More rain on our primest of the prime daylight days. Saturday was no ride at all, but I went out for an hour run with hills. Yeah, I know, I am supposed to stop running for the summer, but something seems to have happened to me this past winter. I actually miss running after a few days of not doing it. Hmmmm. Sunday we got out for a ride, started out OK, but then we hit some patches of moderate rain, ending up pretty wet and filthy. Just 2.5 hours, but got in some good climbing. We spent the afternoon helping two friends who had braved the Mooseman half Ironman tri just down the road get thawed out and clean up their bikes.
Monday was another "white day," as in no training, as well as the official 45th anniversary of my touchdown onto this planet. I am used to the idea already, as the USCF changes our racing age on the first of the year, and for 'cross, even earlier than that. So I have considered myself "45" for quite a while now anyway. Yesterday was a rough day at the office. Major issue that I was a party to, so yours truly was seriously under the gun the entire day and into the evening. Looks like I haven't heard the last of it either. So no Womp last night. The good news is that with the late, late sunset, even my 7 pm departure from the smoked glass and granite cube farm didn't prevent me from getting out on the bike for a bit over an hour. I headed over to Big Blue and did six repeats, tieing for my most consecutive ascents. I even warmed up on the hill, as traffic around there really blows these days. No speed records, but I tried a few different things, with the last three efforts comprised of little bursts and sprints mixed with low gear "recovery" (as much as you can on a 9% grade), rather than a steady effort the entire way.
The times ended up being 7:27 (warmup in 38x27), 6:25, 6:33, 5:42, 5:48, 5:45, all well off record pace. But this was a workout, and I think it was a good session. One "all out" effort on this climb usually leads to "shaky legs" and any repeats after that are useless. On the last efforts, I was trying pretty hard, but I guess even three "easy" repeats take a bit out of you. The total of 750 meters of climbing in 39 minutes works out to a VAM of 1154m/hour, so I'll take it.
More rain today, and work is looking bad. Despite this being the telecommuting day, I may go in to the office to share the misery. Tooth being pulled tommorow, which may cut into the training even further. Not sure how I missed the fact that the Cambridge NY Balloon Festival Road Race this weekend is basically another Battenkill-Roubaix, but it is too late to go to that. Next year. You can look forward to some Vicodin-fueld posts the next few days. Thanks for reading.
seven fans -- or, was i already in the six?
ReplyDeletethanks for the century tips, and for letting me know there is life after 42.
will report back on both fronts.