Attack the Pack
I’ve been having serious Tucson withdrawals for the past 2 weeks. It was too much fun to end so soon and have to come back to this gloomy metropolis. Do you want to hear about the 24 Hour race? Well, sorry that is tomorrow’s post, but I will tell you about all the things I did to prepare for it.
My preparation for the 24 Hour mountain bike race consisted of extensive drinking and one day of hiking. I established my training base out of Erik’s living room. Luckily, he is very supportive of my racing and helped facilitate the drinking and hiking necessary to prepare me for the race. He stocked his house with expensive scotch in anticipation of my arrival in Tucson. Though I hadn’t ridden a mountain bike in 2 years, I was not worried one bit.
On the first night of training, I dragged Erik and Mickey to my friend Jo’s Sparkle Motion birthday party. I think these dimly lit, hyper saturated photos speak for themselves:
Some of the attendees were obviously not committed to Sparkle Motion…ahem Mickey, E.
The next day, I dragged Erik on a mountain hike.
There were agave plants all over the hills during our hike. Erik explained to me that the agave plant saves up it’s whole life to shoot up that enormous boner of a stem so that it can flower and die. See people? Sex=death.
Erik! Watch out for the frickin laser beams!
I also got to go into an abandoned mine that we hiked off the trail to reach.
What a great day of hiking despite my wretched hangover!
Actually, I did go on a few road rides before the race. My friend Ignacio, who coaches the youth cycling team that I used to ride with, lent me a Dave Scott Centurion that he calls the ham and cheese bike.
Nothing like Gate’s Pass to kick your ass, demoralize you, and let you gauge how out of shape you’ve become.
Then something amazing happened. I spotted the legendary “Gray Wolf.” He went by in a flash with his doo-rag flapping in the wind. I pulled out my camera just in time to snap a blurry photo of the lone wolf in the wild that is Tucson’s 4th Ave.
The man is truly an inspiration to cyclists everywhere. “You kids out there, don’t worry about safety. Everyday just go as hard as you can. Look as good as you can….just do some attack riding. Attack the pack. Don’t hold back.”
The spirit of the wolf entered me, and I knew the sighting was a sign from the gods that I’d be just fine in the 24.
-L
I don’t know about bicycling, because I don’t ever do any of that stuff, but I know that Lauren is really, really good at sleeping. She’s a champion sleeper. She could totally win a 24-hour solo sleep race.
your couch is too fucking comfortable that’s why.
Don’t forget eating free food. She could win a 24-day solo eating race.
Kobayashi don’t got shit.
that’s true, in addition to being a sleep monster, i also become a human garbage disposal whence free food is presented to me. freegan forever fucktards!
I bet I could win a solo 24-hour complaining race. Other than that, I’m not really very competitive in much.
“cranky misanthrope lol.”
And Mickey could win a solo 24 hour make-fun-of Lauren race.
gawd…he was in rare form during my visit. pulling out all the stops. i gotta have somebody to give me shit.
those day glow tights are rocking my world babe!
you are rocking my world jes.
“Anything under $6000, you should probably just not even go with it.”
“I don’t wear a helmet. It doesn’t look cool and if you’ve got a really cool doorag, then no one can see it”
that doo rag could save your life.
great post. cant wait to hear about the 24 hour race. ive done 4 24 hours of moab on a five person team and two 24 hour solo events in steamboat.great fun
that’s awesome tg. i really want to do moab someday, and if i can squeeze it in next year i might try soloing 24 hours in the old pueblo. we’ll see. i am not big on lack of sleep, but i guess for one day i could suck it up and go for it.