Beat me up, and beat me down. It was sublime in the old school, Kantian sense. Work today was a struggle to stay awake, and both M and I have been ornery as hell in the last few hours. All part I think of it all sinking in, I reckon.
Some data, from Sunday:
Cutest moment of the weekend? Dave and Lynda geeking out on their PM data Sunday afternoon.
I turned the GPS off at the top of Bearclaw Poppy, cutting out~5-7 miles of dirt and pavement. My numbers say just a hair short of 7k for this ‘un, easily pushed over by the brutal climb on Dixie Downs road out of the river valley. Also note sneaky use of the Micro Loop wash trail to expedite the procurement of a frosty.
Blakes was brilliant, I’d do it all the time (safe to say from 350 miles away).
The crew was awesome; Plesko and Nice, you guys are a pleasure to be around in seemingly any circumstance. One more big reason to move. Name plates at dinner might better facilitate mixing, though the GPS track and dinner location format begs to be emulated. The whole deal felt like a more thorough look into the rarefied, fascinating world I’ve been privileged to look into in the last year.
And that’s the big question; do I belong here? I’ve never felt like much of an athlete, and even though I’ve put a lot of time, effort, and mental energy into cycling and (too a lesser extent) running in the last few years I was standing at edge of a different level this weekend.
Having Harris or Fred drop me is one thing, its a small window of “damn he’s better than I am”. A different experience entirely is having the full trail pull away on Barrel Roll and being unable to do anything about it. It seems that in the big picture I can ride smart, prepare, and slug along well, thus keeping up. The Rim Ride last year is a prime example, I did as well as I did by riding as close to a perfect race as could have been managed by the rider I was on that day. But it’s not in my nature to be satisfied.
So, I need to work harder. Specifically, I need to buckle down during the week and push out regular runs and rides at intensities that make me grimace and want to stay home. Feedback on this issue is most welcome, but the universal shortcoming of my riding this weekend seemed to be a lack of top-end power and speed. Something always likely to be a shortcoming, but one I don’t want to accept complacently, yet.
So, that’s my goal for this year.
Yep, that’s M’s new gravel machine on the left, Pom Pom is it’s name. She insisted on building it Friday with precious little assistance from me, and did a much better job than I did a year plus ago trying to figure out BB7’s with no help save the manual and the net. I pitched in a bit that evening, we got underway, and despite a discouraging profusion of mechanicals (goatheads, lost chainring bolt, lost derailleur pulley) put in a good three days of riding. Makes my inadequacies seem as silly as they may well be.
Tech notes:
-I had fun on the SS Saturday, though my hands still suffer before any other part of me. Gears were welcome for the rest. Mad respect for the many strong folks pushing one gear up the aforementioned climb. That’s dreamy fitness.
-The Lev is awesome for this stuff. The WTB Pure V and the ability to shift far forward takes steep climbing to a new level, but it’s comfort pales next to the Brooks. An issue as of now unresolved.
-The Garmin was great, trackback gave great feedback on just how I was getting off route, and the data analysis in Topofusion is most handy. I need a handlebar mount.
-The pocket added to my pack last week was great, the other side will be a bit different, but not too.
-Equate is pretty good stuff.
Bedrock & Paradox 
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