Since the cleanse has been over, I have been feeling much better!!! I am continuing to watch what I eat and I am hoping to get some food allergy testing done soon. However, in the meantime I will just be careful and take note if certain foods affect the way I feel. This week has been a solid week of training with my good old Dad. The week started with some 20 minute efforts where I left my Dad in the dust :) The winds were super strong and being the little pip squeak he is, he couldn't hang. Sadly, our next interval session involved 10 second efforts. My coach, Dan Proux, gave me 5 to 7 efforts; however, due to a battle between father and daughter it turned into 9 efforts. My Dad annihilated me 6 to 3, although I don't really count the 9th one. The next couple of rides were long hours in the beautiful Palm Springs sun. It has been super hot here lately and my tan is starting to get very interesting to say the least, but I promise (FAMILY) I am wearing sunscreen every ride. I think I need to purchase SPF 70 or something like that. My Dad and I did a 4 hour ride through Box Canyon which is now all cleaned up after all of the flooding which created heaps of sand dispersed throughout the roads. We rode to the top of the Canyon where it meets HWY 10 and tried to continue on this remote road to where I thought was a look-out, but clearly I was wrong and we were just paralleling HWY 10 oops. The ride went quite smoothly until we were about 30 minutes from the car and boom, my rear ZIPP blew. Yeah I know you are all thinking who trains on a freaking ZIPP, but my power tap is in the shop getting fixed and that was all I had to ride on. Good thing I was carrying a spare tubular; however, that doesn't do one much good if you can't get the super-glued tire off the WHEEL. So my Dad had to leave me stranded on HWY 111 and go retrieve the car. By the time he got back I had the tire off and the first and second layer of skin off of both of my thumbs :) The next day we both signed up for the Tour de Palm Springs which is quite the big event. There were thousands of riders of all different levels and from all over the place, I definitely met my fair share of Canucks- GO CANADA GO!!! I also got the opportunity to talk with Kristin Armstrong (2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in the Individual Time Trial) who is in Palm Springs with a group of guys from Boise, Idaho doing some training. The Tour de Palm Springs is a casual, fun, family event for some and for others it is an opportunity to get in a solid workout with some hard efforts. Naturally, my Dad and I chose the solid workout group and we were both pretty cooked at the end of the day. Aside from feeling like I had heat stroke it was a super fun event that I would recommend to anyone. Today I had another 4 hour ride with the Tram climb in the middle of my ride. The Tram road is a very steep climb that takes you to the bottom of the Tramway which takes you to the top of the mountain. I am not sure of the stats of this climb, but all I can say is that it is very steep (over 2000ft elevation gain in a short??? distance) and very hard. I started the climb feeling OK and then I started delivering mail as Ben Travis from Palm Springs would say. I couldn't understand why my cadence was so slow and I could barely turn the cranks around and then it dawned on me. I was using a spare wheel from the bike shop with a 23 on the back, I actually stopped and counted the rear cog cassette to confirm that I wasn't going crazy. Yep it was a 23. I made it to the top, barely, and I was pretty much standing and doing the full body bob to the top, but hey I made it!!! Well that is all I got for now. GO CANADA!!!
