A couple of months ago the plan was to ride long and steady, now it's short and hard. Most of the workouts require getting out of the saddle for sprints, hill sprints or climbs however there are also the anaerobic intervals during which I go all out on a flat road for 3-6 minutes until my eyeballs are ready to pop out. It's inbelivable how long a minute seems when your pedaling at 22 MPH, cranking the pedals at 100 RPMs and your hear rate climbs to 189 BPMs...ouch!
To make it harder -like there is a need for that- the other day I also had a flat as I was completing one of those intervals. Keep in mind I am riding my tubeless mtb tires on the road, yet my rear tire is so worn out that a rock made a 1/2 inch cut right on the riding surface. Obviusly the tire sealant couldn't mend that size of a cut so I had to throw in a tube but to prevent the tube from getting puntured thru the same hole, I had to place an empty power gel packet between the tube and the tire. Talk about cheap fixes.
Anyway I made it home, however the tube did go flat later that night.
I have the new Maxxis tires at home, I just don't want to put them on until the Hutchinsons are so worn that I don't feel bad about tossing a $60.00 tire.
Night Riding Adventures
Even though there are no 24-Hour races in the near future, Norma and I have gone out on a couple of night rides. On the last one, we had an early dinner at home then at around 9:00 PM decided to gear up and hit the trails...literally. 30 minutes onto the ride I asked her if we should head back, however she has been telling people about her "No-Chain" feeling while riding and that night was no different. You know, no-chain as in...I can barely break a sweat.
Anyway Ms. No-Chain and I continue along for another 20 minutes. I know my light runs for about 2.5 hours however, Norma is riding a Double-beam Night Rider set that I borrowed from Jared Cooley one of Procon team riders, and I don't know what's the burning time on those. In addition, she is running both lights throwing 15W of light down the trail and almost making my light look dim. We make it to what we call the Long Easy loop of Desert Classic and head back, but by then we had been riding for about 1.5 hours. Shortly after I heard her say "Oh, no!" I look back and her lights switched to 5Watts (reserve mode). She is a the top of a short down hill, so I turn around and point my light at the trail. Now my light looks much brighter than hers. She comes down the hill and as she reaches the bottom the lights go completely out. Her front tire caught a little ridge line on the trail and skidded sideways. Norma falls on her left side, skinning almost the whole knee cap of her already scared filled knee. Ms. No-chain goes no skin either.We still had to get home. It's almost 11 PM, so I gave her my light and followed her as close as possible, so I can use her light to see the trail in front of me. We made it home safely but it's going to take a few days for Norma's knee to heal and have her ride again...wrong. The next day we went to White Tanks and pre-rode the course of the next MBAA race. She rode like three laps.
This weekend we are pre-riding the McDowell course where the NORBA National race will take place then on Sunday I am heading to Minnesota for work. I don't plan on bringing my bike because it's still cold up there and too expensive to bring my bike. Besides, one of my connecting flights will be on a puddle-jumper regional aircraft, so I doubt they'll have room for my bike.
I hope the trip doesn't affect my training, but I am excited to go see my family and friends up there.
Until next time,
Pura Vida!
Jeff
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