Tuesday, July 10, 2012

MTB, TT, 4th of July, more TT...

I rode quite the variety of bikes this week.
I went out and hit the local 10mile TT on Tuesday night. It was extremely hot (100+*), but I haven't done one of these yet this year and I want to get a couple in before the State TT. Plus for the last two or three years I've done every single one of them, so I need to get out for tradition's sake! Anywho, it was too hot for aero gear. So I went at it with no shoe covers, no aero helmet, no skinsuit and jersey 3/4 unzipped to boot. I was of course on the TT bike, but otherwise I was about as un-aero as one can get. I felt really good and really strong. I was 30seconds off of my best on this course. Given that 1) I hadn't done one this year, 2) I was basically a sail and 3) i was hot as balls, I was pretty happy with that time and the feeling. Good stuff.
Wednesday was July 4. And hot again. A big group of friends was going to meet at Brown County park to ride MTB's in the 100+* heat. Sounded like a good idea. It was actually a lot of fun. We had a big group of varying skill/fitness levels, so we spent a good deal of time waiting and regrouping. We did what is normally a ~2.5hr ride in a little over 3hrs, but it was a fun day with a big group of good people. Thursday I  wanted to get a solid road ride in, but nothing major. I went out for a little over an hour (under 1.5hrs), but at a good clip. By Friday I was feeling tired. Then I thought back: I raced Saturday, raced Sunday, ~raced~ (did the TT) Tuesday, rode ~3.5hrs MTB Wednesday and rode fairly hard Thursday (all in 90-100+* temps). Yeah, I should have been tired.
Sunday I wanted to get back out on the TT bike for a long ride on it. My purpose for this ride was to stay aero as much as possible (getting up for the few hills that are on the route) and to hold steady-moderate power; not kill it or anything, just lay down a good hard number and keep it consistent. Not including getting in or out of town the route is a touch over 20miles one way. My power was within 7watts out and back. That's pretty consistent. It was actually within 1watt on the way in, but at around 1:40-1:45 I started to fade a bit. I blame the heat. I felt pretty good otherwise, but it was hot and while I'm not a big "sweater" I was loosing serious fluid. With town on each side I got ~2.5hrs on the TT bike and felt pretty good the whole time, save for a few back stretches.  
With all that I ended up with a fairly big week. Well, bigger (more hours) than normal anyway. It's all because July 4 fell on a Wednesday of course giving me the day off of work, but I'll take it. I'm going to be on my TT bike a few more times over the next two weeks and I feel like I'm going good. I'm already feeling ready for the State TT even though it's nearly two weeks away.      
Sorry for no pics, just didn't have anything relevant.        

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