Yesterday I passed 10000 miles for the season.  Think it was riding with Tucker after the ride.  (Those Tucker miles are going to add up.  He’s up to around 4 miles a day now.  I didn’t want to run him too much when he was still growing, but now I’m upping his mileage some.)

I was surprised when I clicked on Strava and saw that it was 10K.  I thought I’d be about a thousand miles short of that.  I really haven’t been riding all that much.  I was sick some, then went out to Colorado and pretty much exclusively rode my MTB, which the hours are good, but the mileage is short.

My daily average is just under 42 miles a day and average speed is 17.6.  That is pretty good, once again, considering how much I’ve been riding MTB.  Plus the speed is slow because I’m lacking a bunch of race miles.

I can’t say all those miles have done much for my racing form, not that I know what that is.  I really would like to do a MTB and see how that goes.  But I’m going to drive to St. Louis on Friday and race 4 NCC criteriums at the Gateway Cup.  Talk about jumping into something I’m not prepared for.  But hopefully, I’ll be sort of prepared for it, after the fact, on Tuesday.  Cycling is great that it works that way.

I have done a lot of the miles alone this year.  I used to hate riding alone and now I do it regularly.  I still would rather go out with a group of friends, or a group of soon-to-be friends, than ride solo, but riding alone works for me now.

It gives me time to think.  I’d think I would be Albert Einstein or something after all that time for thinking?  I’m not.  But it does help me organize my thoughts.  I have to say, as I age, I like looking around at the same stuff, just appreciating it more.  The other night, I opened up the window when I got up to pee and listened to the night sounds for 5 minutes or so.  They seemed so foreign, yet so familiar.  The clouds and storms have been so great this year, that riding around here is like a moving picture lots of the time.

We had a ride scheduled at noon, but got a text from some guys in Lawrence that are riding this way, so we moved it up to 11.  I’m trying to do at least one longer ride a week on my MTB, to get used to it before Chequamegon.  It is weird, but you do pedal just a tad different on a MTB than you do on a road or cross bike.  I find myself pulling up on the backstroke just a little bit more.

Okay, I have to mess with my bike a little before the ride.  Plus, Tucker needs to go romp in the park for a while, or he goes stir crazy.  Have a nice Sunday.

Catherine, Eric and Bill’s team won the Downtown Adventure Race yesterday morning. Bill carried a Garmin with him and I heard it was over 5 miles of running. They are going to be sore, either today or tomorrow.

Our roads suck in Kansas. They are falling apart. This is the shoulder of a State Highway between Lawrence and Topeka. I wonder what the highway workers are thinking?

The mushroom from yesterday opened up.

Tucker’s tongue is pretty long when he is really hot.

A lot of times I scratch my head and try to figure out how these supposed professional cyclist come up with the stuff they do.  Case is point is the statements by both Nairo Quintana and his team mate, Alejandro Valverde, who sit is 1st and 2nd overall in the Tour of Spain currently, that power meters have no place in bike races and should be banned.

Quintana said – “They take away a lot of spectacle and make you race more cautiously. I’d be the first in line to say they should be banned.”

Then Valverde added – “I think they’re really useful for training, but they take out a lot of drama from the sport. In competition you should be racing on feelings.”

Okay, I get it.  They were pissed/disappointed that Chris Froome decided that he didn’t want to go over his limit a couple days ago and rode steady, losing nearly a minute, only to come back and sprint for 2nd on the stage.  He was probably looking at his numbers, both power and heart rate and decided that the pace wasn’t for him.

But, in my opinion, that only made the race way more exciting.  It added, to use Alejandro’s word, “drama” to the race.  You thought Froome was done and then he is resurrected from the near dead.  It was good drama.

Froomes’ answer to those guys – “What? We should go back to single-speed bikes as well?”

There is a ton of stuff that I’d remove from the pro peloton before power meters.  Race radio for sure.  Maybe even carbon rims.  It seems like these guys can’t seem to handle their bikes so good anymore and a constant braking surface would help out immensely.  How about anything electronic on a bike?  We could go on and on.

Power meters and heart rate monitors are personal tools.  I don’t ever look down at my Garmin and think, jesus, I need to ride differently because my numbers are all over the top.  That is just me.  But, I don’t train by these numbers either. Every World Tour team has a power meter sponsor.   Here’s a link to what power meters each World Tour team is currently using. 

I’m sure Chris Frrome knows exactly what he’s capable of at any given moment.  So yes, he uses that tool better than Quintana or Valverde.  Does that mean it should be banned from racing.  I think not.  And really Nairo is a bit of a hypocrite here.  Check out this video at Velonews.com. Nairo is just about ready to crush the field, but is screwing around with his Garmin for a long while.  Go to about 1 minute it to view.

Did you see the finish of today’s stage in Spain?  Think Quintana thought Froome was riding by power numbers there?  I think not, once again.

I’m using a Quarq Elsa, with Shimano rings on my road bike.

And a Stages Dura-Ace left are on my cross/gravel setup.

Tucker ran over to Tuesday night Beer night. He was too hot to hang with the gang.