If only we could all be this happy, all the time...if only the world were one big dog park...
At the top of Saturday's Winter Park Series opener, gasping at 11,250' I rested alongside a friend and competitor. "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." I said, between wheezes. To which he replied,
"That's what they keep telling me........But it seems like the better part of our adult lives we've done nothing but put ourselves through serious physical suffering..."
What a true statement. So one would think such efforts would always yield truly Herculean results. Yet the mediocrity of of some race performance leaves me wondering....
.............I had supremely high hopes of a top 3 finish Saturday, and foolishly, I tried to win it within the first mile. But intermitant glances at my heart rate monitor during this short race displayed disconcerting numbers: at first, 94% max heart rate........then 92% max......90%......88%...........86% max....
Nothing is more revealing about ones physiology; ones training prowess than a hillclimb. It's not a race of skill, it's not about aerodynamic advantages or unlucky flat tires - it is a bare, unpolished ratio: raw power versus weight. It's go till you blo.........
And it has been gravely displayed for many moons that if I go out too hard, I'll unravel quicker'n you can say, "Snap it to a Slim-Jim!" Yet as easy of a concept as "keeping pace" is and letting others do the work early, in practice, for me it is all but impossible.
At the finish I was a respectable, but tormentable, 9th place out of a Pro field of 35.
What are ya gonna do? Some days you have it some days you don't.... And that's the funny thing: it should come as no shock by now that I lack not in self-confidence but the very nature of this blog opens a portal to my very thoughts; the inner threads of my pride, my bragging, as well as my big ol' pieces of humble pie...
5 comments:
If your "bad" day is ninth, you should be quite pleased. Shawn (the next to you from the start)
High hopes does not necessarily equal high results! Nice ride Saturday!
Top ten is good. Is that your regular bike?
Chuck Allaire
Heck ya it's my regular bike - Fisher SuperFly 29'er - but I ran a steel rigid fork for this race.
please.... 9th in the pro field...? Not what you hoped for? For Christ's sake you work for a living. Nice Job!
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