Thursday, July 20, 2006

Watching the Tour

Last night we headed down to Magnuson park to watch a big screening of the Queen of all stages. I sat there mezmorized as Rasmusson tapped out a tempo no one could rival. He gets into the zone and just tap tap taps. His upper body remains calm, his lower body working like a well oiled machine.

And poor Flyandis. He cracked hard. He only had 10k to go - and as expected, the attacks started coming. His teammates were well behind him at that point and he didn't have anyone to shepard him. The final climb is a doozy - and it broke many a man. Unfortunately it also broke the mallot juane. So many times I have been there myself - cracking under the pressure... unable to continue on at that tempo. Is it a mental thing? Look at how many other guys were ok with continuing on at that pace, surprized when they realized they were passing poor Floyd. It's almost as though you have to hypnotize yourself while in the pain cave and just plow right through it - ignoring all feeling and shutting down your brain from any self doubt. I definitely think it's a mental thing... now if I can just unlock that pain cave and battle through it...

Still fighting this persistant cough. I rode yesterday and made the mistake of getting my heart rate up. It hurt. I guess I'll just have to save that for the weekend....

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