22 February, 2009

50° My A$$!

these are the flatirons. i see this as i drive into boulder

holee shmokes it was muh-freakin' cold today. the weather service said it was going to be in the mid-50s. i don't think it ever hit 40! so the game plan was to do a long ride today. 90 miles (145 km). ouch. near the 2/3rds mark kenny and i decided to cut it to a 70 mile (113 km) ride instead. the last time kenny and i did a 70+ miler it was a month ago. needless to say, our legs couldn't tolerate the endurance of doing such a long ride with some stiff winds.
at the start of the ride, we met at chip's. it was warm when i arrived (or so i thought). later kenny arrived and he said it was cold. so i busted all the neoprene out and here comes chip out of his place: no shoe covers and no beanie under his helmet. two guaranteed, cold deal breakers. we didn't get but 45 minutes into the ride before he bailed complaining of the cold. i don't know about you but we have racing to do less than a month away. two weeks to be specific. that boy needs to get some miles in. the weather wasn't perfect but at the very least it was doable.
at carter lake we (jimmy, kenny, and i) turn around but the two other teammates-james and andy-continue to masonville for their 90 mile training ride.
l-r: andy, jimmy, james, and my boy kenny...

this is carter lake, pretty desolate today due to crappy weather

at the magical three hour mark, it's slowly turning into a death march for me. the weather never relented (i.e. no reprieve with the cold temps and gusty-arsed gusts of wind) and we're still riding at tempo with jimmy. i'm out of the saddle for any little incline with the legs burning but not cramping. that's a good sign actually not cramping. it's telling me that i can handle a little bit of stress for a longer period of time. if i cramp, sometimes i have to pull over to have a moment of verklemptitude.
kenny and i are going at lactate tempo now. jimmy accelerates to put the lactate finishing touches on his legs, that means the fat dudes, with the hairy legs, and the fairing on their recumbent can put the smackdown on kenny and me. it's pretty much like this for the next hour until we head back to chip's place in north boulder. to be fair though, kenny was taking much longer pulls than me when we were a pack of three. with jimmy, i was kinda motorpacing and taking a pull every now and again.
at chip's we decide to eat at illegal petes across from the university of colorado campus. i'm guessing i'm still in caloric deficit after that mini-death march. when i get home i make sure i drink at least two cups of green tee to remediate the free-radicals having a rave in my primary movers.

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