Zoe Fitness | Personal Coach

I’ve Said It Before, I Will Say It Again

When I do stupid stuff, I like to make sure it’s REALLY, REALLY stupid!

Not just kind of stupid.

It’s taken me almost 2 weeks to blog about it:

The Strava Ride:  Will have to BLOG about that one.

Ugh.

Here goes.

I have been training long, I wanted to have my base at 5 hours before I left Albuquerque, and since I was unable to, I have been bringing it up in Winona.

My last week’s long ride went great; 41 Miles, 4 Hours Rolling time; 4:30 with lunch breaks, and over 3200 feet of climbing.

 

 

 

it was the ride before that, I am having a tough time with.

42 Miles, 4:16 Moving time, 4:45 out there time.

So let’s go.  I’m excited about the route I have chosen; Gravel, Dirt, and Asphalt.

I start out, and I am in a great mood, it’s going to be a great day, and I am going to have tons of fun. You know, cause that’s what I like to do on the bike.

So I head over to Holzinger, via the top of East Burns Valley.  There’s enough asphalt at the top, just enough to get me really bored, and really excited to be at the Trail.  My 1st break comes at the Cemetery Lookout:

Where I make the above joke.  So I do a couple of Zoefitness kind of laps, it’s a do, what I want to do kind of day.  And I go to head down the NSP trail.  NSP Trail, is a trail for the power, it’s super steep, super technical, and of the few times I have been down it, I have heard rattle snakes twice.  Once way back when, and on SSUSA I heard one too.  So down I go, there’s some serious rut going on that has me off the bike.  It’s rough, and my phone falls out.  I see nothing on the screen, at this point, I think, nothing of it, put it back in my pack, and continue on.  My thoughts are, I’m in Winona, not far from much, and I can check my phone at my next stop.  Whenever that will be.

I have had the hankering to go over to Cherry Hill, since it’s been a while.  I’m actually kind of excited, until I actually get there, I head up the climb, and I have just been driving myself crazy with rubbing back tire.  I am riding my Boyfriend Scott, with the wheels that came stock on it.  My Quarq isn’t reading, and for some reason, when I have these wheels on, it’s common for me to get brake rub and tire rub, just out of the blue.  On this particular ride, I had to stop at least a half a dozen times to re-adjust this wheel,  I will be just riding along, hit something, and all of a sudden get rub.  Where ever it feels like rubbing.

Up to Cherry, I’m tired.

I get to the top and check my phone, I now see the cracks on the screen, I can see that the phone is getting power, but I have clearly broken the screen.

So I have no phone, I am pretty far from anywhere, my bike is pissing me off, and I keep hearing what sounds like thunder, or a plane, or whatever, still not sure what it was but it for sure was spooking me.

I had nothing left, at least it felt like it.  I wanted to ride at least, the Cherry TT loop, but I had had enough, there was NO mojo, and I just had this feeling.  I was definitely spooked for whatever reason.

So I head down Cherry,

I get to the St. Mary’s bridge I can’t breathe.  My entire pulmonary system is in lock down.  I am really freaked out, because I have no phone, at least I am in civilization.  I have to get off the bike, and lie down on the side of the road, I feel angry, sad, and I am crying in frustration.  I begin to relax,   my breathing comes back slowly.  A guardian angel stopped, her name was Jen.  She asked if I was okay.  We almost called an ambulance.  I told her I was going to be fine.  My breathing became more and more normal, she went on her way, but we were both really scared.  After about 15 minutes;

I was back to normal, I was back on the bike.

I have only had this happen one other time out at Levi’s Mound, some 12 or 13 years ago.  I have not had it happen any other time.

I’m very careful when I ride around Winona, especially on routes I am not sure if there’s Frack Sand piles around, I wear a bandanna that I can cover my mouth and nose.

Going over to Cherry Hill is no different because there is the hugest of hugest sand piles on the way.  This is where they ‘wash’ the sand.

On my way out, I had everything covered, it was like a sand bowl, just blowing everywhere from off the streets.

I had my nose and mouth covered on the way back too.

I don’t know why it happened; I don’t know if was because of all the really sulfury sand blowing around, or if that sound I heard was a small plane crop dusting something I am allergic to.

All I know, is that I did literally almost die out there,

no one knew where I was,

my phone was broken,

I will never joke about dying again.

And I will never, never be so stupid as I was on this ride.

I had no business going over to Cherry  Hill without a phone, and without anyone knowing where I was.

I feel very lucky that I made it home,

that someone stopped and asked if I needed help,

It will be a long time before I go back over to Cherry Hill, that sand pile is DANGEROUS, it’s not so much the pile, as it is all the stuff that is being picked up off the road, and blowing around, so much that on this particular day, I called it literally, a dust bowl.

I may never go back to Cherry Hill, it was so bad and so scary.

But never, say never.

Just say, stupid.