“So what’s with this sitting in stuff,” I was thinking to myself as we rounded the corner heading towards the water plant about thirty minutes east of downtown Dallas. I was just sick of the comeback. Tired and weary of the effort. It’s been 90 days now and I have had three rides that I consider to be worth remembering. I know I am a big baby, and should expect that this effort to achieve personal fitness should never be a cake walk…But dang it, I was in the mood to kill for just a few crumbs.
There was a long stretch of road where a group was dangling a couple of hundred meters ahead of us. So I decided to try out the body and the bike. I have this little thing that I imagine. My legs are pistons in a giant V8 engine and my brain is firing like spark plugs. I imagine the explosions in my brain as the pistons are fired downward into the cylinder…my bike propels forward. Until Saturday, I could hear the rumbling of the engine. A few sputters, the occasional flooding of the engine and sometimes lurching forward and then back like I had a tank of bad gas. In one solid effort, I imagined a backfire, where behind me was a plume of black smoke…The carbon was blowing out and suddenly the firing of the spark-plugs was igniting the fuel in the compression chamber and my shrinking body lunged forward. This time, I kept accelerating, and accelerating until I reach a nice speed and just held it there. Not yet near my maximum output, but very manageable.
Several times I tried the new legs. Occasionally going to the front of the pack and winding it up. I could feel that for the first time in ten years, I was testing the legs (only very slightly) of others. It felt GREAT. When I was in the back of the pack, I was just paying very close attention to each and every pedal stroke, ensuring perfection. A few times on the hills, I felt the mojo and stayed near the front, just trying to match the speed of the others.
The 7:30 am ride that leaves from St. Francis in East Dallas is a fairly competitive ride that has been going on for years. It attracts racers and riders of a higher recreation caliber. Until this day, I was the last man to finish…every time. This past Saturday, I rode better than I had hoped for. The humidity caught up to me at Barnes Bridge and Beltline, where I needed to make a much needed pit stop for water. Even though I did not continue on for the sprint, I was very satisfied. Now if I finish behind the group for the next month, I at least have this ride to think about. My mind, body and bike are starting to get in sync, and it’s a great feeling.
I did not have the opportunity to get any pictures of the ride (safety first), but I took some pictures of my bike that thought I would post. My Airborne (Now Flyte), is the best bike I have ever had. This titanium wonder is pure art.
wojo said:
chris, first you rock, that’s not opinion… fact.
second, your training MUST be on some semblance of a schedule because of today’s (sunday 7:30) ride.
just to let everyone else know how strong you are even when you’re not 100%… yet!.. we roll out, i’m late and chase for about 8 miles, i get on the back and recover as much as possible. we’re past the neutral so at this point anything goes… everyone is just chillin’ along and at one point chris rolls of the front with some dude on his wheel. i see this and think…”someone will close the gap”…. “soon”… “umm, now… you should close the gap now!” for anyone knowing nothing about chris and his younger days as a cyclist, this is a guy who would lap the pro 12’s in criterium races without the riders knowing a thing about it until he comes up to them from behind. NOTE TO THE GUYS FOR NEXT SUNDAY: ” YOU DO NOT LET CHRIS ROLL OF THE FRONT AND GIVE HIM 1/2 MILE!” at one point i started to count the gap up… 10 seconds, 15, 25, 30, 45… 50!… ok, ok… umm…BOOM!… like being oiled and shot from a gun a few other riders realized that this is not a good situation and came past me like a train. edgar, a tenzing, a colonel’s and a wheels dude realize that this is a man who lists “self mutilation” as a hobby and he should not be given this kind of time cushion. we start chasing, and chasing, and chasing and the riders are peeling off one by one after they’ve ripped the legs off of every other rider in the pack. we were holding 33-35 mph for a good 3 miles with me on the back willing my front tire to the rear tire of the guy in front of me like mental super glue. it’s one thing to be in a chase and have a team mate off the front but it’s another when you’re the one chasing, expending huge energy and after 400 watt 5 minute intervals you look up and STILL can’t see the rider who you’re trying to pull back.
“what the hell man!”, i thought, “i still can’t even see him!”. we came around a sweeping right hander and i looked up to see our progress,… nothing. i swear i still couldn’t see chris. at this point we were passing “lapped” riders who took a short cut to get back on the group. we would later pass these riders again and again. after another surge and another breakfast platter of interval pain we (and i’m not kidding) STILL COULDN’T BRING HIM BACK. we came within 10 meters hit a light and he was off again… i don’t even think that other dude took a pull after the first couple miles. the cahse ended where i knew it would… THE HILLS. we caught the pain train at the top of a couple of short sprint climbs right where i knew chris would faulter. chris,… you are on track to KILL THE COMPETITION!! my friend. it took a lot of power to bring you back and it showed in the group. you will get down to the race weight that we talked about and then we won’t even be able to catch you on the climbs! you ROCK and you’re a roll model to a lot of cyclist, myself included. for those who don’t know: to bring back someone putting out 400 watts we had to DO 400 watts just to keep them from gaining any ground… but, to bring them back into the pack we had to put out something like 500 for an extended amout of time. this is a very hard thing to do when the person off the front IS capable of holding 400 watts for a L O N G time. chris can do that and he’s still getting stronger. chris, keep it up! stay on track and i want you to know that when i need to i even now think about my pedal stroke and being efficient with my energy output and being fluid on climbs all because of you and your comeback posts!
KEEP IT UP AND KEEP US POSTED!!
love ya like a brother!
:: 25 Jun 2006 at 10:03 pm ::
chris ronan said:
Christian, Thanks for the nice post. For what it’s worth, what you left out was that I spent the rest of the ride struggling off the back. The ride was difficult, but we had that little gap and I figured we would just run with it. I hope that I can get the weight down and make it even more difficult! Next time you should just go with me…
:: 26 Jun 2006 at 1:24 pm ::
wojo said:
anyone who spent that much energy holding off p12’s from tenzing and colonel’s can ride off the back all they want when caught and believe me, i wanted to go with you but i was recovering from my chase for as long as i could, plus, i seriously doubt i would have contributed… i’d just be hangin’ on to your wheel. i knew you were going as hard as you could. the only way i can hang with you is coming back up to your wheel on the climbs and i’m not sure how long that tactic will last. you’re going to be hammering those things in no time as well!
you are the pain train!!
:: 26 Jun 2006 at 2:22 pm ::
larry said:
Paulie (Sopranos) said, he can beat both you Chris and WoWo in any bicycle ride, race or whatever. He also said he doesn’t own a bike and doesn’t need one.
:: 26 Jun 2006 at 8:23 pm ::
larry aka bobby peru said:
Hey Chris, you never tell me “Hey Larry (aka Bobby Peru) thanks for the nice post”. Yeah sure. And you, DoDo (aka Christian), never end a note of confidence to me that says “Love you like my Mother”. I have one friend in Chicago and another somewhere else. I don’t need you guys.
:: 26 Jun 2006 at 8:40 pm ::
wojo said:
check that man for stroke symptoms!
larry… i love you like a brother too!
you guys are the only guys who get me… i.e., designer, cyclist, sarcastic, confident, perfectionist, blah, blah, blah… if i keep on going i’m gonna bust out crying… sniff.
:: 26 Jun 2006 at 9:44 pm ::