Speed Kills

Had to convince myself to get some intensity last night. Had to convince myself to keep pulling through when other people wouldn't and I wasn't sure if I could keep doing it. Had to convince myself to keep going hard when the front guys were slipping away on Ridge. Had to convince myself to keep going hard and see what was up the road when I went off the front of the chase and into no man's land.

The Tuesday/Thursday night rides are easy for some people. How can that shit be easy? What does one do to make that become easy? There are people who chill on the back on the way down, moving up as the bottom gets closer. That's smart. There are those who take pulls from the beginning since you have to get your ass kickings while they're still for sale at a price you can afford. That's me. Then there are the dudes who, even when you're taking your share or more, are taking multiple pulls for every one of yours. The whole way down. And then they ride off the front on the way up. That's nuts.

Maybe some peewee league version of that phenomenon came to me last night, when the varsity team had gone up to the real practice and I was taking my jv cuts. (By the way, if I'm not being obtuse enough that anyone reading this can actually figure out the whens, wheres, and whos, I'm not calling anyone's talent or fitness into question except my own. There are guys I was with who can drill me easily enough in any number of different ways). Somehow I crept off the front of a chase group and got the idea that I'd try and keep it going until I either caught something ahead or got caught from behind. In that hypoxia-induced warped sense of time, it felt like 10 minutes but may have been two. Tops. Two dudes who'd taken the gentleman's pass on the hill came back on the road ahead of me. That son of a bitch voice in my head convinced me to sit on their wheels for a minute to recoup. Before too long, the group I'd left reappeared and we kept going until the whole thing came back together. Apart from the decision to take safe harbor in the draft of those dudes, I'm good with the whole exercise.

Still trying to figure out how to approach this weekend. There's nothing about the course that speaks to me, no target that suits my weapons - such as they are. Late season, easy course, everyone thinking they can scoop one last result or some quick points. Well f**k it, I'm just gonna have to try and keep bidding up the auction and hope that it gets too rich for the other players. Nothing to lose. Eat drink and be merry and all that crap.