Not spending time driving to Wisconsin would give me some extra time in the day. The weather forecast called for a beautiful day, maybe even hitting 70, and I decided to wait to start riding until the temperature rose a bit. I took off from home at 8:00AM, and I was wearing shorts! And a tank top! And my Primal Wear samurai arm warmers!
No beanie! No booties! No toe warmers! It was glorious! I wasn't even chilled.
The winds were WNW and NNW, so I had to mostly push into the wind on my way to Fermilab. Which is fine--since I knew I'd get the nice tailwind on the ride home. But OMG, the wind was crazy! There would be these cross wind gusts, and I've learned how to handle LGL in them, that would just make me laugh! I was all smiles, all the time, because this was the first time since NuclearMan that it was such good riding weather on a weekend.
About 10 miles in, I was in this industrial area and I heard a kildeer making its usual call, and luckily I spotted a tiny baby in the road trying to get back off the road to mom.
It looked like a puff ball on sticks! Well, the curb was too tall for it to jump, so I stopped my bike and sort of shuffled back to get the baby to a cross road where the sidewalk sloped towards the road. I was so worried a car would run over it! I'm sure it looked funny, me walking on my cleats going backwards--you wouldn't be able to tell what I was doing! But baby got back up, and thing is, those adult birds are known for dive bombing, but Mom didn't do it, and I slowly backed away from baby, and Mom flew right over, and all was good.
A few miles later, coming the opposite direction was Hottie Kit Guy on a red bike. We were at a major stoplight, and we are eyeballing one another and waving, because, well, it's such a glorious day. He was wearing some mostly white with red and black kit, and I was all black except for my arm warmers. As the light changed to green, we, of course, both stood up on our pedals and took some time to check one another out. HKG had his tongue hanging out in seeing LGL from the side, which is a typical reaction (P.S. I think I look pretty good, too). He yelled, "How's it going?" and I gave a huge smile, wave, and "AWESOME!"
Onward, I've got work to do. Upon arriving at Fermilab, I stopped to pee, dropping trou right next to the big stop sign.
I also took a big swig of Infinit, since between battling the wind and traffic on the way there I hadn't really drunk enough.
Now it was time to begin my main set:
3 x (20' @ 85%, 10' @ FT, 3' @ 105-110%, 7' Easy)
When I had woken up yesterday, I didn't feel too good. Like I was on the verge of getting sick. But my warmup blew that away, and I was ready to work hard.
It was easy for me to hit the wattage targets (my FTP on LGL is 205 these days, giving me a power to weight ratio in kg of 4.1, not bad, eh?) on the first repeat, and during this one, I saw a guy on a Pinarello. Not a Dogma, like mine, but still... My first thought was I should have sex with him! Isn't that crazy? Pinarellos just aren't very common around here...anyway when we passed one another (going opposite directions again), I yelled, "NICE BIKE!" And his tongue about fell out of his mouth when he saw LGL.
Onward. The winds were so crazy, I made up a new term: SFW. Stands for Super Fucking Windy. I'm not exactly sure just how strong the winds were, but the gusts had to be in the 30's easily.
I about finished repeat #1 when I got to Wilson Hall for the first time, and I stopped in to pee and had 2 cheese crackers and got some more water. My face looked really windblown, but I was still all smiles. I decided I could remove the arm warmers.
At this point, I'm heading east, so I get the tailwind, and it was hard to generate the watts, but I still gave it a good go, knowing I would turn into the wind soon. I rode by the horse farm, and observed several of the male horses hanging ten (probably way more than that!). They were just eating grass all relaxed with their humongous schlongs dangling like, "La de da. Look at me. I'm hung like a horse!"
Finishing the second and third repeats were no big deal--it continued being SFW, I kept laughing at the wind, I was hitting my wattage targets, and life was good. Only thing was that because of the wind, I didn't think I'd need to do 3 full loops since it would take too long and I wanted to have energy for today's riding. So on loop 3, I took a different road, which I'd never been on, and I went by all these really strange buildings and devices and such. I wish I'd had my camera with me--I mean I expected to be hauled out of there by the Security guys. And for some odd reason, I felt like I wanted to pee in there. But I got out and decided I could make it back to the stop sign to pee before I left Fermilab.
As I exit, I am heading south, so I'm getting some of the north tailwind, but I turn east in about .5 mile. FUCKIN' A! Tailwind, baby! I go right up this overpass, and I just left it in the big chainring and pedaled my ass off, smiling, not caring about the watts, and then it just got better, because I get a nice downhill and I'm going like 35MPH doing almost nothing. Every cyclist I see going the opposite direction has the same stupid grin on their face as I do.
And it was pretty much like that all the way home until I get to this one area where there's another sweet downhill (about 6 miles from home) that goes under an overpass. It always scares me a bit because it's dark in there and I don't want to be in there with cars. So I always sprint it as hard as possible so I can get through. This time, I cranked my ass off, and when I got out, I could feel my heart beating wildly, but I was happy.
When I got home, I quickly changed into running shorts and a fresh top, as I was fairly pigged out, and headed out to run for :40. OMG, my legs were toasty! Which meant that I rode hard (as it turns out, I rode at 80% of FTP for 4:25. That is tempo riding, kids. That's like 1/2 Ironman watts, only instead of just for 56 miles, 75!). My legs felt like they do at the start of an Ironman marathon, although not really that bad. I was smiling because it hurt so much! My stomach felt like shit, also same as Ironman, and I wish that I had brought Coke with me instead of Gatorade, which can make me want to puke at that point. But I had chugged a full bottle of water before I left, so I was hydrated and barely had to touch the Gatorade.
When I finished running, I was laughing because I smelled so bad! That was the first time this year that I have smelled so bad! Yeah, baby! It was one of those things where I was really hungry, but I would need to shower first.
After I showered and ate, I decided to call my friend, Matt, who I haven't seen in over a year because he had been in Afghanistan, and he has had parental issues like me, and we just haven't been able to connect. I left him a wild message basically demanding that I needed to have sushi for dinner and would he go out with me? He called back and initially couldn't make it, but after we yammered for a long time he said he'd check and see if he could back out of his prior obligation, and he did.
I picked the sushi restaurant, and I ordered for both of us, and let's just say it was PILES of sushi, and Matt even got full before me! After I polished off the sushi, I asked Matt about dessert. He said, sure why not. The waiter comes over and tells us what they have, and I ask Matt if he's had mochi before--he had not. I asked what kind they have, and I told the waiter to bring one of each--red bean, green tea, coconut, mango and chocolate. They arrived cut up in 3 bowls, and of course, I ate more than Matt. We both talk non-stop when we are together, and the topic of Sunday came up. I was either going to ride to Fermilab again or do this organized ride, and I asked Matt if he would ride, so, yeah, we are riding together today from his house in Plainfield.
Matt and I after our huge dinner
I used to ride with Matt all the time, and he was a big factor in me getting stronger. When we first met, Matt wasn't riding in the winter, and I blew his doors off for awhile, but then, he being 13 years younger than me and a guy, and getting his training together (I even coached him for a year), Matt turned into a monster cyclist. He's a little out of form probably, but I know we will have an awesome ride today and some good eats when we finish. The joke is that whenever he and I ride together, how long will it take before we start talking about food? Matt and I are both good cooks, we both like great food and wine (he's the guy who sent me the wine direct from Italy), and we like to talk about cooking and eating and drinking. I remember one ride where we just left his house, and we are maybe 30 seconds into the ride, and Matt starts talking about food. I about fell off my bike laughing, because I looked down at the power meter and said, "Matt--that's a new world record. 30 seconds and we are talking about food."
When I got home last night, I thought I still needed some more calories, so I poured a pile of Cheetos onto a plate and tucked into them before going to sleep. I know, I know, I am eating like it's going out of style!
So even though I didn't go to Wisconsin, I had an awesome day yesterday, and today will be more of the same!
Happy training!
1 comment:
Yes - the sushi was very good. I look stoned though - he he.
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