride across a bunch of new terrain, and I got to spend some time with friends during the weekend, so it was far from a loss. Standing around drinking water and the occasional soda while everyone else was drinking beer was an interesting twist to the weekend. My self imposed alcohol fast lasted until this weekend, when I allowed myself one beer during a friend's birthday outing. I have to admit it tasted quite good, and I'll be happy to have a few more once TI is done. 

From a fitness standpoint, I think things are sitting good right now. I'm started to get in some longer rides this weekend, albeit on the trainer. Saturday was a bit rough, maybe due to the Tacx course I chose. Today was a lot better, again maybe due to the course I chose, but I really felt like I was riding outside of my body today. I had no issues with generating power, unlike yesterday. *Shrug* The human body is a weird thing sometimes.

I'm still thinking over light setups for TI. I have been giving serious thought to moving my Schmidt hub over the the La Cruz and going with a dyno light instead of using my Dinotte battery powered lights, figuring that not having worry about battery charge or carrying the batteries would be nice. A couple of people that I trust seemed to think that might backfire on me, figuring that I would pay more than I expected for the extra watts of resistance. I'm still not sure, and I'm happy to take any suggestions or opinions into account. 

Mileage for this month is going to be well into the 800's. *shaking head*