I Will Blow You Up

I, Ladies and Gentlemen, am a ticking time bomb.

Lemme splain.

Early on when I moved to CA, I have to admit, I was depressed when it came to my riding.  I tried to wear a brave face, talk about how much fun I was having simply concentrating on myself… but when I listened to my bad ass friends describe the games on the lunch ride, I felt left out.  How on earth could I bring the “shenanigans” with riders who wouldn’t even have to put out effort to chase me?  How could I split the ride apart?  How could I play tactics and make people hurt, just for fun, even if it meant that I put myself out of the ride in the process?

So I turned to my own story and just tried to JRA each day, mostly with the slower groups. 

Today, when we assembled for the weekly B Roll (don’t let the name fool you), I had good feelings.  My legs felt nice, and I didn’t have to yell at anyone to keep the pace reigned in for the first half.

We were heading out on the usual gentlemanly-until-the-top-of-the-Uvas-bump pace, but then afterwards, it never really ramped up.  Never really took off.   

This was partially my fault, as when I got on the front I refused to put forth an effort to tire me out, and so the pace settled back a touch.  And when I got off the front, I told the next rider to keep it nice, as there was too much time left to start getting too surgy. 

But then, it stayed slow.  Slower than I liked for a B Roll.  We were heading into the sprint section, where usually we rolled at a good clip.  I was bored.  I was about 10 riders off the front.

And I took off.

I stood up, and pedaled as hard as I could, forcing people to wake up to jump on my wheel.  Some of them were too late and fell off.  Everyone had to actually put forth an effort to chase me down.  In seconds, we went from 22mph to 35mph.  My heart rate went from 156 to 184.

When the dust settled, I was off the back, having blown myself up at the effort and unable to get back to the front before the stop sign turn onto Watsonville. 

But for the first time, I honestly didn’t care about getting dropped.  I still had the biggest smile on my face. 

Because for the first time, I was the one who pulled Shenanigans.  I altered the pain threshold of the ride. 

Instead of blowing up, I blew it up.