Training Camp Re-Cap - Day 2

The wake up call would have come too early on Friday except I wasn't sleeping anyway. See, I'm a side-sleeper and the whole left half of me felt like it had been thrown off a bike - probably because that's pretty much what happened. Having depleted Claudette's first aid kit the day before, I was in need of bandages. I got up and started making breakfast - because that's what you do when you're not sure what to do.

Claudette, the saint that she is, came over to check in and proceeded to run over to Philbilly's cabin to obtain the good stuff. No, not drugs - Tegaderm. At that very moment, Tegaderm was all I wanted.

Philbilly wasn't feeling all that great having been a victim of the ice-patch (see prior post) but he generously shared his coveted medical supplies and Claudette once again provided the assist. Feeling better about myself, I proceeded to suit up and make the best of it. What else was I going to do - miss all the fun? I couldn't use leg warmers for the cold temps - the top elastic hit at just the right spot to tear apart my recently refreshed bandages. Against my own hygiene standards, I was forced to wear the previous day's tights, complete with blood spots and gravel-torn holes.

Thank you to Brian, who pointed out that he could see my white underwear (bib shorts) through the holes. This from the same guy who pointed at my swollen hip the prior evening and asked "Is that normal?" and announced to the table "you should let it ooze tonight before putting any bandages on". I really have to meet his wife - she must be an amazing woman.

We rolled down to the base to figure out who was riding where and with whom. There was an "A" ride that included the vicious climb up the backside of the mountain to get back to camp. Some of the more sane in the bunch (relatively speaking) chose to do a loop that excluded the part about trying not to fall off your bike on steep switchbacks. I had the pleasure of sharing the day with JC, Turtle, Jeffrey, Nate, Chris, Tania, Stephanie, Claudette and Gwenn. Chris and JC were riding like they had a mission and I did my best just trying to hang on. We were, in effect, the injured reserve - Chris was nursing his dislocated fingers on Jeff's spare bike (again, who brings an extra bike to camp!?!), which was a touch too small; JC was ok riding but all you had to do was make him laugh if you wanted him to slow down. Luckily for him, we aren't a mean group and wouldn't want to see anyone in pain like that. Oh, and then there's me - despite the bandages, I was bleeding through my shorts just a bit and the advil wore off way too early.
 

thankfully, gwenn has long arms to get all of us in this shot!

It was a fabulous day to be on the bike. The climb up into the National Forest was amazing and the downhills were so much fun. JC was orchestrating some of the action and when we figured it out, we were flying down the mountain with peals of laughter. I believe fun was had by all.

Pretty cool kits, right?

 
Meanwhile, back at the ranch .... the more masochistic of our bunch were fighting their way against gravity to get up that mountain. There were some great rides from all reports but they were overshadowed by Bu-Bu's magic hands. That's all I have to say about that.

Once again we convened for dinner, where Gwenn found a reason to use the phrase "like a chicken on a june bug". I have no idea how she worked that into conversation but she did. I can't really follow that up.

Gwenn is going for the super-model look.

Those of us with championship jerseys had a photo shoot with Chris. Oddly enough, Luis's jersey fit Claudette and Gwenn. I'm not sure what that says but it definitely it says something.

We were laughing the entire time - Chris is a genius for making us look good!

as Claudette said - assume the position! the NUMBER PINNING position - get your mind out of the gutter.