Worst weekend since Sea Otter - Loooooooong
Posted on November 25, 2008
This past weekend I relieved my experience at Sea Otter.
I have to be honest and I can remember vividly how delirious and wacked out of my mind I was after the Sea Otter road race. To this day, that was the hardest racing day on the bike for me. This weekend, Saturday, was the hardest training ride of my riding life. I remember going up hills in Morro Bay and trying to no keel over, I remember riding 10+ hours with thousands and thousands of feet of climbing during my insane ride while the fires were happening, but this weekend might take the cake.
Why?
I broke down. I completely feel apart on the bike. Complete meltdown. I wanted to stop and cry, right there.
I started Swamis and did not manage to finish the sprint. I am not sure what happened, but the sequence of events led me to a horrible ride.
Thursday night I was invited to a fu-fu dinner and the food was excellent. Open bar and all you can eat lamb chops. I did damage there. Next day I could not eat anything. Went without breakfast and lunch. Ate a bit a night. Saturday morning ate 4 eggs and a PB jelly sandwich.
Rode to the ride and form the get go it was faster. It felt faster. The hills were harder, people kept attacking, I was feeling right but kept trucking along hoping that it would do what it always does.. slow down and then i can recover.
Pace never got slower, i got dropped after exploding on a riser. Got to the church and people were already riding away.
NOW THE STOOOOOOOOOPID part.
I decided to go long loop. To keep this short and sweet, i basically blew up 8 more times and guys were really nice to tow me back to the very small group. I would have been in trouble if I were in good shape, I was, in the group, the weakest rider and not feeling good just slowed things down a lot more.
I thought of catching a cab, but I was 80 miles from home and I did not have the cash handy. So I kept going, sitting in and struggling. Got to Solana Beach and thought about catching the train home, but Rob (who I convinced to ride long) convinced me now to ride home. I knew I had Torrey and Presidio hills to go over and I KNEW in my mind that I would not make it home alive.
I kept telling Rob to go home and not worry about me. I did not want to cry in front of him. It was a weird feeling… I wanted to cry cause I felt like it, I could not control it.. I am not sure what was going through my head… I was fighting a panic attack, but my body was exhausted.. It was a really strange feeling.
In any case, I made home with cold sweats. Could not eat or drink anymore. Was so full of crap, I felt sick. I was cramping, my gut was sticking out, my arms were sore. MY ARMS!!!!!!!! Did not even turn them once.. how pathetic.
I took a shower, got in sweats and sat on the couch for 3 hours. Tried to recover. Thinking what tomorrow’s ride would be like.
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