Block's way or The Highway

With A-Train away on important team business, Diesel not remembering who he was for a week and Soze out doing something some where he is not supposed to, that left Block to be Lone Wolf for the day at the Brighton XC.  Fortunately it was a nice sunny day so he couldn't complain about being sick with any sickness.  Unfortunately, he didn't have a cool Lone Wolf jacket like Lenny from Laverne and Shirley.  However, he did manage to talk Lady Block into coming to help support him for the day along with one of his offspring.

As usual, Block (this time with family) Roved in about 11:30 and set up some chairs inside the parade lap.  He noticed Mrs. Dub9 standing around looking pretty and went and asked how Jon was doing.  She said Jon was in third and should be finishing shortly as the course length was trimmed down for unknown reasons.  Block knew Jon finishing third meant Jon would be crabby.  But the short course sounded promising, as being in recovery from his ailment, the shorter the better.  Block really just needed a somewhat solid finish to keep moving towards his third in the overall Beginner series.

Mrs Lady Block

Jon came through and after debriefing with Lako, he gave the Big Block some reconnaissance.  Said Dubble Cheese, "First, they took out about a mile of technical stuff.  Don't know what the hell that's all about.  Second, you should pre-ride the chatter bumps on the road as they take some getting used to.  Third, try to be first going into the single track due to the lack of passing areas.  Aryn is stupid and doesn't know what he is talking about.  I am faster than him now so you should be listening to me....all the time"

Given his recent bought with the plague, Block didn’t bring the rollers so he went off down the road and messed with the chatter bumps.  Sounds kinda hot if you take that out of context.  He was glad Jon told him about those as it did take a little getting used to.  After losing interest in the hot bumps, he aborted further warm up to conserve strength.  He thought about staying and watching the hot girls play volleyball in bikinis by the bathroom but instead pedaled back to the start gate.  Eight riders were lined up and all had team jerseys on, so no khaki shorts and polo shirt guys in the race today.  Three of the group were on some Canadian Xpress Team.  They had done Bloomer as well.  Block noticed Sandy Gaulin was there from Flying Rhino so first place was off the table.

Block going in for the draft

Block lined up next to Sandy Claws and at the start followed his wheel all the way to the single track.  He said after that pre-pneumonia this effort would have been a 140 hr Zone 2 effort but now it was a 178 over the limit effort.  He tried to hang onto Sandy but he slowly pulled away. When he got to the steep rise around mile 2, he plowed into the same root that had previously stopped him in the past and this time was no different.  He unclipped and managed to not fall but got passed by the two guys.  After that he just tried to ride within his limits and manage his HR.  He said felt like he was going really slow and ended up having several other guys pass him so he figured I had dropped to 7th.  Coming out of lap one, he was hoping for a 35 min split on the clock but was horrified to see a 50.  He felt like pulling over and calling it a day.

At that point the Big Fella said he reassessed his goals:
1) Finish- as any place in the small group would be decent points for the series
2) Don’t be an Aryn and take last.
3) Don’t hit that root on this lap.
4)     Maybe I should just go watch that volleyball game

So he just continued at his pace and ended up holding his ground, only getting passed by a couple of sport guys at the very end that were lapping him.  Block said he felt like he had zero leg strength but interestingly, it actually helped him learn to ride his bike better.  He now put more effort into trying to carry speed through turns and dips since he knew I didn’t have much strength.  (this is where he finally started to stop being a roadie)  He also noticed how much better the bike rolled without the rear brake on....maybe Aryn isn't really stupid.  Slow, but not stupid.

At the finish, the clock read 90 and at first he was confused to have been 10 minutes faster on lap 2 but then realized he was the one that was stupid and forgot that his wave started 13 minutes after the first wave so his first lap was a 37, not a 50.

As Block sat with Lady Block recovering, he saw a couple of the Xpress guys finish and then realized that a couple of the guys that passed him must have been in the 50-59 wave so I was probably in 5th not 7th.  PODIUM!  That gives him two 3rd place and two 5th place finishes so far for the series.  Not bad for a roadie....who doesn't shave his legs.

Block making the Sponsors happy