Crashing on Thrilla

Remember that wrist pain I had? It finally healed over the past few days and I was once again able to do pushups again without pain.

Well, that was fun while it lasted...

I stole away from work last night to pound out a quick lap on the Thrilla course in Woodinville. I was on pace to set a new personal best time for myself, despite a pretty social opening 5 miles with Kevin and Eddy and all was going well until the final 1/2 mile. I was descending "heart-attack hill" (named for the sensation it gives when you ride up it), heading due west into the sun which was still shining bright above the Olympic Mountains across Puget Sound. It was blinding.

The hill is pretty wide, about 15 yards or so, but there is only one small strip of dirt trail on the far right that is really rideable on the upper half of the hill. I was moving at a pretty good clip and suddenly noticed a guy and his dog sitting down right on the narrow trail I was descending. They were all but invisible in the harsh glare of the sun. I braked hard and slowed down, but still had to swing wide to avoid them since they were occupying the entire trail. Unfortunately, when I turned to avoid them, I hit a small ditch obscured by tall weeds and slammed down pretty hard on my hip. And wrist.

I just looked at the guy. I couldn't say anything because of course the guy has every right to be there, but man, did he have to sit down right in the middle of the narrow trail? I brushed myself off and grimmaced at the recurring wrist pain, all the while giving the guy my best "are you kidding me?" look. The guy got up and continued up the trail and, sensing he screwed up, apologized that I crashed trying to avoid him. He said something about stepping off the trail next time. Yeah, do you think? I was glad I didn't accidentaly run over the dog or hit the guy (unlike in the Tour de France) but I sure would have liked to have not re-injured my wrist two weeks before the biggest athletic challenge in my life. Thanks, jackass.

Nevertheless, the hunger is back. After a nice socially moderate-paced singletrack ride at Tolt-MacDonald park on Tuesday night, I was excited to go hard last night and felt great doing so. I'm going to hit the road bike pretty hard on Friday, then I have a big half-day singletrack ride planned with my TR partner, Brett, for Sunday. After that, it's taper time baby!