Watching the Tour de France is truly fascinating after having gone on some aggressive group rides. I know first hand what it’s like to be dropped, and how hard it is to get back to the group once you have been dropped, and how a moment of inattention can make a huge difference in your place in the group.
Stage 5 was another exciting day of breakaways, crashes, and split pelotons. There was also bickering among the teams as to who should do the work of pulling. That cost the peloton dearly… Fabian Cancellara moved up to drive the pace too late to catch the breakaway, allowing Thomas Voekler to take the stage. Voekler has been riding the tour for many years, and this is his first stage win. Yay…I am always happy to see an underdog win.
My 14 year old daughter, Becky, and her friend, Rebecca, were watching it with me for a little while.
Rebecca asked “Are they wearing panty hose?”
Becky replied “No, they have on lycra shorts.”
Rebecca then asked “Why are their legs so smooth?”
Hahaha…I explained that male cyclists shave their legs for aerodynamics and road rash reasons!
Today’s inspiration:
Before the tour, they interviewed Lance Armstrong. He said that the hardest thing about getting back into the tour was getting back up to speed on the intensity of racing, and that you can’t reproduce that in training.
I have found that to be so true in my own racing life. My very fist half ironman race, I thought I had a perfect nutrition plan. I had practiced it on my long rides, so thought I was good to go. Trouble is, your stomach reacts differently during the intensity of racing. I got a cramp with my first bite of solid food, and that cramp stayed with me the entire 3+ hour bike ride.
After that experience I learned to use some of my races as “Tune-up races” to experiment with nutrition, hydration, pacing, etc. Last year I used Bandit;s Challenge (a difficult oly race) to practice my Nutrition stratagy for Duke half. I just went easier in the bike than I normally would for an OLY race. That worked perfectly, and when race day came for Duke half, my nutrtion plan was spot on.
I am using Triangle as an experiment with tapering. The training plan book that I use always has what seems to be too many hard workouts during the taper. For Pinehurst and Rev3Tri, I cut way back on what my plan said to do, erring on the side of more rest during the taper. But for Triangle, I am doing exactly what the Level 7 Sprint plan says to do, and actually a little bit more because I am keeping the distances of my Level 3 Ironman Plan. Also, I went a little overboard on this weeks Inside Out Sports training ride going hard for 35 minutes, instead of just 24. Honestly, I feel great. My legs feel ready for speed.
The only thing I need to do is have a date with my Rodney Yee Yoga DVD. I am pretty tight, and once again have neglected the Yoga.
Oh, I think Rebecca is a swimmer, actually. I just figured she’d never seen clean shaven guys’ legs before.
In Rebecca’s defense, swimmers do sometimes wear panty hose for resistance in the pool. They would look pretty funny on a cyclist.
My girlfriend also hates when I shave my legs. I think she gets surprised in bed and thinks that some random girl slid in next to her.
I love Rodney Yee!! Too bad I haven’t done it in over a year…but I have found the glories of the foam roller…fantastic stuff.
I think shaved legs on guys is very sexy!!!
the wife makes fun of me relentlessly for shaving my legs. it makes no difference in my speed, but it does make the road rash easier to treat.
good luck with the triangle this weekend! I ended up skipping that one. maybe next year.
I have just recently started doing Rodney Yee’s yoga and I love it so far. It’s way more difficult than I expected yoga to be (as a non-yoga person I thought it was just elongated sessions of stretching). I am hoping the yoga helps to keep away the soreness I experienced in my legs last week the day after my first brick (my quads literally did not want to operate — it was hell).