Tour d'Albuquerque

If you live in Albuquerque, as with many cities, in order to do a century training ride you have to go outside of town or ride loops around the city, or live in a city whose distance across is 100 divided by pi. You're welcome for that math moment.

Sweet Baboo works these routes out for me. Our training rides nearly always begin with a trip to San Felipe Pueblo and back for the first 60 miles. Today, we followed that by a loop around Albuquerque. It was a GORGEOUS day, and now that I've been doing these century rides my plans for a the bike at Couer D'Alene are crystallizing.

First, clothing: I've found through several experiences that two layers of pants works best for me on the bike. When I wear a snug-fitting layer covered by a slightly less snug outer layer, any friction occurs between the layers instead of against my skin. At IM-CDA I'll wear my tri-shorts on the swim and then pull on my cycling shorts over them. (I first read about this idea because ultrarunners will employ the same idea and wear two pairs of socks) Rounding out the lower-body comfort plan is my Specialized Dulce saddle, with which I can spend oodles of time in just about any sitting position because the cutout allows me to learn forward without a lot of pressure on my, em, frontal lady area.

I'll be testing a final upper-body combination next week, but so far it looks like I'll be wearing a sleeveless bike jersey over a bra top. Depending on the temperature, I'll probably start out wearing my Terry bolero, which I can take off an wrap around my waist if it gets hot. Boleros are awesome for big girls that heat up. They keep arms and shoulders warm while letting your core vent. Finally, I have some nice Pearl Izumi gel gloves.

Second, nutrition: I will be drinking sports drink throughout the bike, and be supplementing it with 2-3 fig newtons about every 30 miles or so carried in my bento box. At the halfway point, in my special needs bag, will be a Red Bull. Red Bull rocks. I won't be carrying a hydration pack this time, because I didn't use the one I carried at LooAvul. I'll rely on the bottles passed out on the course and carry them in my flatwing, which I've practiced using and is now my preferred way of carrying bottles.

Tomorrow: the Baboo, myself, and friends will be taking our long sleeved wetsuits up to Lake Cochiti, which is still pretty chilly, and I'll be doing this every Friday from now on until we leave for CDA. I need to practice using my long-sleeved wetsuit, and this is the only place to do it.

On an unrelated note: Riding my bike 100 miles around Albuquerque earned me 50 WeightWatchers points. If you'lle excuse me, I'm going to go eat a pizza.

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