11 - 22 Time To Finish Drinkin'

In Hi-Lo New Mexico, Big Boy and Pete once got in a bar fight with a couple of boys from Jim Ed Love's outfit. The bartender made them go outside to have it out. It was a tough fight, with both parties getting in their fair share of licks until Big Boy and Pete finally won out. Despite the fact that they were pretty well beat up, Big Boy walks over to Pete, puts his arm around him and says, "Okay, now let's get back inside and finish drinkin'", cause drinkin', just like any other activity worth doing, should be properly finished after it's started.

Speaking of which, I finished my birthday challenge today. Yeeehaw! You know, the only time a man should let out a holler or have a drink of whiskey is when you're alone. Or when you're with someone else... okay, never mind.

So, I finished.

Today was no picnic but things went pretty well. DB rode the first climb and part of the second with me. I felt okay but was still leery of bonking. After Dave left, the rest of the second climb started getting slower and slower. I still finished with a better time then my second yesterday but I started faster and at each interval I was slowing down. 

The penultimate climb was bad. I sort of thought this might happen because I was riding scared--afraid of losing it so close to the end. It felt like I didn't have any legs left but I was afraid to push them because I was still far enough from the end that it wasn't inconceivable that I wouldn't be able to finish. I ended up finishing 2 minutes off of my worst time. This gave me hope that I wasn't too bad because I was 2 minutes off at the second check so I had finished okay.

The weather also looked as though it may finally turn nasty. There was a swirling wind that kept getting more and more constant, and the temperature was far below yesterday. I found a spot out of the wind and took a short break, then descended for my final climb.

Since it was my last, I knew I would have to give it everything I had left. At the first time check I was only a few seconds behind yesterday's fastest time. At the two-third mark, I was a few seconds ahead. I turned the final corner and was greeted by a frigid head wind, so I got out of the saddle and hammered away with everything I had. My heartrate over they last mile stayed between 170 and 187 (that makes me 33 according to the American Medical Association) the entire way. I was using the Pantani in and out of the saddle technique to keep my rpm's high. I finished 1:30 better then my fastest time yesterday, and more than 10 minutes faster then my previous trip up the hill. For the record I also took more than a minute off of my fastest descent but I think that's because I was freezing more than any other factor. 

So I'm done, and I'm having a beer as I write this, and you know what that means, time to finish drinking.

Tomorrow I will write a wrap-up. Thanks for reading. Cheerio.

If you happen to be in Santa Barbara you will most likely find me, Bob, DB and Hawk at The Blue Agave, sometime after 8p.m.