1st time outside on the bike Wheels and aero bars

For my first ride of the year I pulled no punches. I put the new wheels on and pretty much hammered the pavement. After a 10 minute warm up I started a 50 minute high intensity ride. Including the warm up I averaged 20.7 miles an hour. That is pretty fast for me.

The new wheels are crazy fast. Its hard to explain at the same time. I definetly pushed hard, but it was super windy, so the benefits seemed kind of concealed. I can definetly average 21 mph for an hour without blowing up, but the conditions today hid the new benefits more than I would have liked. I should have warn my HR, but for some reason I didn't, so I am not sure exactly how hard I pushed. If I was to guess, I think my HR was around 145. My lungs were fine, I just felt that my legs were pushing hard. I did lift weights this am and ran for an hour yesterday, so the more I think about it, the better it sounds.

I stayed down in my aero bars for the majority of the ride and felt pretty good. My neck was a little tight, but that is due to being out for the first time. I never have to "look up" when on the trainer, so that was part of it. All in all I would give the comfort level a B. I was probably out of my aeros for around 5 minutes, so not too bad. The only times I got up was when I had some manuvering on the road or to climb at the top of a hill.

I won't breakout the race wheels for at least another month, so I am interersted to see how the next ride goes without them.