Friday, March 24, 2017

The Calm From the Storm

Friday, 3/24/2016  

48 hours before The VCHSS Joe Lloyd Memorial Classic Hare Scramble

There comes a point, a few days before the first race of the season, where training ends and the focus turns to good rest and final preparations.  Nearly 100 hours spent alone on the bike since November, to which piles of chewed up knobby tires and scuffed plastic fenders will attest and a matching number of hours spent in the gym as well, all working towards the end goal.  Race wins, a championship.  Domination.

With final hours approaching, there is no further level of  physical fitness, no greater riding skill or technique that can now be achieved.  I have done what I can.  Other than a new set of tires mounted pre-race, the motorcycle has been improved, developed and maintained as much it can be, as have I.  Test of bike, body and brain awaits.  Has it all been enough?

I think so.



Monday, March 20, 2017

Ignite

Internal combustion engines require three basic components to run: fuel/air mixture, ignition and compression.  With these three things and the universal laws of physics and chemistry (of which I have barely a gradeschooler's grasp), it will run, forced by tiny controlled explosions.

Aging racers however, require a bit more.  Pain that's a week old spreads across my neck and back.  I am no longer young, though I continue to act as if I am.  The body protests and sometimes the mind weeps.  Lacking youth's illusions, vividly aware of the potential consequences of these actions, some might call it immaturity.

But none of that matters when I hear the announcer scream "TEN SECONDS" and wait with baited breath for the flag to wave, feeling the tiny explosions inside that remind....

The flame still burns.


2004 Gas Gas EC300, beginning to look rather aged, like it's owner....