Back to the pain...

After yesterdays fun jaunt home on the SS CX, today I needed to turn it up a little. For those who haven't experienced cyclocross its 60 minutes of absolute hell, pain like nothing else. Its pretty cool. To put things in perspective, the U.S. Gov't elected to use waterboarding at Gitmo as cyclocross was deemed cruel and unusual and couldn't be defended at the Hague. Really, I read that on the Internet, some guys blog.



But all joking aside, today I felt like hell before even going out and putting myself thru hell...for some reason lately I find myself awake around 2am with no hope of getting back to sleep, usually until about 4am, when my alarm goes off at 5am....I know whaaaa!



As I ride out to the trails thru downtown I think to myself, I will just spin....so I cross the old railroad bridge and drop down onto the single track and slowly start ramping the effort up. A long section of this trail is fluff thanks to some fires they had a few months ago, graded up by CDF dozers. At least they followed the old trail path....for some reason it just hasn't been compacting at all, then I see why...

Seems the folks from CalExpo are taking their harness racing horses out on these trails since they are no longer single track...so picture two people in the trailer, since I have no idea what its called, and two more horses running behind it! Pretty interesting to say the least....and they actually smiled and said hi....

So after slogging through the mile or so of 4inch fluff, it hardens up a bit and I start flying along the trails, pop out next to Campus Commons golf course, cross over the river at Slac State and continue up the trails towards Rancho. These trails are always empty, well except for today when I actually came head on with two other CX riders...I yelled at them to get off the trails, they happily reciprocated and we laughed as we squeaked passed each other....

Somewhere in Rancho I turned around and tried to negative split the ride out riding up onto and then back off the levy each time the trail snaked out to it...ouch! Holding this effort was brutal with the last bit of dirt culminating with a ride up onto the secondary levy in gravel a few inches deep... just about killed me....once at the top the lactic acid makes me want to cry but the pain eases with each pedal stroke and they just keep feeling better. I did receive some funny looks from the couple out walking their dogs, I guess they were taken aback by the snot all over my face and my gasping for breath with druel flying about. Doesn't everyone experience that on a regular basis?

Back onto C street I decide I am going to spin my 42x17 as fast as I can from 28th street to 10th street....a different burn all together...So I get back to the office, yes it was a 1.5 hour lunch today, and make my way back to my desk, after showering, with a smile on my face.

Yes I was happy I rode, duh, but happier that I tortured myself when all I really wanted to do was kick back and "rest." Lack of sleep is my nemesis and I am still trying to get over the "wussification" I was exposed to for years... of course I don't want to get sick but "resting" every time I am tired isn't going to get me to the front of any races...

As for the "wussification" statement, if you are reading this it doesn't refer to you :)