That should be enough of a sartorial hint for the only person I know of who rivals my admiration for Paul's Boutique. Unfortunately, it does not mean that we will be rocking in Grand Royal Flavor this weekend.
So the season is at hand. Nathan J's had his teen angst supplanted by the confidence of youth ahead of Redlands. Me? Redlands, Schmedlands - we have a REAL race on our hands this weekend. Besides, I'm bitter that Nate doesn't think I'm going to win the old and unfast division at Jeff Cup, so phooey on him. A pox on your dorm room.
The most beneficial thing that I've done this year is a true one hour threshold test. There are a lot of different things that people mean when they refer to LT. I decided to go with the "what you can do in a steady state for an hour" definition. I'm fully convinced, your mileage may vary. Maybe it's an old guy thing, maybe it's accentuating such positives as there are for me, who knows. I now spend a shitload of time going not quite as hard as I used to try and go, and when I've hit the "go" button so far, it's been a nice big fat responsive target.
So the big question is, with tomorrow's race being a lot of people's first race outing for the year, how much carnage is there going to be? Probably a lot.
I wanted to add some new gear info. I spent the last part of the winter (touch wood) in a pair of Specialized Deflect gloves. Specialized says that they are for the 50 degree range. My experience with them is that they are very effective in 35 and dry, and while I haven't had them out in actual honest to God rain, they were fine on Sunday morning when it was 40's and 100% humidity. The dexterity is nearly as good as with a summer glove and the grip is reptilian.
We got a hookup on some Louis Garneau stuff, and I bought Typhoon lobster style gloves and Moab Lite full finger summer gloves. No need for the Typhoons yet, thank God (I actually told Mike that my getting them ended winter), but the Moabs are awesome. They are indeed lite - the palms are somehow vented. Only one ride on them (last night), but the fit is great, dexterity is tops and grip is also awesome. I am a little worried about longevity with these. The materials are really light.
Speaking of light, our new helmets are the Limar Pro 104. Holy crap are they light. I freely admit that I am totally in the tank for Bell, specifically the Volt. I think they secretly used my head for the Volt fit model, so anything less than completely perfect is going to be a step down, but the Limar is pretty good so far. It is definitely more of a Giro kind of shape, but I've found that by adjusting the straps effectively, it stays in place and works out fine. The other trick is that I have to open up the back adjust when I put it on, then close the adjustment. It's like the adjusting strap kind of hooks under that lobe in the back of my skull at the top of my neck. With a grand total of two rides in it, it's early days, but I'm no longer weeping at not wearing my Volt anymore. And JHC the thing is light.
See you at the races.
3 comments:
You don't know what your "true" threshold is unless there's a guy following you in a convertible with a pistol to your mom's head and you're both fleeing up a windless false flat being chased by a forest fire and moped with a couple IRS agents on it seeking to audit you. Even then it will only be a close approximation of what your body can do; there's probably some potential still untapped. Perhaps we need to bring out the fluffy cushions to get that last full measure of lactosis out of you. Bring out the comfy chair, Cardinal Fang!
TW: pineli. If it isn't a bicycle manufacturer's name, it should be.
I don't train like that. And the Pineli only gets broken out for early fall centuries.
That's going to be funny as hell. Hope you have the whole kit. I also hope you got the remaster of paul's boutique and you have listened in a dark room with surround sound earphones and several black and tans at least a dozen times. when i say dozen you know what i'm talking about boy.
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