Today Vincent, Bill & I rode over to Vail today from Silverthorne. It was about 40 miles each way. Nothing flat. Up Vail Pass from Frisco and the back up Vail Pass from Vail. Just a couple thousand foot climb each way. We had a little under 80 miles total and nearly an 18 mph average for the ride. That is with the majority of the ride over 9500 ft. Not bad for lowlanders. I felt pretty good today finally. I can’t really surge, but steady state it was going pretty good. It is so weird coming back from a 4+ hour hot ride and not having my legs torched. I’m not sure I can do anything at this point to toast my legs. I’m too busy breathing to really wear out my legs much. I don’t think that I can come close to acclimating in just a week. I feel better than 4 days ago, but I’ve had enough experience at altitude to know that it is impossible to produce enough red cells to have that as the reason for the good riding day.
It is amazing how many people you see riding out here. In Denver. Up here in Summit County. One thing I’ve noticed is that most the guys on higher end, race bikes have a totally jacked up position. I didn’t even know that they made stems that had a 45 degree angle up. People are riding so high on their road bikes they might as well be riding straight bars. I noticed this trend starting a few years back and it seems to be the norm now. I don’t know who is fitting all these guys at the shops, but the aren’t doing their customers a service.
We’re back in Denver for the next couple days and then back to Kansas for the Tour of Kansas City Friday thru Sunday. It is going to be really hot and really humid this weekend. I haven’t been riding that well for the past month. Especially in the heat. I was hoping that leaving Kansas for this past week would get me out of the funk I’ve been in. Hopefully that is the case, but if not, I’ve really been having a great time changing up the training and doing some stuff I don’t do that often anymore.
Climbing back up from Vail.
Vincent and Lisa's kid, Pascal, doing a final tune-up on my bike while we get ready to ride.
Back in the stream again. The water is super cold. It rejuvenates you legs instantly, or just makes them numb. I'm not sure which.
Steve–love the writing keep it up. You should be fly fishing in those streams. You could wade and get all the cold water you want on your legs. Ask Michael to get you set up with a fly rod.
http://www.sportsscientists.com/
Altitude Adjustment based on the studies shown here seems to support how you have felt better in such a short period of time. I’ve always thought that I was good for the first day @ altitude, then went into the dumps. Seems like the body adjusts better over a short period then we give it credit.