Ouch

The GOOD NEWS - I felt really good on the bike tonight, especially on a ride I was not going to be able to make. It's the Thursday night Joe's ride. On the first lap Ice Berg went off the front motivated by verbal jabs by apebike and all-pro (aka cuz). I was scared so I just shut up (rare) and made jokes in my head about Berg's pink socks. The Church section surge starts slow which was cool so I was able to hold on into the long downhill. On the first tittie hill I had to hold myself back from jumping on the gas - I sat in. Second tittie hill hurts a little - I'm still sitting in. Cuz has been powering the whole time with a little help from ape. I'm about six riders back and I'm thinking of the bricks sprint. Now we're on the false flat and the speed ramps up. We drop some guys and I'm the last in our six man race. I'm in danger of getting YoYo'd off the back but HotRod bridges back up and I'm able to hang. Getting closer, planning when I want to go - Uhgh - Rod sits up enough to slow us where I have to make an effort to go around. I can't bridge to Big Jim but I pass yellow shirt and my cuz (who sat up on a nutritional). And I stay close enough to see ape and berg fighting it out. Berg won. I'm breathing pretty hard and the BAD NEWS is I'm dreading the climbs because I still haven't fixed my brothers bike - it's stuck in the big ring. Cuz says it's good for training. So I grunt it out pass Red Dragon climb and going in to AJ Henry Park I sneak off the front. Not to break away, but merely to go up Gardenview at my own pace. We regroup at the top of Gardenview and much to my dismay, ape powers down when we round the corner at the church. This is much quicker than the first lap and I'm already hurting. The church hurts, the golf course hurts, the downhill hurts. Riders are getting shucked but I'm still here - weird. First tittie hurts bad and I know I'm losing it. Ape and cuz are powering but keep pulling over just enough but nobody's pulling through. I'm about rider five and I know I don't have much left. Near the crest of tittie two, I stomp on the pedals expecting to at least provide a halfway lead-out... BOOM! I came completely apart. Ape powers by and says to dig deep, but I've already got a chop stick hanging out my ass. I chalk it up to half nutrition/half bonk. All in all a really cool ride and somewhat encouraging. Even though this was a slower ride, I did a lot better than earlier in the year. It was a smaller ride so I'm thinking it is about even. The running is definitely helping. bikechain out