Friday, July 11, 2008

Triple Bypass Tomorrow

It's 11:55pm, as usual today was a bit of a de-railment in getting ready for the Triple Bypass. This summer has been one of chronic busyness and it's seems to go on without an end. I worked all week and had to cram all of my weekly chores, sleep depervation recovery, dog walking, and bike maintenance into the short day today. I have a high level of anxiety about riding my mountain bike the full 120 miles tomorrow. I adapted the bike by mounting some bar-ends (which I'm luke warm about) and Doug's semi-slick tires. Every single person I mentioned I was doing the Triple Bypass on a mountain bike to looked at me as if I was crazy. I'm really having some doubts, part of me thinks it's going to be miserable. Listening to the Tour De France today I couldn't help but think how fun it would be to glide down the descents to the swish of my carbon aero road wheels and to enjoy the rhythm and cadence of pedeling my road bike over the mountain passes. Instead, I'll be listening to the "waw waw waw" sound with each pedal stroke of my knobbies on pavement for however long the ride takes. Even worse, the thought of getting dusted by overweight, middle aged recreational roadies on their gucci road bikes is a bit unsettling.

BUT those are all fears and my purpose for doing this ride is training / body conditioning for the Laramie Enduro. I don't have a compact crankset and although I doubt the route gets steep enough to, riding my road bike's big gears up the climbs could inflame my knee. Spending the miles and time on the Superfly's geometry will only strengthen my supporting and secondary muscles for the Laramie and I'll get way more of a work out! Lastly, maybe - just maybe I'll be the one doing the passing when I come up on the hordes of overweight, middle aged men on expensive road bikes! Nothing could be more humiliating to that cycling demographic than to be passed by some dirt loving punk on a mountain bike. I'm going to wear my wool Dirt Rag socks just in case!

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