Training - Everything But The Bike

So today was the house's official open house. This is when brokers come visit the house - essentially selling the house to the people who will sell the house.

This meant cleaning up. And it meant not really riding.

I snuck in a 90 minute late night ride on the trainer this week. I waited till everyone was asleep (my fiancee and the cats), went downstairs (cats promptly woke up and followed me), and started riding (cats scrammed out of the room when the bike rolls in). I focused on spinning since that's what suffers when I don't train. Instead of cruising along at 95-105 rpms, I slog at 75-85 rpms.

The PowerTap is good in that it graphs your cadence (and heart rate and speed and power). Coasting isn't good because the line drops to the bottom of the graph. It doesn't look good. I like graphs where the line starts at zero, goes up and down in some reasonable range, and then drops to zero at the end.

When I coast two big lines zero out. Power. Cadence.

I tried not to coast too much and ended up mildly successful. I don't recall my power but it was low - often in the low 100's. But I climbed off the bike with my body recalling what it's like to ride again. And that's what I wanted.

Work has been really busy recently and today was no exception. I got back late, tired, had dinner, and just finished up work. Last night I had to work late too (past 10 or so) and joked about how my job is a guaranteed form of birth control.

That and a great way to kill a week or two of training.

I have proof. I have no kids. And my form is, well, faltering.

Anyway, two days before a race is usually a rest day. With a rest week or four (essentially one ride a week), I was thinking any riding would be better than none. Nonetheless, it'll be a day off. Tomorrow I'll spin again in preparation for the race.

The interesting thing about this upcoming race day is that we're also having our "pre-enagagement" photographs taken. Wedding things. I never thought I'd mix weddings and bike racing but I am. And it'll happen at one of the more significant races (for me) - the Connecticut Crit Championships, a.k.a. the Nutmeg Stage Games. I hope that both go well - I don't want to mess up either.

To top it off, I have a true motivation to have a good cam setup as well as use the PowerTap. If this works out I'll explain it but suffice it to say that it's a really intriguing mission and I hope I can accomplish it well.

Now for a good night's sleep.