Feb singlespeed and sickness

It hasn’t been the greatest two weeks, since the Antelope Peak Challenge, though it started off well enough. First I stripped the gears off my Leviathan, enjoying some singlespeed (siiiiiinglspeeeed!!!) challenge in preparation for Dejay’s SS-only race.

photo by Krista Park

Look, it’s Scott standing on the pedals. And I had to, big time, to make it around that switchback and the following ledge (on the “Up and Over” trail out at Robles Pass). The singlespeed brought some very nice moments where I thought all was lost, and indeed I had lost all momentum, but grit down, pedal for all your worth, and the wheels keep rolling. Pretty sure my ticker logged the highest heart rate of the last several months on one climb challenge section.

Yeah, I can see the appeal of the singlespeed.

We took the Explorer Trail on the way back to Starr Pass so that Krista could see me struggle on the technical stuff with the singlespeed. And struggle I did. Above she is retrying one of the tricky corners on the trail.

We usually end up riding past sunset, which is cool with me since it’s my favorite time to ride. Unfortunately I had to skip the next few rides while I waited for a cold to pass. It forced me to miss the singlespeed race, much to my chagrin.

While I had the cold, the weather also turned freakishly cold. We had icicles in our front yard, and a frozen/burst pipe in our attic. Fortunately the damage was very minimal since I was home and caught it early. But wrestling with pipes all afternoon isn’t really recommended when you are sick.

I was back on the bike soon enough, riding with my training buddy again. The schedule called for a fair bit of mountain biking, which almost felt like cheating. Isn’t training supposed to be hard?

how many CPUs can you fit onto one handlebar?

It was a pretty comical ride when she first set up her SRM power meter. GPS, radical lights super light, powertap, SRM, ipod attached to glasses, DROID attached to Osprey pack, I think she wins the award for most electronics on a bike ride. “Heart rate is picking up on this one and this one, but not this.” “Power is showing up on this screen, oh, but not this one.” “Now how do I reset this one?”

She didn’t let it get in the way of the ride, though. Never does, really.

I tried to maintain some composure after I thought my cold had cleared, but I was left with a sinus infection that was in many ways worse than the cold. I still got some solid rides in despite, and only one “bum” ride, out at the 24 Hour Course, unfortunately.

Beautiful evening out there, inspiring in many ways, and depressing in others.

It didn’t build much confidence for the upcoming race, though I rode faster than any lap I did in the race last year, despite the lingering illness.

Krista rode away from me out there, as she often does. It’s been great to have such a consistent and motivated training partner this winter. She won’t be at Old Pueblo, and is instead right now heading to Europe for some big races. I need a new training victim partner… oh Chad? Ready for some suffering?

Speaking of suffering, the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo is coming right up. I’ll be there again, co-ed duo again, riding with Eszter Horanyi. This video is the result of a little project that took GPS data from my race last year and lap times of everyone in order to replay the entire race. Full details on the replays, and a few other vids highlighting different categories are here: http://topofusion.com/24OP-replay.php. In the video above the category winners are labeled, and I love how slow I start out compared to everyone else. Steady and consistent, that’s the plan for this year as well. We’ll see if I can stick to it, and survive the run without tearing my legs apart. I am looking forward to trying to correct my mistakes from last year, and adapting to whatever new ones I make this year!

recumbent ride / run with Paula

So this week it’s easy riding, letting the sinuses clear up some more, and hoping for no rain out at Willow Springs Ranch this weekend. Can’t wait to get out there.