Tester Rob MacNeill here again.

This week I'm getting back into cyclocross mode with a race coming up Saturday. So, a lot of my training will be focused on prepping for the race and riding my cross bike.

11/11
This might be my only hard day of the week, depending on how I feel. I did a bunch of 1 minute intervals in zone 6 to work on the short bursts of power required for CX. Those are hard and tend to leave me pretty drained afterward. I was able to get through the workout pretty well. During my warm-up I could still feel a bit of residual fatigue from the weekend but it didn't compromise the workout. After the ride, I wore the Skins tights for several hours and again slept in them overnight for added recovery. As I've been experiencing the past week, I think it helps a little bit.

11/12
I felt pretty well rested in the morning and did a short run in the AM at a moderate pace. I hadn't run in a while so I felt pretty rough during the effort. That feeling carried over to my lunchtime ride, which focused on cyclocross skills: dismounts, barriers, runups, technical cornering, and so on. It's not a very demanding workout but I still felt pretty worked over from my run. Afterward, I put the Skins on again. Now in the early evening, I'm feeling pretty good. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Some observations about the Skins Sport tights I've been testing:
I'm surprised by how cool they feel under pants or by themselves. My legs never seem to overheat in them. The added ventilation from a perforated patch keeps the crotch cool as well--a nice touch. Of course it's not summer here in NorCal, but it's not cold either.

I've washed the tights several times now. They come clean easily either by hand washing or in the washing machine on a gentle cycle. They air dry pretty quickly too. Depending on the weather, could be half an hour to 2 hours. So far the material is holding up well, and I've spent a lot of time in the tights in the past week. There are no problems with the garment at all. It would be interesting to ride in the tights to test durability, perhaps I'll try that in the upcoming days to see how they perform.

Rob Macneil says hello again

11/7/08
Well, life interfered with my training yesterday and I didn't get a chance to do much. The upside is that I felt extra rested today. I went out for a couple of hours and did three 10-25 minute climbs at threshold pace and rode tempo between climbs. My legs were feeling really good, one of the seemingly rare days when the power comes easy. After the ride, I cleaned up and put on the Skins tights for several hours to help recover for the two longer endurance rides I planned over the weekend.

11/8/08
I'm trying to balance the demands required for cyclocross racing and the training required for the upcoming road season. This weekend I'm not racing cross. Instead, I'm focusing on endurance. After a few months of doing mostly criteriums and cross races of 45-90 minutes in duration, I haven't been training the long endurance.

Today I rode with my team to the coast, which always involves scaling some sustained climbs in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I focused on tempo-to-threshold climbing power and having a good time with my teammates. I was feeling a bit tired, even at the start of the ride, from the hard ride the day before. It wasn't so much a sore feeling, more overall lethargy. It probably wasn't helped by a round of antibiotics I had to start yesterday to treat a spider bite. Anyhow, I was still able to ride consistently all day in the target power zones and felt reasonably good after close to 5 hours in the saddle.

After the ride, I wore the Skins and rested for the entire afternoon. My legs seemed to recover pretty well by the evening. I went out to see a band that had me standing on my feet for a couple of hours, which wasn't a problem. I was expecting to be more tired, but was pleasantly surprised.

11/9/08
Today was another endurance ride with climbing, but with only three hours on the schedule. The legs were fatigued but not as bad as I expected. I rode the climbs at tempo pace and easier in between. Again, I wore the Skins for several hours while I rested most of the remaining afternoon. I'm surprised at the lack of soreness in my legs, given the volume I did over the weekend.

11/10/08
Today is my normal rest day and I plan to take full advantage of it. Though my legs are feeling surprisingly good. There's no real soreness, just some low level fatigue. After a week so far using the Skins tights, I've consistently felt that I've had better recovery between hard workouts.