Had a great week full of riding last week. I had time off from work so Jess, Gray, and I did some day-trips and I was able to get in plenty of riding. All in all it was both relaxing and provided a much needed kick in the ass to get back into training mode. I’ve been enjoying some unstructured down time for the past few weeks as you have seen on the blog and as much as it has been needed and appreciated, Bowman reminded me that there are twelve weeks left to ’cross season and quite frankly, I’ve been getting pretty lazy. Long story short after 4 consecutive ride days Matt kicked my ass.

I’ve spent a good amount of time doing structured training this year, and after getting some advice from Vegan Rob, I changed things up a bit. I haven’t gone hard enough when needed, and haven’t rested adequately from going hard. In the past few weeks I haven’t even really gone hard, so Thursday I opened my legs up from two days of shopping and riding Thomas the Tank, Friday I had a good long ride at Rattling Creek chasing Mike Carter and Matt, Saturday I did some singlespeed time at Sals, and then Sunday was supposed to be a casual road ride that turned into something entirely more.

Sunday morning came around and I had a message from Matt on my phone. He decided to sit out for the Neshaminy race because of the crash he took at Rattling Creek that messed up a couple of ribs for him so I called Cody and we all decided 12:30 at the Velodrome for some ‘casual’ miles together. I rode in from home hoping for a decent warm-up because my legs were already pretty sore and tired from the three previous day’s worth of riding. We all set out and on the first set of climbs; Matt started testing out his body to see how he felt. Cody and I took turns trying to move to the front to give him a break, but he would have none of it. Every time we moved up, Matt countered and stayed up there. The hills started and Matt hit every climb with a little more power than the last. After a while, it became a game. Cody and I took turns seeing if Matt would answer every attack, which he happily did- and when we asked him about it he simply said he was  happy to be ‘pulling us along’ for the ride. 40 or so miles later, we come into the last set of climbs into the Breiningsville area and now I find myself chasing Matt on every climb, and pushing harder than I would have on any other day after the week of riding I had already done. I felt like the words from Vegan Rob were ringing in my head about ‘experiencing a new level of pain’ and that I still haven’t pushed myself hard enough. With some encouragement from Matt I grunted up the final climb with as much power as I could muster and was genuinely happy about it. Now I understand how Matt has progressed the way he has. Now I want some of that for my own.

Thanks for the kick in the ass Matt; I sure as hell needed it.