on saturday after the girls ice skating and gymnastics lessons i met up with chip to rendezvous half way with kenny and chris. this year's chip's first year back from taking a decade long hiatus in competitive cycling. i can relate to that because my first year back was mighty painful. anyhoo i got in 2.5 hours saturday where the mercury never got above 40°. that includes windchill too and the crazy, blustery gusts that was rocking chip and my world on the return trip to the foothills as the sun was setting. man. that was cold but we got quality miles in the legs and probably burnt more than the usual amount of calories due to the cold.
sunday, we met in north boulder at a boutique coffee shop called amante. pretty much most of the team showed up this morning. chris was celebrating his 40th geburtstag with his mommy and daddy last night, so for reasons known only to him, he didn't show.
we were dressed for freezing temps again. the freezing temps kept us out of climbing in the series of canyons or frequented high roads that pepper boulder. the route today was one of the fruit loops and a climb towards estes park (where we turn around at the first summit). my boy chip, got dropped on our way out. he'll get better as the season progresses but for now, his body has to get used to the mental (self-induced torture) and the fleeting, physiological adaptations of competitive cycling. on the climb up, kenny and i were with the lead group-but not for long. the lead group consisted of ross (chris' best bud), marty, chris cummings, his friend whom he referred to as: ricky ricardo, me and kenny. as i was poppin' i saw that kenny was still in touch with the leaders and i said to myself "self, that there kenny's climbing quite nice."-then he popped. kenny and i rode together then andy and jim passed us. i jumped onto their wheels but kenny couldn't follow. you know you're about to pop when you follow a wheel and all of a sudden your rhythm slowly goes awry and it feels like the internal wind-up spring inside of you seems awfully wound up. you sense this tension like the cartoon version of a parent's face slowly turning red after their child does something naughty-then i popped (the spring lost its potential energy pretty instantaneously!). the sequence of riders stayed that way to the summit. afterwards, dave, rich, and the other kenny came on board.
here we are at the shoulder of the wee-summit while andy fixes a flat
the descent was screaming and even colder now that sweat's on our upper bodies. on our return trip, the rest of the team wanted to do some more climbing but i needed to be back at chip's by 2 so the two kennys, andy, rich, and myself turned off to go back to boulder.
on the way back, andy just started doing his impersonation of a choo-choo. so kenny and i form a rotating paceline to survive the return trip. andy keeps up'ing the the tempo and soon i close the gap to rotate with him. my legs are burning keeping the rotation and after a while it's him and me, the rest of the group was behind us. andy's a trip. a likable fellow with a self-induced sphere of influence. here's why i say this. as we look behind us and notice it's just us two, he says, "are you new?" i was wearing my turtle fur as a neck gaitor so the only thing exposed on my face was wee bit of skin underneath my sunglasses. to stave off the cold, i had become incognito. so i reply, "andy. it's me. mike." oh andy...
he has to hurry home so i wait for the rest of our posse at the intersection. from there kenny and i go back to chip's. afterwards i meet up with my family at my mother in-law's place which is relatively close from chip's for a scrumptious, vegetarian dinner.
2 comments:
There is always one (who's got a flat)! Chilly ride, awesome effort. Love how you describe the moment before popping. Hahaha. That's exactly how it feels. Great feeling, hey? No matter how much mental strength you put to the matter. There is no solution to this problem but popping over and over and over again ... Here is for an awesome season for you and your team!
here, here sandra! hope your efforts net you the big one(s)this year as well! team included. i wish i could train 1/16th as hard as you; but for now, this'll have to do. nothing worse than anticipating the pop, no? it's sad and comical at the same time isn't it? if it had a sound effect it'd be like a jack-in-the-box with pop goes the weasel in the background.
Post a Comment