Dirty hAIRy

This poor air quality sucks. Let's let this whole state just burn down so we can get this out of the way and plant some new seeds and find some fresh air. Yeah, a little ranting never hurt, but this is just impacting on several fronts.

The kids are couped up in the house for the majority of the day because the air is nasty enough that playing outside just results in wheezing and general mucus madness. We're keeping Kleenex in business around my house for sure.

I'm bumming because I can't even see blue sky. Not too much to ask for, but when I don't see it due to general haziness it bums me out. I grew up in the Northwest so I'm used to not seeing blue sky for months, but at least I could rationalize and know that the clouds were bringing rain, which was good for everything (as a kid you do this, knowing that rain at your house in the cold winter means fresh powder for you and your snowboard on Mt. Hood). This crap in the air is just a really bad form of mass population genocide gassing on a subverted level.

Lastly, this poor air impacted me on my training ride today. When I last rode on Tuesday the air didn't bother me. In fact, I think the air quality was a bit better Tuesday night. But back to this afternoon... I rolled south out of Almaden Valley looking to do some sweet spot interval work (i.e. around 90-95% of my FTP). The first 12 minute interval wasn't too bad; the second was a little tougher. Both were within 2 watts of each other for average wattage and in the right range I was looking for.

My apologies to Hutchinson as I was acting anti-social during my second interval as we crossed paths on Santa Teresa. I was heading south, he rolling north sticking that sleek nose/bike/body of his into the headwind.

Another 8 minute interval up and over Willow Springs and then one last 8 minute blast of pain on the way home on McKean. Those last two intervals really hurt. My power on the mark again, but I think with all the dirty air my ability to process oxygen and get it to my muscles was impacted. I got done with those intervals feeling like I had just put myself into a timeout in the pain locker.

If this air quality doesn't get better I might just be sitting on the sidelines for another day or two.