sideways

Luc decided to give Cocoa a trim yesterday. As I was greeted by a kitchen floor sprinkled with brown lab dog hair, I found an 8 year old boy and a 10 week old pup looking guilty. Pictures don't do it justice.

Four times a season my Ergomo fails to download. Each year it is during a test and if I remember correctly it also happened during one of my first bike tests last season. I should know by now to back it up with the Computrainer but I seem to enjoy learning the hard way.

I am good enough at eyeballing the Ergomo to guesstimate the average watts for the test and I am not far from where I want to be. Doesn't mean it wasn't hard. I have done no hard efforts whatsoever since the last test back IN December. So to have improved on just endurance riding (or so I think I have) was a delight. Getting there.... notsomuch.

The first 5 minutes I was on the horse. My butt was lifted just off the horses back (not literally, but that feeling....) I was low, I was focused, I was nailing it.

Then things began to crack a bit as they always do during this time of year. It isn't the cracking, it is how you handle it that makes the difference. On this proverbial horse I began to feel like I was riding sideways. I was holding on, my form was still good, but I was riding sideways wondering how to upright myself again.

The next five minutes the cracking got worse and I felt like I was beginning to slip. I don't go on words I go on feelings. So I embraced the feeling that I had wanted to capture during the start of this ride and got myself up righted again. The last 5 minutes I was back.

It felt good to push that hard again. It felt good to go to the edge. It felt good to step into that realm of perhaps quitting.... and not quit. I remembered my four agreements. I embraced the feeling of soaring, and I dint' allow a single thought to enter my brain. This test was not for thinking it was for riding hard.

When the test was over I honestly thought I would pass out. In the back room I reached up and grabbed the air vent tube thing and looked through the fish tank in the wall (which is empty) at Luc who was on the couch, reading (God love him. I give him time every day after school to unwind.... no activities, no nothing....not even me bugging him..... whatever he wants to do to unwind from 6+ hours in a special education class..... UGH!... and he freaking READS!!) and I wondered if it would scar him if his mother passed out on his bike.

Deciding the answer would be yes I grabbed the handlebars and pedaled slow until everything came back. I didn't even freak out when Ergomo (which is now pretty much extinct) failed to load. Now... I love my Ergomo.... except for this four times a year failing download (usually during important times).... Ergomo has been really, really good to me. Really good to me. Our first year together was a headache but let me be fair.... I didn't have a clue how this thing worked and my German (the language of Ergomo) was so bad I didn't get the directions.

But just like any good relationship.... bike shorts, bike shoes, marriage, friendship.... powermeters.... we will have our good days and our bad days.

The test did not go to waste. I got my FTP settled and I am happy with it. Let the sweet spot rides and FTP sessions begin.

And in case you are not on FaceBook (are you seriously NOT??????) here is a little sledding video that Luc and I created with that new underwater camera we got the other day.

Here is the video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udqs5LrM2jg

and please do not try this at home. Luc and I are professionals.