Originally Posted by
rdtompki
Thanks, all, for the feedback. I should have mentioned that I fall in the "heavily muscled" classification. One of my twin sons is a Cat 2 and he's basically 190 lbs, identical height and build as his dad (except for the weight). No doubt with some discipline I could get to 185. Once I retire (soon) I should be able to get the mileage up to 100-150 pretty easily. For now I'll have to focus on a longer long ride and let the chips fall where they may during the week. I can ride during the week when I'm not traveling since I work out of my house, but can't do much more than a 20 mile ride.
I can relate to the 'travel' side of work. I had a lot of years with a heavy air travel schedule, for lengthy periods (1 to 3 wks long). And also had a few years when auto travel was really high (60k+ miles) That was tough. I'm glad I made the change... Certainly in your case, close to expected retirement, you just gotta work through.
I'm pretty lucky now, I work fulltime, but bike commute and can set my own hours when I want. I have a short commute and then can jump on the bike after work to 'unwind' in a more sportly fashion.
Do those 20 mi rides as often as you can. It's a great way to just unwind.
I've made it a point to do almost all 'recovery' on the bike, and if I need a bunch of recovvery day rides, so be it - I don;t stress not having the 'workout'.
There's that other thread about 'junk' miles. I don;t think they exist. All miles are great miles, especially when the time could be frittered away doing something less beneficial. For us in California (most good weather areas) it's really easy to trade time from something else and get on the bike. I totally understand that many areas are very weather dependent, but we don;t really have that.
Anyway, just cheerleading, cause you already have the plan.