I feel your pain. Except for a couple of 5-mile commutes in January and February, I hadn't been on the bike since last October. I attended spin classes at the gym through the winter, but not with any consistency. And when I got out for my first real leg-stretcher of the year a few weeks ago, I thought there'd be no problem with a fast (for me) 25+ mile ride. It turned into 27-point-something, and I was dragging by the last 2 or 3 miles. And that's with only a couple hundred feet of climbing. So I scaled back to some 20s the last couple of times out and felt better. This weekend, though, I think I'll try for 30. I'm looking forward to getting again to the point where 40 or 50 is nothing more than a nice morning on the road.

The sole saving grace is that even at these puny miles, I'm ahead of where I was this time last year, so I don't think another 1000 mile season will be a problem.