Oh my aching back

Yesterday was one of those epic workouts. Maybe you all are smarter than me about this, but every once in awhile I get it into my head to do an enormous workout that I'm way not prepared for. Usually I do this because it's out there and someone's doing it and it sounds like fun and I'm not going to let the fact that I'm not prepared in the least keep me from doing something I want. I'm a taurus, I'm like that. My longest bike workout this season has been 100k. I came home that day totally shelled but there was an enormous sense of accomplishment after those 100k's where I thought I could do anything. So this weekend when the Saturday 150k ride was more convenient than the shorter Sunday ride I thought, '150k, it's as long as the longest ride I've ever done in my entire life and it's one-and-a-half times longer than the longest ride I've done this season, I'll do it!' I mean, what better way to make up for the fact that my training's been erratic lately at best? And by "erratic" I mean "nonexistant" more often than not.

At least this time I remembered sunblock.

We went up the coastal rout towards Girona that we usually go up when we go north. It's flat and fast and windy so the group stays close together. There are a few hills, well, "rollers" really and I was sticking in close to the group until we got to the first one where I feel off the back. They dropped me like I was standing still and when we got to the top I was some 50 yards behind. For the next 15 minutes or so I was pedaling all out, fighting the wind all by myself trying to keep up with their pace. I was grunting and groaning and whining and saying out loud, "wait up, just wait the fuck up, please!" because it made me feel better. I find it really satisfying sometimes to throw a temper tantrum if I know that I'm not going to get cought. I finally got to within 3 bike lengths of the last guy... just at the bottom of another hill. There wasn't no temper tantrum indulgent enough to justify the effort of catching up with them again so when I fell off again and cracked like Humpty Dumpty I let them go. Spinning alone along the coast at about 33kmph (just under 20mph) I wondered if they were the fast group and I was going to get stuck doing the 200k round trip that the advanced group was doing. I wondered if they would even know they had lost me and come back looking for me. I wondered if I should just turn around and go back to Barcelona right now. But then there was a lone biker waiting at the side of the road for the pokey people like me. I always worry too much. I think I'm turning into my mother. Turns out I wasn't even the slowest one out there and we came into the restaurant at a much more comfortable pace (especially since the guy in front of me was about 6'8 and thicker than a refrigerator, I grabbed his wheel and hardly had to pedal it was so calm back there).

On the way back once more I fell off the back faster than you can say "loser", but at least there was another guy named Manolo going a comfortable speed. We dove into the headwind alone together the whole 80k back through the mountains. I'll never understand how you can have a headwind both ways on an out and back rout. My legs felt better, but my low back was killing me and my hips felt like they were being ripped out of their sockets. I didn't think that I was one of those people whose backs hurt on the bike, but there I was and the feeling was familiar. Weird. There was something else that was also killing me from so much time in the seat, but that's a personal thing. As I was chasing Manolo through rotaries and along regional highways I was thinking about how weak I was. I was schooling myself in a lesson about being humble and knowing my limits and wondering if maybe I shouldn't do the century ride through the mountains next week. And I couldn't keep my eyes of the numbers on my odometer as they ticked up to 150 painfully slowly. Finally we hit a traffic light and I said, "Sorry for not pulling in this wind, it's just that I'm barely hanging on." "I was going as fast as I could because I didn't want to disappoint you!" Manolo said. After that we both let up and I sat up into the wind. Sure, it wasn't what tough-as-nails Claire would do, but it made sissy Claire's back feel a lot better. Let me tell you, when I got home I was one hurt unit, but my legs were okay!

After a shower I was cooking lunch in my underwear (my favorite thing to do after a long workout) and another effect of such a long ride showed up: my cyclist's farmer's tan is well on its way! The right side of my body was a blazing red, while the left side a cool pinky-brown. North in the morning, south in the afternoon and the sun stays on your left the whole time. For 5 hours the sun was toasting only one side of my body. I have a line from my sleeves, a line from my shorts, and a line from my gloves. Is anyone else just as proud of their funky triahtlon tans as their sleek and defined triathlon muscles?