Rest Day

Thoughts on the TdF:

I don't have anything terribly original to say that hasn't been brought up on blogs and in press and over discussion boards over the last couple of days, but what a fun Tour with these questions lingering all over the hot French asphalt roads:

Is Rasmussen that much better than everyone else in the mountains? That guy put some serious hurt into the peloton. I could see the tendons snap on those poor fucks who were trying to follow him on the last climb, couldn't you? Long Tour ahead, for sure, with lots of TT miles to come, but if that guy keeps putting minutes up on the board in the alpine stages.... Also, Rabo has the Menchov card to play which could make for some interesting strategy in the days to come.

Who's leading Disco? Contador sure looked like the guy with the spirit and the legs on Sunday. Levi made mention of the "Lance strategy" in his post-stage interview. Is that what he's playing? The conservative "hang around the top ten" ploy? And what the hell happened to his chain? Looked like it was in a knot in his rear derailleur. Must be that Shimano crap acting up again.

Who's leading T-Mobile? Fucking Mick Rogers....Damn.

Is Mayo back? That guy put in a couple of big accelerations. Now there's a dude who can both blow up the peloton and blow off the back in the same stage.

Can Moreau make a difference this year? Man, I hope so. He looks good and seems to have a fire lit under his ass and blood pulsing from his eyes.

What's CSC up to? Seems they have a few cards to play as well in Schleck and Sastre plus a little Voight to stir the pot. Haven't seen Voight go out and really fuck with people yet. Looking forward to that day.

Is Vino sitting in and recovering a bit? I hope the guy manages to heal and stay within 5 or 6 minutes going into the Pyrenees where the rage will begin to boil up from his Kazak spine and he will unleash round after round of vicious attacks spewing his rivals into bloody piles across the land.

Can Horner do something beyond serving as loyal teammate? I'd sure like to see him get a stage win.

Lots of racing to go. It's all good. Hell, even G is following along.

And me?

I've gotten in two good training weeks, but no racing. Been pushing near 200 miles a week and getting in some high quality workouts. One thing is for sure: I'm getting smarter with my workouts. What my thick head has learned is that I'm good for two, maybe three, hard days a week. I used to push that number to four and have noticed that I really can't sustain hard workouts for four days. One of the sage warnings is to avoid going too hard on your easy days and not hard enough on your hard days. I'm trying to remedy the tendency I have to fall into that trap.

Today was a full day with my daughter at surf camp. Cold, stormy conditions down at Gilgo, but the water was toasty warm. Tell you what's got me buggered, though. All is going good with the health and training, but my ears are giving me the fits. They've had that cloggy, puffy feeling ever since my bad infections in June. Too much unrelenting swimming, prolly, but when the daughter wants to surf and the waves are tasty, what can you do? Got in an hour of recovery spin on the rollers tonight for that good, warm feeling.

(thanks to Pez for letting me steal the photo)