Birmingham Bike League

This morning was the weekly Birmingham Bike League ride put together by several of the cycling teams in the community. Everyone recognizes the need to get the miles in during the winter months, but in a way that gives us those good base miles as well as adding a few attacks to make it fun. It's a 60 mile ride through parts of Alabama that would pretty much fit the bill of what people actually think Alabama looks like. It's definitely in the boonies.
It seems like it's rained the last month of Saturdays in Birmingham and this week would be no different. While it didn't pour on us, it drizzled enough to keep us all nasty from the road grim flying off the wheels. 5 miles into the ride I started to feel the effects of my pace run yesterday. I began to question what type of legs I'd have for the ride. I put those thoughts aside and decided just take it easy for a while and see how I felt. Once we made our way into "the boonies" as I so called them earlier, I felt a lot better and started thinking about the attack zones. With wet roads and aggressive riders out there, I was uneasy in taking the sharp turns along the route. This is a skill that I force myself to work on with each ride. The legs felt good throughout the ride. I started struggling around mile 50 for the last attack. I didn't have the legs to answer the call. It's still early in the season though, but something I will need to work on.
Due to the nasty weather as of late, bike cleaning has been a popular topic throughout the peloton. I discovered my latest product of the week thanks to a fellow rider's suggestion. Simple Green bike cleaner/degreaser is the freaking bomb. After slaving over my bike last week to do a half way job, I cleaned my bike twice as well in a fraction of the time. I sound like an info-mercial I know but this product has me stoked. It totally cleaned the build up of grease I've had on my rims in just a few wipes. Love it.
Tomorrow is a long easy paced run. I'm currently training for the Mercedes 1/2 Marathon on Feb 15th. Legs have been feeling great on the run. Let's hope the rain moves on through.
Tailwinds...