RAMROD

With PBP coming up, I said I wasn't going to push it. This is the hardest RAMROD I've done. Sure, the flat tire was a bummer, but the hard part was not pushing it, letting pacelines get away that I knew I could hang on to. (Or at least was prepared to find out if I could hang onto.)

In the end 10:38, finishing almost exactly 100th out of a field of about 800. That's what I said I wanted to do, and that's what I did. So good, right? Right?

Handling debris

I don't blog every nail and screw I pick up in the roadway. I did that for a little while, but it got to be too much.

Now the only road debris I blog is the weird stuff, such as today's catch: a door handle. Specifically, a late 70's/early 80's GMC van interior door handle. (You can google anything now.)

OK fine, I guess the door handle comes loose, and falls out when you open the door to get into your Luv Van. But wouldn't you notice it was missing when you tried to close the door after you got in?

Faster up the south side of Queen Anne

6:48. 12 seconds faster. That may not sound like a lot, but it's hard coming up with each second.

I was feeling a little worked on Sunday, so I took two rest days instead of one. Maybe that's part of it.

32 Days to Paris-Brest-Paris, which means about another week of me obsessing about interval training, and then you won't have to read about it.

Another 3 seconds faster up the north side of Queen Anne

6 minutes, 22 seconds.

Different Intervals

I'm trying to get 2-3 sets of intervals in per week, which means I need to do them mid-week. I could get up really early and do them before work. I could do that. But easier to go out on my lunch break. In this case, my "lunch break" was mid-afternoon, but never mind. After a bit of exploring, I settled on this route up the south side of Queen Anne Hill, which ends not far from my weekend route up the north side of the same hill.

I start at 3rd and Roy, go north a block on 3rd to Valley, then west to Queen Anne Ave. Up Queen Anne Ave. to Prospect St., then spiral up to the top, ending at the water tower.

It's not ideal, because about a third of the route is over 10% grade, which is steeper than I'd like. Also, there's a little bit of downhill where I can't sustain effort. But it's better than anything else I can find right around work, and it's a bit over 100m of climbing in 7 minutes, which is about right.

More Intervals

Compared to June 25, my best time was 12 sec better at 6:25. Max heart rate slightly lower. Recovery startlingly faster, by about a minute. Cadence faster and more consistent.

Intervals are the main training from now until I start to taper at the end of the month. They're simple: ride as hard as possible starting at the bottom of the hill, until there is no hill left. Done right, one has the vague sense of being turned inside-out. Hard work, but over quickly. As the time scale shows, I was done in 35 minutes. Figure 15 minutes to warm up and get out to the hill and another 15 cooling down and getting home, and it's all done in a little over an hour. Tomorrow will be a recovery day, so it works out to less than 4 hours per week. Four hours of hard work are more useful than a month of Sundays riding longer distances at less intensity.