Type: Endurance Ride
Distance: 20.85 miles
Time: 1:00:52
Average Watts: 165 watts
Normative Power: 178 watts
Average Heart Rate: 146 bpm
Total Work: 601 kJ
Average Speed: 20.6 mph

Can you believe it is December 1st already? Holy crap where did November go? The good news is I have all of my Christmas shopping done thanks to the miracle of the net webs. The bad news is if you don’t have something on your porch in the next week, that means you didn’t make the list. Sorry. If you leave more comments you could make the list in 2011.

Now this is more like it. I loved this ride — not sure why it felt so much better than my run did yesterday, but it did. I didn’t get more sleep or anything, but I think I was into this ride mentally. I kept the power at 170+ watts for the majority of this ride. As I watched my heart rate was closer to 155 bpm throughout the ride, but I report exactly what the WKO+ software reports. The normative power was about where I felt I kept the power for the majority of the ride. The significant majority of the time was spent in the Endurance zone when using power zones. But when you use my heart rate zones, most of the time was spent  in the Threshold zone. What that means to me is my heart is not in shape right now and needs some work.

Personally, when my heart is lagging behind my legs, swimming is the best way to help it play catch-up. Really, swimming builds cardiovascular fitness quickly and will help you make greater gains that if you just ran or biked. Even if you are a runner and not a triathlete, you should incorporate swimming into your schedule to help you make greater gains.

Another Cyclist is on the Juice

I know, this is getting to be a little repetitive, but another cyclist has been busted for irregularities with their biological passport. Igor Astarloa, who retired in 2009 when he couldn’t find a team to sign him, was just suspended for two years and fined 35,000 Euros. The funny thing about Astarloa is he is the 2003 World Champion, which is kind of a big deal.

His downward spiral all started in May 2008 when he was fired from Team Milram for irregular blood values. The way cycling works is the UCI (which is the international governing body of cycling) gets a positive on a drug test or in this case irregularities with the blood values (when compared to the baseline established by the biological passport). They take the results and the person through due process. Once the process has been followed, the UCI will recommend to the Cycling Federation of the country the rider is from a penalty. Sometimes the Cycling Federation will choose not to punish the rider and in most cases, it follows the recommendation of the UCI. The Spanish Cycling Federation decided in this case to suspend Astarloa and fine him a good chunk of change.

Remember Astarloa is retired. Why in the world would the Spanish Cycling Federation punish him now?

I think it was a genius move. Remember Alberto Contador is also Spanish. I say hurray for Spain! They punished a doper, even though he is retired to send the message to all dopers that they will punish you, even after you have moved on. It does not matter to the Spanish Cycling Federation. They will hunt you down, punish you, and take your money. To this, I give a 26.2ismycooldown HUGE thumbs up!

Way to go Spanish Cycling Federation. I appreciate your stance on doping and hope that other Cycling Federations will follow your example of punishing dopers regardless of the time of their infractions. I hope it makes some of the old school riders nervous…