Today I woke up promptly at seven, my head aching, my bedroom messy (normally it's not like that), and my helmet missing. How does one conquer a hangover? Hammer Heed! How does one know one is getting in better shape for cycling? When 3 Jack and Cokes give you a hangover!
After chugging a bottle of Heed, I slept until ten and woke to a beautiful day, lots of motivation to ride, and no more headache! After taking the Simply City to Ground Zero, I began to get philosophical about riding bikes. Buckle up, kiddos...
Who inspires me to ride? Let's start with my coach, Aaron Whalen. Whale dropped his entire life in Madison on 24 hours notice to move to Colorado and pursue racing. He knows a thing or two about sacrifice, and when I'm feeling conflicted about racing, he always has good advice.
Next, Doug Swanson. He's fast as hell, he's a normal guy, and even though I've only met him once he impressed me with how down to earth he was. I would love to be half as fast as he is and still have my head on that straight.
Chris Shaw. Yes, Shawzam. I've known the guy for about a year, and one time he said something that I repeat to myself during every race. We were talking about using the brakes as little as possible on singletrack, and I asked him how he manages to descend entire sections without the brakes. Did he take the roughest line, or accelerate less? His response was no, "Sometimes you just gotta go for it." or as I paraphrase "You never know what you can't do until you crash." This year I've had some really good bails, and a few solid crashes, but I am way faster in singletrack than in my more cautious riding years' past.
Oh, and Shaw introduced me to Tony Chachere's, which has become a staple of my training diet.
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