I'm mega tired. Warning: BOOOORING POST AHEAD

It was the second nice day in a row (the day before was alright, too). I rode 35 miles on Sunday, then 15 yesterday (and ran Green Lake once) and decided to go for another today. Of course, having rode the past two days and even being sore yesterday I planned on a brisk ride. I suppose it's always good to plan a brisk ride, but I don't know if I've ever gone on a brisk ride. I go out and I'm not going as fast as I did on Sunday but it was decent speed. I took a bathroom break about 12 miles in and my average was around 19, then it dropped as I was rolling my bike around. Got to the Velodrome at Marymoor with an average of 19, which is pretty good by last year's standards. There was a section where the wind was carrying me, I was going 27-28 for about half a mile and that was awesome, just a little above normal effort to do that (I think going fast makes you want to go a little bit faster, so that's the little bit above normal). I noticed at the Velodrome that everyone had time trial bikes, which makes me think I may not be allowed to ride on it. Even if I am, I don't want to be the tacky one who has more than one gear. Surprisingly, most of the people weren't going very fast.

As I left the Velodrome and got back on the road within Marymoor I was going kind of slow because I took a roundabout way to the Velodrome and wasn't positive where I needed to go to get back to the BGT. Well, this guy goes past me quite fast. Of course my reaction is: fuck that! So I quickly speed up to his pace and he leads me back to the trail. I follow him on the trail for a while but he was trying to lose me so he gets tired and I just maintain pace and pass him after about half a mile. Then I'm in front and hit that wind that had me going 28 with ease the other way. So I'm pushing, hoping he doesn't catch up... My body/muscles/bike make it so things that make you go fast (downhills, tailwinds) make me go faster than most people, but of course the things that make you go slow make me go slower. So he catches up to me around mile 2.5 and he passes me. So I let him pull for a while, I take a break in his draft. He only pulls for about half a mile and lets me back in front, which I find a little fucked up, but I take the pull. The wind is still killing, I'm pushing pretty hard just to go ~19 mph. I think he only led twice or three times and the cumulation of the distance was probably only half of what I did. By the time we got to mile ~6 he had fallen back a little bit and he stopped at the park not far past that, leaving me victorious! He was riding an older orange Eddy Merckx, even wearing an Eddy Merckx jersey, that's good for me. It's hard to describe how intense it was in the wind, especially pulling most of the time, but it was the coolest (and most draining) race I've had with anyone. Keep in mind I was cruising at 28 in that wind, so even with an average of 22 mph I'd be pushing around 16 going the other way, I was going 19 and 20 most of the time. And riding an old Eddy Merckx like that is... well it's good for me to have beat him. And technically you could say we were just riding together or riding partners but I know, and he knows, that we each wanted to finish in front.

I pretty much bonked. With 7 miles left I was still going around 20 but didn't feel like going fast, that was just a cruising speed. Then around 3 miles left I would say I had bonked, but I was still going about 19, maybe a little help from the wind. I thought it was funny that I was still passing people (on road bikes) even though I had "bonked". It could have been worse, I suppose, but I was out of energy.

I'm not sure when I'll be sure of how much faster I am right now than I was last year. I mean, I'm in a bit of awe because last year I would have been happy to average 19 mph on the Burke Gilman, like really happy considering all of the slowdowns and average killers. In October I got to Marymoor with a 20 mph average. I was pushing like crazy AND had wind going for me. I finished with a 19.9 mph average on Sunday, the whole ride, which means wind didn't play much of a role (in the average). I suppose riding on the trainer really paid off. My bike is also in serious need of a greasing, wonder if that will help me at all.