gimbel’s ride journal 11.24.2007
it’s all subjective. i felt that it was about 10 time warmer than yesterday morning. i was indeed properly dressed for sub-30 weather, having learned a valueable lesson 24 hours earlier when i almost suffered hypothermia. others were claiming it was 10 times colder as yesterday. no matter. the ride must go on… only if we can find our way out of the traffic nightmare in front of the macy’s.
i was desperately hoping for an easy ride. my legs still felt heavy from my very rare excursion to the long ride and let’s face it… it’s too damn late in the season to muster any sort of intensity. of course jp and robert forgot we’re only few days away from december and charged on ahead on rt.22. they didn’t really attack either. they just set a hard enough pace that the group would eventually crack before we even reached rt.433. the real question is… what the hell was i doing there?
the group was mostly lead by jp, rob and guy. the rest of us were just hanging on, trying to find more opportunities to skip our pulls. i was struggling and my mind started to play that self fulfilling prophecy game. i was making up new excuses to drop out of the breakaway quicker than these guys could pedal.
jp up the pace on the double-whammy after my brief pull and i got shelled. i didn’t even ask my legs to respond. i simply folded and watch them ride away over the top. it was time to start a new game. can i keep those guys in sight until the finish without getting caught by the chasing pack?
i had a good margin over the chase group. i only caught a glimpse of them at the midway sprint point. and they were definitely not chasing me down because i managed to finish ahead of them. not the best day to enjoy half the ride in no man’s land, but you do what you can to keep the ride interesting for yourself and, obviously, to keep yourself from freezing.
i’m looking forward to much warmer day tomorrow. time to stretch and massage 3 consecutive days of winter miles away from the legs.
4 years ago