Tapeworm hell

Last night I should have stayed home and watched a movie. Instead, I had the most horrendously awful ride on Tapeworm I think I've ever had. Two of my friends bailed due to traffic, so it ended up being me and my friend Ben riding. When I pulled into the parking lot, I found Ben standing over his bike with a confused look and figured this wasn't a good start. Performance had installed a new rear hub and cassette on his bike and somehow turned it into a fixie. Awesome.

He took a quick jaunt down to Center Cycle to get it fixed while I did a warm up and then we met up a bit later to ride Tapeworm. I knew the night was off to a bad start when I wiped out in a flat sandy area trying to practice track standing. That should have been a sign. I just couldn't get into a groove and areas I usually ride gave me all sorts of trouble. Ben was having a rough night as well, so I didn't feel so bad.

About halfway through, something felt really wrong with my right shoe. I stopped and found out my cleat had come completely unscrewed and was sliding all over the place. Naturally, neither of us had brought any tools, so I had to suck it up and finish the ride that way. As we were nearing the end, I came around a corner and crashed HARD. It was one of those crashes where you find yourself laying on the ground thinking, "WTF!? What the hell did I just run into?" Seriously, the trail was dirt. There was nothing there!

The side of the trail sloped downwards, so I took a pretty good tumble. Of course I landed right on a tree stump that bruised up my right thigh and managed to jam my handlebar straight into my calf. When I got up it was cramping so badly I didn't think I'd be able to ride. Handlebar into the calf? I don't know how that happens. Once I got up, I found the crash culprit: a little stump on the right side of the trail covered by foliage. I must have caught my rear tire on that thing and just washed out.

As much as I would like to ride Tiger tonight, I'm taking the night off. I've got my calf wrapped in a compression bandage because I have a massive knot and every time I flex the muscle it cramps. Between softball and mountain biking, this week has beaten me down badly, so I'm having doubts about racing the Des Moines crit on Sunday, but we'll see.