What A Wanker!

......That's what another rider must've thought last night as I was riding around the Muskego race course doing my intervals. Why would he think that you ask? Well, I was doing my normal course of intervals around the loop and was near the end of a rest period when another racer showed up and started doing loops around the course. At the time I was obviously riding at a normal pace for my recovery when he came cruising around me and he probably thought I was just a casual rider because I was going no more than 17mph. I'm sure I didn't look like a casual rider as would have been evident from the slobber all over my mouth and the completely dazed look on my face from killing myself for the last 10 minutes, but nonetheless he probably thought so as he passed me. I'm sure he probably said to himself, "get out of my way fred" as he passed me. Well, of course as luck would have it he passed me with only about 15 seconds left in my recovery so I even thought to myself, "great, now when I start my interval and pass him it's going to look like I chased him down and tried to go fast only because he passed me". I even thought to yell something like "I'm not a putz chasing you down, I'm just doing intervals! Really!", but of course I didn't say a word as I wound it up and passed him within a quarter of a lap. So as I passed him, I could see out of the corner of my eye that he gave me that look that said, "what a dick!". I kept going but I could tell that he sped up to keep pace with me as I was able to see his shadow dangling about 5 foot off my rear wheel. He was staying close behind me and after 9 minutes I was coming around the course and I calculated I would finish my interval right before the finishing hill. I thought it would be a good idea to see how fast I could sprint up that hill after a hard interval so when we came around to the hill I sprinted and promptly blew him away but just as quickly shifted down to my small ring and started my recovery as my interval was now finished. He caught up and quickly flew by me and I thought I saw a smile that said, "ha, what a wanker, he blew up". Again I wanted to say " I didn't blow, that was the end of my interval! Really!"....but of course I said nothing. I soft pedaled around for one more lap and saw him stopped at one of the bubblers getting water, so I knew he was probably relieved as well that I had stopped my interval. I guess what's funniest out of all of this is that neither one of us said a thing to each other the whole time...not when he passed me initially, or when I passed him back, or when I stopped my interval and he went by again. There was definitely that tension of being on the race course, doing race-specific training, and focusing on the workout that neither of us seemed to be in the mood to be friendly. He probably didn't say anything because he thought I was just an ass for being passed and then blowing by him, and I didn't say anything because I was feeling like an ass and then was in interval mode. We didn't say any words but I'm sure the mental exchange went something like this:

Me: (recovering 15 more seconds) " " (um, yeah, brain was off)
Him: (passing the fred) "Move it or lose it chump"
Me (now fred): "great, now I'll look like I'm trying to go fast because he passed me"
Him: (getting passed by fred) "What a dick, why is he passing me now?"
Me: (92% HR and flying) "This sucks"
Him: "I'll just stay on fred's wheel and he'll be blown in 30 seconds"
Him: (after 3 minutes) "shit, why isn't he slowing down"
Me: (92% HR and flying) "This sucks"
Him: (after 7 minutes) "momma, is that you?" "hi mr. penguin"
Me: "Only 2 more minutes, gonna sprint up the hill, yeahhhh"
Him: (watching me sprint up hill) "sweet jesus, can't....hold..on...any longer"
Me: "sweet, interval complete" (drop to little ring and soft pedal)
Him: "huh, wha...he's slowing, cool....I was just about to pass him anyways...."

At least that's how it went in my head.....anyways, 2 hours on the bike, with 60 minutes at the race course, felt great and I'm ready to rock on Saturday. Until next time......