Mid Season Slump and Drunken Badgers

Ever since the San Luis Obispo race I've been suffering from longer than usual recovery times after a big effort. I feel tired when I head out. The wind has been beating me up, as has the onset of the summer heat of Las Vegas. It's hard to back off, but I'm going to have to. The next race, the one that got me started again last August is coming up in just over a month, the Skull Valley Road Race in Arizona. So I'm going to have to train smart and make training plans based on recovery for the next week or so.

Rather than detail every mile I've ridden for the past week, here's some interesting stats instead:

Saturday's Stats:
Miles: 60.6 with the Starbuck's Group Ride. Over thirty starters. I'm the oldest by 15 years. I place 5th on the climb. This does not make me popular. It rains on the run down to the Pahrump Highway and my brilliantly clean R3 is turned into a mud pie. My nice, clean Paramount kit is spotted with road dirt. The Badger was not amused.

I leave them to scratch and strut at the Blue Diamond store and finish my ride.

Sunday through Tuesday: Wind and more wind leaves the Badger tired and mildly irritable (it must be the wind). I did power climbs and a series of 30 second intervals into the wind. I know how to have fun.

Interesting stats for 2009:
Lifetime miles passed 399,000 last week.
Miles for 2009 passed 7,000 last week.
Miles on the road to get to races: over 5,000 so far this year

The Badger makes International News!

One more thing: that's my man in green on his nice, new Cervelo retaining the Green Points jersey behind that sprinting monster, Cavendish.