You just have to love the "Cycling Tan"....mid thigh to ankle, upper arm to wrist, middle part of your fingers to the finger nails, neck and face all nice and tan....the rest of your body....a nice shade of "Glow in the Dark" white, except for the little tan dot you get on your hands where there is an open gap in your gloves :)
Needless to say...after a few weeks of nice weather all cyclists start to look a bit....ummm....discolored...LOL.
With the weather taking a turn for the better I no longer have to don the bib knickers, long sleeve base layers, full finger gloves or even the balaclava in really cold weather. It's time for shorts, jerseys and lots of riding.
Today finished off another record week of riding for me....at least in miles and time....17:33:06 on the bike and 328.42 miles ridden (total TSS score this week 806, last week 857). This even includes me taking Monday completely off the bike....which I don't do to often.
Yesterday was a hard, but shorter day on the bike. Saturdays right now are reserved for Team Time Trial practice...however, this week one of my teammates was taking a rest week and the other had to work...so there was just two of us that were able to meet. After looking at options, we decided to head out to Sauvies Island anyway and do two 30 minute intervals with a warm up and cool down. The intervals would be done as training for the TTT with each of us rotating every 50-60 pedal strokes. Basically, it was an hours worth of VO2 Max intervals.
I forgot my Powertap at home...of which I was ticked off with myself for doing so...so the only numbers I have are my teammates which are lower than what mine usually are (I'm about 30 pounds and a fair bit wider than he is). During the first interval he averaged 315 watts and the second interval 307 watts...so overall, we were pretty consistent which is good. Overall, we put in about 2:20 on the bike with an average speed a bit over 22 mph (including warm up and cool down, 80 minutes worth of easy riding).
I still have yet to hit a TTT session with fresh legs, but I'm able to stay in the rotation with out any problems so come time for the actual race with a race taper...my legs should be strong and ready to go :)
Today, given the awesome weather I wanted to get in a nice long ride and ended up meeting two of my teammates, as well as a club member who showed up for the "Fixie" ride an hour late...but rode the first two hours with us...which was mostly climbing. I kind of felt sorry for the guy...but given I spent all winter chasing the race team on my single speed I felt his pain :D
In the end I was able to get in 79 miles and 4:20 worth of riding...and a good cycling tan :)
Talk is we my be doing a 94 mile ride on Wednesday, a route that is awesome...which again will give me dead legs for TTT practice on Thursday night when we are hoping to get the whole team together for the first time. However, it's tough to pass up on great rides....when it's race day...my legs will be more than ready :D
You think cycling tan is bad,then just imagine English surfer tan - burnt feet, hands, neck & face; whilst the rest of you remains an interesting shade of blue! Enjoy the better weather & happy cycling ;0)
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