Numbers, Schmumbers

I rode a whopping hour and 45 minutes today and even did about five minutes tempo to see how things felt. The good news is that there really wasn’t any pain, the bad news is that I’ve got a bit of work to do on the conditioning front. Not that I expected any less (or more?), I just forgot about the “pain” in No pain, no gain. My average heartrate was 135 for a ride that only averaged 150 watts. That’s pretty dismal, but I’m not too worried about the form coming around – I officially have one month from today to prep for Superweek.

Here’s another interesting number: so the report from my pre-surgery bloodwork said I have a hermatocrit of 47. That was pretty surprising to me considering I’d been off the bike for at least 3 or 4 weeks before the test. However, I’ve always had a pretty high level. Whenever I had blood work done while I was going to school in Colorado, my hermatocrit consistently came in between 48 and 49.5 – which I believe happens to most athletes at altitude. But 47, at sea level? I’m afraid the high percentage of red blood cells in my body is a result of my lack of taking deep breaths – really, I should switch to decaf… ok not really. More than likely it probably has something to do with the fact I have peanut sized lungs but insist on being an endurance athlete. My actual VO2? Now that’s a number I’ll never share… because I don’t know it and I don’t want to. As Coach Farrell says, “bike racing is all about suffering.” Yes indeed.

I leave you with a funny story, of course made better if you can picture my 125 lb. teammate Alex and his current hairstyle ... Due to prompting from Ben DeMong (he of Cat. 4 money-winning fame), Alex, a.k.a. Sugar Glyder, is pondering children: “…the world would undoubtedly be a better place with a bunch of little sugar glydars glyding around with their little mowhawks and [pulled-up] high socks…"

I cherish the thought.