Not much news on the training front the past two days. Did some light riding on the trainer last night and I don't plan to touch my bike at all today. Rest and relax - that's it.
Been eating a lot of carbs the past few days to carbo load. The old theory on carbo loading required you to first deplete your system of carbs and sugars by shifting your diet more towards protein and vegetables. After a couple of days of this, you would go out and do a depletion ride - ride at a easy endurance pace until you bonk. Then, just like a sponge, your body could soak up all the carbs you would poor into it leading up to race day. The problem with this approach is that it made you feel completely miserable during the depletion phase. Without enough sugar in your system, you get really, really irritable. The new approach is to just increase your carb intake to around 70% for a couple of days leading up to the big event. You get nearly the same results, without the same side effects. Its a lot easier when you are working that's for sure! So, today I had some oatmeal and a banana and bagel for breakfast, some pasta for lunch, and probably some more pasta or rice for dinner. Just pooring it in to the fuel tank for Sunday.
I think racing in America would definately be helped by having more events like San Francisco. The secret to the success of this race really is its difficulty. When you look at the most popular races in the world - races such as the Tour of Flanders, Paris Roubaix, and the Tour de France - they all feature spectacularly tough courses that can reduce some of the strongest riders in the world to tears. I think this is why so many spectators are facinated and entranced by them. In America, the four biggest races are probably Philly, the Zinger, Housatonic, and San Francisco. Philly has the Manayunk wall, Housatonic has a roller coaster course of steep climbs, the Zinger has a horribly brutal course with epic climbs, dirt descents, and Colorado's lung searing altitude, and San Francisco has the ridiculously steep Fillmore Street climb. We need more races like these if we want the sport to grow in America.