I've inspired mon petit frere to participate in a race next year. No word on him if he's gonna attempt the try tri or a du as he can't stand running. Regardless, I'm impressed this kid is (actually as of Aug 3 WAS) a smoker and long time couch potato. I'm not insulting, he's the first to admit it.
We headed out for another cycle settling on 12k for a distance on a path down by the waterfront that he'd told me about. It's lovely because it's a marked trail. I think that this is my favourite place to go in the city now for training. I love, love, love that it is a marked trail, every 200m.
We've got a nice little sibling rivalry going. I am not competitive by nature except in this one instance. You may recall that I hate cycling but the last time I went out with him I had a blast, so I was looking forward to this ride. I also knew that being down on the beach it would be a pretty flat ride. He led for pretty much the entirety of the ride. Here's the thing though, I have this theory men-especially ones new to working out- they tend to overextend themselves at the beginning then it gives women an opportunity to catch up/surpass them. I told this theory to my brother and that I would beat him because of it.
Well he led most of the way, I passed him around the 5K mark and took great pleasure at yelling "LEFT" at him. He let me lead for like 10m then passed me, being sure to respond with equal enthusiasm. As we moved along after the half way point she gained a substantial lead of 200m. I watched him as he rode though and his rpm were above mine so I figured he was in 2nd while I was in 3rd and I noticed him standing up a lot more and taking a brief rest. I knew he was getting tired. I was most definitely cursing him and the back of his stupid white shirt as I rode not actually sure that I could make up the distance between us now and just hoping that he was really gonna tire himself out. I made up my mind to try to catch him in the last K so for the 2nd last one, I bumped it down to the 2nd gear to give my legs a bit of a rest (ps I have no idea if this is AT ALL the correct terminology, you know, how there are 3 bigger gears in the front, then 7 smaller ones in the back...the first 3 things are the ones I am talking about.) and then in the last K poured it on. I could see him looking back at me so I yelled that I was coming for him and I did, indeed finish ahead of him, just barely. He was doing a gear change as I was passing him and it skipped or something, I heard it. He claims that he would have beat me had that not happened but I am not so sure. I feel like it was too late for him. He defends himself by saying he was a smoker, I say I'm diabetic.
I had really wobbly legs afterward, which is good. I also really liked the approach that I took giving my legs a bit of a rest. I remembered to store that mental nugget away so for the race. It was another really great cycle and I had a blast.
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