Windy Weekend

What would you do with your windy weekend? Try saying that 5 times fast. Well, what we did with our windy weekend was: suffer, or at least I did, anyway. Late last week I got word that Bennet Van Der Genugten was gonna be in Bloomington for some riding. We tried to gather the troops, but because of the collegiate races at Depauw, some of the local horsepower was out of town. Saturday it was: BVDG (PRO), Fred Rose (undroppable workin-man), Tom Cox (Man-Beast), Wes Luzadder (17-18 National Crit Champ), and myself (dainty wanna-be). With the wind pounding us pretty hard, we decided to do an out and back at a good tempo, nothing too crazy, just keepin' the pace up. So about that suffering thing... This weekend marked the last few days of the seemingly never-ending block of training I've been working on for about the last 3 weeks. I've been going at it pretty hard in an attempt to have some fitness before the end of May for once, so I had one foot firmly planted inside the hurt locker before the rides of this weekend. Anyway, that ride didn't kill me really, but it sure didn't help me get my legs ready for when the testosterone doubled on Sunday with the addition of two of the strongest dudes around: Ryan Shannahan and John Meyers.

Sunday it was the same wind, maybe a bit tougher, but we decided on a rolling route that would give us a tail wind coming home. It was on before we even got out of town. It started with two lines, with the two on the front pulling with (against) each other. Once that collapsed because off all the "measuring" going on, we rode in single file taking our turns putting in good pulls, making sure the others sitting on weren't getting too much rest. We continued throttling each other for a few hours until we too a quick break for some fuel. We finally hit the tailwind section and rolled it breakaway style all the way to town. The last few turns before we got to town, everyone was emptying the tank on every pull. A few times I thought I might be getting popped off the back, but I was able to survive and take all my turns at the front. It was nice to get in a good solid, fast effort since I haven't been able to race yet. It was also nice to get some hurting in, knowing that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now I'm taking it easy for a few days before I get crackin' on the next round of punishment.

It was nice to catch up with Bennet and hear about the big things he's got going on in his racing life right now. Also, he was lookin P-R-O skinny, with the 15 pounds he said he had shed. Also, with the arrival of Daylight Saving Time, Wednesday Worlds are back on in Bloomington, so hopefully the threat of embarrassment by my peers will be enough to get me rolling pretty well for the racing coming up.