Day 43...Part Two: Competitive? Who Me?

I just got back from my ride, and I wanted to share with you how I did.  Sorry for the double-up on posts today, but I figured some of you out there were on the edge of your seat, anxious to see if I beat my friends time...not so much?  Well...I am going to share it with you anyway!

Knowing that the ride would take less than an hour, I set out with a pretty fast pace, which got my PVC's fired pretty quickly!  I haven't told you about my PVC's?..hmmm...that's another story, for another day.  Anyhow...I wanted to simulate race conditions, so I set out at what I consider 'race-pace'...for me at least.  I was feeling great when I hit the first climb, I was able to keep the bike in a relatively high gear, and power through the technical single-track, littered with volcanic stones the size of human heads.  One of these days I'm heading out there with a pick so I can dig out all of those rocks!  This short, but tough climb didn't feel all that bad today, and before I knew it I was on the downhill side of the mountain, weaving my way through those same rocks, at nearly three times the speed.

At the halfway point I was still feeling very strong...maybe even stronger, as my body was starting to warm-up and adjust to the demand.  The second half of the ride consists of some great, twisty downhill sections that can either be extremely fun...or extremely painful.  Today they were fun!  The backside of the ride has some very rocky downhill areas that can really wreak havoc on both your body and your bike.  It pays to have a really good bike on this ride!  Just as I cleared one of those fast, rocky downhill sections, I heard a loud, repetitive noise coming from my rear wheel.  It sounded like I had broken a spoke, and immediately, visions of my wheel assuming the shape of a taco made me stop to check it out.  I also noticed that my bike computer had stopped reading speed and distance.  The time on the clock was 37-minutes, 11-seconds.  I quickly tapped the LAP button to record the time.  Looking back at my wheel, it was obvious what had happened...the wireless speed/cadence sensor mounted on my chainstay, had been hit be a rock, pushed inward, and was getting hit by each passing spoke.  No problem...a quick fix...but the clock was ticking.  In under a minute I was off and running...riding actually.  

Sixteen-minutes, 40-seconds later I was back at the car.  I tapped the LAP button, once again recording the time, so I could see how long it took me to complete the ride.  As math is certainly not my strong suit, I pulled out my trusty iPhone, clicked on the calculator app, and was soon grinning.  My time...53-minutes, 51-seconds!  I had not only crushed my goal, I had crushed my friend's time!  As you can see, I'm not competitive at all!