smackdown but not all the way out

It was up in the air if i was going to go or not, really wanted to just leave the house on the bike in the morning and keep riding.

Too much wind. The temps were cool but 20-30mph winds are not something that would make riding all day fun, unless I was riding with the wind all day, but with the wind direction I only had less than half a day of roads before hitting the ocean.

Pulled the plug on the all day. Waffled a bit on the ride, potentially was going to bail to get home for the dog, but the girls didn't get their stuff ready so they would be home before going out to dance class.

Smackdown it was.

I'm still sick. Weird that this cold has gotten a hold of me this tightly.  I was pretty run down the last time I did the smackdown and paid for it.  Couldn't do it last week. Borderline today.  Still coughing piles of crap up, nose snotting massive amount all day.  lungs were not doing well, legs were slow from not doing much of any intensity, efficiency and power numbers are down from all these, as a racer would call em, junk miles.

It was a solid group last night. Tom the 19 year old Cat 2 from NJ who goes to one of the local colleges showed up, Peng (collegiate A racer), Andrew (former national caliber lightweight rower), Syl (old fucker but racing Expert Mtbs right now), Fox (former collegiate and pro soccer player), and Mikey B, little Tom showed up but didn't manage to hang on for long.  And of course the junk hauling trailer towing jackass, me.

Pretty solid ride.  Mike set a good pace through the first stretch, I went to the front just as we hit the causeway before the stateline and held off a shadow of a head to take the non-sprint sprint.  We didn't really sprint for it but it wasn't a lolly gag to start the ride with.

We sort of regrouped onto woodward, then I went to the front and set a moderate tempo.  how fast? 20-25 or so, moderate.  the sprint was pretty slow only about 30, like i said, not really a sprint.  Right turn on to Prospect was tolerable when Peng was driving it, but then Peng pulled off and Tom the kid started driving in the 25-30 range.  And we cracked Fox off the back. he gasped "i'm done" but fortunately or unfortunately for him we had the left on Broad/Jacob and it was slow enough that we let him back on.  My fat ass and loose packed old fashioned hubs bombed down past everyone w/o a pedal stroke and then I just stayed there making tempo again.

Left turn onto Pine and there was a car coming, I signal and say "hold up, car turning, let them go" and we roll in slowly, car starts turning and then Mike B and the Tom kid peel off and turn in front of the car.  Awesome, thanks for being an ambassador jackasses, we were trying to let the car go so they wouldn't have to pass us going up the hill.

So we start the climb up pine, not too bad.  I head a car coming, Andrew is riding way out almost at the yellow line, everyone else is single file near the shoulder, and I should 'GET IN LINE ANDREW' and he doesn't, and again, and he doesn't and then the car, a blacked out Dodge Magnum... the dude kicks it down and blows a quart of oil from the rings out the tail pipe redlining past us wicked pissed...  I kind of lost it when Andrew didn't get in line and his response was well i didn't know why you were telling me to.

Well he and Tom went off and traded VO2 max and watt blows up to the top of pine, I hung on to Syl's wheel as long as I could.  Was not easy, were were not going slowly.  It got a bit fuzzy for a while, Syl or Peng or me on someones wheel and then I just said f'it and started motoring, caught MikeyB and kept going, Andrew had sat up and was going about 10 mph into the right hand turn onto Homestead and I think i was still doing about 20+ at that point and roared by on the left in the turn and just kept my head down until we caught Big Tom, and I pulled tempo past the tree where Gary Lanoue crashed and died last year.  For some reason at that spot, I feel compelled as an external sign of respect more than anything, I make the sign of the cross, whatever it is called. Spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch (not sure i got that right but close enough).  I passed that tree and let Peng set the pace.

And drifted back.  And hung on. We hit Rocky Hill Hard.  I got gapped right there at the start of the road, that first little incline.

And I spent a while chasing back on.  Andrew was driving the pace, fast but I managed to catch on.  Just as I got there Big Tom took over and upped the pace and I had nothing to respond to.  But I kept my head down and clawed back.

Slowly, latched on just before the right on River.  But I was cooked from the repeated solo bridge efforts.

But the guys kind of didn't speed up right away.  Held tempo as we got closer to the base of Hillside, and then it went up, and I tried something, TORQUE MONSTER.  I didn't downshift. I just stood up.  And was able to stay on Syl and Peng's wheels, and Mikey B dropped back a bit.

But peng was playing possum or sticking to a training plan of not going over a certain wattage or something because he just sort of floated away.  Along with Syl.

It levels out for a second there on Hillside and I was not able to up the tempo to stay on the wheels.  Brier attacked the last hill there and went flying past me, nice road bike he has, gotta say that Ridley with the deep section carbon wheels is pretty darn sharp.  And yeah I was the only doofus with CX gearing, of course.  But Big Tom was riding a loaner bike due to a shop messing up a recall and not being able to get him his fancy bike back, and it had more than a few spokes, but still somewhat fewer than 32 on my training wheels.

So Peng was nice and waited up for me there and we rode pine a bit, then I took over and started to try and reel folks back.  They were all chatting when we turned left off of pine.  And for a change I said f'it. I'm not going nuts in the false flat speed section.

Eventually Syl took off, Andrew jumped on his wheel and Big Tom and Mikey B were chatting and showed no interest in closing the gap down so my fat ass rolled around them and latched onto Andrew's wheel.

46 c-c bars feel stupid wide riding into the wind in a tuck in the drops.  Like WTF I might as well ride spread eagle wide. Oh well, they work in CX and the added wind-resistance means i have to work that much harder.  It ain't like I'm racing it, just training.

Logs. Just like Logs in the trailer.

But sitting there getting dragged around at 30 mph or so meant i was feeling fine, no effort, and when Syl started to struggle I rolled right past and didn't accelerate but just kept ticking the pace over until we hit the right turn and Andrew decided to lead the charge into the wind back to 52.

1/4 mile or 1/2 mile before the left I felt good, Syl was breathing like he just finished a 400 meter race sitting there right in front of me in the big comfy draft of the paceline. And by good i mean I felt recovered and not dead, sort of like i've had the top end deleted on the hills.  That or the rest of these fuckers are just way faster than me (probably).

So feeling good, well fuck it lets roll to the front and up the pace for this last run.  Felt good. Very good.

Headed back to grab back and then home, glorious tailwind pushing me there.  Unlike tonight.  Tonight, oof, after yesterday's smackdown, eating a massive dinner, then having a bit of food after getting in a bit late, I didn't have any time for lunch.  I sat down to have two bites and managed just about that before my brother called to discuss a right side drive shaft that decided to unbolt itself from my mother's transmission.  And then it was time to race home and get the kid to soccer.  I'd thought maybe i would stop and do some community service and clean up the path a bit more, but I was dead.  Legs were just empty.  Needed fuel.  Water, something.  And the wind was kicking up from 15-30 mph right in my face for some sections and a terrible cross wind in others.  It hurt.  And I was slow.  nothing I could do to go any faster. ouch. So no adding to the pile of wood in the back yard as planned...  maybe next trip.

Ride planning is sucking.  So much to do.  No way to fit it in at the moment.  Looks like RdR will be my first long ride of the year. This is gonna be interesting.  And no, this weekend is out, no riding. Heck i was planning on working on the yard and the house.  But that isn't happening. Not at all. Oh well.

at least i'm feeling a little better than normal...  some of the time

of course now i have to stay up till everyone is asleep...  gotta coordinate tooth fairy logistics.

heddwch
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