For those of you who have kids and live away from family, you'll know how rare it is to have free babysitting and date nights don't come around too often. This weekend my in-laws are in town and Janelle informed me that she wanted to go see the last Harry Potter movie in theatres Friday night. Sounds good right? The problem with that is I stopped watching them after the third one (there are 8 in total now), and I have no idea what's going on. So starting on Tuesday evening I set out to watch movies 1-7 over three nights so that I am up to speed by Friday night.
Those movies are long man, and after two movies on Tuesday and a late return home Wednesday I accept failure claiming that it is very unrealistic to expect me to do this. On Thursday night however, I decide to read the synopsis of movies 3-5 and then watch 6 and 7. Done. I was up to 1:15am Thursday night /Friday morning and off to bed.
What I'm starting to get at here is I'm then up at 4:45am to prep and leave for my weekly Friday morning bike ride. It was another beautiful Friday morning and I enjoyed a good ride out to Deep Cover and then up Mt Seymour. My legs on the other hand were not very appreciative and rebelled against me most of the way. I could feel the lack of energy restricting my output and I had to settle for a slower than average pace.
When I returned from my ride to work I was 94km in. Not bad for a Friday morning.
After work, now this is where the story gets good, I'm riding home and my legs are still feeling empty. I need sleep more than anything. While riding around Stanley Park I come across another cyclist ahead of me. One thing that I've learned is that you need to be careful who you pass because the last thing you want is to be passed back. If you go for it you have to own it. I recognize from his nice bike and massive calves that he isn't the ordinary cyclist that you just fly by and that's the end of it. If I go for it I'm certain that he's going to challenge.
Do I hang back and draft off him for awhile and access the situation more? – nah, I zoom past him at 40km/h and I immediately see his shadow come across as he zips into my slipstream. I keep the pace, the legs aren't happy with me but, I've got to chew what I bite. After about 4km we come to a slight incline and he pulls up beside me and with a big smile on his face exclaims, “Wicked ride man!” We start drafting off each other for the remainder of the loop until we arrive at “the big hill.” At this point he's in the lead.
Within 20 metres from the start of the climb I decide to bring up the pace of the climb and pull up beside him and yell, “come-on, we got this, we got this!” He let's out a yell and we are both giving it, completely red lined the engine is about to explode and I can't wait to get to the top of the hill. Upon reaching the top we are both literally letting out yells and woots and I can't wait to pull off towards the Lions Gate Bridge and have him continue through the park so that I can bring the level down a bit. I tell him to have a good ride and then he pulls off to the bridge too. So I say, “I guess I'm not done with you yet,” and gear up for the climb over the bridge.
He looks over at my and with a smile says, “enjoy your ride,” and off I go and never see him again.
It was a pretty fun experience battling it out with a complete stranger. There certainly is a lot of testosterone when it comes to cycling and I wouldn't have it any other way. Kudos to that stranger for working me harder than anyone else ever has.
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