Well, that explains what happened on the
Unionville Ride the day after the Doo Wop.
The Odd Man MTB duathlon you mention is the March
25th race you finished 2nd in your age group, and 37th overall.
With this newest finish of 1st in you age group, and 33rd overall,
a pattern is emerging which explains the pattern in my eyes toward
the end of yesterday's Unionville Ride.
I guess it all began for me when I caught a
straggler from the main group, and was real glad to see it was
Brand New Bruce, so it wasn't just another rider I needed to
pass in order to continue working my way back. I could just hang
out!
Then at the top of that first little climb up to
284, you were circling and waiting for us. Apparently you had
paced behind Chester Pete to the top, realized you could apply the
big hammer to that ride at will, but it was time to get back on
your training schedule. So you waited for me and Bruce.
That seemed to make Bruce happy, but of course he
doesn't carry the nom Brand New because he's been around
for awhile. What Bruce soon learned is that when Dan gets away
from the group, where he instinctively rides very restrained and
careful, he is then free to work on sprints, pace work, and all
sorts of training elements which are often quite faster and more
difficult than what is going on in the chaotic group where
everyone is looking for their own little piece of the weekend ride
pie.
Later when Bruce exclaimed, "Jeez, I couldn't
believe it. You two were going 21 mph up hill, into the wind. I
got dropped big time," it merely confirmed he had been, "Welcomed
to the Land of Dan."
Good thing I never looked down at my trip
computer. I'd have known I can't go that fast (Dan's wheel or not)
and would have given up too.
In any case, soon after that we got off course and
decided to just double back and do the end of the Hump to the
Jolly Onion, then finish with the end of the "B" ride to pick up
miles, because, "There are some nice little hill sprint areas, and
we'll be out of the car traffic." That's where things only got
worse.
As we were turning off Mt. Eve, long after my knee
had given out, I noticed patterns in my eyes.
I was beginning to get the sparkling little
crescent shaped blind spots that used to come with migraine
auras. Now it was in both eyes, so in effect Dan's little training
exercise had made it so, "I was blind in one eye, and couldn't see
out of the other." This is typical in the Land of Dan. Get used to
it, Bruce.
Of course, I didn't mention the knee failure, nor
the blind spots, because showing the slightest weakness or fear at
that point could have proved fatal. I just started asking a lot of
questions to slow the pace.
When we got back to the parking lot, Palletman
was standing there, already changed out of his riding clothes, and
worrying like a mother hen, anxiously awaiting the return of all
the riders.
Nuclear Dan took off to get in a leisurely
6 mile run.
Later in the day the Black Widow and I ran
into Don Snoop on his mountain bike over by Goosepond in Monroe,
and he said he'd just come back from racing at Bethel, where he
had seen Kevin Haley along with other Skylands riders, etc. That
explains the easy pace of the Unionville ride which allowed Dan to
come back and smack Bruce and me senseless blind for a couple
hours.
I'll have to make a note to myself to tell
Palletman that he must never worry about SlingShot at
the end of ride. SlingShot is definitely going to be
dropped at some point, sometimes happily off to himself, sometimes
straight into the gaping maw of the likes of Dan Buckley. Major
alterations to the approved ride are always very likely. Waiting
around for him, or figuring out where he went, will just be an
exercise in futility...which is probably the most exercise ever to
be found around SlingShot.
Certainly there were others stragglers that
Palletman needed to watch out for, but he need never worry
about SlingShot. He's not even a member of the club.