Sunday, September 21, 2008

Week of September 15

What a week. This was truly post-Ike recovery week. Well, recovery for the Gulf Coast area, not on the bike. I was supposed to be in Japan this week with a full week of rest without the bike, but because of the hurricane those plans got pushed. Without power or phone, I decided to ride down to Clear Lake on my race bike and try to get into my office. During the ride down I saw quite a bit of tree and roof damage, but no real structural damage. I got to the gate at work and was told I wasn’t allowed to enter. I asked when we’d be able to get back to work and was told a week from Monday. Alright, a free week’s vacation! I had ridden the race bike instead of the PC equipped bike merely because it was still tucked away in the garage.

By Tuesday I had cleaned out enough of the garage to get to the PC equipped bike. I went out on a long 3 hour ride through Brazoria county. Not much to note except my legs were really tired. The last 1.5 hours was a real struggle for me. So Wednesday was a relaxing 1:05 ride to recover. Thursday I put in my longest ride yet on the PCs. It was a little slow due to wind coming home, but nonetheless it was 65 miles and 3:50 in duration. I’m hoping to be up to a century the first part of October.

Friday was off, and Saturday was group ride day on the race bike with regular cranks. Just like the last group ride, I felt strong. I’m quite happy about the bounce in the legs as it’s been a long week. From Monday-Thursday I racked up 200 miles on the bike plus about 10-12 from running. It seemed like my legs would be toast but they responded well.

Sunday was a good day of PCing as well. 2 hours in the saddle with a good VO2 effort on one stretch. Yes I was dead tired after that effort, but I didn’t feel any fatigue or pain in the hip flexors. After that hard pull I jumped off the back of the group to ride home and do my own thing (consistent upper level 2 to mid level 3 riding).

I’m giving myself 1 more week of endurance type riding before officially starting the new training year, which will begin with tempo riding. My PC fitness has certainly improved over the last month, but time will tell if it translates to better regular crank fitness.

PC time this week – 9 hours 55 minutes
PC time to date – 53 hours 20 minutes

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