[Szell prepares to torture Babe a second time]

Christian Szell: Oh, please don’t worry. I’m not going into that cavity. That nerve’s already dying. A live, freshly-cut nerve is infinitely more sensitive. So I’ll just drill into a healthy tooth until I reach the pulp. Unless, of course, you can tell me that it’s safe. -Marathon Man

I was feeling the affects of the near 140 miles ride. I had a “rest day” but wasn’t feeling not so well the longer the rest day went on. I had thoughts about taking the van but would wait and see how I felt the next morning. Sunday morning arrived and I felt better but light-headed and not ready for prime time but well enough to ride. I don’t think that I was sick in the sense that I had contracted a “bug”, but sick in the sense that I had stressed my body to the extent that it wasn’t working right. I didn’t mention but my Garmin also sent a message that I had a “record” 40K ride while the 220k day. It probably was on the pavement with a lot of downhills but I still was pushing late into the ride.

Rawlins is still high desert with few trees and lots of scrub brush fit for cattle but not as majestic as some other parts of the Divide. As usual we started with quite a few climbs some steep enough that I had to walk. Very early on, I noted a couple of things. My energy levels seemed depleted and I was falling behind riders that I don’t normally fall behind. Also, a note about the roads. Most of them were very loose gravel. While I climbed slowly, I took the downhills with a degree of trepidation so that I was still slow descending.

It seemed to take forever to get to the lunch spot about halfway of the 75-mile ride. I was hoping that some food and rest would re-energize me. The scenery slowly began to change to more trees such as aspens and pines, but the road condition remained constant. Unfortunately, my energy levels did not increase and my pace slowed and walking increased. At about mile 50, Jim passed me in the van while I was walking a not that tough hill and I told him that I had enough for the day. I was estimating that I’d get into camp after 6 and was concerned about the following day’s ride.

The part of the ride that I missed eventually changed to a paved road and the scenery at that point was beautiful. I wanted to ride every mile of this ride but I am not second guessing my decision to “sag” it because I was totally spent. All told the part that I did not ride was about 25 miles.

Ladder Ranch was a beautiful large ranch nestled into a valley between mountains with flowing waters; green in stark contrast to how the day started. As a bonus, we were treated to a long thunderstorm in the night. My tent did a great job but I didn’t get a lot of sleep -partly due to eating so soon before bed time.

Thanks for reading

Tailwinds

Chuck – Riding for The Backstoppers. org