The week after my rest week, I caught the worst Flu I have had in years and spent a grueling 4 days dealing with the illness. First with me suffering feverish sleepless nights and then Kailan contracting the illness and me spending more sleepless nights looking after him.
I ended up having to take Anti Biotics to fight my infection and the problem with such strong medicine is not only does it kill whats ailing you, but it kills all the good bacteria you have in your body as well. So the week after my illness I spent it, feeling so tired and off balance.
I had only managed two rides since I had been back from California. One was just a destination nowhere ride, where I felt good. I had a lot of leftover fitness from the Stagecoach. The other was the Saturday after my illness in between my low energy off balance week, I pedaled rather speedily to Guruv yoga in Lake Mary and did a class and then pedaled home.
Regardless, even though the week had been crappy I had made a commitment to go and tackle the Huracan and I was hell bent on doing it. So hell or high water, when Saturday 430am rolled around I packed up and left heading to Santos to start where everyone else started this year and Begin my Individual time trial.
I have had alot of rides cut short lately. Always for good reasons so I was eager to start getting some whole enchiladas under my belt. Still, going into this, I was still off balance, and I had rested and stayed off the bike more then I had wanted. I have learned, that is my fortune, I should always expect everything to not go right. Maybe one day that will change, but for now, that is what I have grown accustomed too.
Everything went smooth and I actually left Santos trailhead early on my way to tackle this beast that I have dedicated so much of my time too. I had a different plan then usual, I wanted to go out conservative and stay conservative. Instead of coming out the box riding so hard and then falling apart I wanted to start up slow and build momentum. Seemed to all make sense in my head when I made the Plan.
As I pedaled the pavement making my way to Baseline trailhead, I greeted the people picking wild berries along the paved trails edge. Before I knew it I was riding Marshall Swamp trail, noticing lots of little off shoot trails that I had never noticed before. I took a small break at the trailhead and kept on pedaling. Up and over the Oklawaha noticing that they had used the old bridge as a greenway pedestrian bridge as they had promised.
Onward I went making quick work, easily averaging close to 12 mph even as I made my way across the forest and encountered numerous Dune Buggies out speeding on the hard pack forest roads. I was trying to do everything better. I was drinking, I was eating, I was taking supplements, I was on top of the situation.
I cleared sellers lake after a brief stop and water restock and then ventured into the first real challenge of the course Billy Bay. It took some effort and I really got hot through that section, but I kept my pace up and ventured right into Paisley Mountain Bike trail. Seemed like all the places before this had seen rain in the past week, but Paisley looked just as sandy today as it did the last time I rode it with Kailan.
I kept moving, ticking off the miles, getting hungry and anxious to be done with this section of the ride. After what seemed like forever I exited and made my way to a cold drink and food restock only to discover that my normal store to visit was locked up??? Ugggghhh, I continued deeper into town, past the Pirate's Pub and to the next store, where I ate and drank and ate and then feeling a lil depleted decided I would nap under the oak tree and give the sun a little time to burn off.
Around 4pm, I left that spot, after soaking a rag and placing it under my helmet, I rolled onward towards Maggie Jones. Again, apparently no rain had come this way as Maggie was sandy and washboarded the entire way. About 20 miles ago the ride started feeling like work, and I must admit the feeling had not dissipated. But work I did as I made quick work of Seminole, stopped road side to score beverages and oranges and reached and passed the gate in Rock Springs. I made my way through the park, pedaling the challenge trail. I was liking the single track, but the double track was a mess and recently graded. At least it seemed it had seen rain so although the ground was not fast rolling, at least it was rolling.
The trail was green and dark. Cypress knees everywhere eager to grab at your pedals if you didn't time things just right. I kept the pace high knowing that after I emerged from the basin I would reach more of a scrub and open environment providing brighter light. I really didn't want to stop to pull out my helmet light and after what seemed like another long long time I made it out in the dark.
As soon as I hit pavement, what I thought would be a two hour trip to Zellwood had already become a 2.5 hour trip and I still had a good 8 or 9 miles to go.
I pedaled and moved along the pavement, using my Fred's as much as possible and then eventually taking 441 to the Mexican restaurant that Curt had told me about. I parked my bike and went in. Sweaty, dirty, grimy with a rag under my helmet and muddy sun warmers on my arm. As soon as I go in a guy starts talking to me, but I was on a mission for food and the music was blaring so loud that I pretended instead to not hear his stupid "your exercising alot today" comment.
The young waitress came over and we had to practically speak in each others faces. She was surprised that I could speak Spanish and I ordered two sandwiches but she talked me out of them and into only one. I didn't care, I wanted food. All the while I waited for my food, I shivered from being wet with sweat in an air conditioned small building. The Man who had spoke to me when I came in kept looking over at me with a glaring stare as if I had been pinching his girlfriends ass or something. I admit I was nervous at the numbers. 7 of them, 1 of me, I am not going to even look over in their direction.
I got my food, ate, paid and left. As I got on the bike the only late convenience store was closing and I realized I had two small bags of gummy, two oranges and a bag of cashews. As I fussed to myself over missing the restock, I saw a electric plug on the outside of a building with a chair right by it. I took advantage and sat and charged my phone while I sat in a comfy chair waiting.
After a few hours at midnight I rolled out and rode about ten more miles making quick work of the Lake Apopka all the way to the tower. I didn't see any gators as I only had my Princeton Tec Push lighting the way. But I did come up on a 3 foot tall white faced owl in the middle of the road. I had only seen an owl like this 18 years ago and was surprised to see one again. Being the Indian that I am, I wondered if there was some sort of warning I should heed or did he come to give me inspiration to keep pushing. When I finally got there I carried my bike all the way up and set up camp. Stripped off my wet clothes and hung them up put on my dry gear and laid down in my hammock fighting with the mosquitoes for a lil while before I finally got them to leave me alone. I fell asleep to the sound of all sorts of owls and animals creeping and crawling about. Briefly I regretted not peeing on the stairs leading up to the loft, thinking that the smell would of discouraged coons or possums to come up to my perch.
It had been a 110 mile day, and the sleep came fast, I needed all the rest I could get, as the last 90 miles had become a chore and had become way more work then I anticipated.
Part 2 next.
Take Care,
Laters,
The NaKeD InDiaN
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