The indoor season finally ends . . .

And so the indoor season comes to a close, not with a bang, but with a whimper. In true form, March came in like a lion and is certainly going out like a lamb. With a forecast for temps in the mid to upper 70s for the rest of the week, I will certainly not be found grinding away on my trainer. Coincidentally, today marks the official end of the UMCA Indoor Challenge and to celebrate, I logged in a final two hour session.

Well, it's only March and I've already failed to meet one of my 2010 cycling goals. Back in December,a top ten finish looked not only attainable, but also like a nice motivator to increase my base training miles. As it turns out, it was the latter but not the former. Here's what my results look like over the past two years. I actually placed lower with four times the number of hours on the trainer,  five times the number of sessions and almost three times the number of points. Oh, well.

2010: 17th place, 146 points, 87 hours, 28 sessions
2009: 16th place, 52 points, 22 hours, 5 sessions

Like with most competitions, success has a whole lot to do with who shows up. This was a competitive year as one can see by comparing a 10th place finish over the past five years:

2010 = 335 points
2009 = 189 points
2008 = 112 points
2007 = 224 points
2006 = 277 points

The funny thing is that I feel very much like a winner even though I didn't meet my goal. Could I have ridden more? Sure. Could I have added several long sessions to amass additional points. Of course; but at what cost? As it was, I logged 87 hours of training this winter safe from icy, dark roads. My legs feel great and I enter the spring with my most significant base yet. I look forward to seeing how the local hammer fest feels on Saturday morning. My first brevet is scheduled for April 10. Time for a little speed work.