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Sweetness Follows-



On Saturday I rolled out of my driveway and pedaled toward the Colorado National Monument knowing I had eaten too many pancakes and that this would be a bad thing in the beginning... but perhaps, on the lower slopes of the final climb of the day they would keep me going. As I ascended the steep switchbacks of the Monument's western entrance the smell of smoldering vehicle brakes singed my nostrils. I made sure not to drift too far out into the road as the tourists filed by in their rental cars and the Glade Park residents charged past in diesels and old pick-ups so beat to hell it is hard to believe they were still capable of hauling the huge tanks of water in their beds up the steep grades. All of the engine noise and the exhaust fumes remind me that this place, on a Saturday morning at least,  is no place to "check-out" and allow your thoughts to drift...  While it serves its purpose, training on the pavement is not what I live for- It is a means to an end, a necessary evil... or any other number of clichés that have to do with what one must do to get to the good stuff. 

Now, I could go on about this 85.5 mile "Queen Stage" training ride, replete with three major climbs and 9,000 vertical feet of elevation gain... About the angry September heat and the evil and repugnant Little Park Road climb with its fist to the jaw steeps and the indifference shown by a sinister ascent after you've already gone up two just prior to it- I could, but I won’t, because the pancakes ended up being just enough and this wasn't my first rodeo, not by a long shot... 

This was just a test, a reminder that the pain fades to be replaced by something else- On Little Park Road I did allow my thoughts to drift as I was blinded by my own sweat and I found a cadence that put me on auto pilot. For just a few moments, as I neared the top of the last pitch, I could hear the aspen leaves beneath my tires and the thin, cool, Crested Butte air was filling my lungs and I was in the place where I belong- 

The pain fades and for me, at least, I know I am doing this thing right when sweetness follows...




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