Countdown to Exhaustion

I should be resting with my feet up. I'm riding a century tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about it. A hundred miles... with a bike stuck up my ass... and I've barely turned a crank all week. I guess I could call it my "taper" week, but that makes it seem like I'm taking it much too seriously.

At the beginning of the season, I was quite serious about it. Watched what I ate, made sure to do my intervals, base miles, hill work... But as Autumn approached, I started easing up. Eating cake, drinking coke (I still haven't had a Big Mac for months, though) Riding fewer, but longer rides. And now, here I sit with my stomach in knots.

I hope my brain hears a new song tomorrow. Last week, everytime I'd slip into a zone, "It's Raining Men" kept running through my mind. Jesus Christ...how friggin' gay (not that there's anything wrong with that). It got to the point that at mile 50, I had to force a new song in. Maybe in a future post I'll clue you in on what it was. Needless to say, it wasn't a pleasant ride, coupled with the crash and Holthaus' problem with his knee.

I ride a bike because it's fun. Yeah, it's great that I can fit into my pants again. (I actually need some new ones that are smaller in the waist) Yeah, it's great that I regularly drop Holhaus on climbs. Yeah, it's great that I've developed the discipline to "train" for a long ride, but goddammit, this is supposed to be fun. Training rides are most definitely not fun. Fuck it... tomorrow is gonna be a blast. I don't care what comes up. I'm gonna have fun, like it or not. Even if I have to manually change the channel on the radio in my mind.