Sure i'm upset and disappointed, mostly because i am letting my team down. But there is clearly nothing i can do. If i continue a
heavy racing schedule I will only be showing up to be pack-fill at best. This does nothing for the team but waste their time and money.Last weekend was my latest of a string of pack-fill races - UCI event at Roeselare, Belgium. Even though I had a legitimate excuse for my mediocre performance (my left shift lever came loose ten minutes into the race making it impossible to safely shift, break or even hold onto the handlebars), I'm nearly certain I would have ended up pack-fill anyway. I was fatigued before the gun even sounded.
I race to be a part of the event - to initiate attacks, block for the team, even raise my hands high crossing the line! I REALLY LOOK FORWARD returning to full health so i can once again experience the high of being an active part of the races!!!
But until then, my rides must be rustig, piano, facile, calm, easy. To ensure that I stick to the recovery plan, all riding partners must have some sort of ov
erwhelmingly obvious handicap. My latest partner, Peter, is a prime example - you can tell not only by his DIM outline, but by his antiquated, rusty bike with wide, nearly flat cyclo-tourist tires and only one functioning gear. Perfect.Oh, and I may have found another cyclist who fits the description. He's older than I, wears a camelback AND his only bike is equipped with 2.6" tires. I'll keep you updated on the gimp-factor I accumulate over the next couple of weeks while relegated to piano-ing all over town. And, of course, photos to come!!
19 comments:
I have two pieces of advice. Always stay behind Peter with those brakes and it is time for a hamburger! Sorry but I could not resist. How about free range, stroid free, antibiotic free! Good luck coming back. Bought my tickets to Toulouse for l'etape and the tour in july. Hope there are still some racers left after puerto? Philip
Philip: You're right. If i would have eaten charred carcass, I would have become quite ill and that would have caused me to take a break from racing. But unfortunately my vegan diet kept me healthy allowing me to keep a heavy racing schedule for an extended period of time - which caused self-induced burnout.
Thanks for that insight.
Have a great trip!
What I tellya about the blood?! Watch the bp.
Oh ok, I get it. You need a GIMP. Santa in da HOUSE!!!
Okay paul, you stumped me. what's a bp?
Oooh, good to see your fighting spirit isn't burned out! My strongest race training partner is vegan and a past masters nat cross champ,just to show I do socialize across those dietary boundaries. I like to tease him too, but he does not seem so sensitive.
bp = blood pressure
Teasing is one thing, but perpetuating false information is another. Vegans are challenged on their diets constantly - especially vegan athletes. And every time they fail, people are quick to point the finger at their diet. I personally don't care what people think. I'm confident in what works best for me. But I would guess i'm not the only reader of the blog comments. on another note, the weather just turned for the worse here. Glad you are not coming here NOW!
Perpetuating false information. Challenging. To me those are describers of the magnitude of the illegal war in Iraq or the refusal to recognize global warming not personal diet choices. If turning vegan could help with either of those problems I would gladly change. I would consider the use of the term gimp more offensive then teasing ones culinary choices. After all cuisine is a choice where as being handicapped is not! Sorry to get so heavy but I can not resist a good discussion. I applaud your discipline. Maybe there are a few peoples in the world that are more seriously persecuted for their beliefs and practices then vegans! With love Philip
I am sorry to have offended you philip. I didn't realize you were so sensitive. By the way, if you do the research, you will find that a vegan lifestyle does help to alleviate global warming.
Good point I will do the research. I am a very sensitive guy! I am a 50 yr old masters racer and I don't do field sprints for fear of hurting someones feelings. I am a stay at home Dad and I get misty every time my now 5 yr old daughter tells me she loves me! I would be happy if she grew up to be a worldly vegan bike racer. Ciao Philip
Merci Philip! Now you have ME misty!
Hey Peanut,
d'ya need some ov da local boyz to do yaz a fava?
need someone to be convinced a bit?
If ya New Yahk Connections pan out you let the Rhode Eye-land boyz take care of tings...
You got some rabid meat eatas hasslin Youz? We a hasslin dem! Youz jus giva us da wahd...
-New England Mafi- i mean - da local cycling club...
Hey, P-nut, doya wanna win or doya wanna alleviate global warming?! :-P Had ta give ya a hard time, kid! Vegan all da way, baby!!!
Hey Gewilli. I am a New Englander. Was that rabid or rabbit? Rabbit is especially good cooked in prunes! Very french. We need some extra kick early season to keep up with you down staters with no winter, until the roads have cleared up here in Vt for training! Nothing like getting ganged up on by Arc en Ciel early season. Just wait till the Green mt stage race though! Green mt Philip
I've always found rabbit to be dry and lacking in reasoning to eat... maybe i just haven't had it prepared properly...
/culinary critique
Rabid...
And yeah... the Rhody Mafioso ain't got nuttin on the hicks and hippies that inhabit the nether reaches of NH and VT... *scary*
That’s excellent advice about the hamburger! Being without a penis, she needn’t concern herself with atherosclerosis of the genital blood vessels; being a light drinker, needn’t worry about chronic hepatic hypertrophy from excessive protein de-amination; being an athlete rather than, say, a translator of Koine palimpsest fragments, needn’t fuss about bovine spongiform encephalopathy or early-onset Alzheimer’s; being obsessive-compulsive with her cutting-board hygiene, needn’t fret over super-strains of bacteria, such as 0157:H7 and campylobacter, that infest Mocotil-laced animal tissue; being a cyclist rather than a free-hand rock climber, needn’t be nervous about spinal porosity related to PTH constantly acting on osteoclasts to release bony calcium into her over-acidified bloodstream; being an otherwise green-conscientious, recycling, composting non-driver, needn’t feel much guilt over the vast contribution of cattle farming to the average American’s carbon footprint and depletion of natural resources; being generally of peaceful demeanor (at least off the parcours), needn’t abstain from the flesh of slaughtered sentient animals, provided someone else does the slaughtering.
-- E.C. Chamberlain
PS, I live not far from a Certified Organic Free-Range farm, a very select one that is inevitably singled out for special praise in factitious propaganda. What a joke. I’d laugh if I weren’t weeping.
PPS, "Gimp” is exactly the word that one of my friends from childhood, born with a physical deformity [again, not a word to consider lightly], prefers. Even “cripple” doesn’t irk him, possibly because it evades the preciousness of truly debasing euphemisms of the usual non-finite participle kind so beloved by legislative bureaucracies, like . . . “handicapped.”
EC - "certified organic" ain't no more than a marketing gimic ;)
just like "fair trade certified"
wait, we've been down that road before...
Wow, I am not sure I can eat anything now. Wasn't there a study that showed even the most conscientious vegans had high levels of heavy metals and pesticides in their systems. At least I should be able to get my watts per kilo up where I want now! From the land of hicks, hippies and the socialist senator Bernie Sanders, Philip
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