A tribute

"I want to say a little something that's long overdue
The disrespect to women has got to be through
To all the mothers and sisters and wives and friends
I want offer my love and respect to the end"

- MCA

عص

Source: behzadgolpayegani.com

A side note to Lida

1. We started to work with our bikes to adjust a few things prior to heading down there, check the tire pressure and etc. I asked my friend if he could adjust my back derailleur slightly as I had felt that it didn't shift properly between some gears. He started to change a few settings and things got worse. One hour later, we couldn't find our initial position neither and got frustrated. he went home to pack his stuff as we were about to leave in one hour and I headed to a local bike store/shop (which by the way is a official retailer of Trek) to see if I could get that fixed. They said that we don't have any mechanic working on Saturdays and I thought: "Gee, that must be a highly paid job that you don't need to work any extra on weekends, a bike mechanic!" Then they said, we provide service for the bikes that we have sold here in the first hand which I thought was pure bull s%#t, because if they are for Trek, then they should provide service for all Trek products regardless of where they have been bought from. Anyway, I left that place empty handed and disappointed but I thought I will manage my ride with those gears, no real biggie. Fortunately, I managed to take care of that plus other things when we got there to pick up our numbers at a tent that one of the sponsors had set up...free of charge of course! And they were very nice and friendly as well!

2. On the drive to there, one of the bikes on the rack in the back of the car got loose in the middle of highway. Fortunately it didn't fall off but we had to stop to fix this while all the cars were passing by us at a minimum 110 Km/hr speed. This happened twice (!) and got us delayed for picking up our numbers so we had to drive like crazy in order to get there. In the end, we made it at the by a minute in time. 

3. Before leaving home, I had put all the stuff that I needed to take with me by the door. I took everything with me except my helmet and I realized it when I was 200 Km away from home...on a late Saturday evening with little possibility to buy a new one. Fortunately, I managed to borrow my friend's which fitted me quite tightly but it worked. For the record, it is prohibited to participate in the race without authorized helmet.

4. The day after the race, I was on my way on a short drive to buy ice cream for my daughter. I left my wallet on the roof of the car and drove away with it! I realized it immediately but it was nowhere to be found. I started to block all my credit cards and everything and as soon as I was done with it, someone called me and said that they have found my wallet...come on man!

Lida Loop: The nightmare in Botkyrka

This is a MTB race held in Botkyrka in Sweden that consists of three loops, each of ca. 22 Km which adds up to the total of 66 Km. One can choose to ride one or two or all three loops. Given how it went for me in CV45 last year, in which I started to feel much better in the second half of it and I somehow felt that I could continue for at least a good 10 Km or so, I thought that maybe 66 is not that far out of reach so I signed up for three loops WITHOUT having a clear knowledge of what is actually waiting for me. 

It turned out to be the most difficult track that I have EVER ridden (or even seen for that matter!) and it was by far the toughest thing that I have been through, I have never ever felt so bad during and after the ordeal. The track was a lot of long and never ending uphills and very steep at times (which got you very exhausted even if you just wanted to walk with the bike) and if it wasn't that, it was highly technical parts or very steep downhill on a very rough and uneven surface. Put on top of that, a distance of 66 Km (well actually it turned out to be 65 Km, who cares at this stage, huh?) which something of its own per se.

In the middle of second loop (which is the most difficult loop of the three), I was totally spent. I got muscle cramps on both quadriceps which made it a hell if I wanted to stand to rest or walk slowly. Somehow I managed to finish that loop and came to a cross road where I had to quit right there and finish after 2nd or continue to 3rd, which (undoubtedly given my natural stupidity!) I did and it was a big big mistake. The 3rd, not being as difficult as 2nd, drained me of ALL my energy and whatever I had left in me. The last 10 Km or so I was feeling very sick but fortunately since I had nothing in stomach so I did not throw up. I had barely any energy to drink or swallow anything. The slightest of uphills turned to a massive project for me and besides, I felt mentally drained.

About 4.5 Km into the race, one of the girls in the elite group who started ahead of us had a massive crash on a quite narrow and sandy part of the track and made a massive jam right there because people stopped for helping out and being early in the race, there were a lot of riders trying to pass by. She was hurt pretty bad from what I could see and I heard afterwards that she hurt her neck badly and was transported to Karolinska hospital (the best and the most famous hospital in the country), that was NOT a pretty sight. That haunted me throughout the whole thing and got me thinking that, in the middle of all these problems that I am having now, I should absolutely avoid any stupid risks that can lead to injury because that would have made my misery at least 100 times higher. At the very end, I passed the finish line without any injuries except for immense fatigue beyond imagination.

I rode with a friend of mine and we held up together for a couple of kilometers in the beginning but he escaped away and I couldn't catch up with him. In the peak of my misery, I was desperately hoping that he had decided to quit after the 2nd loop and was standing right there at the finish and notifying me of his decision and urging me to do the same. I would have stopped in a heartbeat. But he wasn't there and later he told me that he was somehow hoping that I urged him to stop after 2nd but I don't know how I could have done that since I was trailing and he was ahead?!? He finished half an hour earlier than me.

The GPS data of the track, the lines indicate my heartbeat along the track with colours showing its level

At the end, I learned my lesson and most importantly, I realized my boundaries. If I assume that my physical and mental condition, remain the same or get better to some extent, I think I should never ever go beyond anything that is more than 40-50 Km or takes more than 4-4.5 hours. Anything above this leads to unnecessary suffering and pain, I was very lucky that in the peak of exhaustion, I didn't lose control and injure myself (mostly thanks to my new brakes), that could have had a catastrophic outcome. If we had ridden 1st or 2nd loop maximum, it would have been a good challenging workout and we would have been happy with ourselves specially that I had a very descent time after 1st, so riding the 1st loop only would have been perfect given the difficulties of the track and would have been more than enough. Riding all three of them, given our condition and bad preparation, was not a good decision.

I passed the finish line in 5 hours and 40 minutes, almost one hour later than what I had aimed for, which given the circumstances, is not that bad but (in the voice of Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now):

The fatigue...the fatigue...

Detailed information of my ride can be found here.

Metallica BY REQUEST on 30 May 2014

Playlist XIX.

1. "The Ecstasy of Gold" Ennio Morricone

2. "Battery" 

3. "Master of Puppets"

4. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" 

5. "Harvester of Sorrow"
6. "The Unforgiven"
7. "Lords of Summer"  

8. "Ride The Lightning"

9. "Sad But True" 

10. "Fade To Black"

11. "...And Justice For All"

12. "One"

13. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" 

14. "Blackened" 

15. "Nothing Else Matters"
16. "Enter Sandman"

17."Creeping Death" 

18. "Whisky In The Jar" 

19. "Seek & Destroy"