After all the various forms of tinkering with the bike and purchasing the supporting clothing options earlier in this spring, I have now moved into a stage of just riding with little thought or preparation. The New Steed™ simply hangs from the rafters in my garage and I only lift it down, put some air in the tires, and jump on it for a ride. Buying into a quality machine means that the bike continues to “just work” and can be virtually ignored as far as maintenance is concerned. The same is true with my clothing options, as I now have all of the right combinations to simply don the perfect combination of layers or extra pieces to be comfortable in any weather conditions.

Lots of rolling hills in the West Metro lead to continual climbing or descending during each ride

Fortunately, I haven’t needed to use much of my assorted cycling clothing this past week due to the continued great weather. Tuesday’s evening ride was a nice, after-work loop covering over 32 miles. It was a ride with no greater purpose than to log miles and keep steady intervals between time on the bike. I’ve had 2010 goals concerning my steady riding to include 100 miles a week, six hours each week, and four riding events. So far, the 100 mile goal has been the easiest to achieve, while the other two have remained out of reach due to the typical daily struggles of single-dad life.

Friday came along and I decided to stretch out the holiday weekend with an additional day off. This day also included several needed chores completed around the house, so it was nice to have some uninterrupted time. By mid-morning, the weather was starting to warm up and a gentle breeze appeared to increase in intensity, so I decided to hit the road on the New Steed™ while the conditions were still comfortable. For the Friday ride, the goal was fairly basic in that I wanted to be on the road for about 1 1/2 hours. I really didn’t care about the speed (which is obvious from the numbers), so there were no really hard pulls to over-work my legs.

The new helmet is working great and the trees have reached their fullness just in time for summer

Here are the generated stats:

The ride felt a little different to me for several reasons. First related to the time of day. Due to practical logistics, most of my riding this spring has taken place after 5pm – even when I ride on the weekends. I have found that my body is familiar with riding at this time, even with the full day at work or milling around the house. For me, an evening ride is a great way to wind-down after a long day and it feels right to click into the pedals at a later hour. But, since I was home from work, Friday’s ride started at around 11am and just felt weird throughout the ride. I could only attribute the odd feelings to the time of day. It just did not seem right to be on the bike that early and my body rejected the idea and wanted to go slower than I had expected.

Blue skies, smiling on me.

The second element of the ride had to do with the other cyclists on the road. As I’ve stated before, the roads in the west metro are loaded with all sorts of cyclists and it is rare not to encounter one every few minutes of each ride. Friday was no exception (especially due to the fair weather and the upcoming weekend) and I encountered quite a few cyclists on the road. But the curious fact about the cyclists is that the vast majority were women. And, of those women, most were riding TT bikes – indicating they were working on their triathlon training.

Since I appear to be the type of guy that likes to stereotype people, this led me to contemplate why the majority of the cyclists were women riding TT bikes. The first aspect of this is obvious, based on the location in which I was riding. The roads I travel definitely cover the “affluent” part of the Twin Cities – which means a lot of money, big houses, and (most-often) single income homes – usually with the husband as the bread-winner. This means that mid-day is the right time for wives to get in their daily exercise routines without the distraction of kids or husbands. That may sound sexist – but, facts are facts and I rarely see that many women on bikes in the evenings or the weekend. That explains the gender of the riders, but why TT bikes?

I concluded that triathlons have become the new Jazzercise. Being a child of the 70s and 80s, I know about the whole Jazzercise/aerobics craze of the time. But, if you are somehow not familiar (or trying hard to forget), here is a reminder.

Jazzercise was totally targeted toward the women of the early 80s as their way to stay fit while having fun. In today’s culture, it may look really cheesy, but at the time it was the epitome of all that was cool and desirable. Whether it was the ankle warmers or the teal-blue leotards, most women were drawn to this exercise phenomenon and it exploded in popularity.

Jump ahead to the current decade and it is obvious that triathlons have also become extremely popular. Of the bikes I see during nearly all of my rides, close to 50% have “aerobars” or are full-on TT bikes. Since even serious cyclists who participate in time trials RARELY put in their base miles on a TT bike, I can only conclude that every TT bike I see belongs to a triathlete.

Thus, I can also conclude that all of the women encountered during Friday’s ride were doing so in preparation of an upcoming triathlon. This can only mean that – instead of Jazzercise – these women have switched over to becoming triathletes.

God, help us all.