quick (as in short) spin at eastwood today with all the 'stuff' on my bike that I wil be carrying this weekend- 150 oz of water, 10 oz of hammer gel, assorted salted nut rolls and rice krispy bars, chain tool!, 2 extra quick links, pump, two tubes, patch kit, lezyne multi-tool, large/small zip ties, extra perpetuem powder for refilling, derailleur hanger, cash, cell phone, 2 oz stans sealant, small suntan lotion, wet wipes, spare aa batteries and duct tape. strangely that all comes out to being barely noticeable on the bike. weather reports are looking very warm though so im stuck with camelbak to get the amount of water I think I need, otherwise I don't need it for storage... sort of a dilemma whether to carry it or not- maybe throw bottle in jersey pocket? will be game-time decision. looking forward to this so much. no nerves, don't have expectations. want to finish well and become rich and famous, but what would that mean? plan is to catch some amnesia and ride each trail and each section as if it were the only one. Its an opportunity just to get to ride such awesome trails and with a couple hundred other riders of like mind!
I have found that the only way to be satisfied with cycling is to base your performance on yourself. By setting a goal that is independent of everyone else and aim for that. Depending on who shows up, your same perfomance and time could be first or last place or anything between. Getting a top 10 finish depends on only 9 people being faster than you. Beating an epic course, however, is just you against the environment.
ReplyDeletevery true- I am not sure why I am still so influenced by my experiences in other sports, but I try to set goals the way I was taught to do for those... which means that most of them wind up being something that can be quantified. Hard to come up with a lot of those without having anyone to compete with and times or average speeds for races are hard to compare due to conditions.
ReplyDeleteI certainly consider the Almanzo a success despite not finishing "top 10"--- what an awesome day!