The Sunday Ride: We Must Protect This House...Only Not So Much

(Editors note: Mongo fully expected to be spending the entire day today indoors and doing indoor stuff. We have been rained in, Monsoon style, since last night, and the weather report projected that today would be a total washout as well. As it turns out, they were wrong...and Mongo is going to have to do the 23/2300 Hammerfest tonight without the proper mental and pharmaceutical preparations.)

Which leads me back to yesterday and the aforementioned weather situation. Since I thought I wouldn't be Hammerfesting today, Mongo "kitted up" and headed to the Silver Comet Trail looking for some action as well as some solid miles. My intention was to put in 40-50 miles at a 135-145 bpm average heart rate.

About twenty miles in I was bemoaning the fact that no one had challenged me thus far, but since it was extremely windy and I was heading straight into the teeth of it, I was happy with the work out I was getting...then Mongo got passed!

And it was a Cervelo P3 TT "douchemobile"...and he was going fast. Normally, this kind of showdown is right in Mongo's wheelhouse, but when I saw what he was wearing I knew that I was in trouble. It was one of those tank-top, short-short, unitards that are only worn by extremely good triathletes... and homos. This dude was serious and moving along.

Mongo won't draft TT guys. It's not part of their sport and I don't want to give them the satisfaction of telling me so. If I'm going to beat them, it'll be straight up. This time I lost out to physics and possibly a stronger rider.

As we headed into the wind, his speed increased and his TT position never faltered. When I finally dropped off after a few miles, we we going 25 mph uphill into a 20 mph headwind. My body finally shut down. I was beaten fair and square...and it sucked!

On the way home I was forced to take out my aggression on an unsuspecting Quintana Roo. When I hit traffic and slowed down he made the big mistake of trying to pass me. I drafted him mercilessly for a few miles as he tried to increase his speed and drop me, then I came around him and put the hammer down to 28 mph. He had no answer.

Which brings me back to tonight. Mongo left it all out there yesterday...so I'm not expecting much this evening. We'll see!?