That's a new kind of pain on the bike. Stung!

And not just a little sting. Stung twice by an angry wasp who didn't want to let go of my knee.

I was working up to cruising speed before some laps, and I felt a big smack on my knee. What I'm about to describe took place in about 2 seconds, but putting it into words will obviously take longer than that. I was doing about 90 rpm on my pedal stroke at this point, so bear in mind that every time I brought my knee back up, only 2/3 of a second had passed.

I looked down and saw a bright yellow thing with black stripes on top of my thigh right above my knee. I thought, that's weird, it's still there. Then it stung me. A fraction of a second after it hit me, it stung me. I then tried to brush it away. It didn't like that, and stung me again. I brought my knee back up, and smacked it and then swept it away. It didn't go smoothly, like it was clinging on to my leg hair, or maybe it was already entangled and that's why it was panicking with all the stinging.

After pedaling for about 10 seconds, I felt the creeping pain from the poison, and thought, yup, not bit me, stung me. I've been stung by a big black wasp before, so I recognized this kind of pain. I poured a little water on it, for some evaporative cooling effect, and finished my workout. Every time I took a sip of water, I also poured more water on my knee for more cooling.

Besides the stinging pain in my knee, the workout went really well. I set a new personal best time for the year, and checking my records, it's the 3rd fastest of all time for me. Did the wasp sting give me an adrenaline boost for speed? Could I have shaved even more seconds off the time if I didn't have to swat a big bug stuck on my leg and take some extra time pouring water on the sting? Have I found another reason to start shaving my legs so angry bugs don't get stuck in my leg hair? All good questions.