For new readers

To get an idea of what I'm trying to do and why I think it's possible, check out the following entries, they'll help get you up to speed.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Arrowhead in two days

My ride
I'm frustrated.  The temperature during my projected time racing doesn't look to drop below 20 degrees fahrenheit.  This changes my whole strategy - what to wear, how to carry water, etc and makes me second guess many of my preparations.  But really maybe it's just the fact that i have a tendency to second guess my preparations anyway.

Grant came up last night and we went out for an hour on our fully loaded bikes to make sure there weren't any surprises.  All my gear is on the front end, something that the all knowing 'they' say isn't ideal but it seems to ride well enough so i'm not going to spend the time figuring out how to better balance my load.  I've found that the reality of aiming to be a jack of all trades means that I end up making do with a lot of less than optimal set-ups, especially compared with folks who specialize in one thing or another - such as winter bike racing.

No camelback, no drilled out rims,  an imbalanced bike, and a super jiggly headlight but she rolls when i press on the pedals and i think that will be enough to get me from the start to the finish.

I'm surprisingly calm, very little in the way of nerves.  maybe this is why people do the same race over and over again (not usually my MO) - to develop a level of comfort with all the logistics and have some sort of mental security going in.  Typically though, it's that mental insecurity that i'm seeking.

My ride at night
The calmness however is nice considering that i woke up this morning with pink-eye.  I was initially a bit distressed lying in bed during the wee hours this AM after i suspected my matted eye was significant, but what is there to do?  It's not a deal breaker.  My eyes were hammered when i did the race 3 years ago - worst case scenario is that i put a patch on the infected eye and use the other one.  The trail is wide and although the monocular vision may lead to a few more crashes, i'm riding on snow so the falls won't be too hard.  And if the itching drives me nuts i'll just take the eye patch off and let the eyeball freeze.

T-48 hours to seeing where this high intensity stuff gets me!

1 comment:

  1. I love finding out about these issues online. Makes having coffee with you on Saturday and Sunday morning without the introspection offered through your blog a much more interesting reflection while you are racing. :)

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