Vague Idea Racing: King and Queen of the Watershed '21

Nothing worth pre-ambling? Did Watts and I just enjoy a quiet meal with Dorothy the night before the event and get to bed at a reasonable hour? Sign of the times or respecting the fact that I'm just old?

Dunno.

Watts once again decided that we'd ride out to the start of this point-to-point event. A 12 mile jaunt to the outskirts of Greensboro where things start getting all scenic and whatnot. The format of this event is five timed stages varying in distance from 3.5 to 7 or so miles connected by road and greenway transfers. I decided I would let my heart rate choose my pace, keeping myself at the lower end of the red zone. If I see 172 or higher, it's time to slow down.

That mighta worked had it worked but it didn't work at all.

I couldn't take my eyes off the twisty Blue Heron Trail to see my Wahoo data acquisition device for awhile, but when I finally did, I was seeing 180s. Doh.

Looks like I'm just gonna dig a hole and crawl in and pull the dirt back in over myself.

189? How am I not dying?

Finish the first stage and Watts says I was faster than him but there really was no way of knowing how things are going. Such are the joys of a multi-stage individual time trial event. We soft pedal over to the second stage, and I feel an overwhelming sense of impending doom. While I'm not totally aware of how long five stages will take, I know it's gotta be close to two hours of collecting poison in my legs. Two years must be the amount of time it takes me to forget how hard something truly can be.

Stage two hurts as much as the first one, but at least it was only 2/3 as long. Then the long transfer over to Country Park. I member this stage from 2019. Lots of loose-over-hard trail conditions, my current worst phobia. This time, I'll dial things back because I'm not wrecking and screwing up my PMBAR next weekend. I survive and then we start the long haul back towards Owls Roost...

After a stop in the woods for a stashed beer next to a pond...

and then back on the greenway... and we get pulled to the side for a PBR hand up... and then a stop for pizza.

Watts does not think the pizza on top of two beers is good for performance, but for me, I knew it would slow me down to a more reasonable and sustainable pace... or so I thought.

And oddly enough, we both moved up in the rankings after our "lunch" stop, so perhaps we need to rethink our PMBAR training plan... because 47.5 miles of roads and trail in Greensboro over 6 hours is pretty much just like PMBAR? Watts was the second fastest human on a single speed for the final two stages, so I'm pretty much a professional coach now.

Also, dammit. How is my heart beating at 114 BPM and fluctuating constantly whilst Watts just sits there at a robotic 70 BPM after all that hard effort?

Also also, this is not the real podium, but it is "a" podium. I guess some people don't wanna wait around for all the riders to finish and times to be added and protested and fixed and then fixed again and mebbe they're correct for the most part but good times were had by all and I was mebbe 5th and Watts was mebbe 4th (or 3rd) or who knows what but for sure Gabe won and also for sure Watts and I did well with the free beers before we finally headed out for the long ride home with a beer break at a lake that got us safely off the streets just before dark with almost 60 miles in the legs.

Ouch.

I love this race while also hating it so much.

It's a blast riding around all day, but mang, it hurts to go hard in the paint for almost two hours with all those tiny breaks in between... but it's that good kinda hurt. Mebbe it's just me that I hate and not the race after all. I realize I don't have to "go fast," I mean, they do have a "Just Ridin' Along" category for general fun-having, but I just wanna feel some feelings... angst, joy, fear, elation, hungry... satiated. Etc.

Such a good time... yes, I'd go back. Mebbe at some point I'll be familiar enough with the trails that I won't take such horrible lines and pace myself better...

But I doubt it.