Training for the Cape Epic

Since the CE is right around the corner and the Ironbike is right after that, I won't be doing any 24 hour solo races until after July. So I'll miss the Old Pueblo race and the NORBA 24 Solo race too. That's a real bummer since I really wanted to do the NORBA race again--never been to Wisconsin. I'll still be racing but all my races leading up to the CE will be for training; some local XC races, a 50 miler (the Vision Quest), and some 12 & 24 hour duo/team efforts. I'll be working on my starts--the pace for the first 1-1.5 hours. From my recollection, my CE partner tends to start out faster than I usually do.

I put the new Powertap on the road bike and have been on a few rides with it. I wish I'd listened to Lynda and got one of these things last year. Now I can take the guess work out of how much I need to eat to cover the workouts. It comes out to about 1600 extra calories/day. That's (Lynda if you are reading this please skip to the next paragraph) an extra doughnut for breakfast, a slice of pizza to go with lunch, some M&Ms when I get hungry around 3pm, and ice cream after dinner.

Now I'm thinking about getting one for my mountain bike...if only there was a hub for disc. The only thing that I don't like about the PT is that it downloads data via a serial port...inconvenient for newer boxes.

The Link software that the Powertap comes with is a complete waste. After a couple of minutes playing with it, I downloaded the CyclingPeaks software. It's has much more functionality than the Link software. The only problem is that if you want two copies of it, say one for work and one for home (or one for a desktop & one for a laptop) then 2 copies of the software need to be purchased. Dave LaMay, from CP, helped me out and I'll be able to get the second copy for 50% off which isn't bad.