Early morning spin-ups

The alarm gently pushes into a technicolor dream; the waxing moon is still high in the sky at 5am and the room is fairly bright, bright enough to find the watch and kill the sound.  Janet is exhausted and immune to both the moonlight and the watch alarm's chirping and to the various old-guy sounds that my body makes as I swing the carcass out of the bed.  There's time for a latte and I justify the need for some calories before a workout on the rollers.

I'm stiff and sore.  Pain is usually delayed two days after an activity.  Sunday's marathon was followed by difficulty with stairs on Tuesday and Wednesday's basketball game against the students (we won!  Check out the video) has resulted in an generally achy sensation everywhere.  I have faith that the latte will fix that.  If it doesn't, my strategy is to put my training clothes on.  I agree with my self that if I put my clothes on and get the bike ready and still don't feel like working out, then I don't have to.

Of course, I'm lying to myself, but that's OK; it's early and I'm not quick enough to catch on to the deception.

I cue up a video distraction on the computer, noting that the Tour of California will be shown on Cycling.tv.  My bottle is full, the workout selected.  Today will be a set of spin-ups to work on leg speed.  Not overly taxing on my old, recovering body, but important to keep developing the sprint.  After a fifteen minute warmup with some accelerations, I hit it hard in an easy gear for 30seconds.  Cadence hits 140, stays there, starts to drift down to 135 and then comes back up and the 30 seconds is over.  Four and a half minutes to spin easy, same gear.  I'm pleased.  The legs feel better than I thought, I successfully tricked myself into riding early again and I thought my form wasn't too bad in that effort.  Now, just seven more times.