Heavens, @Heathpack. Stuff like that pisses me off to no end. I'm glad it all worked out in your favor, and I hope the shop was at least partially covered.

I just want to know if she got orange paint on her tires. Unknown by me was that Sara and her motley crew were behind me on Portola Rd. Anyway, I saw orange dots in the bike lane and did not think anything of it until I rode over one and got orange paint on my tires. I slowed down to see a guy standing at the side of the road with an orange paint can. i heard some chatty women behind but did not think anything of that either.

I continue on and not happy about the paint concerned it is on the frame. i get to the top of the first flat spot and pull into a church parking lot and inspect my bike and try to remove the orange paint from the tires with some leaves - did not work.

Someone goes by and says hi and waves. A little while later, I think Sara goes by in the drops head buried like she is on a search and destroy mission. I futz around with the tires and decide to head back to the TT course where my wife is riding her TT bike.

Today, I rode a similar route except that I climbed Old La Honda and then to the top of Kings Mountain. I may never eat again.

That may well have been me! The chatties were Norma and Jen, there wasn't enough O2 in the atmosphere for me to waste a good breath on talking :) Orange paint on the road? That I didn't see! Then again, all I could see was very fuzzy.

Other than King's Mountain/Tunnitas with Ex, Heathie and Heidi (my teammate), I have not ridden in your area, Hermes. Canada (pronounced "can-yada" for you eastern types :) ) Road was an experience because of the shear number of cyclists there! Dozens and dozens. Portola Valley and beyond was just as busy. I found it exhilarating!

Still sounds like you! :)

I've heard more than once "Sara, get your head up!" :thumb:

One of the folks I work with, a former Cat 2 racer and life long high level rider, just told me "you're SUPPOSED to be slow in November". Honestly, I appreciated hearing that.

Ugh. I wanted to do one more race this year, the Senior Games here. Felt good during yesterday's ride, took my shower and kicked back for a while, then realized my throat was getting sore and my head was both draining and aching. Stayed in bed during the afternoon, went to sleep early, passed on the scheduled gym workout this morning and left work after a half day. (While at work I did manage to swap the RD, cassette, and tires on the road bike in preparation for the race - a man's gotta set priorities! :)) I still feel pretty crummy. I've got a one-hour recovery ride scheduled for tomorrow and a last hard workout Wednesday. I'm planning on doing the recovery ride, don't know about the hard workout; have an email out to my coach about that.

I've got a good bit of time and effort invested in preparation for these races but don't want to be stupid. Does anyone have an idea about how many days out from the race I need to feel better again in order to not end up even sicker?

Tomorrow's plan for work: Bring TT bike, install rear wheel covers and carbon brake pads for the Reynolds 66 front wheel. Oh, I might do some work too...

Hi Chuck, I'll throw my two cents in here. I'd skip the recovery ride and go nap for an hour instead. And I'd shut it down completely for a couple of days and go full rest; invest the time you might be training in naps. Sleep is seriously restorative and all training does is pound on an immune system trying to do it's job. As athletes we should always err on the side of an extra day off, but we mostly seem to err on the side of "I feel less like death therefor I shall go out and see if I can ride much harder than I should".

Assuming the race is Saturday maybe go spin the legs Friday, if you're mostly to all the way over your symptoms. If your still a little mucky Friday rest some more, then wake up and see. Long easy warm up, ramp it up towards the end, then see what happens.

You can make zero progress in fitness this week towards the weekend race, at best all you want to do is keep loose and mentally focused, so don't fret at the time off. Visualize the course and play some tactical scenarios in your head. I've won more races at 90% by being focused and having a plan and plan B than I have by just being at my peak fitness.

Uh, yeah. Unless you live in Arizona. Or Australia. Or you're all in for 'cross.

It's hard to convince athletes that they can't be at absolute peak fitness all the time. They can it "peak" for a reason. Sharp pointy object that takes a lot of effort to summit. Much easier going down. You've accomplished so much this year that of course, you want to keep that rolling. But no one summits K2 and starts building a house; because you can't live on K2. They go down to base camp, and start planning an assault on Everest.

I saw you get to K2. There's a window for Everest and November is the worst time to try to climb it. Relax, plan that next climb.

^^Excellent metaphor.

Yes it was. And much appreciated!

I second that.

I did my my first "Worlds" ride in a couple years last Saturday. This was after weeks of low cadence, high power stuff, and weights. Lots of strength work, then a rest week, where I was on the bike a total of 1 hour in the 5 weekdays. No weights, no commute, just an hour. I figured I would be in high form for the worlds, and I hung with the boys and girls OK up the hill. At the turnaround we all took off, and stuff started to get a little sketchy, so I backed off. Likely my mental state, more than anything. Either way, after that, I climbed High Grade, and felt like hammered crap. Legs weren't there, and just dead. I was deeply concerned.

When I relayed that info, I was told: "Perfect. There has been some major strength work, and gains, but that work pays off later, not now. You're not training for a November Group Ride."

On Sunday, I was so happy that nothing was wrong, I went out and nailed a 2.5 hour Z2 ride, with only 6% in Z1.

^^ Hmmmm. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

I had a really decent training ride today. I discovered this morning when I sent my files to Coach I hadn't used the power meter in a week. Intervals, back to back, were on tap today. I didn't have doubts, but I did wonder if I could hold the high number. Yes, I could. After that, I went out and did some CX practice, two reps of two minutes at race pace. I could do that, too. And I've lost six pounds, to boot.

There has to be a catchy (Northern Hemisphere) racer phrase about November somewhere....

How about "It's time to bump your FTP". :)

Missed my ride on Monday because I took a chance on doing a group ride after work and then we had some rain roll in to town and the ride got cancelled. :(

Tues I did my planned recovery ride, I needed to go in to work an hour early to teach didactic rounds to the interns, so I was on the bike at 4:30am. Note to self: we are in full-fingered gloves season. When I got home, my fingers would not function, I had to call my husband to turn off my blinkie. ;)

Wed I had a 2 hour TT workout on the agenda, to get that done I needed to be on the bike at 4:30am. Time to break out the trainer, learned my lesson about how cold it is at 4:30. I am ok with 2 hours on the trainer. And I am ok with 2 hours on the TT bike. But 2 hours on the TT bike on the trainer is a different thing entirely. Gnarly. But I did enjoy, in a way. IF ~0.8, TSS ~120.

Last night I tried the Thursday night ride, which has always intimidated me. It was super mellow (it's seasonally mellow), I was surprised. No trouble hanging, except up the hills. But even then I was maybe only 30 seconds behind. Had fun, liked almost everybody- if you're a woman and you join a ride like this, there will inevitably be one patronizing guy and he was there on cue last night. But he was a joiner from another local club, not part of the group, so we'll just ignore him. 1:45, IF ~0.85, ~TSS 125.

Vacation starts today. Poor bike doesn't get to come this time.

I did two sets of intervals yesterday, (O2a and SF2 for Heathie), and then followed that with a little over an hour of base. Felt just fine. I hit and sustained all of the power numbers with no more issues than usual (it hurt). My body has switched over to an "alternate energy source" apparently, because the weak, bonky feeling is just not there, now (thank goodness). And, I'm down another 1/2 pound.

Yay!!!

Hear her roar! Love it.

And congrats on the weight loss. Sweet. :)

Hey folks, heading into Fall and Winter I put together a short article on staying healthy and dealing with illness for this time of year for my past and present clients. Uploaded it for public use here. Folks should be able to download and access without any password if they would like. Feel free to shoot me comments/questions via PM.

As I noted to my folks, it's short. Most of it is simple, and would fall under "common sense". But we're athletes so I assume up front that common sense isn't one of our best attributes :p

Stay well.

Ex, thank you!!
@Heathpack - hear me WHINE!! Hey, congrats on your battle. I've been getting the updates - wonderful!!!

Thanks Ex!

In honor of your document, I slept 10.5 hours last night after a long travel day.

Walking around the resort yesterday, I did discover this:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/x...8F6C94E7D1.jpg

The gym turns out to be fabulous- spin room, two cardio rooms, weight room, and a yoga/Pilates studio. In the week we'll be here: 5 spin classes, 11 yoga classes, 3 Pilates, and 9 "personalized stretching," which I imagine is a 45 minute one-on-one class.

Sweet. It will largely be yoga this week, but I might have to check out spin once or twice.

That's a keeper right there.

Thank you very much, @Racer Ex

Well done, Kurt.

+1 to both thoughts.

And to prove that I'm not quite as dumb as I look, tomorrow will be the first day back on the bike since last Sunday. The plan is for an hour and a half at Z2, 55 degrees, partly cloudy, ~10 mph NNE wind. It's gonna be effin' awesome.