Performance Benchmark

The taste of blood fills my senses and sweet pours down my face . I look to see if my legs are still there or if they have been replaced with sacks of led. Then I realize it, I'm at the top. I just climbed over a kilometre of rooty, rocky, twisty single track; the rubber just kept rolling. I was clipped in the whole time, my feet never hit the dirt once. This same section of trail is notorious for zapping the energy out of riders and stalling momentum dead on one of the roots. This little piece of 'trail hell' is perfect for gaging my performance throughout the season. It's like the marks on a thermometer, I know how hot I am by how far I make it up. Every few weeks we will take on this climb, and every time I tell myself "I will make it farther then last time ." Now here I am at the top and I didn't even know it. As the oxygen returns to my lungs a feeling of euphoria over comes me, I feel so alive. Totally aware of my environment, for a brief moment I'm one with the forest. I wish it could last forever, but then I remember "hey, I get to go down hill now... Yesssss!"