So yeah I wrote about it already. But I dunno, kind of want to hit it one more time when I'm not a couple beers deep and tired. However, I'm STILL stupid tired. Need to maybe start going to bed earlier but the current schedule is really messing with that. Week long evening soccer for the kid is totally tweaking everything but she's having fun and learning a bit and getting touches so that all good and worth it. I'll sleep sometime. Maybe. Also, yesterday did NOT feel like Tuesday, felt more like a Thursday, maybe likely because I worked Saturday AND Sunday this week.
Okay so writing and eating didn't work so well. But I finished eating and am back at writing, and avoiding emails for a few more minutes. I think there's some suggestion to not work non-stop, taking a break during the day isn't the worst thing and I can't fathom clicking on faceplace, twitter isn't much better lately, although a little better. At least in the twitter feed the important shit is mixed in with the deliberately miss-leading/distracting shit.
Tuesday Smackdown, right... Kyle's last ride. He had a big gathering at his place on Sunday, I stopped in to say hey on my way home, but with a trailer full of groceries, dinner to make and an impending storm I moved on quickly. Caught some amazing images with the phone, put them on instagram of course.
Started announcing the ride on Monday, followed up Tuesday, added some new clarifications to the ride rules, there's been someone showing up that's pretty flagrantly flaunted a handful of them. Last night most of them were followed pretty well. Mostly. Rules? on a Smackdown Ride? Fucking hell yeah. This is a group ride first, a fast one but conceived to be ridden as a group ride, not a race. Not the goal to drop everyone and ride a solo or two man TT.
To that end having C Bailey there has been awesome. We've got similar (the right) ideas about how you should ride on the road in a group. We both agree on the benefit of chill sections to re-group and recover. Some people haven't figured out that if you're the fastest mother fucker there you can actually go even faster on the next section if you chill and let the group get back together before attacking again. I think Leland was surprised about this earlier this year, much better power numbers when he recovered more in between, SHOCKING. Of course there are different reasons for doing things differently, maybe you do want a long painful race like interval. Well. Go out and do it yourself.
Okay yeah whatever - rules. Anyway, I worked at keeping my nose out of the wind as much as possible leading up to Pine. It kind of worked. I hit pine on Bailey's wheel but fuck it if I didn't get ridden off. Maybe sleep is a good thing? I really did feel 'off' like some magic hand just holding me back a little. But it kind of sucked. Fuller put on skinny tires and managed to hang on much better this week till his tendon went wonky on Danforth, but he caught back up while we regrouped on Hillside. Getting popped with me was Kyle, Greve and Fuller. But to back up, just before 5:30 we've got a nice group, Bailey, Greve, Kyle, Jonathan, Fuller, and I'm thinking this is gonna be chill, a nice send off ride.... Then Alec B shows up, and David Wells and the hot shot Kessler, and Goldberg just before we rolled out. Ooof the ride just got harder. Rolling across the linear park we picked up Colby and then waiting for us on the other side was the big horse Eian. A good sized group. Plenty of places to hide.
At least until Pine. Made it over the top and the four of us started chasing, and we dug deep and caught up to the others as they cruised on Homestead. Goldberg got popped off at some point, not sure where. I wound up setting the pace on Homestead, pegged it at a relaxed 22 or so. Not fast, but not pokey. But also probably more work than I should have given how off I felt on Pine. Oh well, I hit Rocky Hill pretty hard, took the lead then Bailey went around but then I kept having to put my damn brakes on in his draft, he was pedaling but I was coasting faster. Probably 'cause I'm fatter. But then I felt pretty good for a second and hit the start of the climb pretty hard, but then kind of blew up and everyone went around... except Fuller. Coming down Rocky Hill i've only got one sort of functional rear brake and he's got double discs sitting on my wheel.
Kind of expected the regroup, Bailey mentioned he even had trouble catching back onto the group after the hill top sprint. I put my head down when I didn't see them, and finally caught sight of them after a bit on Hillside, saw them and was closing in, well until the hill started and i felt as bad as I did before. Fuuuuck.
But they waited for me and Fuller at the stop sign before turning onto Pine. And we all rode back together. Hit Kyle's favorite section and almost lead him out to improve his PR, he still got the fastest time of the night but was 1 second off his KOM/PR time. I did way too much work on that section and got popped and sucked Greve's wheel back to 152.
There's a new sprint/finish kind of thing happening on Waterfront Drive, and I think I kind of like it. Sort of a Finish line, with a cool down back across the bridge to the office and home. It was good.
And then we headed over to crack open a few Fin Du Mondes and I made it home in time to catch some of the sunset and got home just as dusk was getting dark enough where i got in the door just before i would have needed a headlight. Might be good to put one of them things in the bag for the rest of the summer after Smackdown and TTs.
I was tired, but the tailwind home was very much appreciated.
Head wind on the way in felt great on the Paramount. Seat height is off though, gotta correct that for tomorrow. Also need to work on the attachments for the rear disc cover (or go without it). It is on there just not very well. Well enough to get to work. Wanted to make sure tomorrow wasn't the first ride... gonna be loading it into the car to get there, hopefully in time. still need to move the cheap velo 7 cateye computer from the black blue to the paramount, need at least speed for the pacing metric.
oh well - we'll see what we can do to get ready for it all, maybe find some sleep between now and then. and that's the rest of lunch time... back to emails
heddwch
G
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