what a crummy day for a ride

my tummy was off, way off. it still is. too much whiskey and not enough chilli last night, i think. or something.

anyhow, i was tired. i did a little extra warmup before heading up parrot. parrot kicked me in the gut, hard, several times. but i pushed on. i learned a valuable lesson: standing or sitting, i'm not going to be able to change to an easier gear while going 4mph up a 20% grade. that's just all there is to it. i can dishonor myself and walk up, or do little circles on the road to shift gears, or just grind the fuck outta my knees, but i'm not able to shift. sure, i can move the chain around a little and it'll make awful noises and maybe chuck my derailler off, but it's not going to shift.

so next time i'll choose my gear wiselier, which is really pretty difficult. i want a high-ish gear to get a standing start, but then i want to downshift to spin at the cadence i've kicked into. that works very well for me on 6-13% grades. maybe i'm just doing it wrong. i dunno, more experimentation is needed.

just as i was coming up ralston trail, which i'd planned to do in a whole bigger chainring than usual, a maintenance truck was coming down, blocking the whole trail. worse, he wanted to talk! someone had reported a downed fence in the vicinity, but neither he nor i had seen it. he was a cyclist too and wanted to bitch about drivers who honk at him when he's in the gorram bike lane. i can relate, buddy, i sure can. on sunday some stupid hooznatch mistook my bike lane for a right turn lane. she had a whole right turn lane to herself but had to impede my lane. wtf? anyhow, it's all part of road riding. so it goes.

anyhow, he finally said goodbye, and offered to back himself up the trail so i could ascend unimpeded. that was nice of him, i thought, until i got to the top of the hill and found that his fuckin truck was blocking the trail exit! argh! i had taken the hill in the bigger gear as planned, but had to downshift to man-oo-ver around his truck. sigh.

and then, and then as i was descending polhemus, some retard threw a fucking tree at me. yep, that's right: he hit a little bump and a god damned tree flew out of his truck bed at me. i had had my eye on him, because people in trucks are stupid drivers generally (hi chefjef!) and moreover, he had a tree in his truck. whelp, i missed the bulk of it though i did get sodded. i laughed at the absurdity of dodging a flying tree on the road and continued on.

by the time i got to ascension drive i had talked myself into, well, ascending. so i did. i hopped out of the saddle and took the whole street in a huge gear. i've never made it up there so fast, and a quick glance at my barometer told me it was a (relatively easy for this ride!) 10% grade. my HR went from 120 to 170 in about 45 seconds. wow! but i owned that hill like never before. i got into some kinda rhythm, and i think i was actually pulling up on the pedals -- circles while standing! even tho my HR was near its max at the top, i hadn't entirely blown myself away, i had a little more hill in me for next time.

i guess i can gauge my fatigue level by my speed through the obstacle course (actually, i think that one of these days i'll take parrot the other way to get home w/out taking the obstacle course... i just didn't have that in me today, parrot looks just as hard in the other direction!). today i took it at around 22mph, whereas on sunday, after 58 miles, i took it at 27! so i'm tired. i have no idea how i did 57 miles after burning up all my glucose after parrot on sunday. energy drinks i reckon.

anyhow. i'm good and tired. i've got that post-ride glow. still glurply in the stomaccio, but that's how it goes some days.