I got 98.5 miles in this week, and finished the last 20 minutes of that in the rain yesterday. Does that count as a 'W' for my 100 miles a week goal? Close enough?
I've had quite a week of riding, and a very front-loaded one at that. I rode Sun, Mon, Wed, Fri, and since I am letting the Daily Mile website keep track of my miles, and it is on a Monday - Sunday week, I had to get this week's miles done from Monday thru Friday.
I went to Starbucks in Folsom last night and got fitted for a club jersey, and stayed up last night watching movies and sipping hot chocolate. I was feeling the miles this morning, so after getting up early I went back to sleep ~ 10:00 AM and slept until - GASP - 13:30! I have to say though, I am getting toughened in to the 100 miles a week, and the fatigue is much less now than a month ago.
We don't really have seasons in California, except for wet and dry, but I like the change. Riding home yesterday I was tempted to extend my 'Beal's: No Point' ride down to WBP, but the wind had been very strong the last half hour, so when it started to drizzle I thought it best to get my butt home. As it was the last 20 minutes was in a full-on rain, but a warm, gentle rain, so rather enjoyed that.
It reminded me of some wonderful times I had playing volleyball in the summer in Phoenix (yes, I really did just use 'wonderful', 'summer' and 'Phoenix' in the same sentence) in the warm, monsoon rains that come the 3rd week of July and hang around for a month. All the heat, and humidity too!
I continue to ride hard and push myself, and am setting so many PBs I can't remember them all, but one I am kind of proud of I will share. I got passed by a stealth wheel-sucker going upstream on the west side of Lake Natomas. I was watching the thousands of geese that have been stopping there, and reveling in the sight of rowing teams in sculling crews on the dark blue water as the sun got low and painted it every imaginable hue of red, yellow and orange.
He passed me at about 30mph after the bottom of the only 'long' hill and after the blind left turn that limits speeds to about that. I let him go at first, but decided to challenge myself and try to bridge up and catch him. It took me a half mile at full power, but I got it done.
Top speed was 27 mph, and average 26.1. The trail is right next to the water, so absolutely flat, although just a hint of headwind. My legs really hurt after that, and he dropped me like a greased turd on the climb up to Negro Bar, but I loved the look of total surprise on his face when I came up abreast of him with a big grin on my face!
The calculator in the upper left margin says that works out to ~ 350 watts for a little over a minute. That's power TDF riders can crank out for an hour or more, but I'm very happy with this level of performance. I want more!
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