Training Camp
Julian, CA- Team Slipstream training camp day 8
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Today Allen Lim, the team’s sports physiology guru and resident “Ask Jeeves” was absent due to a conference thing he lead for Saris. The problem with having Allen absent is that we are forced to make choices for ourselves, and this often culminates problematic circumstances. In today’s case, we decided to do a massive climb… on a dirt road!? I’ve no idea why we would do this when there’s a perfectly good road going over the mountain that’s not dirt… not to mention the fact that the bmw is by no means equipped to handle any rough back road forest service type road. So this sets the scene perfectly for a problematic situation in which our combined intellect is far too low for a logical decision on the best substitute route. We decided to go ahead and go around the mountain instead, on what turned out to be perhaps the busiest highway in the state of California… In which case we were forced to do an out ‘n back 5.5 hour ride… not to mention that we’ve already done this particular out ‘n back… so monotonous would accurately describe the mindset for the ride. Unfortunately, this was the longest ride at 5 hours 22 minutes, 107 miles & a 210 watt average. 3797 kj’s.
Julian, CA- Team Slipstream training camp day 7
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Indeed the weather turned quite swell today. The snow fell a bit more during the night, but nothing substantial- certainly not comparable to that characterized by the storms of Colorado… nonetheless, California has been declared a “state of emergency.”
For our ride today, we decided at the last moment to forgo the planned high climb for some lower elevation riding in the interest of avoiding the snow. The lower elevation ride included a short climb on a forest type road up to the Mount Laguna area, finishing with a couple loops around town. Even around Laguna there were multiple patches of snow, which wasn’t so bad on the way up, but on the way down when the tires pick it up and spit it out in your face the story changes. It’s like having slurpy thrown on your face on a nice cold day, with a little sand and dirt... The total ride time was ~4.5 hours…
Julian, CA- Team Slipstream training camp day 6
Friday, January 19, 2007
The second recovery day of the camp was that of today. After conferring with a team mate I decided that the short 1-2 hour ride was a brilliant opportunity for the virtuoso (yours truly) to roll out on the time trial bike. Unfortunately, today the storm that has so mercilessly struck the west struck once more as we ate breakfast- first just a little snow, then a whole bucket of it. I guess that’s what you get here in “tank-top country…” It’s probably good it hit today on a short easy ride (tt bike or not) instead of an epic 5+ hour one; we’d have had to stop in one of those cliff dwellings to take shelter or something.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Today Allen Lim, the team’s sports physiology guru and resident “Ask Jeeves” was absent due to a conference thing he lead for Saris. The problem with having Allen absent is that we are forced to make choices for ourselves, and this often culminates problematic circumstances. In today’s case, we decided to do a massive climb… on a dirt road!? I’ve no idea why we would do this when there’s a perfectly good road going over the mountain that’s not dirt… not to mention the fact that the bmw is by no means equipped to handle any rough back road forest service type road. So this sets the scene perfectly for a problematic situation in which our combined intellect is far too low for a logical decision on the best substitute route. We decided to go ahead and go around the mountain instead, on what turned out to be perhaps the busiest highway in the state of California… In which case we were forced to do an out ‘n back 5.5 hour ride… not to mention that we’ve already done this particular out ‘n back… so monotonous would accurately describe the mindset for the ride. Unfortunately, this was the longest ride at 5 hours 22 minutes, 107 miles & a 210 watt average. 3797 kj’s.
Julian, CA- Team Slipstream training camp day 7
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Indeed the weather turned quite swell today. The snow fell a bit more during the night, but nothing substantial- certainly not comparable to that characterized by the storms of Colorado… nonetheless, California has been declared a “state of emergency.”
For our ride today, we decided at the last moment to forgo the planned high climb for some lower elevation riding in the interest of avoiding the snow. The lower elevation ride included a short climb on a forest type road up to the Mount Laguna area, finishing with a couple loops around town. Even around Laguna there were multiple patches of snow, which wasn’t so bad on the way up, but on the way down when the tires pick it up and spit it out in your face the story changes. It’s like having slurpy thrown on your face on a nice cold day, with a little sand and dirt... The total ride time was ~4.5 hours…
Julian, CA- Team Slipstream training camp day 6
Friday, January 19, 2007
The second recovery day of the camp was that of today. After conferring with a team mate I decided that the short 1-2 hour ride was a brilliant opportunity for the virtuoso (yours truly) to roll out on the time trial bike. Unfortunately, today the storm that has so mercilessly struck the west struck once more as we ate breakfast- first just a little snow, then a whole bucket of it. I guess that’s what you get here in “tank-top country…” It’s probably good it hit today on a short easy ride (tt bike or not) instead of an epic 5+ hour one; we’d have had to stop in one of those cliff dwellings to take shelter or something.
posted by Tom Peterson @ 1:05 PM
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