It is finally cold here and we have ice cubes. After a few weeks of record heat, the weather is back to it's normal mid 70's here in No. Cal. It was intense this past week with no AC. I was sweating bullets. It made all of us very iritable and we wanted to rip each others lips off. But it has all passed. This weekend will be very nice. I plan a good ride tomorrow up Mt Hamilton and plan on starting whenever I wake up. The heat has not stopped me from riding and I have improved my 4.7 mile San felipe climb with the following splits:
Last Wednesday = 26:50
Monday = 25:30
Wed = 24:26....I was movin....breathing was good and it was not as hot. I was bouncing on my pedals.
In between I have been doing spin class with my girl. She has been doing good and is also getting better at it.
Unfortunatley there are no hills in the HHH. I hope all this hill training will make me stronger for the longer rides. I know my boys OB1 and Yoda will resort to EPO for their training methods since they don't drug screen for the HHH. I will keep it all natural. I went to the bike store the other day and purchased some new gloves and socks. Not big needle movers but you need to feel and look good I say. I am still tempted on buying a new bike. I need to get that taste out of my mouth. I think if I can get past the HHH with old faithful, I can last the year. I just need to keep riding after the race. Last year, I was done until the MS 150 came along and I did not prepare. That kicked my butt....and I was really done after that. I hope the Cali weather allows me to ride all year long. I plan to do some of the tour de Cali rides here in the next few weeks. I looked them up and I found the last time trial course is just down the road from my house. This is the course that Floyd tore up. I think I can beat his time...I just need one of those long funny looking helmets and some drogas. I am bitter about this Landis thing. I am not sure yet if he did it or not....but it does not look good. I hope he is cleared for the sake of the story. He inspired me on that stage 17. I felt like he on stage 16 when Beecher blew by me on "col de Hamilton". Now I feel like he did on stage 17.
One other note...I was riding back on San felipe road the other day and I noticed these papers stapled to the trees. They said that bikers were not welcomed since the locals are tired of calling the fire dept to scrape us off the road. They said we are the biggest hazard and that 10 bikers have died this year and 2 injured. Not sure if that is true or not...but kinda amusing. Riding around the corner I almost ate it as a car went wide. It felt like the twilight zone or something immediately after that incident...like I read my future. I roll on!!
2 comments:
I am not sure if 26:5o or 25:30 split times are good but the times look really really slow for 4.7 miles. I would get with Ulrich of T-mobile and find out what "Go Go juice" he is using. It might help! I can't complain because my couch training isn't any better than your riding but from what I read there are three types of riders
1. Spinters
2. Climbers and
3. Lance Armstrong
Spinters never win in the hills and climbers never win the flats but Lance wins them all. So Hogg, which one are you? So just keep climbing San Felipe and remember that when you ride the flats there are no downhills to rest. Always pedaling!
Yoda Out!
If I can borrow a quote from Lance, "it is not about the bike." You are the engine and make it go. The bike is the tool of the trade. If the bike plus the engine is say 200 lbs., a decrease in bike weight from 21 to 17 lbs. only should be expected to gain 2% efficiency. The better math if the engine can be reduced say from 189 lbs. down to 180 lbs, an increase of 4.5% and probably less costly. Now, after all of this math, just sip some of my special potion and you will just go faster.
By the way, a nice carbon bike would be nice, forget the math!
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