Rip it

Wow, 60 degrees this morning when rode in at 6:30am, it’s the kind of weather that makes you happy just to be on your bike. Another thing that makes me happy, riding past the gas stations when regular is at $3.55. I haven’t filled up since April 13th and I still have more than a quarter tank; I am thinking I will be able to go every other week before I have to fill ‘er up.

So occasionally when I pack my bag the night before I ride in I will forget something, usually it’s a belt. Today I forgot socks, so I am rockin my EFTA socks with the frog saying RIPPP IT on ‘em. Ha, they defiantly go with the dress shoes. Yeah, I am pretty much a fashion icon.

I also noticed a trend when riding in, of all the vehicles that buzz me; 90% of the time they are pick-up trucks with big American flag stickers or even the occasional confederate flag. If there is one thing red-necks hate while driving its skinny white dudes in spandex blocking their “road”. I am thinking if I put a big American flag patch on my bag it might persuade them to give me a little more room…

First Mountain Bike Ride

I finally got out for my first mountain bike ride of the season this weekend. I did 15 miles at Pisgah on Saturday and 10 at Harold Parker on Sunday. I was surprised to find that my technical skills were pretty solid, usually the first ride of the season can be kinda shaky. I was psyched to clean a few lines that can trip me up even in the middle of the season. I also felt pretty good on the climbs, now I just have to build on the speed, first Tuesday-night time trial is next week.

Valley Rally

The Telegram & Gazette ran an article on the upcoming Treasure Valley Rally that I spent some time this winter helping Russ lay out.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20080413/COLUMN31/47359254/-1/SPORTS_COLUMNS

This is gonna be a fun race, I think we have a really good course.

Ride to work

Wow, it's been a long winter, but I finally got my first ride into work for 2008 (April 8th). It was a cold start at just 31 degrees out, but I got a pair of winter tights so I was pretty comfortable. Just the fingers and toes were a little cold. This time of year it's tough to ride to work, I get on the road around 6:30 when it's in the 30's and when I come home it's typically closer to 50ish; layers are key.

For this early in the season I guess my time was respectable at 25:30. I think last year during my peak I was making into work in the low 20's; so I need to shave a few minutes off this time.

Update:
I checked up on my times from last year. My first ride into work took 30 minutes so my time of 25 minutes was actually pretty good. Also I got started a few days earlier; last years first ride was April 20.

Lab Rat

http://www.velonews.com/article/73765/the-lab-rat-is-loose

I found this article on VeloNews, one of their correspondents took a very similar power test to the one I did back in February. Although it’s not apples to apples as his was done outside, it does offer some interesting comparison points. It seems our numbers are pretty similar through out most of the zones (see mine in the earlier post).

Considering how similar our numbers are I think I may need to work on my sprint or anaerobic power as well. The author of this article doesn’t seem to happy with these results, but I am not too concerned considering how early in the season it was that I took this test.

Col de Peyresourde

This Sunday I was back at Opt-Performance after taking last weekend off for some epic snowboarding. We again spent the first hour + warming up and doing some intervals. The second have of the class was the Col de Peyresourde. Similar to the Alp d'Huez this is another 8 mile climb from the Tour de France. The Col averages a 6.6% grade, but much of the ride is over 7%. What made this weeks climb so tough was that we spent much of it pushing a big gear.

I guess I have been underestimating how difficult these classes are, I thought last weeks was tough because I forgot to bring food; but I brought plenty of food this week and still got my ass kicked.

I need to get some base miles in.

Here is the breakdown:
Dst: 46.09
Max: 47.8 mph
Ave: 18.6 mph
Time: 2:37.01
In Zone: 1:02.28
160+: 1:34.33
Max: 189 (97%)
Ave: 161 (83%)

Alp d'Huez

This morning I finally went to another Opt-Performance spin class; I haven't done much over the past two weeks as I had the flu. Today's class was an hour warm up with 25 minutes or so of interval work at the end. Then we started the Alp d'Huez, this was a pretty tough way to get back into things. For those of you that don't know Alp d'Huez is the most famous climb in the Tour de France and may be the most famous climb in all of cycling. It is an 8.4 mile climb, we set the trainer to a 4% grade and we put blocks under the front tire to give us an additional 5%. Unfortunately I forgot to bring any food, and I feeling pretty hungry before we even started the climb. This definitely affected the day’s performance.

So here is the breakdown
Dst: 40.51
Max: 30.8 mph
Avg: 17.9 mph
Time: 2:28.16
In Zone: 37.42
160+: 1:50.34
Max: 186 (95%)
Avg: 164 (84%)Calories 2476