THE INFINITE RACE

LAST NIGHT WAS A CLOSE ONE.  Pre-riding part of the course, my chain was skipping a bit.  Can't have that racing...

... luckily, my local bike shop was there.

So, I cut my pre-ride short figuring the course was unchanged from the previous week.

Big mistake. 

(Note:  this is why I highly, highly recommend supporting the local shop)

The other mistake, as The Coathanger pointed out, was not dialing in my bike before showing up.

Hey, I saw your bike hanging up and being wrenched on.

Yeah, chain is skipping.

Aren't you supposed to be raceday ready?

Yes, I am.

Don't you make a checklist for having the bike ready on raceday?

Yes, I do.

Well?

Well... shift happens.

Anyway, we line up to race and within about 3 minutes we've nearly caught the wave that stared 30 seconds ahead of us and as 3 of my competitors gap me with ease...

... I'm thinking Why the heck do I sign up for this torture?!!

My breathing is so loud and laborious, even I'm concerned.

Fortunately, along with my derailer not working well my Wahoo HRM wasn't working either.

Let the records show that both of these devices were working fine the day before.

If I'd been about to see the HR recorded by my back up Apple Watch, I probably would have quit.

It was really hard.

Towards the top, I made up a bit of ground and while the leaders were being held up a bit by slower traffic on the single track return to the bottom, I was able to connect once we hit the pavement.

Remember how I skipped riding all of the course?

Yeah, well, if I had, I would have known to be first into the final single track, which we haven't ridden all year.  

It's not that hard.

But, it does have some very steep and tight turns that must be attacked with power...

... the kind of turns that can get in your head.

Sure enough, the rider in front of me misses the last 180 and we all have to dismount.

Ugh.

Winding around to hit the big hill for the second and final time, I'm feeling a little better.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I pulled away from the fellas and established a big enough gap by the bottom to comfortably ride away.

The point is this.

Sometimes, I (we?) just want to quit.

It hurts.

I'm tired of suffering.

Inevitably, at least for me, I almost always start to feel good.

As the great Mike Tyson famously said...

... Everybody's got a plan until the get punched in the face (gapped off the back.)

The thing is though, while the pain is real, it's not infinite...

pushing through,
giving it our all,
persevering,

... is what we do, and who we are.

It doesn't always work out, that we catch back on or feel better.  Sometimes we just get shelled and do the ride of shame back to the start line.

You know what would be a real shame?

To never go back,
to stop clawing and battling,
to never chase another outrageous PR.

The real race is the infinite one, against ourselves.

---

164.7
6.8 hrs 
RaceDay Ready Circuit Training and Run
20 minutes recovery  
90 minutes reading + Journaling 

Podcast:

https://www.strava.com/athletes/10248

https://www.instagram.com/pedalindustries

https://twitter.com/pedalindustries