Hour of Power - Not

Sleeping hasn't been fun for me the last several nights. My road rash is doing a little better, but I still can't completely relax. Plus, my hip is bruised and it gets very stiff. When I roll over or shift it after it has been stationary, I feel a dull pain.

Yesterday afternoon I gave blood. They say it takes a couple of days to get your body back up to speed after donating. With that and a bad night's sleep, I figured this morning's ride would be kind of tough.

I came outside to ride over to Sunshine and found that my car top was down and it had rained in the night. The beautiful red head and I put some towels in there and I started off. I knew I would be late, but sometimes the group doesn't get out until nearly 8AM.

They were gone. It was up to me to catch them. About five minutes later I did after turning up the wick and chasing. It certainly wasn't the way I wanted to start my morning! At least my hip was getting loosened up.

Once I caught the group I settled in the pack to recover. I stayed there until the beginning of the first sprint point. A new rider on the group, Doug, started an attack. At this point I was behind Art and Mike - they didn't even know I was on the ride at this point.

I heard Art and Mike say something about the rider breaking away and then I thought I heard Art ask Mike if he was feeling good this day. I took that to mean that Art was wanting to run the breakaway down. I thought it would be fun to just hang back behind them and sprint around at the last second to surprise them.

It didn't take long for Art in the front, Mike behind him, and then me in the rear to catch Doug. Then Mike slowed and I knew that if I didn't get up there with Art, he would beat me. I went around Mike and started into the last 20 yards behind Art.

Since Art rides with a mirror on his left, I stayed to his right. 15 yards to go he looked back beneath his right arm and saw me. "I didn't think you were on the ride!" He said. I stood and went for it. 10 yards to go I got around him and took the sprint.

I won't go through the rest of the ride. I did take 3 of the 4 sprints (Billy was down at the Citadel vs. Wofford game) that I tried. It was the quarry road one that I lost to Art. With about 5 yards to go, he attacked and when I stood to go there just was nothing there. I got him back though at the Paris Mountain sprint!

Bottom line was I was whooped. I hope my body recuperates before next Saturday. The race is that Saturday morning and I need to be in good form.