This stuff going on? Different? yeah. Worse? Maybe.
Hard to disentangle and categorize levels of evil absolutely personally incomprehensible.
Spent a week in Seattle area visiting family and not really doing much else. Went shopping a couple times, very deliberate trips, nothing just to do something. Went for lots of walks, took a ton of shitty photos and some okay ones, some not bad, Still have two rolls of film from the trip to develop and one bit in the camera to finish off.
There were good parts of the trip, some challenging parts. A friend person that life's been getting in the way of actually seeing IRL, someone who I'd secretly (too secretly i guess) hoped would land that full time gig they had interviewed for and start working while i was there but then didn't and I didn't follow up because I have the emotional maturity of a 12 year old apparently (or I maybe i was just hoping the same magic as the last few times would work and they'd be employed). And hence the strike through.
But that's really how it goes, become friends, I do something someone can't understand because they don't want to understand or are using it as an excuse to not interact with me anymore and then all the flashbacks of former friends come through my head because that's how I'm wired.
It is my life, it is my path it is what I know. Nothing else to say.
Trip was good, red eye home wasn't terrible but was pretty tough adjusting to Sunday after only 3hrs of sleep and then the dog being kind enough to let me sleep till 6 (M), and then 5:45 (Tu) and then 5:40 (W) and today? Thursday? 4 fucking 40 am.
Millie, I love you, you brilliant smart 14.5 year old mutt with bad teeth and terrible breath and a $100/month injectable drug that lets you move more easily habit, but FFS this morning was a bit much. I went back to sleep, slept through my alarm and woke up late and got to work late in the heavy rain on the commute. At least it was a tailwind.
Tuesday morning was actually kind of helpful in that I discovered the rear tire on the Madone was flat. And the sealant had dried up over the last 18 months. Chain needed waxing too and I had the new mini-crockpot to fill with wax, SOOOO I recharged both the front and rear tires with fresh sealant, and melted the bag of wax, dipped the chain, put the melted wax in the baby crock and got ready for smackdown.
Bike ready. Me? Still running on not enough sleep, what could go wrong. Tons of walking while out there, generally two and once three trips to the beach, a trip up and down a 200' elevation difference trail in a short distance (check strava if you want to see the full details of the trail).
Rolled out of IPP but the big crew rolled from the parking lot not the usual spot, okay. Got to JPs. There were too many riders to count. And that's awesome, and they are all faster than me, also awesome. For them. Big A group took off as we crossed Pawtucket Avenue and strated down 152. A big group. Then the B group settled with Graham on the front and Liam (insanely fast Junior) next to him, and then a handful of really fit and fast folks behind them, smooth and experienced fast folks mind you, crazy spaz fast guys all were in the A group.
Graham started off (check the strava if you want specifics) pretty fast, 24-26 right off the bat, and when My HR started to climb in to the red sitting in the draft, I looked over at Burke and he had the same feeling, yeah no. So we formed the Regoup B group. except with no leadership. Steady As (that's what I'm calling Graham's group) just kept flying ahead eventually whittling down to 6 riders. A smackdown TT with Graham leading the whole way, basically. okay if that's what you can do and what you want to do, I seem to need a bit more recovery than going the same watts up and down and flat and where ever, esp since the power number I need to hold any time it goes up is too far about my threshold to sustain.
Maybe I'll get better? Maybe we just need to start a fresh old school smackdown on Wed or something.
The second group we were in kind of was a bit of a mess, stayed in a double paceline for a while, then it went single file, but the group stayed together until just at the top of Rocky Hill, I couldn't match the final acceleration and got gapped, Burke looked back and hung out and we tried to chase back on up Carpenter but eventually lost sight. They were right there on the left hand turn and if they'd soft pedalled we'd have gotten back on but as it was, nope. Burke and I rode the rest of the way home together, we were chasing for a bit but eventually just rode home. It was good to be out there, and legs were as expected, not great after 7ish days off the bike. But potentially better than expected.
I slept well, didn't cramp up Tuesday night, but oof last night I had a few good ones, a hamstring cramp and then early morning an adductor.
Bike was good, chain was stiff on the way to work and the rain had just moved through tuesday morning so the Madone is now filthy.
This morning was another rainy ride, but there was a good tailwind so not terrible other than being wet.
I had a handful of other things I really wanted to get down but this has already taken three brief moments to get this far. Probably can tell.
Maybe I'll get the rest out of my head soon.
Heddwch
G
