It looks like the cold weather is over for another year.  Central Texas is moving right into early Spring, with warm and rainy days.  The temperature was 64 degrees when I got up this morning, so I took the bike off the mag trainer and went for a ride.  I half expected to be slow today and easily tired because I haven’t been out on the road for almost four weeks.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was strong throughout the ride and able to keep a decent pace up the moderate hills that were on my route.  The hours and intervals I put in on that mag trainer really were helpful.  I finished 21 miles at a pace that’s much faster than what I had expected, and I wasn’t exhausted afterwards.  The big ride starts in exactly 4 weeks.