While my TransRockies partner Brett is currently in his car driving down to Oregon for tomorrow's Creampuff 100 mountain bike race -- widely considered the most difficult hundie in the US -- I'll be home staining my fence. Brett called me a week ago to tell me that he had it on good authority that there were still some entry slots available for The Puff and that if I wanted to head down and do it, he would make sure I'd get in. Brett apparently has connections. I think he knows a guy who knows a guy who once dated someone's sister. Anyway, I declined. The Puff is not a race you do on a moment's notice and I was fully aware of my waning energy reserves and even more depleted interest levels, not to mention I don't need another DNF to zap my confidence right now.
As I mentioned in my 5 Drainages ride report last weekend, I burned out on mountain biking sometime in June and hit bottom last Saturday. Saturday night, back at camp, I told Kristin that if somebody stole my bike in the middle of the night that I wouldn't have even cared. I spent the night trying to come up with excuses I could tell Nando and the guys on Sunday why I couldn't ride with them. Believe me when I say that I actually considered handing them a map and telling them to have fun. In fact, I was so not planning on riding Sunday that when the guys did arrive Sunday morning my bike was locked to the rack, my helmet and shoes were in the cargo case, I was dressed in casual shorts and t-shirt, and was in the midst of breaking down camp. I was already daydreaming about the breakfast I would have in Cle Elum on the way home. Alas, I didn't have the heart to blow them off and ended up leading them on a ride on the Esmeralda loop. And I'm glad I did too, as it was a much better way to cap the weekend. That said, I still planned on taking at least a week off from cycling.
The first few days of this week saw me busy with work and actually vocally thankful that I didn't "have" to go cycling. I was so thrilled with myself for deciding that I wouldn't ride this week that I don't think I even washed my clothes or emptied my Camelback from last weekend yet. And I'm here to say that my plan is working. It's Friday and I'm really starting to want to ride again. I'm feeling left out of the busy BBTC ride calendar for this weekend -- especially Igor's Icicle Ridge ride which is a known ballbuster of a ride -- but to give in now would ruin everything. I'm going to stay off the bike all weekend and not touch it again till next Tuesday. By then I should really be craving a nice hard spin and will be re-energized for next weekend's Seattle-to-Portland road ride (204 miles in one day) and ready to tackle the final month leading up to TransRockies.
So far so good...
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