The Stupid Hurt Box

I rode on the road today. Hey-ohhhh!

It was today that I realized something about my previous road ride. I only feel fast if I ride for an hour (or less). So that includes all rides to work, bars, underground fight clubs, and yo' momma's (ZING!). After about an hour the Feeling of Fastness (FOF) quickly becomes the Sensation of Slowness (SOS). SOS rides include nearly all the types of rides that are good for me as a cyclist and (very) amateur racer. I have a habit of riding to rides and that has a very high tendency to rapidly upset the delicate FOF:SOS ratio. I really do not enjoy using my car to drive to rides. It defeats the purpose of using the bike as a vehicle. As such, I'll happily ride my bike the 12+ miles to a friend's house or group starting point. This is where I constantly run into trouble. Sometimes it's because I'm overly enthusiastic to jump on my bike and other times it's because I'm constantly running late, but I always catch myself basically time trialing my ride to a ride. Burning out on the ride before the ride is a good way to put yourself in the hurt box and throw away the key and is also the story of my life. I use this explanation in just about everything I do. None of this "the dog ate my homework" crap. If I'm don't turn in an assignment or forget your birthday, it's because I rode my bike too fast too soon.

Today's ride was no exception. I rode into Georgetown to build some team bikes and ended up doing a ride with Southern Comfort. He wanted to do a long, easy ride and I was happy to put some "base miles" in despite the fact that I have no idea what a "base mile" actually is. I thought we were going to ride to a military installation, but I was wrong. Instead, we did a typical SoCo ride, which involve going in one particular direction for an ungiven distance (neither of us had computers), making a few turns here and there, and then trying to find our way home. With a varying pace that was probably a little higher than "slow" but not quite "tempo" (whatever those words mean), we rode out to Potomac, MD, somehow ended up in Gaithersburg, rode through Rockville and finally made it back to Georgetown. It wasn't necessarily an epic ride with its lack of gnarly climbs or beautiful scenery, but I did get my butt kicked by Southern Comfort riding his 1x10 time trial bike. Also, as is characteristic of most SoCo rides, we found ourselves riding off-road a little bit on the CCT and the surrounding area. I feel like there's no better way to stick it to triathletes than riding a TT bike in a little bit of dirt and mud. Chapeau! I, on the other hand, suffered a good bit through the last legs of our ride, shifted into the little ring (aka survival mode), and tried to slowly spin my way home without my legs cramping up and falling off. So I guess I had a pretty good ride. Post-ride, I housed a half-chicken platter from EPR, two PB&Js, a handful of leftover Valentine's Day candy, and just about anything I could get my hands on. Tomorrow's an "off day." Meaning I will be off my bike, on my ass, and probably scratching myself in places that would be inappropriate if done in a public place. I'm thinking Metro car...

In Other News:
In an attempt to build up my army of bicycles, I ordered a new frameset today. I will name it The Indestructibike, the race bike that will never die.