Visit from Denmark!

A week that started a little weak ended really solid. Last night i duplicated the succesful fish and raw vegetables-dinner, and felt relatively well rested when I woke up at 7 am. Headed towards Mt Lemmon at 8.45 and was a bit surprised to find out it was 20 miles/1.05hrs. Rode up and down Catalina Hwy till I met the Gunn & Zajicek group. My legs were a bit toast from yesterdays 6.30 hrs ride, but then Phil Z, http://www.philzajicek.com/, told me he had ridden 155 miles/250km, with 2.30 hrs motorpacing behind his dad Mark! Motorpacing takes place at 30-50 mph and serves to mimmick a racelike situation as the rider will have to keep really close (inches) to the guy in front, not to get dropped. It takes great skills and communication from both guys, but Phil´s ridden behind his father for years now, so they´re diving like on fluid organism. He mentioned a ridiculous number of kilojoules - a number I won´t even dare to type here, afraid of being accused of exagerating. His going back to freezing Boulder, CO, tomorrow and wanted to get as much mileage as possible, while down here in the sun. He´s aiming at 22 hrs in three days, with lots of intensity, while here in Tucson! Back in Boulder he´s riding two times a day: one of them a hometrainer session and an outdoor session if the weather allows it - typically on his cross bike in the snow. He´s riding his TT-bike 10 hrs a week to get used to the different position - that´s a lot of hours on a hometrainer, on what most cyclists would consider an uncomfortable position. He´s satisfied to get at least one +5 hour ride a week and the rest on the trainer. Next week his team, http://www.teamhealthnet.com/, is on a training camp in Solvang, CA, as preparation for the upcoming event: Tour of California. Tour of California is by far the greatest stage race in the US and has all the Pro Tour Teams participating, plus of course, the best ranked US teams, as Slipstream. Ed: PZ rode for Navigators last season.

Anyway, I said goodbye to the group at mile zero as I knew their easy tempo would be way to hard for me. Curtis Gunn started out in "power mode", churning the 53/11 up the mountain at 40 rpm!!! He disappeared from my view by the first switchback. I focused on my own thing and let Z, Sheldon and the young studs go instantly. I was doing all 9 miles under 5min/mile/HR cap 150, but they just flew away... I stopped at mile 9, ate a banana, put some clothes on and enjoyed the beautiful mountain vistas and the warm sun (20C). I spun up through the shady/chilly Bear Canyon till mile 12, before I turned around - saving the nearby Windy Point till later. Snow and ice at the roadside made it interesting crossing the thawing water across the road - would there be ice underneath? Met Skiles on my way back to Curtis and Stella. I picked up their VW Jetta, with stick shifting, and put my bike in the trunk. I have borrowed their car for ten days, which will completely change my lifestyle and experince - I am now mobile! This country is made for auto transportation (doesn´t include human powered vehicles!) as everything is so spread out. I wanted to fill the car up with gas and to my big surprise 20 USD half filled the gas tank!!! that would have been triple the price in tax ridden Denmark - which makes sense btw.

I got 145km/5.05hrs/1550 vertical m. of riding and had 29.29 hrs of training for the week - temptingly close to the 30 hr/week barrier... So I donned my running shoes and went for a wobbly 9km/41 min run and ended up with 30.10... And feeling great, by the way!

Feels like I could handle this training load for week in and week out, right now, but I´ll step back a bit in the following week, to allow for some recovery and hopefully come back stronger and fresher in week 5, when Dan and Peter comes to town to have their butts kicked!

I won´t even mention the catastrophe of Greenbay being sent out of Play Offs by Giants!

But I guess it´s appropriate to mention the arrival of a special guest from Denmark; my dear friend and ex-colleague Elke Brøns! She´s gonna be here for ten days and I´ll try and be a good host. I´ve got a feeling she doesn´t mind hanging out at coffee shops and doing some power shopping, so that should go along nicely with a rest week... She was a little groggy from the long flight but we stopped by La Salsa to grab a Gande Burrito. I had a quarter gallon mango chutney - love it. We had a nice go to bed beer, while watching one of our mutually favourite movies: Magnolia by PT Anderson - FROGS!

This weeks numbers:

• Running: 56,5 km - 4.19 hrs
  
  
• Cycling: 744 km - 25.50 hrs
  
  
• Total: 799 km - 30.09 hrs
  

Future goal for this stay: riding +1000 km in a week (cycling, that is...)