After a pretty successful month of March training I was really psyched about April. On April 2nd I rode a 110 mile loop around Cleveland known as the Emerald Necklace in 70 degree weather. In fact I rode it faster than I ever had, so I was really up. The next day I rode a 50 mile recovery ride also in 70 degree weather and felt great. Then on Wednesday, the temperature went down 40 degrees and the snow began to fall. It fell all week and all week-end and the only thing I could do was bring my bike back inside and work on the trainer in the basement. Yesterday(Sunday), my training consisted of shoveling 18" of snow off the driveway for two hours, weights, and 75 minutes on the trainer. All that nasty weather had me feeling a bit down. But I just have to accept the fact that this is Cleveland, and that's the way the weather can go here in April and you just have to try and make the best of it. I'll be out on the road again in a couple of days and some of the interval work I did on the trainer should be beneficial.
Last night Rachel and I had the distinct pleasure of having Charles Barr's parents over to our home for dinner. They were in Cleveland over the Easter week-end. Prior to last night, I had really only known them through many exhanges of e-mail messages. What a gift it was for me to visit them in person and share some wonderful memories of Charles. They have been very supportive of my bike ride for Charles and having the opportunity to get to know them better leaves me feeling very up.
