The Conservation Of Momentum

This has been up on my Instagram (@jackbaruthofficial) for a few days but I thought I'd share it here in higher-definition form. This was my "progression goal" for last weekend: make it over all eleven box jumps on the "Profile World" flow track. On my first trip here, I made it over nine of the eleven, but I totally "bonked" in the last turn. My bike and I together weigh 281 pounds so it amounts to eleven deadlifts in forty-two seconds while also pedaling.

I'd figured that I would need to spend a month or so doing something differently on the elliptical during the week in order to build the endurance I'd need, but my coach and old friend, Javier Larrea, had a better idea. He re-mapped the line that I use in the beginning of the section. adding an extra jump on the skip-up to the hard uphill left turn. This sounds like it would take more energy than riding it but it actually gives me enough extra momentum to save me two pedals on the way down the second hill, which gives me enough oxygen to pull for the final two jumps. Then he was kind enough to be the camera bike for my run. I actually dropped him a bit in the beginning... there's something to be said for weight when you're going down a hill.

My old friend Nick will never realize it but when he died he gave me the final push I needed to start riding again. I don't have much left in me; too much metal in the left knee and too few ligaments in the right. But I want my son to see me ride with his own two eyes instead of looking at old Digital8 clips. Someday he'll be forty-five years old and the day may come that he needs a bit of inspiration or motivation to tackle whatever's ahead of him. I won't be around to tell him myself. But he'll remember that his old man was both stubborn and pain-resistant. That goes a long way in this world. It's not like being handsome or lucky but sometimes it's enough.