T.A.P. – The Athlete's Potential

London Race day 2 – Men

Men’s race was today. Great day for Specialized with Javier Gomez winning again. It was the first time I got to see the Brownlee brothers race. They are inspirational to watch. Right from the gun they go to the front. They don’t seem to play any games, no checking everyone out, just full tilt from start to finish, stay with me if you can. Great to watch.

Here’s the video from the race.

Race day 2 – Women

Women’s race was today. Great day again for Specialized, with Lisa Norden out sprinting a group of women. It was a pretty exciting race, similar to the Men’s Hy-Vee from 2009, with a group together right to the last 500 meters.

Here’s the video from the race.

Race day 1  – Men

Men’s race was today. Great day for Specialized, with Javier Gomez winning and Simon’s first race back from a hip flexor problem. As you can see above, Simon was taking this pretty seriously. The race was fun to watch, and shoot in my case.

Here’s the video from the race.

Riding in Taos

Sprints on the Bike

I’m sort of a “smell the roses” kind of cyclist! I like to cruise around and if I do get in a hard effort, I gradually go harder. So when I decided to do some bike races and realized I’d have to do many, many very hard short accelerations to stay with the pack, I thought I had better get some done in training first. Ouch! I haven’t tried that hard in ages. I mean like over 20 years. The last few years of my racing I never did any interval under 8 minutes on the bike. What a shock to the system. I thought I got kicked in the chest by a horse. As memory served me, the first time is by far the biggest shock, so I did it again. It was a 45 second attack up a steep grade here in Taos, about 6,800 ft. Second one wasn’t nearly as bad and I had a faster time up the hill. Third one was even faster with no hoof marks. The fourth one was way slower! I was tired. That was all I had for the first workout of this type. ha! Very different from 25 years ago, but fun none the less.