Morning rides, other stuff

I got up and rode 50 miles today before work. It wasn't supposed to be 50 miles, but there's not much you can do when the name of the road on your directions doesn't match the name on the sign. Anyway, I didn't eat anything before or during, so I was fueled purely by my fat reserves. Luckily, they are enormous.

I was also witness to a variety of motorist stupidity. Nothing unique, but I did identify two particularly aggravating things people in cars do.

1) The too-wide-when-it's-blind pass.
I realize you're trying to be nice to me here, but you can't just go in the other lane on a corner. Seriously, I'm fine over here with 2 feet of space. You can get even closer if you slow down. But for the love of god, don't kill yourself or someone else trying to be nice to me!

It's like seeing a bike on the shoulder makes people forget, I dunno, every other safe thing about driving. I had one especially close call with a van going completely into the other lane on a corner and then meeting and oncoming car, leading to much swerving and honking. Freakin idiots.

2) The refuse-to-pass-unless-it's-a-giant-straightaway car.
The flip side of #1 is of course the car that won't squeeze through the massive 15-foot wide space you've left it. So it waits and waits until it can cross the yellow line (to avoid an incident like #1) which makes you feel like you're holding up traffic and annoys everyone behind it. Just go through slowly! Once I know you're there I really have no problem with being passed closely.

I like to think that people who do this are actually incompetent drivers and know it. They have no concept of how wide their vehicle is, so they won't go through any space smaller than an entire, well-marked lane. I guess if that's the reason, ok, at least you're not killing anyone with your incompetence. But the other explanation is that they think I can't handle a car anywhere near me, and that implication offends me. I'm not that squirrely.

Also of note, that race at Pat's Peak was kind of muddy:


I've decided to skip racing at Mount Snow entirely. I ended up training a lot this week and I'm going to run around all weekend. I don't feel like trying to eat right, rest and stay hydrated, and I also don't feel like paying $50 for a race I know I won't really be prepared for.

I'll try to make up for the lack of race report-age with some sweet video from nats.

In fact, I'm not racing again until August 12 (24 hours of GG), so I may have to fall back on blogging about training. I apologize in advance, but I'm hoping that a few weeks off + some quality training will lead to an absurd cyclocross peak that ends with me consuming Tim Johnson's liver in front of a horrified crowd at New Gloucester.

Key word there is Hoping.