Anyway Saturday we went for a ride together. Now prior to this ride the vendor, here after I will call CM, had gone to lunch with a number of my coworkers and while I was enjoying the Friday sunshine and a Dairy Queen, CM was telling my coworkers that the two of us had a planned to go for a little ride.
Not smart.
I don't know when, but CM told me today, Monday, that my manager had, at some point Saturday morning, sent CM a message asking if I was good. CM replied directly, saying that I was in good shape, which really should not come as a surprise, I probably spend 15 to 20 hours a week on the saddle in the Winter and double that in the summer. Given that cycling is a hobby (one I am passionate about to be sure, but still just a hobby) I'd like to think there really are not too many people who are better than me.
Well when CM told me on Saturday that he had told the guys we were going for a ride, I suggested that we tell them, separately, that we got our asses handed to us by a woman on a rickety commuter bike. (In this situation the safest way to avoid interrogation is to be too boring to interrogate.) CM had other plans.
CM and I had agreed to meet near CMs home, at Mississauga Rd and Lakeshore Blvd. Which is 32km from my front door, we rode 22 km further then turned for home, or in CM's case, for his car. So while he did 22km out and 22km back I did 22km + 32km = 54km out and another 54km home. While I was riding home the following email was sent from CM:
It's official Michael was passed by a woman.. I thought her large breasts and scantily clad lycra would have encouraged him some... But no! He was just passed fair and square...
And... For those of you who will ask.. I was not the woman... Although, I passed him as well... :)
When I got home I did something idiotic, I rose to the bait:
What [CM] neglected to mention was I let her pass to enjoy the... scenery. [CM] didn't you find it bizzare that just a few rollers later I was passing cars on lakeshore going up hill but somehow had to draft a woman doing 18km/h? Just remember what I taught you today and with three or for years of intense training I won't have to wait for you at every light. ;)If I were a smarter man, well I would have just ignored the whole damn thing. Needless to say, a bored man, day dreaming about his own years in triathlon while watching his son play hockey (read: my boss) had a nice piece of response to me, but seeing as this is my blog well lets just put it this way, my boss can trash talk with the best of them, but to my way of thinking trash talk is a privilege bestowed only on those who show up and there is no way my boss is showing up any time soon, therefore dear reader you will just have to use your imagination. (Seems to me an appropriate title for this blog post, like so many others is "On Learning when to shut the hell up.")
Anyway in order to meet CM at 0730 at Lakeshore and Mississauga Rd I had to leave the house at 0600 which meant a 0500 wake up, except the night before I helped Lesley set up a light, then I had to fix a problem with the seal on the valve extender on my Zipp wheels (could deflate but not inflate the back wheel), all said and done, by the time I finally got to bed it was past 0200 on Saturday, so three hours of sleep later my alarm was ringing. (There was a time when my physiology could handle that kind of crap, but those days are gone now.)
After my little 100km journey I had to fix Alex's aerobars (I rode Alex, I know you don't ride a tri bike in a group but CM wanted to see her.) There were a few issues with Alex, the right bar was rolling over to the right, the attachment for the GPS mount was loose and wrist pads were not level. I was able to fix the roll in the aerobar but the other things required tie-wraps and special tools I do not have. So I rode Alex to the store where I bought her, 14km (not as I had thought 12km) and got her fixed up, then I rode home, another 14km. Traffic Saturday midday was appalling! Where did all those damn cars come from anyway?
Lesley, who had gone out to the gym, got home shortly after I did and pretty much as soon as she spoke to me sent me off to bed to get some very desperately needed rest. That evening we went to dinner with my parents and when we got home I managed to make it to bed within about an hour. Lesley was adamant under no circumstances whatsoever was I to even think about waking up early - thank god! When I finally did open my eyes Lesley was almost ready to go to the gym again, so I decided I ought to do some other tri related stuff, since I think I've got the bike part down pretty good. I went to the local community centre pool and rediscovered how bad I am when fully immersed in water. The fact is that while once upon a time I was a swim instructor and lifeguard I have never, ever been a particularly strong swimmer. To think, I was going to do a triathlon or two... gee wiz I better rethink that one huh?
Years ago the Royal Life Saving Society of Canada (I just dated myself I know, and for those of you who don't, the Royal Life Saving Society of Canada or RLSSC is the authority for lifeguard certification and in the late 90s changed their name to Life Saving Society) put out an add, it was a picture of a lake and the caption read: "Johnny thought he could swim a mile. (new line) If he were stronger,(new line) this story would be longer." At least Michael knows he can't swim anything close to a mile.
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