It was a pretty quiet 4th of July weekend around the compound. On Friday, Matt had to go to his family’s house for lunch, so we were all up early to get in a ride before that. What started as a 3-person group ended up as just Matt and myself when one of Ryan’s Crank Brothers pedals fell apart just blocks from the house. The rest of the ride was pretty sedate. We rode some of the Wolf River Trail (which is not in great shape right now because of flood-induced overgrowth and downed trees), then took the Greenline to Overton Park, wandered around that area, then headed back home. I wasn’t feeling good until later in the ride, when we stopped for donuts, and afterwards, I decided to feed off of my own misery.

After that, Ryan, Matt, and I went out for a somewhat spontaneous bout of car shopping. Ryan’s Escape is getting pretty clapped out, so we test drove a Honda Fit and poked around at Ford and Subaru for anything similar. Afterward, I made the guys an early dinner then headed out to El Toro Loco for delicious Mexican Food and UFC 175 Fight Night.

I didn’t pick a favorite for the Rousey vs Davis fight, because I was just hoping to see a good fight. Quite to the contrary, it was over in 16 seconds. If you watch the video, the death blow combo started by her connecting with an overhand right and finished with repeated punches until the ref stopped the fight. You can see a bootleg youtube video here, or, if that one is taken down, just search “Rousey versus Davis” and it’ll pop up in some way or another (it’s such a short fight, it’s already been turned into an animated GIF).
Ronda Rousey is a total animal. Seriously… I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again- she is to women’s fighting what Marianne Vos is to women’s cycling. There’s her, then there’s everyone else. People are calling for her to fight Cris Cyborg, however, with Cyborg’s history of getting caught using steroids, and the UFC’s stance of “no steroids allowed,” I personally don’t see it happening soon (though, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to see it as badly as anyone else out there). The UFC president alluded to the possibility of it, and, considering the amount of money that matchup would draw, I’m crossing my fingers.

Sunday morning, I was feeling rough. the fights went on waaaaaay past my usual 10:00 bedtime, and the dogs have an internal alarm clock that goes off every morning between 5 and 5:30. While I was trying to convince my body that it really wanted to get out and do 15 minute intervals, Matt washed half the bikes in the house. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to witness the awesomeness of the collection…

Interesting side note- all of those bikes have a powermeter of some sort on them.
It took a few cups of coffee to get me mobile and onto my bike for the last interval workout before going in to “fight taper/weight cut” mode. Though I started out a little slow in my warm-up, the intervals were surprisingly awesome- I hit a season PR wattage for 15 minutes with a little to spare. In my educated opinion, the addition of intense sparring to my training regimen has helped improve my top-end fitness. Essentially, it’s 3-4 minute bouts of full-body, zone 5 intervals separated with 1 minute breaks. Sparring follows the old training adage that’s so incredibly true… it’s like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t stop when you get tired, you stop when the gorilla gets tired.

Following my ride, I had a recovery shake, which would be the last deliciously sweet thing I plan on eating until after weigh-ins Friday night. I’ll go into the weight cut strategy a little deeper once it’s over, but let’s just say that it involves lots of water, very few carbohydrates, and food without salt.

P.S. No amount of herbs and spices can replace salt in scrambled eggs…