Life On Two Wheels

Along the river and toward the mountains a morning shadow shimmers across the road. The rays of the first light jet through the trees and across a figure gliding upon the road. His breath trails in short spurts, petrified as it hits the icy air. All is quiet except the slight sound of the athlete as he summons himself for yet another days work. Soon the rest of the world will bustle with life as well and the brief simplicity of cyclist and nature will disappear into the everyday struggle of life in full motion; the errands and intervals, the appointments and intersections, and the deadlines and finish lines OutPaceTheRace

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Girona- Feb 7, '06

Girona, ESP
February 7, 2006

I rode in the country again today. I'll never fail to be amazed at the beauty of the place, but there is a certain extravagence to the modern life of the US that I am indeed looking forward to for tomorrow. The big stores, gas powered cars, malicious motorists, and English speaking people are somewhat sacred now that I've spent so much time within the confines of the "old days."
The last two days have been my first chance to really train with my Cycle-ops Power tap. I've found it to be quite a tool. Previously I used a heart rate monitor, but there's so many little glitches in heart rate training that make it fairly impractical. You're always putting out watts, the question is what the most efficient way of putting those watts out is and the amount of wattage you can sustain for a certain period of time- my power is fairly low since I'm light, a sprinter such as the local (extraordinary) sprinter on Cofidis from Bellingham, Tyler Farrar, would be able to put out an amazing amount of power... maybe around 3000 watts max, thats a guess though. Me? maybe 800 if I'm lucky.