Top 5 Worst Times Riding

Everyone has bad days on a bike. For some people it means struggling up a climb. For others it means loosing the Tour de France. Either way it sucks. In this post I am going to reflect on five of my worst moments on a bike.

5) Endless Headwind- A few years back I was competing in the PLT Time Trial series in Virginia Beach, I encountered a bizar, natural phenomena: the endless headwind. The PLT course is a lollipop- head strait out, make a loop, head strait back in. And the entire time I had a headwind. Impossible you say? Not according to every other racer there that day. All of our times where 2 and 3 minutes off.

4) False Flat of Death (aka Vail Pass)- The Triple Bypass takes riders over three Colorado passes in 120 miles in one day. And while Vail Pass (10,560 ft) was nothing compared to Loveland Pass (11,930 ft) it was by far the hardest of the day. It seemed like Jared and I fought up that climb for half of the ride. I think the only guy who enjoyed the climb was the one crazy enough to ride with a cooler of beer in a trailer.

3) My First Crit- A week after my first Wintergreen Ascent, I attempted my first criterium. For the three days before I had been hiding a cold from parents so that I could race. It turns out that was a bad idea. By the end of the race I was not only in dead last, about 5 laps back, but I was also alternating between fever and chills and had difficulties clipping out once I completed my last horrific lap. Funny thing is, I received a third place medal about two weeks later for my age group.

2) Today- This morning's ride was supposed to be a nice little outing. Unfortunately at mile 25 I hit the wall. For the third time in as many rides. The next 15 miles proceeded to push me to the limit of sanity (and humiliation). What really sucked was that Matt was having a bad day as well. I will finish with a little more on this later.

1) Cowbell Challenge 12 Hour Solo- On my first attempt at an endurance race I was greeted by 100 degree heat, a lack of water at aid stations, and a complete lack of preparedness. That and a random root caused my to abandon my first (and so far last) race. To add insult to injury (said root went into right knee forcing me to walk 4 miles back to the Start/Finish), my Explorer's AC was not working on the 4 hour trip home. And you all know how I get when I am overheated.


Back to today's ride. It made me realize something quite important about my training so far this year. I have been going hard for too long it seems. So this next week I am going to take a break. I will commute to work (some days), lead a group ride, and maybe hit the trails for an hour or so. But I am not going to go out with a specific workout or ride time in my head. I am just going to have fun and ride when and if I feel like it.

Enjoy the sleep...