Two More

Monday was a rest day at the Tour, so I rested by riding 35 minutes with very little resistance at VeloSF.  I had a RAMP test scheduled for Tuesday and when Kate, the coach who would administer the test, saw me, she asked sternly: "You're going to take it easy today?"  One should be well-rested for these tests.  I responded by pointing to my power meter, which read puny 70 watts.  She nodded approvingly.

And Tuesday was test day.  I spent 50 minutes on the bike between the warm-up, the test, and cool down.  I expected ... well, I'm not sure what I expected.  I feared a 20% loss of fitness and hoped for 10%.  As with most things, results were a dose of good news-bad news.  Good news was the test went surprisingly well -- much better than I expected.  My Zone 5 starts at 260 watts, just 10 watts (4%) below where it was before I got hurt.  My theory about this is that I was initially tested two weeks after I started riding at VeloSF.  I became stronger in the ensuing three months.  I intended to have the test done after Solvang Double, but we know what happened to those plans.  As a result of the injury, I lost fitness but only back to where just a little below where I'd been in January.  So, definitely good news.

Bad news is that I'm going to have to start riding harder in classes :-).

Other bad news is that I appear to have given myself a stress fracture at the base of two of my toes from walking weirdly and too much.  Good news is that it shouldn't affect my riding.

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