Running out of steam?

So far this week I have biked to work on Monday, Tuesday , and today (Thursday).

Monday was probably my fastest overall commute and I felt great the whole time. It probably didn't hurt that I was listening to a Nightwish album I just got, "Dark Passion Play". Seems like every time I needed to up my speed, the tempo would pick up and I would be flying.

Tuesday's ride was a lower average speed, but there was some pretty hard rain in the morning, and in the afternoon it was very nice out so I just felt like cruising slowly. It was a good ride, didn't strain or stress, had a great time.

Wednesday I awoke to near-constant barrages of lightning in addition to the wind and rain. I decided to drive that day.

At work on Wednesday, my office bought us lunch at a pretty nice Italian restaurant. I had a big plate of pasta that still had me full when I got home.

Today I made good time going in in the morning, though I was still a bit late because after a little under a mile I realized that I hadn't locked my front door--oops! Time to go back and fix that. Anyway, the rest of the ride in was pretty nice, and I saw way more cyclists than usual.

The ride home is where the tragedy was, though. I started off feeling a bit weak going up the hill leaving work, but on the downhill that followed I hit a new top speed for the route--35.9. Not my best ever, but I think I could hit 40 on my road bike if I were pushing a bit.

At the traffic light soon after, I ended up jumping in front of all the cars and having to take the lane to get where I needed to be. I don't usually get in front of a line of cars just to slow them down, but they were going entirely too slowly through the light for my tastes.

Once I got on the very slight uphill that makes up most of my commute, I started feeling...run down, though. Like I was on the final stretch of a century. My legs felt like lead weights, and it was hard to push at anything above 12-13mph. There was a pretty decent headwind, but even spinning easily my legs didn't feel great.

Surely I am not overtraining, I'm only riding about 3 times a week. I wonder if the huge pasta lunch yesterday was to blame. I know I feel like complete and utter crap if I eat too much right before a ride, and I imagine it's entirely possible that the load of pasta wasn't quite done digesting yet.

Tomorrow I plan to take my TCR out for the commute. Only a 10% chance of rain so the lack of fenders shouldn't hurt, and maybe a quicker, livelier, faster ride will get me back in the groove.

Today the number of cyclists was about 6-7x higher than what I usually see. Most of them were of the "spandex-clad roadie" variety, but aa couple were commuters. It seems odd to me that they stayed indoors on all the wonderful 70 degree days, but they decide that 90 degrees is more pleasant riding weather.

Weight update: It's been kinda varying between 258 and 260. I know that if I learned to control my diet I would do much better, but I am weak willed. Plus I'm just bored all the time and there's nothing to do if I'm not riding or working.

Reminder to self: Buy a tube tomorrow