Sad to say, but ever since Race Across Oregon, I’ve had a somewhat strained relationship with the bicycles. They sit in the garage cleaned, lubed, purring, and ready to roll, but whenever I pass them my mind registers: “instruments of torture.” I walk away and head for the comfort of dark chocolate stowed in a kitchen cabinet.
Since RAO the biggest mileage weeks have been in the low 140’s. Which includes some running. When I do get on a bike, I’m smiling within a block of pedaling. My attitude lightens and my mind changes from “instrument of torture” to “damn this is fun!”
Despite the enlightening qualities of cycling, Newton’s First Law is in full force: “A particle will stay at rest or continue at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external unbalanced net force.”
I am a particle at rest and only rarely does an external unbalanced net force act on me. The forces that do act on me are probably a previously unpredicted by-product of the Large Hadron Collider:
The critically acclaimed “Large Hadron Rap.”
A couple weeks ago I gathered my nerve and headed out to Jake Wimberger’s always painful Wednesday’s Bends Cascade group ride. Three other riders, one of whom was Chris Ragsdale, showed up for this challenging weekly tour of Seattle hills. I laid down a respectable volley up the first hill on the day’s menu, Interlacken, but by the top I knew I was gonna be toast by the end of the ride. That day’s ride wrapped up with an “ultra strenuous” paceline down Lake Washington Blvd, which included desperately hanging on to Chris’ 28 mph wheel. My relationship with slackerdom was evidenced by my thighs which involuntarily twitched for days afterward.
At some undetermined date in the future I plan to attempt a duathlon. Duathlons involve running, which as any cyclist knows is as dangerous as stepping outside the Green Zone. To minimize the possibility of catastrophe, I’ve increased the volume of running distance and targeted the upcoming Bellingham Bay 5K to test drive my running legs under competitive conditions. To prepare for that, I recently added a little bit of speed to the running workouts. Which, as could be expected, resulted in another excuse to practice the fine art of slackerdom:
Last week sprinting across the back stretch of the Woodland Park track at full speed, PING! Pulled hamstring.
So much for the Bellingham 5k.
I limped back to the car and headed home in search of dark chocolate.
