Sunday, February 22, 2009

Tour of California-meh!




With apologies to Team Dicky

The Amgen race, stage 7 I think (I am not really keeping count), began in my neck of the woods. I honored it by going for a ride instead of standing around for hours at the mall watching a bunch of guys in lycra do whatever they do before a race (I snapped those pics from my car as I was heading home after my ride). However, I am not completely detached from the race so, to be as supportive as I could be and still get a ride in that day, I dusted off the road bike that morning and hit the tarmac.

I am such a mountain biker. I wore my visored helmet (still mud spattered) and my Camelbak Octane XC. No baggies though. I do have my limits.

Road riding is sooo about pedaling. Of course you pedal a mtn bike too, but on a road bike it is all you do as far as I can tell. Spin spin, pedal pedal, crank, crank. I can see why the road guys are so anal about getting fit kits done, etc. But the cool part is the way it works my legs differently than the mtn bike. It really hurts me more. Not sure why, it just does and basically I am a waaaay better cyclist off road than on. On the road bike I am slow climbing and slow descending, but I make it up on the flats by being slow there too.

But, it is still riding a bike and that is all good.

The next day I got on the FS and did 3 hours on the local trails. I felt very strong even after yesterday's ride. Fluid recovery drink is a lot of that. Simply amazing stuff for recovery. Vision Quest is just around the corner. I think I will survive even though I would feel better if I had longer days under me as of late. Well, it is what it is as I can't accomplish much in the next 2 weeks that I have not already done.

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