Hello again, thanks for tuning in. Here’s an update about my weekend training and upcoming plans. Saturday, I did a lovely jaunt up Wolf Creek with a teammate of mine, I stayed in zones 1-3 pretty well, and things went fairly smoothly, no incidents this time (that was a good 4.5 hour ride). After riding, I scrambled my things together and headed up to Portland to see Tyler Farrar speak at River City Bicycles (really cool shop by the way, lot’s of toys). I scored some free water bottles, got his autograph and learned a little about what its like in the pro peloton, race radios, upcoming rival teams, etc. He was a pretty cool guy and shared some interesting information with us. One thing Tyler talked about was during the major tours (i.e. all spring and summer) the team was on a gluten free diet proposed by Christian Vande Velde. This is more so of an attempt at seriously minimizing gluten as opposed to going “cold turkey.” The thought process behind this diet as I understand it, is to reduce the amount of inflammatory foods in your diet which can inhibit your performance. I’m still reading up on this diet and am seriously considering it during race season. After looking at my pantry currently, the change wouldn’t be that difficult, changing out my pasta for rice, swapping crackers for rice cakes & crackers, etc. I’ll update more about my decision for this diet soon. Being that my dad is allergic to wheat, and growing up with all these foods in the house, the transition to these new foods doesn’t seem that challenging as I already have a liking for these “bland” foods.
Sunday’s training ride was going to be my second Team Oregon ride, I was extremely excited because there were going to be some of my old teammates there and I would also meet some new people as well. It started at 9:00 from the base of the West Hills in Portland. I wrote out directions the night before, prepared my recovery drink and energy bar (I’m experimenting with Luna bars, they’re great so far) I got extremely lost and arrived at my destination 2 minutes before the ride left, whew! We began immediately to do some serious climbing into the West Hills, my legs were feeling alright but after doing Wolf Creek the day before I was a little nervous. 4.25 hours later and thousands of feet elevation gain (I don’t have exact numbers because my computer decided to hate me today), my legs were starting to feel tired, my HR was relatively low for the amount of work I was doing and it felt really good to have the support of the Team O riders around me. It was such a great ride, Portland from on top of a high ridge is beautiful, we did a little time on the flats around Hilsboro which was also gorgeous. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and can’t wait to move up to Portland to be more connected to this team and the riding. I am very glad on my decision to race for Team Oregon this upcoming season, everyone is so supportive, the team is well organized and the rider experience/ knowledge base is huge.
Monday is a rest day, so I may go climb with a friend of mine here in Portland, Tuesday I go in for surgery and then it’s about a week off the bike, hopefully I won’t lose too much fitness so I can get back into it again. Well, until next time.
Cheers.
