Sometimes Wise, Sometimes Otherwise
She’s 1. She’s brown. She’s tabby. Shes from the Anti-Cruelty Society. She’s Eve. And Eve’s a cat:
Current nicknames: Evie, Evestir, Eveness, Evers, Evetastic, Evomatic, Evo Stevo, Evening, Evorama, Kittycat, Katzeschmatze, Kitters, Catnip, Catopolis
I told Jenny this morning that the thing I look forward to most about going to work is grabbing a chocolate croissant on the way there. It’s all downhill after that.
That’s a lie, actually. I’m finding I quite like the firm (as well as the croissant). Today was a bit frustrating though. I felt I was getting the hang of things so well last week; then I hit a snag this morning. Guess it all just doesn’t come together in a day, huh?
I don’t do this a lot, but I stayed home from a race today to watch a race. I had actually intended to hop on my bike and ride over to the Fall Fling Criterium right after the worlds, but the Universal streaming coverage online (which was very decent) didn’t finish until after noon with commercials. By then, I didn’t want to have to race from the race to my race…and perhaps not even make it!
I’m not too disappointed, though. The worlds road race is always a favorite to watch because so many riders tend to have chances; the course, the distance, and the tactics all always contribute to that. All that said, good on Italy and Alessandro Ballan!
Ansgar asked me in the car yesterday who I liked for the road race. I said Valverde and Wegmann, the latter of which more of a dark horse who performed, the former who just let everyone down (like always!). In fact, his teammate Oscar Freire had a good recap in the CyclingNews.com report:
“[T]he Spanish team rode a very bad race. Italy rode a good race. But we…we were not at top level. It was important to us to not initiate breaks, but if a break went, we had to be in it. Valverde should have been in that group with Rebellin, Ballan and Cunego. But he wasn’t, and with three Italians, the escape was validated behind.”
Well, there’s always next year!
So I was trying to count how many rides (not even races–times just riding my bike) I have done since May this summer (the last time I was as gung-ho as I had been for years), and I think the number was 18. Needless to say, I didn’t expect much from kitting up for the Fall Fling Road Race today.
On the way there, I was asking aloud exactly why I was doing this (maybe just to test out the new PowerTap?) when my teammate Luke responded, “I think I’m just racing out of habit.” Without any goals or anything at this point in the year, I think the only reason anyone was there is because they were cyclists and cyclists race bikes. Okay.
So the power numbers above confirm 1) My PowerTap works, 2) I did not make the breakaway, and 3) Pretty low power + much higher normalized power = Lots of coasting! Yes, the field mostly shut down as of Lap #3 (of 6), but it was fun anyway. Plus, I got closer to the elusive 1000-Watt mark in a sprint so that’s cool.
Actually, what was quite encouraging was when I was trying to bridge to the break of three with a couple other dudes, and I clocked 342W normalized for those five minutes. I was stoked to record that for the first time in a race back in March! Of course, even with some of the power there, what I learned was recovery time was not! I pretty much blew up, died, and rode the rest of the race at the back of the field–a sure sign I’m out of form–but at least I know something’s there.
Mid-October or early November starts the real training…
I’m not too into baseball these days. In fact, most of the time baseball-induced traffic jams just tick me off.
So imagine my delight when all the White Sox fans at work come in depressed this week because my home state’s team has diminished their playoff chances.
The end of baseball in Chicago (well, half of Chicago, and only for half the year) is a good, early Christmas present for me.
Go Twins!
