form

can be fleeting. it's what we chase, as racers. finding your legs, those brilliant sensations, that spell of fitness where pedals turn effortlessly. I found my form in June, revealed at the Stoopid. Racing the fix to a decent placement, surprised by the manaable gap off of the flying Pfluganator. Settle in and follow the simple wisdom of Jim Thorpe:

Undertrain, undereat, oversleep.

Find the legs, then try to hold onto 'em. This was the first time I've had it dialed. Usually find decent fitness in early June, but then flatten out by the time that first week of July rolls around. This year was different. Fought intuition, believed that less actually was more for once. Cut back the volume, bring up the intensity, then get lots and lots of rest.

It's fun, to learn how the body responds, to discover your capabilities, try to maximize them. Breck was an incredible journey, from day one of interweb rumors, thru the blogger dilly, thru to the finish line of the last day. Met so many cool people that travel similar but different paths. Bike racers, we're all so alike.

Racing the fix was unique once again. Letting go with the mind, letting go of the regret. Knowing I'm on the form of my life, and I'm self handicapped in innumerable ways. Watching podium possibilites tick away with every screaming downhill pedalstroke. How many minutes tossed into the bin on those high speed jeep tracks? How many minutes sacrificed on the final climb of the day due to constant eggbeater pedal strokes? I look at the numbers, try to eek out an analysis, find a feel good self acknowledgement. Where was I in the final standings? 3+ hours back in the final tally...look at my notes, see that I had well over an hour of stoppage time for pictures and whatnot throughout the week. Look at some of the known gaps, see that Vince and Christina gapped me by a couple minutes from the top of the last descent on day 2. Extrapolate that and try to work thru the numbers, time lost due to fixie descending....is 3-5minutes on each big downhill reasonable? Then the 15minute day three off course detour....add it all up, subtract it and the 8th slot on the fix coulda been what, a possible podium contender with a freewheel?

But does it matter? Coulda, shoulda's? Not really, not at all. It's an exercise of ego massage, keeping the self confidence intact. 90% of coming into form is knowing yourself, believing in yourself. Knowing that the competition is in the same boat, covincing yourself that you do belong in this herd of ponies, that you're capable. I wanted to know, is it possible? Yeah, of course it's possible, rides like this were done over 100yrs ago, on rigs that make the Salsafixy look like a high zoot thouroughbred. But is it possible for me? Am I able? Able to keep up, able to throwdown, represent?

Yeah, I guess so.

So, now what?