Tour of Utah

Well the last couple weeks have been fairly straight forward, lots of riding. LOTS of riding. There is only one way to prepare for the 'hardest stage race in America' and that's by riding the hardest stages of the hardest stage race in America.

The Tour of Utah is a 6 day race. The first is a very short and fast prologue time trial. Day two is a road race with two major climbs and two minor climbs. Day three is a fairly flat start and a 20 mile uphill finish at the high point of the Wasatch Range on Mt Nebo. Day four is a flat time trial at the Miller Motorpark. Day 5 is an epic climb with 4 major climbs and two climbs that are beyond major, they are huge and very very steep. The last day is a 90 minute crit in downtown Salt Lake City.

When I returned from my last trip I decided to take a real rest week. I took 3 of the 7 days off and the rest of the week did no more than 2 hr long rides. It felt great and it was much needed after the last two months.

Recovered, it was time to get back to work. I threw down back to back 28 hour weeks with intensity every other day. I did nearly all of my hard work uphill. I think I've hit every major climb within 100 miles at least a couple of times now. Things have really been coming together and I feel like I am in the best riding shape I've been in all year, good timing.

Recovery has been extremely important these last couple weeks as I need to come back from this block very quickly. I've done my best to get my legs into some cold water after every workout. Its not my favorite thing in the world but it seems to be helping a lot. I've also been practically living in a pair of compression socks. I can't decide it they do anything or not, but hey, I'll give them a go.

These last couple of days have been a bit easier. I was pretty low on energy on Tuesday and Wednesday and I started to wonder if I had gone too deep but on Thursday it all started to come back together. I've been feeling better and better every day now. By Tuesday I should be ready to rock and that is the day of the prologue.

Following the Tour of Utah I'm planning on taking a bit of a break from training. I will have done nearly 40 races this summer and I don't want to fade midway through the winter. My special ladyfriend, Crystal is headed to California next Thursday to begin a Masters program at UC-Berkeley and I may head out there for a few days to help her get set up and explore the East Bay a bit more.

After that its time to get on the rollerskis and relearn how to use my arms. Should be interesting given that my triceps have migrated south for the summer.

More after the ToU. You can follow results on tourofutah.com.