Morning after & ride report

Someone asked me yesterday “are you still running much?”  My answer:  hell no; I’ve gone exactly 3.1 miles since the marathon.  That’s not to say I’m done running, I’m just focusing on getting my wheels underneath me for the MS150.  Come May I’ll likely be running again and gearing towards the triathlon, even though the tri may be put on hold in favor of raising my little bundle of tax credits.

 

I have no idea how many laps I did on the Picnic Loop yesterday evening.  It was something close to 19 miles, so it was probably somewhere north of 15 or 16 laps.  That many laps gets boring if you don’t have a game or two to play to keep yourself occupied.  There’s the chase/defend game.  Find someone and chase them down.  Once you pass them, defend against them passing you.  It’s fun if they’re playing too.  If they’re not playing it’s not so fun—especially if you spend a lot of time chasing them down.  Last night I was able to chase down a guy I will refer to simply as “Boston”—because he was from Boston and I don’t know his name.  He blew past me right at the start of one of my fast laps—a lap that goes no slower than 20mph at all times.  So naturally I had to chase him down.  I caught him and he paced me for a few seconds, then instead of letting me pass him he decided to start a pace line with me.  That was cool, because without his help I wouldn’t have finished the lap at 20+mph.

Before “Boston” there was “Sweet Blue”, a cute little girl in a blue jersey on a silver roadie.  It took me ½ a lap around the picnic loop to catch her at somewhere between 18 and 19 mph.  She was probably clocking 17 to 18mph.  I caught her.  I passed her.  She chased me.  She caught me.  I grabbed some water.  She passed me and got some distance.  I closed the gap and caught her again.  I passed her again.  What fun.  Then I lost sight of her and went on to some other games.

2 laps later she’s in a pace line that blows by me like I’m riding knobbies.  I simply can’t let that stand, so I pick up the pace and manage to match her speed even though the pace line is several yards ahead of me.  Time passes and I can’t seem to close the gap.  They’re cooking along at close to 19mph and speeds approaching 20mph.  I think to myself “She can’t keep this pace up” when I’m really thinking “I hope she can’t keep this pace up because I sure as hell can’t!”  I fight along for awhile then begin to slack off the throttle just a bit to a more “reasonable” 18 – 19 mph and grab some water.  I catch my breath and get going again, but I’ve lost sight of her.  No problem, though.  I’m beginning to pass the stragglers on the pace line, so that means the line has broken up.  I should be able to catch her eventually.  3 laps later I see her sitting on a park bench gabbing it up with some other folks. 

She quit. 

I won.

 

The last lap is usually the “top speed” game.  It’s a simple game of matching or beating your top speed.  I lost that game, but came darned close to winning.

The last game I played wasn’t even on the picnic loop.  It’s called “make it to the portacan before you wet your pants”.  It’s a bit of a challenge in cycling shoes.  I won that game.  In fact, I’ve never lost that game, thankfully.

 

One game I don’t get to play anymore is exclusive to mountain bikers.  It’s called “Bug the Roadie Pukes”.  You put on the street slicks and get on the picnic loop and start riding.  When you get up to speed, you pull in behind some Roadie Puke (that’s any dude on a road bike) and draft off him for a few seconds.  Then you pull up along side and say something stupid like “Nice day for a ride, eh?”  Then you smile, do a nod-wave, and just pull on ahead.  If you can do it without exerting any effort on your face its even better.