TheKillerPenguin

No, that's not an overstatement. It may be an understatement though.

Backstory: Having been off my bike for 16 days straight, on Tuesday I hopped back on and went for a 3 hr ride. Wednesday I started getting sick, and went on an hour group ride and hammered em into the ground. Thursday I felt like ass and took the day off, and then went out drinking for the first time in my life...8 beers, woot. Yesterday I still felt like ass and went to the dr (and they wont give me a Z-pack unless I'm not better by Monday...BUT they gave me a friggn steroid inhailer. WTF? I didn't use it. Anyway, I did a 10mi pre-race ride in blowing snow. Felt pretty decent, unleashed a 20mph sprint on an 8% grade. Couldn't breathe through my nose at all though, and breathing through my mouth is like breathing through a coffee straw.

Enter Saturday. I slept like crap last night because of my cold, which is okay, one can deal with little sleep when it comes to race day. I woke up, ate my usual breakfast, got up there with plenty of time to spare, still feeling like ass. Pretty nice day, and its always awesome when 1000+ bikers descend upon an unsuspecting town like a swarm of locusts.

The race starts, and I feel pretty comfortable. I can handle the pace, I'm chatting, life is good. We go up the first little climb, I'm right there near the front feeling pretty. Hey, maybe I can do this!

5 miles later, we hit the first real climb of the day. One of our posters (IKYR) goes to the front and drops 1000 sledge hammers on my head. I look over at one guy's powermeter, and its reading 360+. I figure I'm about 20lbs heavier than that guy. Ouch.

First climb ends, and I'm hanging on for dear life, but am still mid pack. We hang a left and start the next climb, up a dirt road. My lungs are on fire, I just can't breathe. I can see I'm falling back a serious amount, and so I make one last effort to try and hang on. But, I blow myself up, and limp up the rest of the climb. I'm just barely dropped, and am now in no man's land. I'm positive if I wasn't sick I woulda been hurting but okay.

I'm able to join a chase group, but just can't handle the pace. My lungs are laughing at me. I chill out and get picked up by the 3rd chase group, and hang with them for a while. I'm doing good, I'm able to hang on the climbs with them fine, and am taking pulls at the front. We can see we're making time on the 2nd chase group, we're obviously closing in on those bastds quick. Just before we catch them, we're making good time up one of the ridiculously steep dirt climbs of the day, and all of a sudden my airway just swells shut. I can't friggn breathe! I back off, and am dropped like I'm dragging an anvil, and watch the newly united chase2 and 3 groups power down the road into the distance, never to be seen again.

I spend the rest of the race mostly by myself. For a while I'm joined by a 13yr old cat3 and a buddy from SUNY Cortland, but we don't bother working together. The next 2 fields behind the 3's caught me, so I'm pretty sure I finished somewhere around 20 minutes back. Its amazing what a friggn head cold will do to you , even if its only taking away 3-4% of my power, that 3-4% would have kept me latched on to the front group up that first climb.

The stats: near DFL, ~2:50ish, ~58 miles, ~5000ft of climbing. My legs feel like I didn't even ride today. My chest feels like it's had sand poured into it.

Snuffleupagus

Yikes man. That's ruphless.

On a somewhat secondary note, I wish I woulda been racing bikes at 13. Wasted youth I tell ya

TheKillerPenguin

Indeed.

I figure after I drop this feckin cold and get back to riding normally, I'll be good as new. My next race is in 2 weeks, if all goes according to plan I'll get back into shape like a Fuentes powered Ullrich.


As for the 13YO...
I asked him how he got to cat3 so fast, and he said that in Minnesota he was a cat3. Not a detailed answer by any means, but whatever. I was just impressed that a 13YO was a cat3.

El Diablo Rojo

Hey don't feel too bad I managed 35 min on the rollers today at 168w and could hardly walk afterward. Three weeks ago I was finishing in the top 5 of 4's races. Getting sick is a be-atch!

zimbo

Yikes! It's hard to win a bike race if you can't breathe.

--Steve

Greg180

Damn,I probably missed my only opportunity to be able to hang with you on a ride...

Seriously dude sorry to hear the day did not go well. I look forward to seeing you at your true form at Jiminy Peak.

Ghostman

You need to drink more often so you get used to it. Drinking takes practice and commitment,like cycling.

dmotoguy

werd. I cant remember the last big race I didnt drink the night before.. its how I get ready.. then again, I suck

TheKillerPenguin

duly noted

TheKillerPenguin

So on the plus side, I feel pretty damn good right now. Methinks the race may have drained my sinuses of most of the snot inside em. If the nor'easter aint too bad tomorrow, I think i'll do a metric century and start getting my ass back into shape...

edit: more on the plus side, despite how much I sucked I still had an awesome time. Such a fun course...

HillMut

Yikes Penguin
Hard to say what hurt you the most, no riding for 16 days (!), the cold or getting drunk the night before!!
You know better! Give 'em hell next time dude!

TheKillerPenguin

Yeah, I know, I've been pretty dumb with my training the past couple of months. Let 'tarded personal issues get in the way of soul crushing. Never again will crap like this happen, the penguin knows what he wants now and he's going to get it.

GuitarWizard

I rode 14 days in March....I've been slacking a bit lately as well.

Might want to wait until tomorrow to see how you feel...you might find you still feel a bit like crap.

patentcad

Good show even finishing that race KP. I didn't think you were going to put the hurt on anybody since you haven't been training so much. That's a race you might do some damage in if it were in September and you had time to get ready for it. Very hard to get ready for events in April and early May. Which is why I signed up for that hilly TT in three weeks. But that is a few weeks farther on than THIS weekend.

Again, I think you did fine finishing DFL. Just FINISHING that race is a story to tell over beers dude.

patentcad

https://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Orde...060001&po=1&c=

Pics @ link above KP, see if you can find yours. I did see my old racing pal Steve Tinston (he's over 50 now) grimacing in the vets field. That race didn't look like it was too much fun : (.

blonduathlongrl

the only soul that is going to get crushed for now on will be everyone else's but yours!
you got and get them next time!

TheKillerPenguin

Heh, I took 6th in it last year as a 5. this is the result of my recent ****ty training streak, and being sick.

TheKillerPenguin

unable to breathe and hurting like hell: https://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Orde...0128&po=128&c=
part 2: https://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/Orde...0129&po=129&c=

DrPete 

Don't forget to have some Jack too.

GuitarWizard

Looks like you had your time-trial face on

Oh, and as the night progresses, I'm starting to feel worse....guess I am getting sick. I've been sick so many times in the last year, I've lost count.

patentcad

By the way, the correct phrase is:

Penguin gets his HEAD handed to him at Battenkill-Roubaiz.

Not for nothing, but I've met the disturbingly slender KP, and there is arguably not enough of his ass allow anyone to actually hand it to him. But he does have an oversized college head.

RatherBeBiking

Don't feel bad - I was last. Of the entire day. I've never had such a bad ride. Stack it up to no riding in two weeks, 4 hours of sleep last night.. still a terrible ride. Did you see all the water bottles after that first series of potholes?

patentcad

Anybody that did that ride gets a BF Pat on the Back Attaboy Award. Good God what a deathmarch.

If you're not dead or in the hospital, you didn't have such a bad day.

geneman

Oh KP ... KP ... KP

<shakes head>

8 beers? Even der Jan knows that the race week limit is 6.

Mark

sverrefehn

I'll give you props for going out there and doing it despite feeling like krep and in the midst of all the other niceties that life has been chucking in front of your wheel.
Soul crushing is not far off I see now that you are back on the path.