I was excited to finally get my temporary front tooth today. Unfortunately, in the area where the tooth was extracted, there’s still a lot of pain. The tooth was made with an attached palate that fit behind my 4 front teeth. Because of the pain, I got another appointment with the endodontist at 3:30 this afternoon. That cut short my planned 50-mile ride today. When I got home before noon, the weather was beautiful. It was 62deg and calm at my house. FOX@11:50: 61deg; E7. I downed a protein shake and got out the door for a ride in less than an hour. I was really bummed out when I started the ride that a SW’ly wind had picked up.
Riding with the new temporary tooth was very uncomfortable and annoying. I didn’t realize how much I suck the top of my mouth with my tongue to get moisture, swallow, etc while riding. Every time I did that, the tooth and palate would move slightly. I also felt like the air coming in and going out was being blocked. But my power numbers didn’t show an impact on performance. Hopefully, I will get used to the new tooth/palate.
I did the usual 2-mile “interval” on Ave L between 70W and 90W. The wind was definitely stronger on the west side. I estimate the wind to be out of the SW at 20-25 mph. I struggled with the “interval” against the cross-headwind. I managed to average 203 Watts with a max power of 551W. I then did a total of nine 20-revolution out-of-the-saddle intervals. I did 6 against the wind and 3 with the wind. The peak power for all of these intervals was 590W. The 6th interval was after I turned around just past Munz Ranch Rd, as I was following the road south on 120W. This is a slight climb and the wind was out of the SSW, a pretty good headwind. I started this interval in too big a gear. My cadence got too low after 17 revolutions so I stopped the interval. The 3 intervals with a tailwind, I had to start in my biggest gear, a 53×11. This worked great. Speed increased from 22-23 mph to 28-29 mph. Even today, I was able to maintain 200W riding south on 30W between the traffic lights. FOX@2:10: 64deg; SW15G21. Today’s ride was my 2nd highest normalized power at 181W. I’m surprised that power was that high considering how distracted I was with my new tooth.