Productively Unproductive

The good folks at Hammer Nutrition and Fernie 3 were kind enough to let me come be a grown up kid for three days in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  I am currently spending my umpteenth hour on the hotel bed trying not to look outside too much and think about all the rad mountains I could be running up or riding up instead of “recovering” for tomorrow’s battle.  But who am I kidding? My legs (and arms) are smoked!  Today was stage 2, usually a hard day for me in terms of stage racing, and it didn’t disappoint.

Stage 1 was a killer 16 mile loop with plenty of climbing and therefore, plenty of sweet descending.  I managed to keep within a minute of the leader (of my age group a.k.a. “middle-aged-men” que 1990’s Saturday Night Live skit) and immediately began tracking down some real knobs to put on my little racer boy bike.  2.3 Nobby Nic’s that weigh more than my frame- sounds better than greeeezing over all the roots out there on my “cross tire wannabe’s”.  The riding was sweet, and I was reminded (raced here a few years back) just how rad the riding is in Fernie, and it’s so close!  After a handful of races that more or less left me desiring a better more enjoyable way of pouring lots of effort and pain into a ride, this race has rejuvinated my perspective on bike racing.  Point to point, epic descents, all trail, and good people.  Each day, a new adventure.  The night was capped off with a great sushi dinner with Matty B and his lovely wife Shiela and a somewhat restful night of sleep.

Awake day 2, legs hurt, throat hurts, head feels wierd.  Am I getting sick, or is this just post race day haggard?  Crap, if I’m sick, there’s no faking it on these trails.  Oh well, my new tires will get me through, right?  Nope, new tires were sweet for about 15 minutes of awesome dh, then nothing could pull me back from this pain cave.  Sure enough after the solid 2000′ warmup climb and dh, the legs went pfphftttt.  Then, as I could feel my butt and back tighten, my ability to continually get in and out of the saddle to absorb the 1000’s of greasy roots and bumpy dirt drifted away into the green lush forest.  I kept it positive and reassured myself that one can only loose so much time on technical riding like this, and to just keep pedaling and keep focused to dial every section of trail that did NOT include pedaling.  I managed to keep my overall position, but definitely finished empty and slightly disappointed.  That’s the cool thing about stage racing though, there’s always tomorrow!  Well, unless it’s the final stage.  So today, I rest, I stretch, I try to nap, wish I would nap, pretend to nap, but never nap so instead resolve to tunneling through the interweb and cruise downtown on foot like your general run of the mill tourist.  So much time in the day when your race is over by noon!!! Fortunately, it leaves plenty of time for eating.

Well, this funny micro-life of sleep, eat, race, eat, pretend to sleep, sit on bed, sit on couch, watch FIFA, eat, check FB, eat, sit on bed, eat, read, sleep, sure seems unproductive.  But at the same time, it’s a unique meshing of extreme exertion with extreme lounging on repeat.  It’s cool, but I’m stoked to rally hard on the trails then rally hard home tomorrow.  Still hoping that today was a fluke, I’m not sick, and I’m going to feel amazing tomorrow!