Today's Ride

First - I did VO2max intervals yesterday evening. This new bike set-up is working pretty good right now. Went over to the Clayton Bypass to do these intervals. I really like doing them here because I can do them on a nice grade (~4%) and it helps to keep the power more constant. The ones I did earlier this week were on flat roads and though they were just as hard, I find it easier on a grade. Anyways...The first one, as usual, was started too hard/fast, a bit of trouble on the 2nd/3rd, and then I tried to do the last one as hard as possible..

#1: 222/100 (ap/rpm's)
#2: 188/101
#3: 199/102
#4: 201/100

Would ya look at that first one??!!! Damn. I just need to keep them in the 210 range when I do them (if possible) as this would be right in the middle of my zone5.

On to today......

Invited a friend that was visiting his parents this week (he's home from spring break at ASU) out to ride today. We planned on doing around 50 miles, but when we got to the start, some of my 'faster' friends were there and were going to do a 40 and 65 mile route. These guys are called 'The Hammers'. We opted to ride with them for the 60+ mile ride.

We were able to stay with them for all of about 11 miles! The pace was a bit much for my friend, who, because of the weather in Boone, hasn't been putting in a lot of miles. We took a short pull, but not short enough and his legs were done. That was ok though. We were off the back of the group pretty quickly.

Ended up riding down to Princeton and from there wound our way over to Pine Level. During all this 'winding', my friend kept having trouble on any of the grades we hit. The grades around Clayton are pretty dang flat!. Anyways, we stopped a couple of times for stretching and slowed down a bit more, but it didn't help. His legs were done. So, I called in SAG to come get us.

The kid (20yo) did well though for not having much riding in his legs this year. When we got back to the cars, The Hammers were there and we talked with them a bit. They are starting to ride on Tuesday/Thursday next week and invited me to ride with them. I think it will be good for me. A good zone 4 ride, hang on for as long as possible, repeat the next week. Eventually, I'll get to where I can hang on for the whole ride.

I ended up with 40 miles, 17avg. I was going to go out and get in another 20-25 miles after we got back to the cars, but about 3 miles into that ride, it starts to rain. And, I'm cold. So, turn around and head back to the car and done for the day.

Sidenote: I got the results from the bloodwork...I'm normal. Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium are all normal. Means that I'm not properly hydrated when I ride is most likely the culprit of the cramping. I drank a little bit over a gallon of water on Friday plus a huge plate of linguini w/shrimp & tomato sauce at lunch. I felt really good today:). No cramps.