Racing to Work

For my morning commute to work I decided to see if I could break a long standing mark, 40 minutes. Actually I had never broken 41 minutes to work in reality. Nevertheless, I thought I would see if I could push it the entire way to see if with a concentrated effort I could make it in less than 40 minutes of ride time--not total time. My cyclometer is set to auto-start so that it only keeps track of the time when a front wheel is moving.

It is not a particular hard commute to work, there are only a few hills and if I want to I can take it easy getting there. Coming back is much more work. Anyway, I was huffing and puffing trying to keep my speed and momentum up. I hawked up some phlegm a few times along the way, which is normal for me under hard efforts. One time I noticed that spittle was pink. That freaked me out. I tried to cough a bit to see if I was spitting up blood. Nope, thank goodness. It turned out that my nose was dry and a bit cracked on the inside and this was the source of the blood. No biggie. I rode on with just an occasional taste of saltiness as blood somehow made its way to my mouth. Kinda gross, but I was making good time I didn't want to ruin the effort I had put in to take care of something that wasn't really bothering me that much. Not when compared to the discomfort of trying to maintain a 19 mph pace, which was what I figured I would have to do it make it there in under the 40 minute mark.

I rolled to the shop in 39:34. Sweet, busted a new best by almost 2 minutes over the old best time. Average speed 18.9, which I felt good about. Normally, the only way I would hit that sort of average speed is with aerobars, which I don't have on the Specialized.

My lungs still have some issues--they feel tight at times. But overall I am hopeful that I can punish myself enough this pre-season to have a good cross season.

In other news, I ordered a second wheelset for the Curtlo, which is set up with Campy. They are '09 Mavic Ksyrium Elites. Good wheels I think. I went with Clinchers since I could use a wheel that I can swap between road and cross tires easily. So for the Curtlo I will have the Neuvation C50 carbon tubulars and the Ksyriums. On the Cernitz SS cross bike I will be using the Easton EC90SLX wheels. Of course I could use the Eastons on the Curtlo if I wanted to, I have both a campy and shimano freehub body for it.

Equipment-wise, I am set this year. Fitness-wise I need to keep at it. My mood is good and I think that my diet has me feeling pretty good. Still heavier than I like, but I'll get there.