Wednesday 4 July 2012

BC Bike Race Day 4 - 4th of July!

My arms aren't working well when I wake up. They feel fine riding, but packing stuff, putting on jersey, etc. Is hard. I think it might have something to do with my sleeping mat being like 1.5" thick and my elbows sit lower than my torso at night when I'm on my back. Still not able to do up my shoes well in the morning - lower back just frozen. Massage and stretching though to try to mitigate. Rode to the ferry with Cindy and crew, early, then napped in the car.

Did some work calls on the ferry till we got out of range, then met Shawn's friend Jake Wetzel on ferry. Good chatting to him. Stayed on the ferry till riders departed for a no-line washroom and to soap my glasses. 68k bit longer day was up for us.

Start out of Earl's Cove was good - standard straight up with zero warmup. Chris Sneddon dropped by on his road bike to say hi to the race. Bike was clean ; ) Rode with Wendy for most of climb, then somehow ended up in front of her on those first switchback turns that are semi paved on the descent. Got to the fast descent switchbacks and came up on a guy before the sharp right to the wood bridge. He wipes out on the wood and hits the ferns. But guess what? I'm like 3 feet behind and miss it! Yay! I slow down when it happens, and didn't therefore shift right for the little rise. Wendy passes, I get on her wheel, and am happy. Smooth rider and someone who's not going to mess anything up, smart pace, happy. We discuss this briefly and I say for the first 3 days I didn't miss that bridge situation and have had my share of wipeouts, and that I'm just happy to be here now.

We ride for a while till Cory flatted so she gives him a tube. He passes in like 3 mins, takes a while for her to come back up. I like those power climbs along the power lines, feel good and moderate pace.

Wendy comes by, I stay on for a bit, then have to fudtz with some mud in my eye, then can't close the gap.

Oddity of the day - drop into some shady single track and there's a big partridge like bird running down the trail. I come close then hit the brakes, cause I thought it'd fly away or run to side. Guys behind me see it too when I stop. So I say "move bird I don't want to run over you" and sort of shove my front wheel towards it to get it to move. It flaps its wings, gets off the ground, double talon grabs my front tire, and flaps its wings and makes a racket. I shake the front wheel to get it to let go. It gets back on the path and stares at me. So like any grown man faced with a 12" bird in nature, I just take my bike through the ferns 3 feet off the side of the trail, while the German guys behind just laugh at how nature is sometimes. But maybe it was my spirit animal for keeping me on two wheels today.

Then I start feeling a bit off. My ears feel "sloshy" and my nose is running. I had a mini cold sore this morning. And I feel something in the back of my throat. It feels like yesterdays bits of debris that flew into my mouth then got coughed into a weird spot are not gone yet. I can feel it back there but can't get it out.

I slow way down and feel headachey. I've eaten and drank fine, and it's cool enough out that when you stop it feels cool unless you're in the sun, and I'm say 2h in. So it's not like I hit massive dehydration or something. I think it might have something to do with whatever gunk is inside.

So I keep slowing down. Ugh. I can muster some leg strength for the technical singletrack ups with all the wet stuff, but on the road I'm soft pedalling. Hmm. Also those steep power climbs and the stiff back are catching up, plus then the trails are also flat and choppy, so going fast with the hardtail over bumps. I do a lot of on bike stretching, then succumb and do a three off bike stretch sessions during the remainder of the day.

Anyway it's fine, nice day. Happy riding. Get to aid 2 and it dawns on me that it's 4th of July - they're flying a bunch of flags. Roll onward.

Last climb is fine, start passing a bunch of the challenge distance riders. Get to the descent and just roll patiently, I'm fairly happy that I hadn't dismounted yet today so try to keep that going. My brake pads are toast, metal on metal, so my stopping distance is lengthened. Just taking it easy.

Come up on a guy who tries to keep the gap, pushes himself too much and eats it. I stop and ask if he's ok. Two guys come up behind who saw it happen. He's ok, says thanks for asking. We wait while he untangles his bike as we can't go around cause there's just a cutout of some massive fallen tree. Another guy rides up, yells rider up, then tries to go around. Biffs into the fallen tree. I let the back two guys check in with him as that seems like Darwinism to me.

I roll on and catch a bunch of people who are on and off their bikes. I like the technical stuff, and am riding it but just picking away not going fast. My hands are sore. I have open sores on the back of my thumb knuckles that I cover at night and during the ride, but they sting and are hurting my thumbs. So I'm monkey gripping my bars sometimes, which is tiring my fingers and giving me callouses/blisters on my palms. Add that to the list of falling apart; I guess its almost comedic.

Come up to Jake Wetzel (Shawn's friend) and he says he's been in no man's land and is glad to have someone to ride with. We tally ho, get to an open road, and let it rip. First time I've even tried riding fast in 2 hours. It's hard. I prefer the singletrack today as its different workload. Finish slow. Slowest day yet.

I spend some money on fish tacos, fries and potato salad and a coke, and eat dirty. I'm way back in the queue for shower and bike wash. Instead of linear thinking, I walk 100m to the local aquatic center, get a line free shower for $3 and find a gardening hose for a wash. The marginal utility vs. that cost is a good tradeoff. So simple.

I'm trying to find something to gargle with to help the situation. And massage and stretching for the back. I'm at as low a pressure for tires in the back as I dare. The guy who lent me a couple bucks for the tax on my fish tacos order had a shiny new Scalpel so we talked about that a bit...

No comments:

Post a Comment