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Since our main purpose is to start as a team and finish as a team, we help each other out a little at night. We run operation slow which is doubling up on laps so that the other teammates can sleep. We also ease up on the lap times which is not really by choice but because it is difficult to maintain the same speed when your vision is greatly reduced. The mind plays weird tricks on you at 2 in the morning with only about 7 hours sleep in the last 48 hours. At one point, I thought that a rabid pink monkey was chasing me and trying to bite a non matching sock. It would not have made much difference, they already are riddled with holes. My first lap was fairly uneventful. I can tell that my legs have worked today but I was still able to clean all the hills. Not so on the second lap. I was hurting. I would conserve speed every chance I had so that the uphills were not so painful. I was calling this no obligation speed (I told you that the mind plays tricks). I was bouncing down rocks looking through a rainbow hued fading light. What looked peaceful at night I am sure was treacherous. Luckily, no falls. Just beat up. Beddy is calling. |
Operation Slow
Yetimon says:
And he doesn't drink or take any drugs. That one is a litte weird baby boy. For me the night laps are the real test of will. The darkness wraps around you limiting your vision and your focus to the trail immediately in front of you. There is nothing to distract you from your body, your bike, and your thoughts. Hills seem higher and descents steeper. Obstacles easily cleared during the day become forbidding. It is cold, your legs are flat, every ache and pain demands your attention. Other riders are faceless islands of light that soon pass again into darkness leaving you to struggle on alone. Night laps test my resolve like nothing else and when completed provide a sense of acomplishment that day laps do not. Sunrise is a rebirth of energy and optimism. It is still cold and you are still tired but there is freshness in the air and the nights dangers and trials fade away. Sunrise laps are to be treasured |
Donaldh813 says:
 Funny how everyone sees things from a different perspective...I am faster during the night, I don't brake for obstacles in the trail because I don't see them...but man, I did see a Hoot Owl and about 4 thousand deer that were stalking me...I stopped at the top of the rock climb on the other side of the road and checked out the stars and the sky -- your heart is pumping, your adrenaline is on high output, you are completely jacked but yet here is the sky looking so cool that it makes you forget everything for a minute...then you get back on your bike and hammer so that you get to wake someone up fifteen minutes earlier than expected....well, at least you hope to:) |
Funky jim says:
As it was my first night ride I was anticipating it with excitement and fear. I was in ahhh of the riders that sped past me as I felt like I was doing light speed in the dark. The deer were considerate removing themselves from the track as I walked up many hills due to the rear mosquito rubbing all over my swing arm. The only sound my screaming lungs and groining from the incredible lumps in my thighs and hams. Oddly enough it was incredibly peaceful. This was definitely the high light of my ride time. |
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.thumbnail.jpg "My 1995 Specialized M2 Stumpjumper FS")
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