Viral Infections and Lamberts Cafe

The tunes of Sleep Through The Static by Jack Johnson flow from the speakers as I recap today's events. Jack has a way of making everything okay. It's like the blankie we all had as a kid, that when something didn't go our way we clung to for safety and comfort. While I no longer have that little torn, worn blanket, I have music, and it's my escape to collect memories of past and think of what has transpired throughout my life. It's my escape...

I will always forever be humble. I learned years ago that taking a fail in stride, learning from what went wrong, working on fixing it, and moving on was much better than deweling on what could have been and why it didn't go my way. Shit happens, deal. Today was one of those days. It's wasn't a life changing day by any means but all signs pointed to fail, but I failed to pay attention. I shoulda known by my stools...

Jamie and I headed down to Springfield to race the MWFTS race. It was that or the last race in the Warsaw series. Even though Mac sent an enticing e-mail informing me that if I came and race I would win the 50 dollar gift certificate to Pro Velo, the radar made the decision easy to make the longer drive to Springfield. Warsaw got beat to a pulp by rain, as did we on the drive down. Sprinfield was spared though, making for a stellar day of racing, on some supremly superb trails. The stage was set.

Mistake Number 1: We arrived with time, and I planned on doing a pre-lap. I never do a pre-lap. It was only a 6 mile loop I said. Everything was good until a group of us got lost on the trail do to a missing taped off section. I was running tight on time, and with only 15 minutes till our start I was meandering through the woods like a dog who lost his owner. I didn't know where the hell I was. I cut under a few taped sections and luckily hooked up with Dwayn G, who lead me back to the start. He's the shit...

I put forth a little to much effort, and even though I was feeling decent, the start would prove otherwise. We lined up and they told us that all Experts were leading out together. They said go, and that's exactly what everyone did. It was a smoking fast start up a paved road, and I knew right off the bat something wasn't right. I was lingering off the back of the pack struggling. It shouldn't be this hard, especially after a rest week. I should be fresh and ripping it. Not so much...

We funelled into the singletrack which gave me a moment to regroup and get control of the situation. I held on for a bit, but about 2/3 of the way through the first lap I noticed dwendling power, and a lose of concentration. It was Syllamo's Revenge all over again. I struggled on the last part, coming into the start finish wondering if I should even press on. It wasn't happening for me, and I knew it. I another Expert rider about 30 seconds up, so I figured I'd push on...

About 1 mile into the second lap, it was over. I didn't have it. My power meter was losing steam rapidly and all systems were shutting down. I had been victim of another viral infections. The kind that you don't much notice unless you pay close attention, but strikes in the most inconvient times. It happend at Syllamo, which made for the hardest race of my life. It like you don't want to go, hills deminish you to pulp, and your left to stop, rest, walk a bit, and ride slow. It sucks ass crack and ball sacks. So I dialed the effort meter down to little to nothing and slowly cruised the whole second lap. It was a slow group ride type of pace, no need to dig a bigger hole. I finished the second lap a whole 14 minutes slower than my first. Now that's Pro...

Mistake Number 2: A cold sore... I get them when these things take hold. I played it off as a breakout, focusing on resting up and making sure my mental game was on par for the race. I tend to not have time to focus on any negatives, an only think postitive hoping for the best.

Mistake Number 3: My poop... I won't go into detail but it wasn't normal. Should have known... But I was on a slightly different diet plan were I don't eat three squares, but cut it up into 8 to 10 small meals spaced out through the day. I was also eating more veggies and fruits so I figured that was the cause.

You can't win them all. Most never win at all. I had fun non the less, got to rip some awesome singletrack and mingle with good like minded folks. I felt the worse after the race, feeling like death had come to meet his next victim. I struggled to stick around but they had boo koo swag, and damnit, something good was to come of this day. I ended up having to stick around till the absolute end, almost dead last in the giveaways, but still managed to take home a new C02 air pump.

Huge kudoos to the race director and all the volunteers. They put on one hellava race. They even gave away three bikes. That's fucking crazy... You all rock!

Afterwards we headed over to the O So Famous Lamberts Cafe. It was an hour wait, but we didn't care. Jamie's never been and we were already down there. So we waited...

For those of you who havent been to Lambert's, here's a quick description. It is the center of our American Obesity epidemic. It is the black hole that is known as fat. I love it to death, but damn, if that's what would have become of all eating establishments, then we would no longer exist as a race. You don't come to Lamberts to eat small. They load you up, bring around copius amounts of fixins, and toss rolls that are so good that even after 5 you want more. They had an HOUR long wait on a Sunday. Name any other resturant that has that. They are the direct cause of over 100,000 clogged arteries a year, and countless heart attack victims. As I sit here I feel my arteries collapasing. Oh well, once in a while never hurts right?

Off to the recovery chamber for some self-massage, and other home remedies to loosen up tough legs. Today was not my day, but I'm still here to fight another. Success is on the horizon, I have the cards, now I just need to learn how to play them correctly. The success for today, NO FLATS! Hope everyone had a great weekend, and here's to another week of work!

PS: Don't forget about next weekend's race in Emporia KS, but on by High Cylery. Search my later post for more info. I'll be there, will you?