Barn Burner Cancelled
The Eagle Rock Fire
I was supposed to be spending today racing the Barn Burner, but this little inconvenience called the Eagle Rock fire put a stop to that. The fire was first reported Wednesday morning as about 30 acres. By the time I was packing to head there on Thursday it was 3,000 acres and growing. I think the it got within a few miles of the course. The issue was as much air quality as danger from the fire. I can’t help but wonder if there was some karma given the name of the event. Too bad, I was hoping to get some racing in this weekend. At least they decided to scrub it Thursday at noon so I didn’t end up doing 1000 miles of driving for nothing. So, today I went out and hurt myself on the road bike. about 4 hours, mostly going up and down Mt Rose highway, 15 min intervals at a time, pushing that lactate threshold. Did six of them in two sets of three; about 8 min between intervals, and about an hour of riding between the two sets. I know the suffering now means better performance later, but still doesn’t mean I like it any better. The reward is 4 or 5 hours of dirt riding tomorrow, so much sweeter than this.
I also changed the motivational line on my handlebar. Now it says: “Pain is not what you get, pain is what you give. It’s all about what you’re giving.” That from my former coach and current AZ state road champion, Snake. Readers of the Drunkcyclist will know him. Ask pyroflopic for more details, he knows Snake well. For now my throat still hurts from sucking in all that air to get this done today. Would have rather been racing.
The Barn Burner may get rescheduled to September. I hope I can do it, as the middle of September I’m off to Costa Rica to pre-ride La Ruta. Or much of it anyway. I’ll post a note when they reschedule, if you are interested in going. Meanwhile, I’ve posted a bunch more helmet-cam video to youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/lowco2reno
The latest one is here:
looks like a great day on the bike! watch out La Ruta