Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Ouch. Ouch, Ouch, Ouch. No really, Ouch!

That's what my body is saying to my brain right now. Why? Because I, on Groundhog Day, decided to join the Pain Train's annual Double Metric Century. Actually, it was 127 miles that included the Pine Mountain Hwy with lots and lots of climbing.

It was billed as a LSD ride. It was for about the first 40 miles or so I guess. We were averaging about 22 mph but lots of the route was downhill. When we hit the climbing I sort of expected we'd ease off. Not so much. I don't know why the group felt like it had to do a double metric in February at that kind of pace but it did. We hit the 70 mile mark averaging over 21.5 and that was after a lot of the really hard climbing. I got dropped about 65 miles in when a couple of guys decided to push the pace for no other reason than they felt like it. Did I mention that there were no stops planned up to that point. We had a SAG vehicle but there was no real chance to get a new bottle so I did 70 miles on two bottles. At the 70 mile mark the SAG vehicle stopped to allow us to get new bottles (whoo-whoo...two more for the last 58 miles!!!) and shed some clothes and eat a little.

I was only a few minutes behind the main group but by the time I got there I was pissed. I don't mind the better riders going hard but don't advertise it as an easy pace LSD ride if you're going to decide to hammer at mile 40. There were guys with powermeters reporting numbers in the 700+ plus wattage range for some of these parts of the ride. Why? What's the point? We don't EVER race 125 miles.

I was also pissed 'cause I got dropped. I hate that I'm fat and slow right now. Used to be that I never got dropped by anyone but the last 18 months and all the stuff I'm doing at school has conspired with my own appetite to put on the pounds. I'll lose the weight (I've already started) but I hate getting dropped. I hate feeling weak.

So, when we left I decided to ride at my own pace. I knew that someone would have to go hard and I'd get dropped anyways so I just rode. For the next twenty miles I was off the front as the ride leader tried to make up for the previous behavior by saying that we'd go slow and then push it a bit later on. Great I thought. No one said anything about pushing anything in the ride post. In fact it specifically said we wouldn't be doing that. Screw it, I decided. Why ride with these guys when they were going to be so capricious? Why try to work with them when they were going to chew me up and spit me out once they decided to stop playing nice.

I rode the rest of the ride by myself. Calling people names on a group ride is considered bad form so I just stayed away and kept my mouth shut. I'm pretty sure I won't be invited back. I'm also pretty sure I don't really give a damn. I'm fat and slow and I'm sick of getting dropped.

But I won't always be fat and slow and I won't forget. They ride every Tuesday and Thursday evening in the summer and I'll go back and I'll remember. When someone suggests going easier I'll turn the screw and make their eyes bleed. I won't wait when some guy gets dropped. I won't have mercy. I'll abandon them to ride back to the car alone feeling frustrated and weak. I will make them fear. And when they ask why I'm such an SOB I'll tell them I learned how the group rides when I did LSD rides over the winter.

Until then I will train and suffer and make myself hurt. I'll save it all up and use it to kindle my rage. Then there will come a day when one of them is a little weak and I'll remember...

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