Another sunny day! How sunny you might ask? This sunny my friends:
That's right bitches, THAT TAN LINE IS JUST FROM TODAY. Unlike some freaks that sport the perma-line all year long, all mine fade every winter.
Since Shelley was in Yakima all weekend doing the Easter thing with her family (I did offer to go along but she insisted I stay home), I had nothing on the agenda but riding my bicycle. After racing yesterday I got 100% luxurious today and watched the last two hours of live Paris-Roubaix coverage and then 'hit the bricks' as they say with some good friends for a long jaunt in the sun.
It felt positively decadent to be be out in the peak of warmth (which pretty much nukes your entire day… did I mention Shelley was in Yakima?) but god was it fun. FUN.
I met Greg Kauper, Corrie Martin and Tim Farrell at Leschi and we headed east. In Issaquah we picked up Gabe Templeton, Neal Goldberg and Audrey Baldessari. Nice!
Except for Greg's sprint across I-90 and Tim's sprint up the Issaquah Plateau the pace was not hurried and conducive to talking. Up on the plateau we stopped for water because guess what, it was warm and we were drinking! I had taken off my wind vest after maybe three miles and up here on the plateau I took off my knee warmers.
Just as we were about to turn right on the Old Issaquah-Fall City Road we spotted Sean Phillips heading the other direction; everyone waved at each other. Got I love this road… it's so green and curvy and rolling and then you get to FLY down to Fall City. Down here I took off my arm warmers.
We crossed Highway 202 and headed north along the Golf Course road. Here the wind was at our backs and we decided to dial it up a bit. Unfortunately we lost Neal and Audrey right away and Corrie shortly thereafter but Gabe hung in all the way to Carnation and practiced punching tickets at the back. Tim, Greg and I were doing pretty well but it took some talking and anticipating to get just three people to rotate smoothly, fortunately this is the kind of practice that I really enjoy. The surface is excellent and we were flying.
Once in the valley we all regrouped, Greg and I did most of the pulling but that was totally fine. I wanted to get in some time on the front and Greg was riding strong as usual. As we approached the finish line to the Lake WA Velo Circuit Race I should have expected some shenanigans but was caught off guard… :) Greg and Tim took off and suddenly I realized they were sprinting for the 'finish'! I had to jump hard to catch Tim, rest for a second and then jump again to bridge to Greg. I came around Greg but I'm not sure where the line really was and as I passed him we both eased off. Holy CRAP that was a hard effort.
Shortly after that Gabe peeled off and as we turned right to head over to Duval Neal and Audrey went their own way as well. Down to four. Greg and I kept pulling and at the end of the Cherry Valley loop Greg and Corrie had to hurry home so headed back north. Down to two.
Funny how this seems to work… just as Tim said he was getting tired and probably would not be able to contribute much to the pulling I felt like my previous efforts were catching up with me. :) Oh well, I had kept up on my nutrition pretty well so just settled into a pace I could maintain and we headed home. And to his credit, Tim did spell me a couple of times riding back south past the Golf Course which was really nice.
We turned right to start climbing the Old Issaquah-Fall City Road and Tim turns to me and says, "I think the wheels are starting to come off…" Ouch. I felt for Tim. Too often I have been overly exuberant myself in the first half of a ride and then felt like, "WTF…?!" for the second half. But no worries, I was just here to get in the volume and to enjoy the company so we kept the pace easy on the climbs and I pulled on the flats and we made it home. It was stunning out today. STUNNING. And I was obviously pretty euphoric about it. Good times.
| Sleep | 7 |
| Waking HR | |
| Body Weight | |
| Body Fat | |
| Breakfast | 6:00 AM - applesauce, 2 scoops protein powder, 2 scoops Perpetuem, walnuts, water |
| Lunch | |
| Dinner | |
| Workout Food | large bottle w/3 scoops Perpetuem and 2 Endurolytes, large bottle w/3 scoops HEED and 1 tablet Nuun, Gatorade, water, Clif Bar, flask of gel, 1 Perpetuem Solids, PowerBar |
| Injuries | |
| Therapy | |
| Time of Day | 10:00 AM |
| Workout Type | endurance with tempo (threshold?) intervals |
| Weather | upper 40s to low 60s, dry, cloudy to start, sunny most of the day |
| Course | |
| Results | |
| Time | |
| Distance | |
| Pace | |
| Equipment | Road Bike |
| Clothing | knit shoe covers, knee warmers, bib shorts, Craft short sleeve undershirt, short sleeve jersey, arm warmers, knit gloves, cap |
