Swingwood, Ringwood, Blingwood, and Opposite Day

I figured today's local H2H race at Ringwood would stand as a sufficient gauge in seeing how my body had recovered from last weekend's Shenandoah Mountain 100. With the start delayed by about two hours due to an unfortunate sport-category crash necessitating a helicopter, most riders had warmed up and cooled down several times over before actually reaching the starting line. With turning wheels at last underway I immediately hooked onto the draft of MTBNJ's Ellen Serruto, who in turn had latched onto Janel Demeter of Guy's Racing. This train of three did not last for long, though, as I heard the encroaching voice of my legs questioning what, pray tell, was it that I thought I was doing? We had a heart-to-heart and eventually they decided it was time to warm up, sort-of-not-really, to the situation at hand. The rest of my body, however, was not keen on the idea, vehemently so, and actually made an independent decision that today was officially Opposite Day. Remember Opposite Day from when you were a kid? It kind of ran in the same vein as the whole 'not' fad and often called for exchanges such as, "My friend likes you...By the way, it's opposite day;" emphasis on the word opposite. Whether you can recall OD from way back when or not, it was always a rather confusing time of year that surmounted to nothing much more than convoluted relations among little boys and girls everywhere. Fortunately, even though my body participated in cold sweats for the duration of the race (my upper torso and lower half were playing OD amongst themselves) it was not to no avail. In fact, the entire situation proved to be rather beneficial in that it told me not everything had recovered fully from last weekend. Fair enough. With this in mind I was able to tell myself that I just needed to keep a rhythm, push through, and enjoy this opportunity to ride my bike in the meantime. Despite the physical condition of my body being less than favorable, the actual flow of my riding felt like creamy peanut butter over sliced Gala apples: smooth, sweet, and healthily satisfying. Technical climbs and descents have always been something through which I have found great peace and fulfillment, and so I discovered a sense of liberation in ignoring the ploys of Opposite Day and embracing the endless configurations of rock and root before me. This was home turf, why not enjoy it?

On a whole, I was glad I participated, having gained the consolation prize of insight and learning where my body was and was not after the past few weekends of long-er distance racing. Although I felt as though I had been keeping less than a desirable pace at times, it turned out my laps were fairly fast and I surprisingly ended up finishing within minutes of Hotwheels (Campmor's Darlene Phillips) and, within a few more minutes, of Demeter and Serruto; guess I'm glad it was Opposite Day after all.