Here, take some Speed

Hey you, here, take this speed. Actually, I don't promote drug use. In fact, I won't even take ibuprofen unless my body really, really, hurts. But, despite my lackluster show of speed at Putney I was rather surprised tonight. I think someone injected me with something in my sleep or slipped something in my lunch today.

I took Monday off as a rest day and caught up on some chores. Then, today, I wasn't sure I'd even get to ride, strong thunderstorms were on their way. After consulting the radar several times, I decided it was a go, and then even decided it would be possible to pull off the Tuesday Night Sleeping Giant ride before the rain came. Lee rolled out the door with me and we rolled a nice warm up before arriving at Sleeping Giant State Park. I told him as we pulled away from the house and my legs screamed in agony, "I hope I can manage to hold on until the Paul Bunion Statue." The statue sits about half way through the ride. As we warmed up more, my legs started to feel alright.

The the Sleeping Giant ride started, this week it was split in two, with another group riding a slightly longer route. This was nice because it dropped the total number of riders in one group down, and the really fast guys opted for the long route while I opted for the short route. That's not to say the short route was going to be slow though. It may have started out a little easier since no one really wanted to pull at the front, but after a few miles the pace was sitting high. Somehow, I was easily sitting in the first 10 guys of the pack through nearly the entire ride. A few times, on some short uphills I surged to the front.

Then we pulled onto route 10, I was getting positioned for the sprint up the hill to the grocery store entrance. I let three or four guys expend large amounts of energy at the front and when the hill kicked up I began to surge. Unfortunately, I was sort of blocked into moving up the ride side and after I got to the front and was pushing on the pedals with everything I had for about 5 or 10 seconds I heard it. "Clank, clank, clank." Each time the tires rotated something in the back end was smacking the frame of my bike. I pulled off onto a sidewalk entrance as the entire peleton kept on trucking. I'd taken a metal spring to the rear tire. After a quick change of tubes I was up and rolling. Though I had no hope of catching the group again, likely going 5mph slower on my own, I time trialed my way home holding 20-25 mph.

Upon arriving at the house, Lee says to me, "I decided you're a liar." Truly, I didn't think I was going to be able to hold on tonight, some how I ended up playing around at the front of the pack.

I made it home about 5 minutes before the rain too.

I posted some select pictures from Putney. I included some random faces, just because I kind of like some of the pictures. Look at them here.