Yesterday's training was the evil, dreaded, hated Zone 2. Yeah, I'm strange that way. Other people love Zone 2. I hate it. I can tolerate it if I have distraction - like some one to ride & chat with - but it really takes a toll on me. It makes me tired, really tired. Being Wednesday, I was on my usual routine. Drive from work to the chiropractor - get my hips stretched and adjusted and my mid-spine realigned - then ride out the W&OD trail to train...or in the case of last night - suffer Zone 2.

The first part of the ride was ok - a fellow from the British Embassy rode up next to me to admire the Ordu. He was riding a 3-year-old Orbea (road not TT). So we chatted about is 33-mile each way commute that he does only twice a week because of the distance. He was from Liverpool - raced when he was a young man then got into rugby which meant he needed to bulk up a bit. We talked about the relative obscurity of cycling in England as well - not like football. He said soccer just to make sure we were talking about the same thing. And we talked about riding in the winter. I don't have much of a sense of the winter weather in England so that made for easy talk. Much colder in Liverpool in the winter than here, but they don't get snow like we do (well, some years we get snow). So he has his winter cycling gear shipped over from England and stays suitably warm. Just before he split off to finish his ride home he observed that the Ordu would probably fit him. I just laughed and told him I had no doubt I could out sprint him if he made a move for the bike. Made the first 30 minutes of Zone 2 perfectly bearable - ok I wasn't watching my HR that much, so I'm sure there was some Zone 1 in there too, we were taking it easy.

On my own after that and with the traffic on the trail thinning out nicely, I got into the TT bars and picked up the pace. I got into a groove on it. Really love the bike. The old, oversized Jett saddle is a definite improvement for comfort on the bike. No need for an ice pack between the legs. Could do better still. And I'm anxious to see if the saddle is far enough back to pass the TT jig.

I was still heading out to Leesburg when Alvin passed going the other way. Turned around at Leesburg and headed back to Reston. Kate was headed out when I passed her. I turned around to see if I could catch up with her but she was in an effort and I wasn't going to do a genuine TT effort to catch up with her, so I turned around again and finished the ride back to the car.

I was curious so I got on the scale with the Ordu with the Aksium's on - 2lbs heavier than with the race wheels on. I'll have to put the Ascents on to see how that configuration weighs in.

Tonight is sprints so I swapped out which bike I have. One thing I noticed is that the rear wheel to top of saddle is taller on the Ordu. This is evident when I put the bike in the trunk. The Ordu wedges in tightly. The Serotta has a little bit of room to spare. This will be a very important dimension to look at when it comes time to replace the car.