Steady climbs, Salmonella snacks, & compression stockings

The day started with Gluten-free banana-walnut pancakes and coffee. Yum. We started late, rolling out around noon with a 50-60 mile ride planned. The wind chill was definitely not as bad as Tuesday, but it was still cold. Cold enough to make the contents of our water bottles slushy and at times frozen. This fact became key at about mile 38 in the ride.

So while in West Virginia, we are fortunate enough to not have cell phone reception. If you don't want to be reached, no problem. We do check our email so I was commiserating with a girlfriend who had discovered her husband threw out her recent purchase of peanut butter in his subtle way of ridding the house of fat products. (This man is NEVER allowed in my kitchen. I like having 6 gallons of ice cream available at all times. And beer. And milk. And steel cut oats.)

Anyway...I learned via email that my friend's divorce was averted upon learning that hubby-dear took the coveted peanut butter to work for lunch. So he wouldn't be throwing out the two new jars she brought home. Upon reading this email rant over peanut butter, I wrote back something to the effect of "you should both be throwing out that peanut butter ASAP-- haven't you read about the salmonella outbreak that is sickening hundreds and being recalled from every store?"

When I returned from our ride today, this email awaited me: "the commercial single-family stuff is ok, it's the mass-produced quantity packaging (i.e. industrial sized (hospital) or products (i.e. peanut butter snack crackers) that are the problem)."
EFF! If you look closely in the picture above where the Goat and I are posing with our mid-ride re-fueling snack purchased at the local BP station, you will note the aforementioned peanut butter snack crackers. I repeat, EFF. I sure hope that bottle of CeraSport kills Salmonella.


Goat thought it funny to write to my teammates that I arrived in W.Va with everything but my bicycle. Au contraire. I'm actually riding my beloved Specialized Ruby (soon to be swapped out for my new Specialized Tarmac SL). Chicken is with me.


This last picture has a few explanations and stories behind it. The Verge kit is a sample which I was trying on for fitting before we place our team order. Below those Verge shorts are my compression thigh highs. Love them. They love me back. Tomorrow I hope my legs love climbing some more.

Let's talk numbers. Briefly. Today we clocked 54 miles. Goat and I had the gadgets to track our watts and HR, etc. Chicken knew the route. We started the ride hard just trying to warm up. I know we warmed up, but we rarely slowed up. In fact, we spent several miles attacking each other and chasing down. Then before every climb, Goat challenged me to climb without ever getting out of my saddle. Awesome. Not hard to do when your ass is frozen to the seat. Badgers can climb! At mile 38, I cracked---the first time---and Goat brought up the great idea of having us attack her on the 10 mile climb back home. It was at that point that I reminded Goat that my two water bottles were frozen and I would be playing target practice at her helmet. Those would be my two attacks home.

Now mind you that earlier in the ride when I was noting the solid consistency of my water bottles, Goat had said, in all seriousness, "oh just put one against your chest and underneath your jacket. It'll warm it up." WTF? It's below 30 degrees out here and you want me to put this 16 oz ice block against the only part of my body still warm? I repeat, WTF? When I bonked the second time--mile 48--I started to get angry. Goat was no where to be seen. (Note: At this point, the heat from my eyes mixed with the cold air was fogging up my glasses so I could not even see to read my SRM.) Goat could have been 5 feet in front of me for all I know. Chicken later tattled on me and said I was mumbling to myself, "You take your bottled ice and stick it in your crack to warm it, you annoying goat." I love you goat. You pushed me today and my numbers show it.

We compared our power data and HR data at dinner. I'll share the amusing data. On a ride that lasted almost 4 hours, I spent 1 minute and 48 seconds in my recovery HR zone. That's it. Eff. Goat spent almost 5 minutes in her recovery HR zone. I spent 42 minutes riding in my VO2 max watts zone. Goat spent 7 minutes riding in her VO2 max watt zone. I should have offered Goat my peanut-butter Salmonella crackers. Just kidding. Yummy chili and cornbread for dinner followed by baked Apples with pecan-caramel glaze and lots of wine.

Badger out.