One-Time Hero Move

During tonight's ride, I made my every-once-in-a-while patented hero move that gets everyone's attention. It mostly gets noticed because everyone, including myself, is surprised by something good I do in the training ride. Tonight we had a group of us flying back home from Frierson thanks somewhat to a tailwind we had (though it was still mostly us) and I was in the back sucking air big time. I was on my TT bike to get some time on it with the duathlon coming up in 10 days. I was tired and my legs hurt...I was still feeling the Tour de Goodwill ride from last Saturday in them.

JP was off the front, having motored past us with aw-thor-ra-TIE and had pretty much gapped us. We had some stud hosses in the bunch with RW1, Bolt, Calbo, and Doc along with Frank, Duce, and Frenchy (don't you just love all these nicknames?). Bolt was in front and slowly closing the gap but doing it REAL slowly as everyone was tucked in behind. I had slid off to the left to see what was going on, wondering why Bolt wasn't putting on the blasters to put the kabosh on JP's breakaway. Suddenly I had the stupid thought of trying to catch JP myself and, like an idiot, I quickly convinced myself to do it. I was pretty sure I could get to the front of the group...but catch JP? I wasn't that confident, especially the way my legs were aching. So I wound 'er up, jumped out from the back of the line and....crawled past the first couple of riders at around 27 mph. But I got faster, beginning to move, finally blowing by Bolt and finding myself between the group and JP....I had to do something now or the move would have looked pretty silly. I shifted a gear and went for it.

Now, admittedly, JP looked like he was starting to slow as I came upon him but I was going nearly 30 and I decided to pass him instead of settling in his draft. So I put Alan's Move Of Intimidation on him (I wonder if he noticed?) and flew past. For about 10 seconds I was clear of everybody since I saw no shadows of the other riders behind me but that didn't last long...RW1 led a long string of riders past me and I sucked it up to jump into the tailend of that thing, hanging on the best I could to the Crossroads. That was tough to do since my legs were definitely fried. Later, RW1 would recognize my move as a high point of the ride. Thanks for the compliment, Russ. It is appreciated.

Now I wonder what my legs will feel like in the morning?

Well, we're in a situation here at the house. We had plumbers come over Tuesday, before the rains, to clear out the lines since our bathrooms had backed up. Since then everything worked fine until we got home from the rides and took our showers. Everything is solidly backed up AGAIN! Standing water in the tub and in the shower stall...looks like I'm calling the plumbers again in the morning. Since we're having company for the next two weeks it might be good to have the pipes clear...ya think?