Every now and again putting on a vulgar display of strength, endurance or athleticism is fine in my book. Getting "cocky"? Not so much.
I commute via bicycle on a daily basis between my house and my gym. Not too far but a legit 20 minutes one way.
I pass many pedestrians and split traffic. Increasingly I am getting into more bike traffic on the paths that I travel.
As I cruised out of the BART station on my way home, I could FEEL someone "sucking my tire" or better known as DRAFTING. A technique used to let the lead cyclist block or break the air for the rider behind.
I had to cross a double row of two lane traffic that was broken up by a medium and had difficulty re-cleating my foot onto the pedal. It was at this moment the biker behind whipped around me and way too arrogantly passed me on the inside.
Understand this, I've gotten use to people being able to out perform me as I am most senior to them by at LEAST a decade in my gym and what I presume on the streets...however...I still don't LIKE it.
I let this person believe that he just trashed me on an ordinary commute, but in my mind...THIS was the final stage of the Tour de France and I was about to lay the smack down on this piece of shit!
He cruised at a moderate pace through he Oracle campus weaving in and out of a lot of foot traffic. We exited the campus to cross another four lane road with yet another medium to enter the rows of condos that I refer to as "Little Kabul". Here as I knew him to continue to check for my whereabouts over his right shoulder, I made my move. I slipped into the biggest chain ring, climbed out of the saddle and in three strokes blew by him on the LEFT.
I could hear him change gears to mirror my pace, but I was quite comfortable with the burning that was oh so familiar to me from my days of racing three decades prior.
I hammered the pace until I was sure he couldn't suck my tire again and KNEW for certain there was no way on God's great green earth he could catch me.
I rounded a bend that would give me a clear view of what was behind and he was rubbing his quads from their own sere roughly 400 yards back.
I smirked and was pretty full of myself for delivering such a beating or Vulgar Display of strength and endurance to this junior.
Mind you, he had all the gear from the light weight bike frame to the lycra togs where I am dressed in a floppy t shirt, shorts and flip flops.
I knew I had him from the moment I saw the threads sticking out of his spandex shorts that were suppose to be his legs.
Yea...You can take the dog out of the fight, but you can't take the fight out of THIS dog.
Today's Training:
Bike Commute: 20 minutes
Concept II Row: 5 minutes steady state
15x20/40
Prowler: 12 x 50@90
Sprint: 12x50 @60%
Side Shuffle: 12x20 yards (each way)