Not to be a negative Nellie, but I tend to turn to this outlet when I'm feeling less than delightful. It's my way of processing things more fully than I will just inside my own head, because I often don't pull the threads that tie things together until I commit them to the page.
Anyhoo.
Last time I mentioned Grinder Nationals, and how we're not going. It's an incredible disappointment to manage, but let's frame that discussion.
6 months ago I was racing on a fast new Zwift team. My role was the sprinter, and while I never once finished with the pack, I delivered enough intermediate sprint points to make a difference. I had a job and I did that job. I was seeing record power numbers in spite of poor finishing positions, and those power numbers made community racing fun, or at least as fun as itcan be indoors in the winter on Zwift. Fun enough, I guess.
But then I saw the announcement that Grinder Nationals would be held within my own state, organized by a guy who I met on one of my first ever group rides, and who has spent the past several years building one of the best gravel races on the east coast: Dirty Kitten.
As soon as I heard about it I signed up. I knew it was going to be a tremendous reach, and that it would require a fundamental shift in my training structure, but if a buddy was going to organize something so amazing, I was gonna support it.
I stopped racing Zwift and got outside, because May in Virginia is every season all at once.
Alastair's mountain bike team practices & races have given me opportunities to get in big mountainous training rides, but honestly I was getting worn out, then bored, then frustrated.
Riding wasn't even fun. I tried switching bikes, taking the TT bike out for a hit of fear and adrenaline. It rewarded me with a broken drink system and a bent derailleur hanger that put the mech into the disc wheel. Plus I'd forgotten how much I hate hate hate the Fizik Mistica saddle on that bike.
I put a bigger 11/40 cassette on the gravel bike, but while it has made the bike faster it also ruins the performance at higher speeds and still shifts terribly in the lowest gears. [I still think 11/36 is the right size, but ya know: supply chain]
Then I took Alastair out for a sunset-racing road ride on Monday and managed, within the span of 10 miles, to have the chain get skippy with stretch and have the rear shift cable jam.
The race is this weekend. I know I'm not going. I won't even be able to do the backup event I'd considered on the same date: the annual Cap2Cap century ride. Instead I'll be cheering for my son at a mountain bike race, which is great.
But now, in addition to saying I'm a racer without actually being one, I really don't even have anything to race. 3 bikes in various states of disrepair, and one part is on back-order until the day AFTER the season-opener at the Bryan Park Training Series.
It's a whole pile of frustrate, so I spent money on retail therapy. Gotta recable the race bike anyway: might as well freshen up that bar tape.
And oh my it's gonna be a garish delight for the senses. Because by some random happenstance my absolute favorite hideous color combination manages to be available for most of my accessories, and I'm leaning in hard. I may finish poorly this year, but you won't miss me. I cannot wait to bring the bling.
And this is the first step of how I get my groove back. Prepare your eyes.
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