Trust me, I know what I’m doing

Posted by Neil Browne on May 3, 2008 in Blog, Training | 4 comments

Cruz enjoys beating the crap out of me on the bike

When I returned from the Tour de Georgia I discovered that I was invited to participate in this year’s Etape du Tour. This is a mass start ride that covers stage 10 of this year’sTour de France. That means 165k which “scales the famed Tourmalet and finishes atop Hautacam. The L’Étape is a no-nonsense ride/race with no rider/sag provided. So arrive in shape and be prepared for a challenge.” So I immediately do what any Type A, Obsessive/Compulsive, insecure person would due after not training for two weeks: I immediately started to train. I subscribe to the Floyd Landis philosophy of training: there is no such thing as over training, just being under prepared. I got off the plane late Tuesday night and was booked to see my pilates trainer the next morning at 8:15AM. She is a no nonsense instructor and dropped the hammer on me. After that I dragged myself home I made two phone calls: one to another Type A, Obsessive/Compulsive rider/friend and the other to Tony Cruz. I figured one of these guys would call me back.

Looking "pro" in our new team kit

Cruz responded first and told me he was riding up the bike path to Whittier (about 25 miles away) and then do several intervals up Turnbull Canyon. I told him I’d ride up to Whittier and then turn back, missing the fun of hill repeats. I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid. I latched onto the back of Cruz’s wheel most of the way up and did one hill effort before turning tail and returning home, sore as a dog. The real kicker of the day was the fact that the Garmin Edge 305 unit I’ve been using finally died. It didn’t run out of power, it just stopped working. Not being able to record every nuance of my ride was like having a splinter that I couldn’t get out. It just annoyed me. Now the Garmin is a $400 paper weight on my desk. The next day I was at the ROAD office and I planned with Tim (editor and art director deluxe) to ride up The Old Road, a six mile climb that runs along the 5 freeway up the Grapevine. I pounded up the climb at my AT. Today my legs are worthless as our dollar is overseas, so I cruised down PCH at a steady tempo just to stretch them out. And any time I’m not training I wearing my 2XU compression tights trying to recover. My training isn’t over yet. Tomorrow I’m riding the FoodPark ride , then driving down to San Diego to race the Barrio Logan crit. Sunday I’m riding to the CBR crit and doing as many races as I can and then ride home. Next week is production week at ROAD so my training will go down the crapper and I’ll have the time to recover. Yep, I’m a man with a plan.

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