Rest Week... Stress Week

This week was a quiet week, a few days off and relatively light training on the bike. So by Wednesday I was ready to grab my lunch pail and go to work. For the Cyclovets ride I took the bottom half of the ride at a fairly steady pace. After the stop at Jamul I pushed it fairly hard up Highline Truck Trail: 269 watts avg for 37 minutes. Felt pretty good. Another lighter day on Thursday and off again for Friday. Saturday's effort was to be a group ride with the Swami's B & L ride - strong riders and quick pace.

I rode up to Solana Beach from Clairemont to loosen up and add some miles. My legs felt pretty tight so I spun low gears up to the Java Depot for my caffeine fix. By the 8:15 roll out it was already a fairly large group and more joined on the way towards San Elijo. On the short climb up Levante I knew something was not right, I was working Way to hard... Before even hitting the climb up to San Elijo I slid off the back, legs cramping. Lungs were working, but I had no power at all. I pulled back a few riders in Elfin Forest and we worked together into Escondido.

There was no way that I could keep up with the group on the return ride so I headed out towards the Wild Animal Park and the climbs out east of Escondido, a mistake. Within the first few miles I was creeping along, anything above 150 watts made it feel like someone was shoving knives into my quads. I crawl back home with 84 miles in my legs but wound up sleeping the rest of the day. Today I only managed 20 slow, easy miles - still sore.

So, I added the Everest Challenge to my schedule (if my legs recover)... a 2 day stage race in the Sierras. Stage 1 features 15,465' of climbing over 102 miles; Stage 2 features 13,570' of climbing in 65 miles - pure pain. Over 29,000 feet, not too shabby. This with the Mt Evans Hill Climb should make my season complete. Now if I could only lose 20 pounds without loosing any power I'd be in business.

At least I have a Secret Weapon in my assault on the west's hardest hill climbs, actually a pair of secret weapons:

Shimano makes some killer wheels; they're not always the first name you think of when drooling over bike bling, but the new Dura Ace 7850's are nothing short of amazing. These are hand built, use angular contact bearings, titanium freehub body, and a carbon/alloy rim. 1380 grams of mountain climbing goodness.

And even at 1380 grams they track true, brake quickly, and handle riders much bigger than my 170 pounds. These are definitely worth a look and I'd put them up against any of Mavic's Kysrium or Easton's EC line ups. I think they even have an Ultegra version coming out now.