2012.34: 7/16-7/22

Thanks to a post on bikeforums talking about a 50th anniversary party at Penrose Park Velodrome in Saint Louis, I've come to realize that our beloved Kissena is also roughly 50 years old.  Sadly, nobody seems to know exactly when the track was completed.  If I figure out, I think Pink Rhino Racing will put on an anniversary celebration as well.  In other news, the date for State Track Championships has been announced.  August 18th.  Mark your calendars.  And on a side note, looking through bikereg I see CRCA is having their own track championships this year.  I guess they didn't feel they were fully expressing their "We're too good for you non-CRCA racers" attitude.  What a bunch of wankers.  EDIT: looking closer at the event, it looks like it might actually be an attempt by Alan to get more CRCA guys on the track.  In which case, I'm all for it.  Though my previous opinion of most CRCA racers still stands.  Deal with it.

Sunday: No riding.  My legs were feeling beat up.

Saturday: Rode up to the lighthouse again.  On the way back I was inspired to check out crane's neck.  It's weird, All the times I rode through the area, I never went down that way because they have a brick gate by the road.  Also, backtracking a little bit, I tried for the old field sprint again, but I came upon a dog in the middle of the road.  Of course he started walking straight toward the side of the road I wanted to pass him on, so I had to slow down.  Boo.  EDIT: I also did 2x10 squats at night.  Couldn't get a third set in.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/201620530
NP/IF/TSS: 201W/0.870/124

Friday: So I had signed up for that latest Rapha challenge on strava.  I don't know why I bother.  I haven't completed a single one.  Somehow climbing a lot or riding a ton don't seem to mesh well with trying to race on the track.  Maybe Strava will start having more velodrome-friendly challenges.  Regardless, I decided to go out in the mist/rain to do some cordwood intervals.  I think in order to beat the challenge I needed to do 120 repeats.  I managed to get in 20.  Around interval 14 or so, I started to get a throbbing in my rear brake, but I just figured it was from a crash I had a few years ago that left the rim a little tweaked.  Interval 17 was very sketchy though, so I stopped and looked at the rim.  Turns out I had a piece of something embedded in my rim.  I wasn't able to pick it out with my finger nail, so I had to take my rear wheel off and use a street sign to scrape the offending bit of whatsit off.  Did three more repeats in a bit of a deluge which finally soaked my socks, and then I gave up and limped home.  On the topic of soaking my socks, I was able to keep my feet dry for so long because I wrapped plastic bags around my shoes and then put my assos shoe covers over top to make it look less stupid.  Genius.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/201270424
NP/IF/TSS: N/A (No powertap)

Thursday: No riding.  Worked for Walter for a bit to get some racing money again.

Wednesday: No riding.  Did 3x10 squats at 96ish lbs.  I think that's about it.  It very likely was rainy during the day or something.

Tuesday: Slept a lot today.  I finally got motivated to ride about an hour before dinner, so I just did a short ride to long beach and back.  Along the way I tried to beat two Strava KOMs just for kicks.  Having a tailwind helped.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/200397681
NP/IF/TSS: 225W/0.972/66

Monday: Rode to Roadworx, the shop of shops, to bring back some handlebars.  It was balls hot, but I survived.  On a side note, there are like 20 different landing avenue segments on strava now.  what the hell.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/200025694
NP/IF/TSS: 193/0.838/155