This photo is way better when you take me out of it. But the one with me not makes you think it isn't real....
Spell Check is not working so I appologize for looking like I didn't pass 4th grade.
For the last year waking up has been a very "stressful" time of day for me. It ussually starts with me wigling my toes and moving my left ankle around. If I flex and rotate my foot and feel pain in my heel it is never a good sign. If I don't feel that I then have to give it a test on the ground. Of course I spend a good five miniutes massaging the foot and calve. I would say that one out of seven days I feel pain in my heel when I get up. I'm on the right track and have grown accustomed to my AM ritual. Today I had one more to deal with becasue of my knee.
I had decided that the knee was no big deal but it could still possibly cost me another day in the van. So as I got up I noticed I could still feel it but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was the day before. When something goes away by a large percentage in one day you can almost always rest assure that it is minor. I was happy with that and decided that I would give the ride a go. I knew I may have to get a ride up the Crown Range but I could just get back on the bike after I got over.
We had a swim to take care of first and the option was to either go to the pool or hit the lake with Gordo. Sitting there eating breakfast I decided to go to the lake. I'm not sure why I did that becasue we were all chatting about how bad the wind was today and the fact that a storm was clearly on it's way towards us. The lake would be a mess of waves no doubt.
When we got to the lake it was just as I predicted. Cold, windy and big chop. I had my sleveless Blue Seventy with me and was sooo not in the mood to be cold. I was already cold standing there in my wetsuit. When I got to the water it seemed pretty damn cold and I just watched everyone get in. I just stood there. Gordo had taken the van key with him in the water so if I got in and then wanted to get out early I would REALLY be cold. Most of the time I can bring myself to get in and just deal but this camp was proving a challenge to do certain things.
So I got out, put on Mikes jacket and finally got the quiet time I was looking for. It was time needed to clear my head on many issues going on outside the triathlon world. It was very ironic that when I first sat down the lake was dark and gloomy but by the time people were getting out of the water it was graced by a giant rainbow. That was a similar pattern that my mind took.
After the swim we all went on a run. I was game to give it a try but I had to walk and stretch alot as I could feel the knee. So I just turned it around and got back to the van and waited for the rest. I was still set on riding.
Once we were back and ready to get on the bikes we could see the storm getting closer. The ride went out nice and slow but by the time we got out of town I couldn't stay with the group. It seemed that I was fine but I had to ride at a very high cadence and couldn't go fast. I was okay with getting dropped and just happy to be riding. I couldn't stand up on the bike either but it seemed that it was warming up as I went on even thought the temp kept droping.
When I got to the climb I looked back to see where the sag waggon was. The entire time I thought that it was right behind me but I never looked back becasue I didn't want the temptation to stop. I did have a few moments of irritation when I was going realy slow and wanted to tell them to just leave me and go with the group. To my surprise it wasn't even there LOL! I'm glad it wasn't becasue it forced me to keep going.
The climb wasn't as bad as I thought. I could stay seated for the most part and actually caught up to a few of the other guys. It was so close to starting a massive down pour on us. I wanted so bad to make it down the other side before that started. I did just that and only had to deal with minor rain on the decent. My hands were completely locked up from all the braking! It is a very windy decent.
Once at the base the rest of the group was there pretty much frozen. I passed Rob Chance on the decent and he had NO warm gear on. I was frozen in a jacket. I think he was about delerious! Quite a few of the guys got in the van for the rest of the ride. My knee didn't get any worse so I figured I would do the rest of the ride. Tara and Albert were getting ready to take off so I got some dry clothes out of my day bag and took off with them. Little did we know what we were in for.
Twenty min into the rest of the ride we got hit with massive cross winds and rain. The temperature was also being influenced from the south so it dropped a good 15-20 degrees on us. It confirmed that I am certainly not soft because I was having a blast. I have ridden in most types of extreme weather and always feel good about getting through it. I guess I just have a very low tollerance for injuries.
Albert and Tara and I stayed together as there were sections that were actually a bit dangerous. When we crossed bridges the cross wind was extra strong. Luckily we had a great crew that was watching us all very closely making sure nothing bad happend. At one point a bird was flying and the wind actually slamed it into the road. Tara saw it and we both had a good laugh about that later in the day. "It" wasn't funny, but the fact that we riding in weather that bad kinda was.
We came up on Molina who got a flat. Now that is a shitty time to get a flat. He was fine so we just left the old guy out there LOL. We wouldn't have been able to help anyway as our hands were frozen.
We made it to Q Town and the crew had some awesome soup wating for us with all our bags already sorted in the rooms. They are so freaking good! I took a 30 min shower and felt so good that I was back on track. However, I missed my swim in the AM so as son as I got out of the shower I got my bag and walked to the pool that was luckily only 5 min away. I put in 4K and that was iceing on the cake for my day.
Later that night I went into town and got some dinner by myself. Again, needed some more BDC time. Then I hooked up with Ron and John and we decided to take the Gondola up to the top of the mountain. One of the best views you could ever ask for!
cheers,
bdc
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