11/13-14
Last Thursday and Friday I did a couple of moderate paced rides to rest up for the race over the weekend. After each workout, I'd use the Skins tights, as normal.
11/15
Cyclocross race. This was my first race in a couple of weeks and it was late in the day. Actually, it was at night and under the lights, pretty cool. I ended up having no end of mishaps, which made for a frustrating race. It was more frustrating because my legs felt great and I was initially with the leaders at what felt like a totally comfortable pace. I kept fighting through crashes and mechanicals and finished with legs that still felt good. I'll put it together one of these days. I put on the tights immediately after the race and wore them overnight to aid in recovery from the violent effort required from cross.
11/16
Sunday I went for another long hilly endurance ride, trying to get some solid time at tempo pace. Initially my legs felt a bit sore but the feeling went away over the 20-30 minutes it took me to warm. I felt really good for the rest of the 4 hour ride and was able to comfortably hit good power on the hills. Afterward, I again used the tights for recovery.
11/17
Monday is my rest day. I have aches and pains, mostly from the crashes I had in the cross race. My legs feel decent otherwise and am not overly fatigued.
I've been testing the tights for two weeks now, which has given me the chance to work them into my training and recovery routine, and to assess their benefit on my fitness. As I've said in past posts, I feel a significant reduction in next-day fatigue and soreness when I've worn the tights after hard workouts, compared to before when I didn't use the tights. What quantifiable affect this has on performance is hard for me to say. What I can say though, is that if I'm not sore and fatigued, it's mentally and physically easier for me to have a quality workout. I can work for an entire season to get small percentage gains in performance, so adding the tights to my recovery routine is a no-brainer since they have some benefit. I recommend the Skins Sport tights for cyclists and I'll continue to use them in the future.
