The week that wasn’t, as in minimal training, lots of eating and some relaxing. As promised I didn’t take my bike to Salt Lake with me, allowing for plenty of relaxation during the holiday. It is just too bad the weather didn’t cooperate with the relaxing. But first, quick totals from the training front; two rides for a total of 3:00 hours; two runs for a total of 1:00 hour; three yoga sessions for a total of 1:30 hours. Not a huge amount of volume but enough to make me feel like I didn’t lose any fitness and stayed on track. The riding came Monday (a trainer session early) and Sunday with a 2:00 hour ride.
On to the lack of relaxation, which can be wrapped up with two words both starting with W: windy Wyoming? We drove to Salt Lake on I-80 through Wyoming; leaving Monday night we got to the stretch between Laramie and our planned stopping point for the night of Rawlins in a dark snow storm with wind blowing about 50-60 mph. If you have never driven in these conditions try to avoid it, if you have you know the word relaxation is not possible. It took 2.5 hours to drive 100 miles, a stretch that during the summer is 1:15 to travel. The next day it was windy and snowy again from Little America (don’t get me started on a gas station that is a destination) to Salt Lake. After that travel a few days chilling at the mother-in-laws house was welcomed and allowed for a little relaxation.
Too bad we had to drive back. The good news this time is very limited actual snowfall; the bad news was even fiercer wind and plenty of snow on the ground to create white out conditions. At points you couldn’t see 20 feet in front of you and it went on like this for hours. We ended up calling it a day in Laramie because neither of us could (or wanted to) focus on driving). This morning more wind 60+ mph gusts but no snow causing white out conditions. We did see a total of 6 semis that had been blown over because of the wind; two between Rawlins and Laramie on the 27th and four just south of Cheyenne on the 28th.
The good news is we made it home safe and have vowed to never make a winter time drive to SLC again (that’s why there are airplanes). Tomorrow begins real work (bike wise) again, but I have another week off work to relax and take care of Seamus on vacation. If you’re in Denver and see us causing terror through town join in.
59’31”
4 months ago
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2 comments:
Do you use a Garmin? power meter? weight lifting? Cross training? I've found that over the years you build up massive endurance -- you could prob. ride 8 hours today if you had to -- and the key comes down to proper motivation. if you keep fresh by April, then do intervals, sprints, have fun, you will be ready in August to do well. We all train like we are doing the tour, but that's really un-necessary. Even top local pros can train 5 hours a week and still easily win expert races. I personally think the key is to mix it up for the next few months, lose whatever weight you want to, and then do a few 5 hour rides on the weekend in late-March and see how you feel. i run a lot now, and i can't imagine that's bad for you.
i am putting you down at 9:15 for Leadville. :)
signed,
pro license
Well the first hurdle with Leadville is getting in, downloaded the entry form yesterday and mailing soon. As for a 9:15 I hope you're right, but 10 is the goal at least at this point. We'll see I'm looking at races now to try and fit in a 50-60 mile race in the spring for training, after that who knows what'll I'll think about time.
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