Fitness Blogs You Should be Reading — People I want to Ride with

By Mike – January 28, 2011Posted in: Alberto Contador, Blogs you Should be Reading, January Bike Workout

Had a great p.m. ride outside. I decided after my early morning ride that I would do 20.0 miles and I was not disappointed. The sun was shining, the air was crisp, and the legs were there. They were flat towards the end of the ride, but meh, I will take it. It was a great ride. Here are the stats in short: Distance: 20.1 miles, Time: 1:03, Normative Watts: 218 watts, Total Work: 796 kJ. I was actually faster yesterday when compared to Tuesday, which makes me feel pretty solid. I didn’t feel like I pushed that much harder, but it goes to show it is all about perception.

Now for this morning’s ride:

Type: Recovery
Distance: 21.0 miles
Time: 1:00:28
Average Watts: 169 watts
Normative Power: 170 watts
Average Heart Rate: 149 bpm
Total Work: 610 kJ
Average Speed: 21.0 mph

This was just a constant, steady paced effort. You can tell I didn’t really put any sprints or serious efforts in because the average watts and normative power are almost exactly the same. If you look at some of my past interval workouts you will notice a large difference between those two numbers. Two tough workouts yesterday left the legs a little tired, so a recovery ride was just what I needed.

And what kind of a responsible endurance sports blogger would I be if I didn’t mention the Contador suspension? That’s right — the Spanish Cycling Federation finally did the right thing and suspended Contador for a year. And yes, that means he is losing his 2010 Tour de France title. So much for the “I swear I am holding this for a friend Mom” defense. I will write more about this tomorrow.

Blogs You Should be Reading

So I have done a Rock Star edition of the Fitness Blogs You Should be Reading, but this one is going to focus on people who I would love to ride with in real life. The sad thing is there are a couple of people who I have already listed as part of this series who would also make this list (I am talking about you Jeff, Nicole, Big Daddy Diesel, and Tawnee).

There is no criteria for making this list. They are more than likely people who I think I could get along with well. While there are a couple of ladies on the list, it would have nothing to do with drafting off of them as we ride. I really couldn’t think of anything witty to follow that up with so let’s just let it hang out there. Mike never minds getting chicked.

A Code Geek’s Tail — Wes is just one of those guys who you know you would get along with in real life. The guy is analytical about his training like I am and he tries to be objective about his performances. His only drawback is he would show up at 5:00 a.m. to ride, and I don’t love early mornings. Not. At. All.

The Fat Cyclist — Now Eldon lives about 2.0 miles from my house and we haven’t ever ridden together. We ride a lot of the same routes and I mentioned before I yelled for him as we both ran the marathon at Ironman St. George, but we haven’t ever ridden together. He is like a local cycling celebrity, and I will admit to being to little starstruck, even having a small man crush on the guy. But come on, who wouldn’t like to ride with him at least once? I would interview him to find out the secret of his awesomeness. Of course I would post the interview here people.

Living in Driggs Idaho — Oops, I already ride with Rick. I am putting him on this list because I wish I could ride with him more. He is the only person I know who when you ask him how he is feeling on a ride with answer you with “About 86%” and be serious. The dude is a machine.

PBM Coaching — I love Pedro’s blog. Pedro is an amazing coach and active on a couple of forums that I frequent. The great thing about Pedro is he willingly and freely dispenses his training and racing advice. I would love to ride with Pedro because he could drop me like a rock on any climb. He is fast and he is tough. There is nothing like a good beatdown to humble you and recommit you to your training.

Chocolate Shoestrings — Julia is hilarious. If you will indulge me, take a moment and imagine your friend who can keep your whole group in stitches the entire time you are together. That is Julia in a nutshell. While riding with her, I think I would be a fabulous core workout just from laughing so hard. If you haven’t already, you should check out her post on Endurance Live. It was one of her more epic posts.

Elizabeth Waterstraat – Elizabeth is fast. Like scary fast. She is a triathlon coach and is married to an athlete who is just as fast as she is. She just had an amazingly cute boy who has the genetics to be the first athlete to break the sound barrier on the bike. I love her thoughtful and information packed posts. I know the first thing I would hear from her on a ride would be, “you need to work on your speed”. No doubt she would be right.

I have a couple more lists to put up in the coming weeks, so make sure you are paying attention. I am starting to prepare my next give away people. I know you remember the Garmin and iPod give aways, and this one should be just as awesome. Keep your eyes out for the post.

About the Author

I have been participating in running and triathlons for 10 years and love the feeling that training provides. You may not agree with me, but you know you just can't look away...