This last weekend was a doozy in terms of my part time job - that being chip timing for bike races. 2 evening crits meant the days were filled with data processing, setting up, working, tearing down, then more data processing. Sunday brought the Corporate Cycling Challenge. They wanted timing for that too, so after collapsing into bed at midnight Saturday night, I trudged downtown at 5:30am to get things setup for the chaos that is 4000-ish people becoming cats needing to be herded around. After I got a very small percentage of the cats chipped up, all were loosed upon the Northern regions of Eastern Douglas County.
Good buddy Peter Boyd won the timed 42 mile trip in 1 hour 42 minutes. After they cooled down a tad I chatted with a few of the guys I used to paceline with on this ride. Brady and Fred said it was a blast and I let them know I was hoping to join them for the event next year if someone else can do chip timing, or chip timing just doesn't happen. Brady of course pointed out that I should say I'm not riding in next year's CCC since I always do the opposite of what I say I'm going to do.
Thanks for the gut punch, dear friend.
My last post was in the Spring and I was all giddy about training for Gravel Worlds. There's something about going on a long bike ride that gets me all euphoric and gung-ho to ride more. I start having grand schemes about training hard, getting faster, possibly trying racing again.
Then a week or 2 (or 3 or 4) will go by without any riding aside from my measly 3 mile commute to and from work. Things happen - family comes into town, I have a month long stint where every weekend I do chip timing for races which takes up a ton of time over the weekend, the weather gets too extreme (wet, hot, cold), or I just generally feel lazy and don't want to ride.
So when the "registration deadline" for Gravel Worlds came and went, I let it go. I was on the fence about a friend's wedding to attend the night before GW, but now I'm committed to it. Originally in May, the whole month of August looked clear, race chip timing-wise, so I figured I could get some good long rides in leading up to GW. Then in July, the NCA schedule all of a sudden filled up with races, and I was glad I didn't need those weekends to get things dialed in to survive 150 miles of gravel.
So next weekend, when everyone is having an EPIC time GRAVEL GRINDING away(obligatory overly used terms) I will be at the vet, getting our kitten her rabies shot. Yay.
Then, I might just go for a bike ride. I mean, I'm never riding my bike again. Yeah, that's it.
