A beautiful day

Woke up to a black sky leaking pink at its eastern edges.  Janet wisely set the alarm for 6am and a quick snuggle later, the La Pavoni is steaming two cups of milk in the kitchen.  Karl comes down after laying in bed for a few minutes; he's on the top bunk now and is confident enough at nine years of age to head down stairs without repeatedly asking Johann if he's awake until Johann is actually awake.  Johann is probably going through a growth spurt right now and sleeps hard onto 7am, late for our family.

A skinny latte and a bowl of grapenuts, two sandwiches made and lunch bags loaded, and I'm filling waterbottles for my morning ride.  Riding to school actually crossed my mind when I learned the high today would be near freezing, but our road is still a mixture of ice and snow melded with the gravel and Janet is meeting with teachers in Galena and I'm picking up the kids after school, so my time to spin is now.  Such is our daily dance.

Ten minutes into the warmup, Johann and Karl come in to say good-bye, they don't want to hug the sweating guy on the bike, but smile and wave and I'll see them again in a few hours.  Today's workout is alternating spin-ups and sprints, each 30s with five minutes spin in between.  The first set of six, I spin in level 1 (>165 watts, 135bpm) and the second set has me 'recover' with a bit higher pace (175-195watts, 136-145bpm).  I'm always a bit leery of this workout, the fifth or sixth all out sprint can leave me feeling a bit woozy. 

Today went well.  Instead of having the third stage of the Tour Down Under on (internet connection to cycling.tv was down), I watched Marco Pantani put the wood to Jan Ulrich in the Alpes during the 1998 Tour de France.  My focus alternates between the beautiful countryside, the village storefronts, the riders' faces under stress, and my stress as the computer ticks down to my next interval.  Time slows: Was the last interval a spin-up or sprint?  Sprint.  Whew, still six more minutes till the next max effort.  What cadence did I maintain last time?  140.  Still 30 seconds to go... grab a drink and glace at the screen, "Jan Ulrich's face is a mask of pain." Glance down, 12 seconds.  Keep the gear the same and glance at the average watts for the rest interval, 158, still within the Active Recovery zone.  Three, two, one and the watts shoot up to 330 and the cadence hits 130, 135 and finally sticks at 145. 

30 seconds takes at least 10 minutes and a beep and I'm spinning easily again.  Alpe d'Huez is behind me and Marco is comfortably in the Tour lead an American (not THAT American) Bobby Julich in second.  Jan has slipped to third; I wonder what's going to happen next?