Self Portrait: I may not look it but I was very happy to be out in the woods!
This was my first real mountain bike ride of the year. I went a few weeks ago to Forest Park, but I don't count that as a real mtb ride. I had been training just on the road for Vikingman, and now that it is over I can do riding that is, well, more fun-oriented. Today I went with Dave.
This is Dave, also known--unaffectionately--as DTP. This was pretty much what he looked like everytime we stopped along the trail. He said he felt so out of shape that the effort made him want to puke.
Last year at this time DTP was training his butt off--in secret, lying to his closest friends about his training program--to do his first olympic distance triathlon. He rocked that triathlon. And then having done very well he decided to slow his pace down. He has probably averaged one bike ride a month since that time. Today he had to start paying the piper.
Having only done my first half ironman tri last saturday my legs still felt sort of dead. I did not have the power on the climbs that I was used to having last year. I don't know if that was because of the tri or because I have not been doing this sort of riding in months. I am used to spinning forever, but not used to the short bursts of power that are necessary riding a singlespeed offroad. Still, as the ride went on I started to feel better. However, I have lost much of my technical climbing finesse. I just sort of felt clumsy at times. But even at my worst I was doing better than DTP.
Here DTP is trying to put a good face one of the times when he said he wanted to puke. He looked pretty pale much of the time, or at least when we would stop after a climb.
It was not DTP's best showing. He felt bad for being out of shape and slowing me down he said. Admittedly, it was a little bit frustrating at times, since it was hard to get into a rhythm. But mostly I was enjoying seeing this guy suffer a little bit. Last year he whooped me at the Spudman Tri. I have some really good excuses that are hard to top as to why that happened, but the fact are clear that I was honest in my training and lack of it at times all last year, while he was a sandbagging liar. And sandbagging liars get bad knicknames and laughed at when they fall from grace. Sorry to say, but Dave's/DTP's suffering was amusing.
The following was how every climb went. He would pedal up and then collapse on his handlebar once he got to where I was waiting for him.
"I think I can make it"
"I think I can..."
"I did it!"
...and then collapse.
Or here is another little climb where I took a bit of video. The heavy breather is me--Hey I didn't say it was easy. I just didn't think that it would make a guy pass out.
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