Just Riding Along When

Monday has come and gone but it's a Monday that I will be feeling for a little while longer. The legs were tired, the body was aching but I against better judgement loaded up a bike and headed to the usual place at the usual time to ride with the usual people for the usual Monday Night Something. There were rules set for this week and with half of us sitting on sitting on abused legs from the previous day the pace was to be sane.

Because I was still feeling the love of the hardtail, more because the Anthem wasn't ready to go I found myself on the Blue once again. Ride started, pace was normal, the trail was a bit slick but it was all good. 35 minutes or more things are still all good. A few random bursts from random riders but nothing to be concerned of. As we headed to the trail of thrills and bridges approached the pace quickened on the doubletrack. It increased a little more between Tristan, Andrew and myself when it finally ramped up to an out of the saddle sprint. It was the shorts sprint of my life.

As Tristan pinned it I stood up and prepared for a hard effort, one second later I was gasping for air. I wasn't trying to bring in that wonder fuel known as oxygen to help power my legs to try and out sprint Tristan, not this time. No I was gasping for air trying to get it back into my lungs with that wonderful necessity of life. It's been a long time since I've knocked the wind out of me, it's not an enjoyable feeling, it's not something I would like to do again anytime soon.

So what happened? In some cases nobody really knows. At first I thought I caught a wheel that caused me to go over the bars. That would have been great, someone to blame. Then it almost happened again spinning easy. Something in my rear wheel is deciding that it doesn't want to turn. Under extreme load my rear wheel locked up, stopping the crank dead and sending me to a new world. That world this morning, pain. My right side is not in a great place right now. I broke a few ribs a couple years ago in a similar impact. It was very enjoyable, I'm hoping and just suspect I just bruised the hell out of everything.

Thoughts now for the rest of the race season, well at this point I'm pretty sure I'll be sidelining this weeks world cup weekly cross race, the 50 km is hopefully still in the mix, it's still a little ways away. It won't be a bad thing if official events are done for the season, ending on a high note with last weekend. I would have preferred to have the option though, this morning though just even the option of reaching for a coffee hurts. I feel I was due for a good crash, I've been pushing the limits and sneaking through a few close calls the last couple years. I just got my speed check, thanks.