On June 8, I'm participating in the Diabetes Society's Tour de Cure fundraising ride. I'll be doing the 120K route from Palo Alto to the coast and back. It's my longest ride of the year and I'm planning for less than 5 hours of actual ride time. The rest stops are well stocked, with plenty to eat and drink.

Click here to visit my fundraising page.

May 24, 2008

12th place, 1:45

Fire season started early.

The Summit fire created air conditions that reminded me of my trip to Manila last February. My throat was raw and I caught a cold.

I raced OK, given my condition. 

I started a mini-crash session this week and have been on the bike daily since Monday, May 27. Lots of hill climbs, seated and standing. Level 2–5 work along with strength training. I feel great, even with the cold. I'm hoping to find my over training limits along with a power increase. I'll let you know after Sunday's race.

May 18, 2008

17th place, 1:19

11 minutes faster than last year.

On a more difficult course.

But, still 11 minutes off the leader.

This year with hot showers!

I need more cowbell, I mean, power. I have all the endurance in the world, but guys ride away from me at the start. Even though I'm faster and fitter than last year, I need to up my workout intensity and time in the saddle. 4.5 hours per week makes me a mid pack finisher in most events. So, I've started longer, steeper hill climbs and MTB specific circuit training. 

Dain at WTB recommended NanoRaptors for this hard pack course. I did a practice lap late Friday afternoon in 90°+ temps in 1:16. I ran a bit more tire pressure than in Shasta, but the tires rode harshly. They're a larger volume tire than the ExiWolfs I ran the previous race, and worked better on race day with less PSI. I'm also going to run more fork and shock pressure and adjust the rebound damping to firm up the NRS.

The race itself was uneventful. I set a finishing goal of 1.5 hrs for the 1.25 laps based on my practice lap and beat it by 11 minutes. I paced myself until the final climb before turning on the gas. It's a great strategy, if I wasn't so far behind the leaders. I'm already racing at tempo, under 11% body fat, and I'm not planning to lose muscle mass, so it's time for more training to increase my power.

I needed some bike bling, so I purchased a set of Ti skewers from the CBO booth and ran them during the race. The packaging said they were MTB compatible and I didn't notice any stretching. I'm also changing my rims from Velocity VXC to ZTR Olympics. The rim change alone will save almost half a pound of rotating weight.