Death management...

Yesterday, I had three near mishaps with cars. Two were their fault, one was mine.

I also was descending a hill and just "nicked" part of a broken tree branch that I didn't see until the last minute. It was only about an inch thick and six inches long, but big enough to take me down if I hit it the wrong way.

It never fails, the last long ride of the year is always the scariest. If something serious happens during the ride, Kona could be over, especially if I was killed. Unfortunately, there's not enough time to recover from death.

Yesterday, two "stupid" drivers came close to possibly ending my Kona journey early. The first was when I was descending at hill around 50 kph and was going through a two-way stop intersection. I wasn't required to stop, the other guy was. Instead, he starts to go as I'm coming through the intersection.

As a pre-caution, I ride out of the aero when I see cars at intersections, I want to make sure I can break if need be and I always try to make "eye contact" before passing through. As this guy starts to drive forward I started "screaming" at the top of my lungs, "HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY". I'm going too fast to stop in time and am thinking my only option is to veer right and hope for the best.

Halfway through the intersection, he sees me and quickly stops. I ride by, I'm furious and I give the guy and his wife the most forceful "F#CK OFF" finger I've ever given. It had "authority" behind it and in no words said, "your lucky I don't stop and rip your F#CKEN head off !!!".

The second incident happened about 80 miles into my ride. I was on a busy mini-highway intersection. I was turning left and he was at the stop sign waiting. I thought he saw me. Before I even passed by the front of his SUV, he took off straight and nearly caught my back wheel.

It was like the "A-hole" didn't even see me. I stopped my bike to look back to see if he was stoppable. He wasn't, he continued barrelling down the other side of the road. I'm not sure if he didn't see me or saw me and was being a "jerk". It was a near miss.

I'm not a violent person, but if I had the chance, at minimum, I would given him a "severe" tongue lashing with "froth" coming out of my mouth, or at maximum, if I had a baseball bat I would have used on his truck. I was in disbelief, it was scary.

The last incident was ALL MY FAULT. I was looking to roll through an intersection, which I always do if there is no cars. At the last minute, I saw a "blue/grey" car that blended into the road coming and I had to quickly swerve and make a reverse loop. I had slowed down quite a bit beforehand and it wasn't too hard to get out of the way.

There was no happier feeling than pulling into my driveway after yesterday's ride. I even raised on arm in triumph, primarily for finishing my last training Century of the year, but it was also nice that I made it home in one piece.

I have a "pet peeve" about riding I want to expand on. The WORST thing someone can do, which I HATE, is make a point of telling me to be careful before a ride. Yesterday, I had two people do that, one on twitter and the other my neighbour.

When people say "be careful" before I leave to ride, it doesn't make me "look out more". Instead, it makes me paranoid and puts doubt in my mind, "Should ride that day?" I know they think they are being helpful, but they're not, it makes riding that day tougher and less joyful.

Unless they had a dream or premonition, "like your plane is going to crash", I wish they wouldn't say anything. It's very unsettling.

Changing subjects, I got a tweet yesterday about someone going to Kona with a camera crew and wanting to hook up with me. I later found out it was for a three minute spot "Wheaties" was putting together for the Ironman about nutrition. They want to get me on video talking about my nutritional habits.

I sent them my R-rated "Mark Allen Online" video. She laughed and said, she still wants me to do it, but without the beer and cigar, although the "Captains Hat" would be fine. The funny part is "beer" is a seriously big part of my nutritional plan.

It took me a little while to think of more nutritional secrets, such as "big juicy steaks after a long Saturday ride", or "protein powder and fruit smoothies in the morning", or "movie theatre popcorn to top up my salts", or "ensure in the transitions", or "egg McMuffins on the bike", or "banana's and peaches in my cycling jersey when I train". Yet, I still believe there is no better post-recovery drink than a nice "cold beer" or ten.

This afternoon Alice, Alyssa, Reid and I went to the movie Casablanca at the theatre. Yes, you heard correctly, Casablanca. Reid is really into the old movies and wanted to see it on the big screen. He said it's ranked as the number two movie of all time. It was the first time I've ever seen it and enjoyed it. Next movie he wants to go to is The Maltese Falcon, it's showing in November.

Afterwards, we all drove out into the escarpment to shoot my Wheaties video. It was a lot tougher than we thought to find a quiet spot and I find it hard to be "natural" on camera. We did a lot of takes and even then I'm not sure if it's what they are looking for and it was grey outside.

I decided not to train today. By the time we got home, it was past dinner time, it was cold and I wasn't feeling it. I decided to move tomorrows rest day to today and do my run tomorrow.

Taper Rest Day - No Training