I Am Dave

So I haven't posted a non-video recap in several days...well you know that feeling you get when you run a marathon, do an extremely hard bike event where everything feels wrong? You question why you signed up to do this stupid event and everything pisses you off. The guy that cheerfully says "good morning" you want to punch in the face because he seemed to say it smugly? Well that is where I have been the last couple days and I had no interest in anything including doing recaps. Thankfully today was the turning point. I went from being fully certain at the end of yesterdays ride that I wouldn't be able to finish to knowing I will finish today. I have finally ridden my legs into shape. The thing about this ride, especially this year, the ride is much more physically and mentally demanding than you would expect. My guess is 1/3 of all riders don't finish everyday.

Today's ride was an 87 mile ride from Durango to Pagosa Springs. Was really concerned about the distance of the ride but really it never bothered me. Considering my longest training ride for this years RtR was only 54 miles I am stoked this ride didn't kill me.

I woke up this morning at 4:30 and was on my bike by about 5:45. It was 50 degrees when I left and the sun still hadn't risen. I took this as a sign that it was going to be a warm day so I packed lightly. I also took my routine 3 ibuprofen prior to riding, and made it my goal to finish before the ibuprofen wore off. So shortly after the ride began I descended to a road along a river bed. The temp quickly dropped to 39 degrees and I began to freeze, and I wished I brought my warm gloves. After about an hour I arrived at the first aid station and the sun had still not risen. It was so cold that I bought some tea and huddled around the pancake makers grill (I'll need to get a picture of this tomorrow) with about 5 other people warming out collective frozen hands.

After leaving aid-station 1 we hit a nice fast section of road where I was averaging between 20-25 mph. The road was nice and smooth which is awesome for an ass that has been on a bike for about 27 hours in the last 5 days. It did somewhat suck the amount of traffic that was on this road at 7 am in the morning. The posted speed limit was 65 and there was no shoulder. It reminded me of the times I have ridden with Erik :-). I also began to get concerned that visibility was poor due to the rising sun and I might inadvertently get run over. Luckily, and obviously this never happened. By aid-station 2 I realized that I was going to be able to finish the Ride the Rockies. My legs were still dead, but unlike the last several days the weren't giving up on me. After aid-station 2 I rarely saw anyone unless I passed them over the next 50 miles. The alone time was relaxing...I spent much of the time calculating how long it would take me to finish if I continued at "this" pace.

I finally rolled into Pagosa Springs about a quarter to noon. I could head over to the hot springs but I really just feel like hanging out and reading which is what I think I am going to do.

Tomorrow I am off to Alamosa via Wolf Creek pass which is about 90 miles (I think). Should be a hard ride.

Thanks to:
Muscle Milk. Bought some at Walmart yesterday. This has to be the closest thing you can get to steroids.
My 9 ibuprofen per day regimen for back and neck issues.

The Kindle app on my iPad. All the books I had on my iPad were non-fiction business books, which I really had no interest in reading at this point.

The Mongolian BBQ place me and my friend Pete found in Durango. Was the best 7.50$ I have spent on this trip.

Sent from my iPhingers

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