Ridin and Readin

Had a good hard ride yesterday. I rode over to Ledges and did some hill intervals on the crazy steep climb on the south side of the park. It's a great hill to train on, it takes a bit over a minute and a half to climb to climb, starts gently and gets steeper and steeper towards the top. The last 200 feet are crazy steep....for Iowa and pavement anyway. I'm not sure what the grade at the top is, but with my tri bike the easiest gearing is a 42X25 and I have to stand and put everything I've got into the pedals to turn them over. After lots of leg burning fun and feeling the lactic acid creep up to my eyes, I started to head home. I had to fight the wind the whole time, but I made the time go faster by doing lots and lots of interval work. All different kinds of efforts: all out sprints to 5 min tempo work. All told I put in about 50 miles and the legs felt great. I'm cutting back my hours this week and next in anticipation of heading up to 24 hours of 9 mile next weekend. It's the National 24 hour race Championships which means I'll be getting my butt whipped by the likes of Chris Etough, Nat Ross, Ernesto Marenchin and all those other super freaks. Maybe I'll catch a glimpse as the rocket past me. It'll be my first 24 of the season which requires lots more planning than all other races. Lots to do, charge lights, get food....lots of chamois butter to make things go smoothly...ha. Everything I've heard about the race is that it is a top notch venue and tons of fun. I'm looking forward to the fun and pain all at the same time.

A little mind stimulation is always a good idea. So I've got a suggestion for ya. I just finished reading Floyd Landis's new book, Positively False. I know, I know, everybody has their own idea of the whole situation, maybe I believe him because he is an old mountain biker. However I've tried to stay up to date on the whole thing, and every time I learn something new, it's harder and harder to think he's guilty. After reading the book, it's impossible to think he did anything. Anyway, that's my two cents for the day, read it....you won't regret it.