Ride The Wind

One Month Almost Complete

2012-01-29T10:51:00.001-05:00

Well, January is almost over and I've not got the miles in that I wanted to have, but as Martin said in a comment, maybe it's best that I don't put so much pressure on myself to get a certain amount of miles in per month...The pure enjoyment of cycling will be lost if I do - BTDT. :)

So, I had a 2.5hr ride to do today (Sunday) and an hour on Saturday. I switched them up because it was so much more warmer yesterday and I'm not much on riding in coldish temps and wind. Seems like the wind is always from the S-SSW and I should ride into the wind for the first part of the ride, but I'm not as familiar with those roads heading to the south of my house, so I suck it up and take the tailwind out and of course get the headwinds on my return trip.

I headed out towards Archer Lodge and and made a nice little loop that included the hills on Covered Bridge (near Dallas' house), the climb up from the Neuse on Covered Bridge, O'Neil Street and then the nice little short climb by West Clayton Elem. Ended up with 42 miles in 2:45hr. Fairly slow for the overall average, but I don't suppose that really matters at this time.

Today I'll probably just do an easy trainer ride with a 10min TT effort somewhere in the middle and some core workout. As for the rest of the day - I do need to clean the backyard up, fill in some trenches that Taylor has made trying to get the moles in the yard, and then spraying to kill grubs/bugs and weeds. Hopefully, that will make the moles leave the yard and go to the neighbor's yard. :D

218 miles for the month so far. I might be able to get to 250 miles total in by Tuesday, but we'll see. Either way, 218 miles is far better than 0 miles any day! :)

Feeling Better..

2012-01-22T19:08:00.004-05:00

Meh...I didn't ride at all last week. :(

1) I think I had the beginnings of an ingrown hair in my arm pit and I shaved and it became grossly infected. Talk about a huge bump and extremely painful! I NEVER want to have that happen again. It left me feeling a bit sick over the weekend of 1/14 & 1/15. So much so, that I really didn't feel like riding - I did pretty much nothing but sleep and lay around the house that weekend.

2) I moved my Dad back to Greenville, SC on Monday (1/16) and was down there until Wednesday of last week.

I didn't ride yesterday because it was rainy and I'm pretty much a fair-weather rider at this point. I hope to get back to the point in my cycling where I won't let a little bit of rain or wet roads or winds stop me from cycling. Maybe by the end of the year I will have reached that point. :)

But, I did put in my Tough Love Spinervals dvd before lunch today and managed to stick with it for an hour. I felt well enough that I probably could have gone on for at least another 30min or maybe an hour, but the damn saddle on the Fuji has the nose up too high and it was really becoming a pain. Eeked out 15mi in an hour.

I puttered around the house this afternoon - cleaning up the floors after the dogs, washed some clothes, watched a bit of the boob tube, fixed some supper and decided I would give the trainer another go-round. Put in the easy Aerobase Builder IV, but the damn saddle was just making it very uncomfortable, so I only rode for 30min - 8 miles.

I need to fix the saddle position tomorrow and maybe do the Aerobase dvd again tomorrow, but we'll see how I'm feeling....

23mi/1.5hr.

MTD: 175 miles.

Plan on taking the bike with me to work on Tuesday and riding during lunch, not sure about Thursday as right now it looks rainy. I'm going back to Greenville on Friday and I'm going to take the trainer and bike for riding on Saturday. The one thing I'm not going to do any more is skip my rides on the weekends when I go to Greenville....

Not this week

2012-01-14T20:33:00.001-05:00

I didn't make the 100mi for the week this week. :( A turn to cold weather and high winds caused me to wimp out. I should have gotten out though - I went visit my Dad around 1pm and didn't leave till around 3pm...I realized that I should have sucked it up and saw my Dad earlier, as it was decent that afternoon - would have been good riding.

Oh well....and next week is going to be hard too - I'm moving my Dad back to SC on Monday, so I won't get to ride again after tomorrow until next Thursday. Guess if I'm going to get 400 miles in January, I best get out tomorrow and put some miles in! :)

Otherwise, an uneventful day today...worked with Tucker and Tiger again and it is working little by little. Tonight, Taylor is sleeping under a blanket on her pillow by the couch, Tiger is on a blanket on the chair, and Tucker has finally settled in his crate. One day, maybe I'll be able to have all of them co-exist without having to crate anyone! :)

The Week's Almost Up & There Are Miles to Be Ridden...

2012-01-13T18:19:00.002-05:00

And, to top things off, it's cold and windy. I may have to suck it up and ride the trainer 2 times sometime tomorrow. Maybe once in the morning and then in the afternoon.

Thursday - I got out for an hour's worth of riding during my lunch - heading into the wind on the way out and getting a nice tailwind on the return trip. Just the way I like it! :) Rode from work out to Garner (Creech Road), took Old Garner to Jones Sausage/New Hope, then to Poole Road/back to work. 15 miles.

Today is a planned rest day.

So far this week, the miles are 21.5, 13, and 15 for 49.5 miles for the week. 50.5 miles left. Damn. That's going to be hard to get just riding on the trainer. Maybe I can get bundled up and get some outside, but probably not. I'd at least like to get close to 100mi this week...

More of the same...

2012-01-10T20:49:00.004-05:00

Yes, more of the same. Same damn wind. I do hope that 2012 won't be as windy as the last year, but it's not looking too good. Oh well, wind is good training. :)

Didn't feel really like getting out on Sunday, but I need the miles & time in the saddle, so off I went. Only 21.5 miles cause I really was feeling the effects of being sick for the last several days plus the miles (102 for the week). I think I went from 0 miles to 102 - probably should have eased into it a bit, but that's not how I usually roll. :)

Monday was definitely a needed rest day and I took full advantage of it. :)

Today, I took my bike with me to work so I could ride during lunch because it was going to be pretty nice. Didn't ride as far as I wanted (a co-worker went with me and I figured he needed to get on back), but it was better than 0 miles. 13 miles in 45 minutes. 34.5 miles for the week so far, 66 to go! :) I'll probably take the bike with me on Thursday and ride for at least an hour, maybe 1.5 and again on Friday before taking the car for an oil change that afternoon.

I also ran tonight...2.25 miles in 22 min. Tomorrow is yoga night. :)

Ride The Wind...How Appropriate.

2012-01-07T17:11:00.002-05:00

Yes, how appropriate the title of my blog is. I do believe all of 2011 for every ride I did, I faced the wind. Mainly headwinds. Seems like I can never catch a break and have more of a NNW instead of a SSW wind when riding from my house. Oh well, working hard in the wind just makes you stronger.

I had contemplated riding with my friend Dallas this morning, but when I woke up, the chest crud was back and I felt crappy. Also felt that I might should wait till later in the day when it was a bit warmer than 53F....later on it was 20F warmer. :)

Headed out from the house, headed towards the north (Poole Road area) and of course, I had a nice tailwind. At least for the first 15 miles. The other 16 miles was into that same wind. Struggled. Seemed like I had no energy at all...but, I am battling this chest/head cold, so I guess that could be expected.

It was a beautiful day out today - saw about 4-5 other cyclist out riding - making great use of the great weather!

31 miles/2:03hr.

January, week ending 1/7: 4 rides, 102 miles, 6:48 hours.

Another Day, Another Ride

2012-01-06T19:45:00.001-05:00

Finished up at work around 1:00p and headed home - not feeling great, I've picked up a bug this week and I've been fighting it, but I needed to get in a ride today. If I didn't, there's probably not much of a chance I would have been able to ride 55 miles on Saturday. I suppose I would have tried though....

Headed out at 1:30p and just did the regular loop from the house, out to Old Baucom, then back into/through town, Ranch Road & back. Lots of wind in my face, yet again, from the 10mi point near Old Baucom. The wind, plus not feeling well took it's toll on me, slowing me down considerably. Oh well, I'm not really concerned about the time, but more on how much time I get in the saddle and miles in the legs. The speed will come later....

Finished up with 25mi in a very slow 1:45hr. See? Told you the wind was tough. :)

Supposed to ride with Dallas (& probably some of the other guys) in the morning...not sure if I will be able to keep up with them, as they've been doing a bit of mountain bike riding and I'm slow right now. Guess I can always go out and try! :)

70/6000 miles
4:45hr/500hr (I think the hours will be whatever they will be based on the mileage - I'm more concerned with getting 6000 miles ridden this year than I am on ride time).

45/6000

2012-01-02T16:28:00.000-05:00

Wasn't feeling too great this morning, like I might be coming down with a cold; didn't feel much better after lunch either. But, I surely wasn't feeling bad enough not to get out for a short ride this afternoon. :)

The Fuji seemed to be having some shifting problems the last time I rode it on the trainer, so I talked with Dallas and we decided to bring it over around 2pm. While out at his place, I wavered on riding - the wind!! It was biting and I really didn't want another ride in the wind. But. I want to get the miles/time in this year and I'm not going to get that accomplished sitting on my ass inside. Sitting on my ass inside just makes my ass get bigger and I want it to get smaller. :D

So, I left Dallas' and headed on home to change into the warmer cycling clothing. Just a little short jaunt from the house, through downtown Clayton and out to Guy Road. Wind. Wind in my face pretty much all the way until I reached Guy Road. The last 7.5 miles wasn't too bad - a bit of cross/tail wind.

Finished up with 15mi/1hr of riding. Tomorrow is a run day and the next ride isn't supposed to be until Thursday. The run tomorrow will be pretty dang cold, as the temps are barely going to get above 38F and it's going to be pretty windy....

31/6000 miles today

2012-01-01T20:50:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's true. I got outside and rode my BMC for 31 miles today. The temps were actually pretty nice - mid 60's, but the wind!!! The wind was brutal, at least on the return leg of the ride. I had a nice tailwind for the first hour and managed to average 17.5mph. When I turned to head back towards home, though, I of course hit the headwind, all 17+ mph of it. The return leg was also mostly uphill, on average, so uphill and into a brutal headwind. :)

Finished up the ride with a 2mi bit of tailwind to the house. A bit tired this evening, but I really feel pretty good about starting 2012 with a ride. I'll ride again 2 or 3 days this week plus a long ride on Saturday (2.5-3hr). Yes, 2.5-3 hour rides are "long" rides for me at this time. I'd like to up to around 5-6hr for long rides by the end of the month so that I might be able to get my first century ridden by the end of the month. :)

That's all for tonight!

What to do?

2012-01-01T08:46:00.000-05:00

Do I sit here and write about how awful my year has been with regards to cycling or just in general? Do I write about all the troubles that have filled my life over the last 1.5yr, with regards to my Dad? Na, but maybe a Readers Digest version. :)

Decided to train for AoMM Feb 15, 2011, worked out the training plan, based on previous training schedule and was ready to tackle it head on. Feb 16, 2011, Dad fell and broke his hip. Surgery, rehab, moving him to Greenville, SC, give up on AoMM (as far as any actual training), decide to do AoMM 3 weeks prior. Completed 80mi of AoMM with a handful of rides in my legs.

Dad does well in Greenville. I hire a cycling coach to help me get to Blue Ridge Breakaway in August. Ride Roan Moan in July - have the worst cramps ever at the top of Carver's Gap. Finished 75mi of Blue Ridge Breakaway - skipping the last 27mi of riding on the BRP. I haven't ridden on the BRP or in the mountains since probably July 2009. I miss the friend and riding I used to do in the mtns.

I adopted another dog (Miniature Pinscher) who made my life hell for about 2.5 months. His name is Tucker and he's turning out to be a pretty good doggeh. :) Taylor (my first Miniature Pinscher) had knee surgery in September. She's all better now, thankfully. :) She & Tucker get along just fine.

Oh, and back in May, I adopted a cat. Crazy. Got the cat for my Dad, who couldn't take care of her, so I had to take her. She, also, has turned out to be a pretty good kitteh. But a mean girl at times...Siamese can be that way, though. Her name is Evie.

Dad moves back to Raleigh area in November, but is moving back to Greenville this month. It's just way too much for me to do and I have no one here to help me. I have help in Greenville from a very good friend, one that really likes/cares about Dad and Dad likes him. Hopefully, that will work out.

Not much cycling to mention - tried to do all that the coach gave me but when the days got shorter and rides needed to be on the trainer...I hate that thing, so I didn't and haven't done all I'm supposed to do. I guess this is where I write down what I want for next year, eh?

I have 5 rides I want to do this year: AoMM, Cherohala Challenge, Roan Moan, Blue Ridge Breakaway, Six Gap Century. All freaking mountain rides of 100+ miles. This means I must get my ass in gear, starting today and do the riding I'm supposed to do (and maybe a little more). I'm looking for 125+ miles a week to start with, working up to 150mi, then maybe 200 in the summer. Hopefully, I'll be ready for each of those rides with that kind of mileage. Hopefully, that kind of mileage and eating properly, will help me drop this weight I have regained.

I suppose that's about it...maybe go hiking over a long weekend with a good friend from Georgia, maybe try a few TTs at Charlotte, maybe have a love life that's local instead of 4hr away....

Can't say that I'll write here a lot, but maybe I will. Maybe I'll use this venue, once again, as a means to record my training for the various rides I want to do this year. Maybe it will help, who knows. :)

The Little Train That Could

2011-05-15T07:51:00.000-04:00

That is me.

I had to take care of some family things in Valdese yesterday and upon finishing, I drove on up to Marion. I had hoped to leave my car at the campground and to have Hank come get me and then I stay in Greenville overnight. That just didn't work out - I ended up staying in Marion.

While there for the evening and after a light dinner, I had wanted to ride my bike some, but the weather up on the mountains looked rainy and I really didn't want to get caught out in that. So, instead of riding, I drove. From Hwy70/80 all the way up to the BRP. As I drove, I tried to visualize myself actually riding, where I'd be on the bike as I went around the twisty/curvy last 3.5 miles of Hwy80. As I drove up 80, I felt confident because I have climbed that section at least 4 times, and I kept repeating out loud - "I CAN DO IT!".

I can do this. Yes, it's going to be a bitchin' hard day for me, especially since the forecast is now for rain, but somehow, someway, I have to dig down deep, keep the eye on the prize - The Patch. I want this thing very bad. I've told my Dad what I'm doing and I want to get this & show it to him. I want a picture of me crossing the finish line to give to him. I want it. And, I want it bad enough to endure 27 miles of rain soaked roads to get it. There. I said it. I want it bad enough that I'm willing to ride in the pouring rains to get it.

I'm not really sure what it is going to take to prevent me from giving it everything to get to the top. I just don't know. I do know that I have to stay focused and keep all the rain soaked negative mental thoughts out of my head. Must stay positive. Cause, once you check out of the ride mentally, it's really hard to keep going, even if you still have it physically.....

I can do this. I will give it all I have plus some to finish this ride. Pray to the cycling gods to keep my legs strong and cramp-free!!

It will be epic, one way or another.

2011-05-08T16:40:00.000-04:00

What the hell am I talking about, you ask? I'm talking about Assault on Mt Mitchell. I have decided, after all, to take on the challenge. The challenge of riding my bike 103 miles & over 11,000 feet of climbing. The worst climbing to come in the last 27mi or so. The worst climbing from Marion, up brutal Hwy 80 (the last 3 miles are the hardest) to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The brutal climb up Hwy 128 to the top of Mt Mitchell.

No one would save me from this - no one wanted to buy my ticket this year. I bought the full kit (bibs & jersey) and had already mapped out & started my training plan when I registered on 2/15. Ah...but Life. Life has it's way of changing your best laid plans. That's ok...I still have my Dad here, he's not pushing the daisies up.

So, since I couldn't get anyone to buy the ticket (and there are takers posting on Facebook who want a ticket) I just decided to go on and do the ride. I won't plan on breaking my time in 2009, I won't plan on a specific time to complete. All I wish to do IS complete the ride. I have a dozen or more rides under my belt since the middle of February, I'm riding well now (early/mid May) and I guess the one big thing I have going for me - I have done this ride before. I know what to expect. I might know what to expect, but it's sure as hell going to hurt worse than it did in 2009.

Epic. This is what it will be. And, make it to the top or not, I will know that I gave everything I had to do this ride with no training what-so-ever when I am done. I know, that if my Dad really truly understood what I was trying to do, he would be so very proud of me. And, he'd tell me what a crazy fool I was for attempting and/or doing such a ride!

Oh bugger....the forecast for Sunday & Monday (5/15-16) is calling for rain. 60% showers. Great. Do I let that get into my head and deter me? I can't. I have to have the proper clothing and perhaps embrace the showers. I guess it beats the hell out of 90+ temps and humidity. And, the forecast is 7 days out....it could change by then, but if not. So be it.

So, that's it. I'm going to see how far my legs can take me. Use anyone and everyone to get me to Marion without expending all of my energy. I need all the energy left to climb a Mountain. :)

Wish me luck and on Monday, May 16, send all the strong climbing vibes my way!!

It's Just Not Going to Happen

2011-04-11T09:39:00.000-04:00

AoMM, Caesars Head, Roan Moan, and if I can't start riding with regularity, The Blue Ridge Breakaway, aren't going to be ridden by me. A month ago, I was encouraged to go on and give AoMM a shot, but since that time, I've ridden all of once a week, on average. That kind of riding wont' get me to Marion, let alone up Mt Mitchell. Oh well...the mountain will be there tomorrow. Will I?

So, this year, just like last year, I'm going to be "Enjoy the Ride, Ride for the Enjoyment" until I gain some of my fitness back. It sucks. But, instead of letting it keep getting me down, I'm trying to stay positive and do what I can, when I can.....

No rides planned for now except The Blue Ridge Breakaway in August. I've started walking too and will continue to do that - need to build the legs up for hiking later on this month and next month. It's been almost a year since I went to South Mountains and hiked in 4 long, steep, hard miles to the campsite. I don't know if I'll go to South Mountains this time, but I'd like to go somewhere to get in a 4-6mi hike to campsite and then back out in the next day or so. I might look about taking the dog, but not sure on that one yet....

For now...that's all. :)

It's back ON

2011-03-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

Assault on Mt Mitchell. I've been encouraged to go on and do the ride, someone special in my life has confidence in me, it's paid for, and I DO want to do it. So, with only 2 very short months left, I'm going to ride as much as I can and get to the mtns about 4 times between now & May 7. Hopefully, having done the Marion part twice, I will be able to remember how to ride smart and get to Marion as quickly as possible with the least amount of work on my part. :)

My real ride won't start until mile 76. Then, it's 20+ miles to the top of Mt Mitchell. Oh boy. I can do it...Start Slow to Finish Fast. Control the desire to hammer with everyone else from Spartanburg to Marion. Find a good rider that can help me get to Bill's Hill (about 45mi) and I can get the other 35mi in without burning too many matches.

Oh....a side note - my Dad is doing better, he's been in rehab for 3 weeks (Wednesday) and has one more week to go. Hopefully, he will have progressed enough to be able to transfer to the assisted living facility and will continue to get stronger. The mental part won't really get any better, but hopefully, his health will not decline much. It was a scary week or so in the hospital with him and I'm very glad that he made it through all of that without too much set back.

Time has changed and there's more ride time in the evenings now - lots of fixed gear riding on the agenda during the week and longer 3-4 hour rides on Saturday/Sundays.

Later! :)

Bad Valentine's Week

2011-02-21T19:50:00.000-05:00

I managed to get all my training rides in for last week, except my tempo ride for Saturday. Reason? My Dad fell on Wednesday morning and broke his right hip. He had surgery that night to replace the ball. He's still in the hospital today due to acute confusion & hallucinations. Initially, he was going to be discharged this past weekend, but his blood platelets were low and they wanted to keep him to make sure they started to go back up. That got better, but there were still more problems.

His blood pressure was also high and not responding very well to the medication. That's not all. He ripped all his iv's out Friday night, he's not eating and at times, refusing to even drink. He's back on iv's for hydration and more medication for the high blood pressure. The acute confusion and hallucinations are, from what the doctor's tell me, the surgery in general, pain medications, unfamiliar location. He's just really in his own little world. But, fortunately, he does recognize me, can tell you his name & birthday.

I really just think, giving him a few more days in the hospital, to make sure he's starting to eat again and the confusion stuff goes away, he'll be fine later this week. At least I really hope so.

I didn't do too well on the rides after Wednesday - I had a recovery ride Thursday and VO2 max intervals for Friday. Those intervals didn't go well because I hadn't been eating very much and not getting enough rest. I had to stop doing those negative things over the weekend because I won't be any good to my Dad if I don't take care of me, nor will I be able to ride.

That's about all for last week. Zone 4 intervals this evening and all were pretty good.

#1: 188/185
#2: 188/188
#3: 188/185

Day 1, Week 1

2011-02-14T20:10:00.000-05:00

Day 1 in the books for my AoMM training. On the table this evening were 4x6min zone 4 intervals. I think I have learned how to do them without going out too hard at the beginning and then faltering at the end. Lots of wind this evening (head/crosswind) and for once, that wasn't all that bad, maybe helped somewhat. It was a bit hard to keep the average on the lower end of my zone, but I did manage to do that as well as increase them 10+/- watts each time.

I did get all of them done and I don't believe I could have done another one that would have been better than the last one. Great job! Rode back to the car, then picked Taylor up at doggy daycare and on home. I even got the after workout nutrition correct! 1 serving of Recoverite, then a shower, and lastly a 1c serving of pasta/sauce, 1 slice of spinach/feta pizza, and a Sweet Water 420 Extra Pale Ale. :)

My legs are definitely feeling the effects of this workout right now. I will be going to bed in about an hour or so too - Andy's old sayings & training are still remembered - "Rest, Recover, Get Stronger". Early to bed so that I can get up at 5:20am to take Taylor for a 20-30 min walk (with a few stints of running) before breakfast & going to work.

Tomorrow will be a nice 1 hour recovery ride. I'm so glad I have a schedule to follow! Structure & organization I do like!!!

Interval session (181-211w=zone 4):
#1 188/187/89 (normal power/avg power/rpm)
#2 191/191/93
#3 205/204/90
#4 218/217/88

Hmmmm...cadence needs to be 95+. I'll have to work on just spinning at 95+ tomorrow and the high cadence drills later this week should help get me back into more spinning. Better for the knees.

I have a Plan

2011-02-10T20:28:00.000-05:00

Yes, yes, I do. I have a plan for the remainder of this month and through the first full week of March. I really haven't had anything written down and I've just been doing zone 4 (threshold) rides every other day. Mainly on the trainer due to weather or not having time after work.

This evening, I was supposed to do another zone 4 interval set, but my mind just was not into it this evening. I even got dressed but just did not feel like doing them. Frustrated really. Frustrated because I honestly didn't really know what to do. I had no real plan. I thrive on structure, especially in cycling, and I NEEDED to know what I was going to be doing in preparation for AoMM. I have the makings of a plan for part of that.

Once I get to March, I will go back to my 2009 Google Calendar and do the workouts I posted for all of March & April. Hopefully, those along with a few mountain training rides, I will be ready come May 16, 2011.

I have a solid 3 weeks of intervals, a recovery week and I will do my FTP test on March 18. Will be interesting to see what I get during an actual test - see if I'm close to what I have been using. I hope so. Even if I come out and the test results are indicative of a lower FTP, I'm going to continue using what I have used for the 3 weeks on. I might even bump it up, if I can do those wattages....

Damn. I do feel better after spending the last hour or so figuring out the training plan. The next 3 days will be intervals, tempo, recovery and then it starts!!! Yay!! :)

Training Week

2011-02-09T19:18:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a week since I started my AoMM training. I have managed to get the interval & zone 3 rides done, but the recovery rides haven't been as easy to do. A zone 2 recovery ride for an hour on the trainer??? I just can't seem to do those. But, I will do my intervals on the trainer. Someone once told me - "Never skip your intervals" and I really have and will try to not skip them.

This past Sunday, I managed to get out for 2 hours and do a zone 3 tempo ride out in the county. It was a very nice day and I really enjoyed the ride. My only concern was that I may have under-estimated my power zones. I decided to use the zones calculated from December 2007, but after the tempo ride and the first interval session, I think I'm a tad low.

Thinking I was a tad low on the power zones, I upped them and did the zone 4 intervals at the new level. I think I'm close. I was expecting company yesterday evening and just did not have time to get all 6 intervals done before 7pm (expected arrival). I did squeek out 5x3min zone 4 intervals and the last one was really becoming hard (202w avg). Therefore, since the 5th one was becoming a bit difficult towards the end and thinking that had I been able to do a 6th one, it would have really been more difficult. Just the way they're supposed to be. :)

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 10, I have a zone 3 tempo ride scheduled. The weather probably isn't going to be conducive to outdoor riding plus, I won't have enough daylight, so it looks like it's another trainer ride. Oh Yay.

Half day Friday - I may do another zone 4 interval session and the weekend looks fabulous, so I'll definitely be riding outside over the weekend. Very much looking forward to the outside rides!!! Next week looks very promising too! :)

Guess that's all for now....

First "real" training session

2011-02-02T22:04:00.000-05:00

I want to do AoMM, as I stated in the previous post. 15 weeks....I know if I don't get my ass in gear and start doing SOMETHING, I won't make it past Marion. So, I went back and looked over my training rides from 2008 & 2009 and have sorta figured out what I need to do. I hope.

Tonight, despite the unanswered calls from my Dad, a dog that needed some Mommy time, and a cat that was pestering me, I managed to do my first interval session. It was a very good one...I have learned from years past. I did 6x3min zone 4 (powertap) intervals this evening. I did them correctly too. :) I worked from the low end of zone 4 up to the high end for the last two intervals. Damn!!! I love intervals!!!

I can't download my data, as I have a new computer (Macbook Pro) and do not have the thing configured to run any of my Windows programs. Will take it tomorrow and see if I can get that fixed. I will also have to do a good recovery ride on the trainer tomorrow.

I'm excited!!! I just need to keep it up and not let the family/life issues derail me. I know I can do AoMM, I know how to do the ride, from Spartanburg to Marion, and from Marion to Mitchell. I know. And, I know I can do it.

Now, it's time for bed. Rest, Recover, Get Stronger.

Thinking & Pondering

2011-01-24T19:38:00.001-05:00

That is what I am doing this evening. Anyone reading this knows I pretty much took last year off from any kind of serious riding. 2.5yrs of some (for me) serious training and no fun-ride riding just left me feeling burnt out and not enjoying cycling anymore. I did one organized ride last year, thought about doing a few others, but never did.

I made a post on my Facebook page - wondering whether 3.5 (actually 15 weeks) months would be enough time to prepare for Assault on Mt Mitchell?? I sorta felt like it wasn't, so I also posted this and that I would do Caesars Head Challenge in June. Sorta gave up on the idea until an acquaintance from work posted and told me, basically, "so what if you only have 3.5 months? Train & prepare for it. You could do the ride and have a PR, but will never know if you don't do the ride. Some days you are the Hammer. And some days the Nail".

Well, I know how to train for the ride. I know the ride. I can do this. I can sit down and make out my training plan, stick to it and maybe have a PR. Maybe I won't PR, but it's a dang fun ride and I will enjoy it. Do I have to have rides upon rides in the mountains to be able to do this ride? No. I have friends from here in flatland that did the ride (pretty dang strong riders) with only training in flatland. They may have occasionally done day trips or such for climbing rides, but it can be done without.

Just because I haven't been climbing in over a year, does not mean I have forgotten how to climb. I can take a day trip to Marion and do the last 27 miles. I can head out to the Hanging Rock/Pilot Mtn area for some training. It can be done.

Damn. Do I really have a goal now? Yes. Something to work towards - something to motivate me to ride and get back in the shape I was in 2009. I'm actually excited about this!! I remember doing a post last year - talking about how I had signed up for AoMM and then bailing on it later on. My mind, and more importantly, my heart wasn't in it last year. I believe both are in it this year. :)

I guess I can use the next few weeks of lunchtime riding, to start building the endurance up, stop being a wussy with the weather & ride more on the weekends, and finally - when DST rolls around be ready to start my favorite part of training - intervals.

I can do it!

Good Grief - It has been a long time!

2011-01-15T18:42:00.002-05:00

Wow. Here it is, a new year, January 15, 2011, and this is my first post since August 27, 2010. But, I have a somewhat legitimate excuse....family issues.

Damn. I read my last entry - I was riding so well with the guys, riding really strong, looking forward to an exciting cyclocross season, working with Taylor on training, and BAM!! It all came to a damn standstill Labor Day weekend.

Long story - short. My Dad has dementia/Alzheimers, his wife (my step-mom) couldn't deal with him anymore and she laid it all on me that weekend. "Come get him. Do something with him. I don't want to live with him anymore." And, so it began.

I managed to ride 10-12 times in September, but that was it, pretty much for the remainder of the year. My Dad was doing all kinds of crazy things and I was being pulled in every which direction trying to make the right decisions concerning him & his well being (he's now in an assisted living facility here in Raleigh. Things aren't great - he wants to move to Greenville, SC and I'm not letting him. Otherwise doing well). October came & went with me doing 2 rides. November came & went with one ride under my belt. December came & went with one ride. So discouraged and depressed about cycling at that time - here I had 7 bikes in my house, I was a really strong rider and now, I'm not getting to ride any, I've been off the bike for 3 months - felt like giving up.

7 bikes? Yep. I bought a 2008 Specialized Era FSR the first of September and then a Quintana Roo Tequilio TT bike mid September. Have yet had the pleasure of riding the mtb, but got to ride the TT bike quite a bit in September. Looking forward to doing some TT's this spring/summer.

As for being off the bike for 3 months and feeling bad...I'm not a quitter. Kept in touch with Dallas through all the Dad issues and I had decided, come January 1, 2011, I was going to get my ass in gear and do something. Ride the trainer for at least 30-45min on Tuesday & Thursday and try to get out for an hour or so each day on the weekends. I've not been exactly successful, but I'm definitely doing a lot better.

Dallas contacted me 12/31 and wanted to know if I wanted to get out for a New Year's Day ride?? Hell Yes. :) There were 6 of us total riding - Dallas, Randall, Grady, Ricky, Philip & myself. OMG. I knew I was in for a serious hurting cause these guys have been able to continue riding, hitting Umstead on the weekends or the mtb trails. But, I was determined to do the best I could and despite only riding 3 times in the last 3 months - I did damn good. :)

33 miles in 1:50+ hr, a 17.5 avg. The pace was a bit hot for the first 18mi - I didn't think I'd make it back if it continued that way and told Dallas. Grady, Randall, & Philip went on ahead and finished up the ride with a 19+ avg. 19+ in the dead of winter. Dallas & Ricky got me back at a decent pace. Anyways...since then, I've tried to ride the trainer 2x/week and start a run/walk program.

Run/walk?? Yep. I have decided to try a duathlon! The first one is 3/5 down in Waxhaw, NC and it's 2mi/19mi/2mi. I'm on week 3 of the program and should be able to do the 2mi by then. The ride part should be fairly easy for me, at least I hope so!

What else? That's pretty much it, in a nutshell. Keep getting some cycle time in my butt & legs via trainer & road and I'm going to be strong again! Haven't really planned any rides like I had in the past years - I might do 1 or 2 organized rides, but not sure.

Hope everyone that reads this is doing well and having a great start to the New Year!!

Has It Been That Long?? Really??

2010-08-27T19:49:00.000-04:00

Since I last posted? Wow. Not a lot different here, but I am getting some good miles in on the bike each week - anywhere from 150-200+ miles per week. I've kept pretty busy just doing stuff around the house (stupid outside housework!), puppy training classes, & riding.

Taylor finished up puppy class 2 weeks ago - she did pretty well, but I still have a bit of work to do on the Leave It and Come When Called commands. The next class starts in about 2-2.5 weeks and I'm not sure we'll have those commands down by then. I may wait until the October class because I really want her to have the others down well before we start another class. She has been a PITA and a true joy, all at the same time. :) There are times, where I wonder what ever came over me, to get a baby at this time, but I suppose in the long run, she will well be worth the effort.

She turned 5 months old last week and today she went in for spay surgery. I really hate that she is or could be in pain from this, but hopefully, it won't be for too long. She had 2 teeth pulled while there (the baby fangs) because the adult teeth were almost completely in, micro-chipped, and nails trimmed. She also got a long acting (till tomorrow probably) pain medication injection and an antibiotic injection for some sort of skin rash (a few bald-ish spots on her from scratching) that is good for 2 weeks. I opted for the laser surgery - supposedly it is better for them - no sutures to take out and less blood loss. She's been sleeping pretty much the whole time since I got her home at 2pm. Hopefully, she'll be back to almost normal by next week....

Riding.....Tuesday/Thursday Hammer rides. I thought, at one point this year, I said I wasn't doing those kind of rides this year. What happened? I got sucked in, I got better, I got faster, I became able to hang on with this group of guys, so I ride hard & fast on Tuesdays & Thursdays for 35 miles at an 18-20 mph pace! Saturday rides have been with the guys, but we usually go to the Grocery Bag and ride with the Cyclepaths. Those rides range anywhere from 40-60 miles and they, too, are hard & fast. I try to hang on with the fast boys and usually do unless it's extremely fast (faster than 20).

Sundays have become "Metric Sundays". We do a nice route from Dallas's house down to Brogden, Pinelevel, Micro, and back to his house. It's a really flat route, 65 miles and supposed to be a "recovery" ride from the hard Saturday ride. For the most part, it is a recovery ride. Pace has been averaging 18-19.5mph! Yea baby!! That's a recovery ride!

That's about it, I guess. I'd like to get back out for a 2-3 day backpacking trip, but probably won't do that till later this year. Company coming up next week for a 2 day visit. Can't wait!! :) <3 September 18/19 to Greenville, SC for the USA Pro Cycling races. Paris Mountain!!

Later!!

Taylor:

Coosa Backcountry Trail - Vogel State Park, Georgia

2010-07-26T09:20:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, I had a trip planned with one of my friends from the Atlanta area. He wanted to hike the Coosa Backcountry Trail in Vogel State Park, Georgia. I mentioned that I would like to do something like that and he asked if I was interested in joining him. Sure, if you are sure you don't mind the company. He didn't, so we made the plans....

Below is a quote from him about the trip (he's not the long-winded writer I seem to be at times).

Quote:

Originally Posted by ModoVincere

Well, the trail proved to be tough. We hiked to the halfway mark and decided to cut it short. Came down a forest road and managed to get caught in a total gully washer...omg, the rain was coming down! So the map got soaked and basically was useless.....we soldiered on. Took a wrong turn and just kept going. I think we hiked pretty close to 15 miles total. Found someone to give us a ride in the back of their truck. Was very glad to get back to the park.....now I'm resting and nursing the blister on my right foot.
WP is quite the hiker....not that I'm anything impressive, but 15 miles in one day is a long assed hike!

I'll add a bit more detail to MV's ripped post...

Hmmm, I didn't think the trail was too terribly tough, but tough none-the-less. I think our biggest problem was not having a good topo map and/or corresponding profile map. We thought we were further along based on the profile map, but while stopped at lunch (after 3hr of hiking), we looked the topo map over and realized that we were NOT where we thought. Not quite to the half-way point.

So, realizing that we had quite a ways to go, it was a bit depressing....it seemed like the next climb after lunch was harder - maybe it was, maybe we're just out of hiking shape, but we became a bit discouraged and thought that we'd just cut the hike short by taking the forest road. Maybe about 9-10mi total hiking (had we taken the correct direction at the intersection of the 2 forest roads).

So, we get to the intersection of the 2 forest roads. Due to the inability to read the topo map after it got all wet - we chose to head to the left. Should've gone right. We walked and walked and walked. At one point, after stopping at a campsite to rest, MV said he was about ready to just pull the compass out and head cross country. He knew in what direction the park (main part) was, so we "could" do that. But, we didn't. Soldiering on...

OMG....'twas a gully washer about 30min into our short cut!! Stopped to put our rain covers on the packs and soldiered on. My camera was in a shorts pocket and got wet (even though it was in an unzipped Ziplock ). I think MV's phone got messed up too. I had water sloshing around in my boots, we were totally soaked. I just wanted to finish....miserable with water sloshing in my boots. I'm glad I had sock liners (Wigwam Gobi) on, otherwise, I think I would be nursing a blister or two also...

After about 2hr from the diversion to the forest roads and going mostly downhill (and thinking we'd just die if we had to turn around and hike back UP the way we'd came), we came upon a campsite with some guy camping. We had decided that we had had enough, especially getting caught out in the gully washer, that we would try to hitch a ride back to the park. 1st guy turned us down cause he'd been drinking. Told us where to find the trail....duh. We know where that is and it's at least another 4mi hike on the trail plus what we had left to get to it. Fortunately for us, a big redneck Dodge truck came along and they gave us a ride back to the park.

I was so glad to get back to the park and get out of those damn wet socks & boots. My feet were like prunes - all wrinkled.

I did have a great time and don't let MV fool ya...he's quite the hiker too! I would really like to go back and complete this trail. Yea, it's quite a drive, but I want to finish it. Not sure I can do it in a couple weeks, but the fall would be a really good time - maybe less leaves and more views from the ridge tops. Dang!! I had a great time!! Already thinking about when/where I can go around here or towards the western part of the state.

Gotta get my butt into hiking shape (as does the bf) so we can do the Foothills Trail this year or next together.

I unpacked everything from my pack this morning (Monday, July 26) and weighed it as it came out. Pack weight empty=5.6 pounds. Gear into pack=11.3 pounds. Water carried=6.5 pounds. Total pack weight=23.4 pounds. It would have been lighter had I not carried the water, but being unsure of water sources, I felt it best to carry the water. The load did get lighter as the day went on.

Sonny and I at the start of the hike....

OK....that's enough picture posting for one morning...Here's a linky to the photobucket site.....

I do wish that I had been able to get some pictures while it was pouring down rain....it was a true gully washer! The water flowing down the forest road was, at times, deeper than my boots. I think the majority of the water sloshing in my boots was from runoff from my legs...

New Addition To The Household...

2010-07-19T22:06:00.001-04:00

First of all......NO! It's not what you think!! :) Yes, I got rid of the teenagers, but........I added a baby! A Miniture Pinscher!

She is a Chocolate Min Pin and I picked her up on 5/28 - her name is Taylor (Taylor Cheese). The bf had rescued a Min Pin (or so we thought - after seeing him recently, I think he's part Min Pin and Dachshund). When I picked her up, she was 10 weeks old. It's now July 20 (almost) and she is 4.5 months old.

Wow. A lot of the time, I think - "what in the hell was I thinking?????" My life is so changed with having her - from initially getting up a couple times per night, to taking her outside a lot, to house training, to teaching her commands....It is JUST LIKE having a baby in the house! OMG. :) But, as much trouble as it seems at times, I wouldn't change anything. :)

I can't express how great it is to come home from work or from out cycling and have someone be excited to see me. Tiger? Well, yea, I guess she's happy to see me, but is more like - Feed Me!! Taylor is SO happy to see me after work. I am getting my backyard fenced in this week too. It will make it much easier (or so I think) to get outside with her and play and work on some commands.

Ummm, what else? She's been to doggie daycare 3 times since last week. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that I will continue taking her. She is doing very well on house training - when I don't get to her in time, she will use the "puppy pads" and when I do get to her, we go outside to 2 specific areas. But, I noticed, this past Fri-Sun, that she was peeing anywhere in the kitchen that she wanted to. Not acceptable. It comes from the daycare because she has free run over an area inside and outside and just pees/poops where ever she wants to.....this is brought home. So, I'm not sure whether to continue taking her and just being more diligent with her at home or what.....

That's all.....here are a few pictures (the first few are from 5/28 and a little blurry cuz she is all energy!) from when I brought her home (weighed in at 4 pounds 2 weeks afterwards at the vet)

This last photo is after one day at doggie daycare - she is whupped! :)

Oh, and at her last vet visit on 7/9, she weighed in at a whopping 7 pounds!!! She gained 3 pounds in a month. :)

First Century Of The Year

2010-07-18T08:05:00.000-04:00

My riding buddy Dallas wanted to ride the century route that we had done 2x last year, Saturday a week ago. I was in, as were 6 other guys. So, we had myself, Dallas, Cliff, Randall, Brian, Grady, Russell, Philip in for the ride.

Left at 7am and we ran a nice easy double paceline for the first 25mi. Stopped at a store that Dallas had stopped at yesterday while driving the route and the operators had locked the bathroom and would not let us use it. Not bad for the guys, but I wore bib shorts and needed to take the jersey off in order to get the bibs off. I was sorta pissed cause I NEVER have to pee on a ride, but I did this time and the assholes wouldn't let us. The guys went behind the store....I had to ride over to the tobacco curing barns and take care of business.

But, while waiting for the "person" to come out of the bathroom, Russell said he didn't think we should be stopping every 25mi and he was going to pick the pace up. DH. I could tell that the pace was faster when we started. He doesn't know how to ride in a group. Surging & slowing. Slowing on the declines and surging on the up slopes. Just take it easy up the climbs and the group won't fracture.

I bitched and whined to Dallas and he went and told Russell to ease the pace up and to take the climbs easier. That worked for a little while. Another thing - he can't hold a line worth a shit and no one likes riding behind him. Oh well, enough about him for the moment.

We did pretty well for the next 30mi, reaching another rest stop by 10am (55mi). I was starved by then, as was Randall (and he had already eaten 2 PBJ's). I had up to that point, 2 gels and 1.5 bottles of Perpetuem and 1.5 of water. Randall and I had a cheeseburger, coke & split some Ruffles Cheddar chips. Everyone told us it was a bad idea, but we knew better.

From this point on, we had a headwind and whenever Russell was on the front, my legs were really screaming. I couldn't have cared less about the pace for the ride - I just wanted to finish without hitting the wall at 90mi or cramping. We ended up breaking up into 2 groups - the Russell group and the Dallas (sensible pace) group. Philip started to cramp because he wasn't drinking enough and when he came off the front, we told him to just sit in the draft and rest. He did up until the next rest stop and then got himself into the Russell group....bad idea.

Made it to the next rest stop at 73mi with an 18.7avg. At this point, I was filling my bottles with luke warm water from an outside spigot and then dousing my head & back. The others followed suit. Russell was hell bent on getting started again and said for us to hurry up. Go The F On then. Since Philip had cramped, he should've stayed with the Dallas group, but he didn't.

Dallas pulled for the most part in our group and when he went off, I followed because I was directly behind him. Randall pulled, then off. Then Russell. Then the group split into 5 & 3, as I just could not keep his pace - it was myself, Dallas, & Randall. They left us in the dust on the way to Kenly. When we got to Kenly, Brian had waited on us and the other 4 had gone on. It was good that he did, as he helped Dallas pull.

We have no idea the route the others took, but learned, upon arriving home, that Russell & Cliff dropped Grady & Philip. Grady had dropped Philip. The 4 of us made one more stop for water & Nutter Butters (for me & Randall - we were hungry again!).

So, we finally arrive back to Dallas's house around 2pm (I think) to find just Russell & Cliff. We asked where Grady & Philip were? They shrugged shoulders and said they didn't know. Probably 5-10min later Grady showed up. He was in bad shape.....couldn't really talk and was covered in goosebumps. He was finally able to tell us that Philip was a ways off and cramping up. He finished with 113 miles.

Dallas went off to see if he could find Philip. The rest of us sat around on the carport talking and when Russell left, we talked about him. I told Randall I was not going to ride any long rides if Dallas invited him again. He said Dallas wouldn't be inviting him again and I think this is so.

After all of that ^ I felt pretty dang good. Could of had more food to eat, but I think I did good by starting to hydrate Wednesday and eating well last night. I'm really proud of myself for completing this ride. I've only been really riding for the last month and have done nothing more than 47mi in that time.

I stopped off at Lowes and picked up some french onion dip, Lays Wavy Chips, Jalapeno Doritos & Fresca. I ate some of that while I tried to figure out what I would have for supper and get a shower/cleaned up.......

That's all.

Going Solo - South Mountains State Park.

2010-05-01T21:43:00.000-04:00

Well, I have decided that since I'm not "into" cycling nearly as much as I was this time last year, I would, maybe pick up another hobby. I used to go hiking/backpacking to the Uwharrie's quite a bit in the late 90's/early 00's and I really enjoyed it.

So, I decided that would be my next hobby because I liked it and I already had some gear. Boy, was I in for a surprise....I knew I wanted to get a new backpack - what I used to use was the old external frame pack - I wanted a new & improved internal frame pack. Picked up an Osprey Ariel a couple of weeks ago and a few other items. I "thought" I could just use most of the stuff I already had....

So, earlier this week, I decided to just go ahead and try this out...Picked out South Mtns because it's close to my Dad's house and I planned on visiting him this weekend (his birthday is tomorrow). Packed up the gear I had along with the rented sleeping bag from REI and put the pack on. OMFG. Heavy. I decided to stop at REI in Durham on the way and see about a few "lighter" items. Replaced the heavy (1.5#) pots with a 10.7oz set, replaced the 2 # Thermarest with a 16oz one, ditched all the clothing except a shirt & clean undies, ditched all the food except a meal for supper & breakfast. Put the pack on after doing this. Wow, that's much better! :)

Then I put the REI Half Dome tent inside.........holy cow! Now the pack is heavy again! Oh well, not much I can do about that now because the tent I wanted is on backorder. So, I go with what I have. BTW, the tent weighs in at SIX POUNDS!!

I arrived at South Mtns later than I planned (a couple things to take care of for my son caused delays), but thought I could get to camp in 1.5hr. I didn't plan on the whole 4 miles being pretty much UPHILL. Followed the creek for a while, then crossed it at the lower waterfalls. Then the trail went UP. OMG. This was strenuous for a first time out hiking in ages. But, I motored on. Finally, I reached the top of a really long climb (shadow picture) then headed down, thinking it's not much further.

Wrong. More uphills, a few flats, but the majority was uphill. I was seriously wondering what the hell I got myself into....I finally reach the trail to the Jacobs Branch campsites after2hr. I set the tent up, go down this really steep trail to the water source, climb back up...Boiled the water for my meal - at this time, I'm lightheaded from not eating since 11:30am - and it seems like it takes forever. Finally, get the meal ready and while waiting on this to "cook", I start my campfire. I'm actually doing pretty well with this solo thing.

Eat my supper, let the boiled water cool off and add that to my water bottle. Another couple arrive around 8pm and set up across the field. I'm pooped, so I went on to bed around 9pm. It was windy the whole night, got just a tad chilly. I know one thing - I do not like these mummy style sleeping bags. I don't like my feet so close together - I like to spread out. I'll have to find something with a larger toe box...

Up around 7am, eat breakfast and begin packing up around 8am. It starts to sprinkle, so I hurry up & get things packed up. My hips and right knee are hurting before I head out and only get worse as I head back. I thought the downhills would be easier, but they weren't. Actually made my hips and knee hurt more. By the time I reached the waterfalls and traversed down the steep stairs, my legs were shaking. I didn't think I'd ever get back to the car, but I did.

I'm going to replace the heavy Whisperlite stove with a Snow Peak GigaPower stove and that heavy assed tent is being replaced with a Big Agnes FlyCreek UL2. Also, I need to pick up a pair of trekking poles - I think those will help too.

That's about it. I'm thinking of going to Eno or someother park either next week or the week after.....

It was great fun! I sorta wish I had someone to go with me - might be a little more fun, but overall, I did have a great time. :)

Linky for pictures until I can add them here, once I get home tomorrow....

Ft Benning, Family Day on 4/14

2010-04-25T20:49:00.001-04:00

I finally got around/time to try and get a bit of write-up done on Family Day/Graduation (sorry for the delay).

The time finally arrived...10 long weeks since I had seen Kyle, minimal contact - a few letters, a few calls and an occasional text message between us. I was SO eager to get to Columbus, GA last week to finally get to see what the Army had done to him, to hug him and tell him how much I loved him and how VERY Proud I was of him!

Wednesday, April 14 was designated as Family Day. This day started out at the barracks where Kyle lived while at Sand Hill (Ft Benning). OMG. This was absolutely awesome to see the Company come marching out from the bay singing "Drill Sargent, why don't you leave me alone? Why don't you let me go home?" Not sure if I can embed the video, if not I'll do a youtube linky for it.

So, the Company came out and I looked and looked at all the young, bald-headed men in 3rd Platoon. Where in the world was my son?? I could not find him for the life of me, amongst all the baldness & some wearing the BCGs. Finally. Finally, either I or his step-mom found him. I did not recognize him because he had his BCGs on! Captain Oliver talked about several things, then told the families the significance of the Berets, what each color stood for. When he talked of the black berets, the Soldiers bent over, pulled the berets out of their back (tucked into the belt) and put them on. They all stood back up at the same time. OMG. It was so awesome to see those young men in the black berets. What love and pride I felt for Kyle!

Also during the Family Day proceedings, there were certain young Soldiers recognized for their achievements during BCT and 5 Soldiers took the Oath of Citizenship. Isn't that awesome?? These young men becoming citizens of the US, going through all they did through basic. It's just great!

After all of that, Captain Oliver released the Soldiers to their families until 2030 that evening. I could not get off the bleachers fast enough to find Kyle! I did manage to not cry when hugging him, but lemme tell ya, I almost did. It was so good to see him! Everyone gave him hugs, we took more pictures, then he went up to his area to get everything that he needed, leaving just what he needed for the next days Graduation. We got everything except the large duffle bag into my car. He had a lot of stuff.

In several of Kyle's letters, he told me where he wanted to go eat, the stuff that he really missed. Our first stop for lunch was Red Lobster. Kyle ordered a spinach/crab dip for an appetizer, salad, and main meal was lobster tail, crab legs, shrimp, baked potato. When the salads came to the table, everyone began eating and I looked over at Kyle (sitting beside him) and he was shoveling the salad in pretty dang fast! I told him he could slow down, that he had more than 7 minutes to eat. LOL. The rest of the food came out and he did manage to eat that a little slower.

After Red Lobster, it was over to the ice cream shop, similar to Cold Stone here in the Raleigh area. He had some big ole cup of white chocolate ice cream with Reese's Pieces. The rest of the family had ice cream too, but I was too full to have any. After the ice cream, we headed to the mall to look around. Everywhere we went, there were strangers coming up to Kyle, thanking him for serving, shaking his hand, wishing him luck. It was very moving to see this happen. So, it's around 5pm by now and Kyle is ready to eat again. The rest of us are still so full, but it's about Kyle that day, so we ask, where do you want to go? Outback was the answer.

After supper, it was back to Sand Hill for Kyle and hotels for the rest of us. The next day was the big day! New post for Graduation so that this one isn't extremely long....it's already long now as it is and pictures have to be added. :)

This is C Company, 3rd Platoon. Kyle is 3rd row, 4th from the front.

The soldiers who became citizens of the US on 4/14.

Kyle and I.

It-was-fun-just-tooling/putzing-around....

2010-03-25T09:43:00.001-04:00

Well, this post will be a bit of explaining about my upcoming year and about the last couple of rides I've done......

Many who read this blog know that I was injured back in December and that injury took me out of cycling till January 20th or so. I had planned on starting back to riding, training for Mitchell and doing a couple of organized rides prior to AoMM for training rides. But, even the best laid plans can fail for one reason or another. My plans fell through when the weather turned cold & nasty the last week of January and didn't let up till sometime this month.

During this time (January, February & part of March), I tried to get on the trainer to ride, but I hate that thing and just ignored it. I felt discouraged, disappointed, and depressed about cycling. I even had thoughts of selling every single bike I own and quitting cycling. But, I knew deep down, that I would regret those sales so, I held on to the bikes. I hated the fact that I had lost all of my cycling fitness, knowing how strong I was prior to Nov/Dec 2009, and that it was going to be a long hard road to get back to my fitness level of June 2009.

That road is a discouraging road. You go out to ride, thinking you can ride 50-60 miles and ride as hard/fast as you could 6 months ago. Wrong. I figured that out quickly when I went to G'ville, SC to "try" and do a 40-60 mile ride the first weekend of March. I even had these grandour thoughts that I could still climb. I set out to climb up/down/up/down Paris Mtn and then ride elsewhere to get in that mileage. Uh huh. I made it to the 0.75mi point on Paris Mtn, where the road takes a left and goes UP. I couldn't do it. Not at 3-4 mph. I turned tail and ended up riding around Paris Mtn area for 2 hours. A hilly 2 hour ride for my first ride in 2 months. I had a pathetic 25 miles. Yes, that's 25 miles in 2 hours. You can figure out the pace. :(

So discouraged after that - I didn't ride again until March 15 (I think) and I did a quick 16 miles or so after work one day. I rode again that week on Sunday, March 21 for 2hr. I did manage to do a little further distance, 30 miles. But, my butt hurt like the dickens! And, I had to fight the wind. Anyhow...My last 2 rides have been of the "It-was-just-tooling/putzing-around" variety. 23 miles last Thursday, the Sunday ride, and a 15mi ride with my buddy Dallas (who hasn't ridden in 2+ months either). And, you guys know what?? I actually enjoyed those last 2 rides. You should have heard Dallas moaning & whining about the pace at times, but I had to remind him to forget about it right now. Time in the saddle is what counts for both of us now.

What's my point to all the above? I'm taking the season off. I'm not going to do Assault on Mt Mitchell (sold the pass) nor will I be doing any organized training rides prior to that ride. I'm going to ride, try to get back on a Tu/Thur schedule with Dallas and some of the other guys, but I'm not going to be concerned with how fast we go (like I was last year) or I'll try not to. :) I want to finally enjoy cycling after 2.5 hard years of cycling without "seeing the roses or even smelling them". I'm sure Dallas and I will get back to form and be able go knock out 60mi rides in 3-3.5 hours, but it's not all about that this year. I think being burnt out and having close to 3000 miles by the end of May the last 2 yrs has taken it's toll on me. I'm ready for something different with cycling. :)

That's about it. I do want to do other activities this year, things that I used to enjoy but lost due to cycling every bit of spare time I had. I'm going to work on getting fit enough to hike the Foothills Trail in SC/NC sometime this summer. I'd like to take a week off from work and hike the whole thing (77mi). I think it will be some awesome fun! Who knows what else I might try....maybe a BRP tour? We'll see....

Right now, I do feel much better, knowing I'm not doing any rides up to AoMM nor AoMM. It's like the monkey is off my back now. :)

Phone Calls!

2010-03-14T10:41:00.000-04:00

w00t!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to talk to Kyle this morning for almost 45 minutes! :) He had tried calling last night, but he had to let some others use his phone and it was going dead. He said that if one person in the platoon didn't have a phone or was unable to use a phone, the whole platoon lost that privilege, so he let his Battle Buddy (Rivera) and a few others use it.

OK...things are going pretty good for him, now that he's not a squad leader. Still, he said he only has about an hour in the evenings to write & get prepared for the next day, so it's still hard to write to everyone. I guess Sundays are the better days for writing since they don't have to do much. They will get in trouble right now if they are caught writing after 9pm, so he doesn't want to do that.

His platoon (3) won the Basic Rifle Marksmanship and the whole company was awarded with a milkshake & pizza party (I think the whole Co because he said even though they won, they were last platoon to get pizza) and he ate 2 WHOLE pizzas! He didn't quite make it to the Expert for marksmanship, he's a Sharpshooter and can re-qualify after 6mo.

He had 2hr to use the phone this morning and next weekend, he thinks they will have the phone from Fri-Sun!!! I hope everyone there does everything they are supposed to do so they all get to use the phones! They are getting more privileges as they move through Basic. They now can go to the PX without the whole platoon going with them - just themselves and their Battle Buddy.

Oh yea...his Grandma sent him a box. A box with note pads, pens, envelopes, stamps. But........................underneath all of that was 8 Reese's, 6 Almond Joys, 12 Butterfingers and something else!!! LOL - he said that he opened it and was about to freak out! Fortunately for him, he had opened it not under the DS supervision (he had to tape it all back up and then open again and pretend to be surprised!) so when he finally opened it, he had to take it all to the DS, who said he couldn't have it. He really wanted to have some, but didn't cause he knew he and the rest of the plt would get into trouble. LOL at his Grandma :)

He has been getting lots of mail from family & friends....20 push ups for each pc and 5 extra for each sticker. I think that one letter I sent him had about 10 stickers on it!! He said he had to do around a 100 that day at mail call!! For his birthday (yesterday) all he had to do was 19 push ups. He was lucky too...usually what happens on your birthday is once you do your pu, the DS steps away and says "have at it" or something like that - the platoon then just attacks you and gets to give you a birthday "beating" /eek/ !!! Fortunately for Kyle, the DS needed someone to help him get the cell phones and chose Kyle! :)

That's about all he said or all I can remember right now. :) If I remember more in a little while, I'll post it up.

I guess I can go for a ride this afternoon since he's already called me today. :)

Adopt a Soldier

2010-03-11T14:17:00.001-05:00

Since Kyle is now a Soldier in the Army and I've found that I really enjoy writing to him, I thought that there are probably other Soldiers who are deployed overseas or elsewhere who would also enjoy getting mail and care packages. I'm sure getting mail & packages during the week can make their lives a little happier. So, I signed up at the site listed below and should find out information about my Adopted Soldier by the weekend. I'm really looking forward to this...

This is from one of the discussions on Facebook at the Ft Benning page - a post from another Mom/wife/gf:

I took this from the http://www.adoptaussoldier.org/ website ... I thought a mother could really appreciate this and maybe all of us (myself included) feeling left out and forgotten because of letters going elsewhere and ours not getting answered as much as we want them to be might get a bit out of this perspective:

Those of you that share this soldier with me have seen this...It is the most amazing letter that will hopefully put into perspective what our troops go through day in and out and how thankful they are even if you do NOT hear from them!!

I am a soldier deployed to central Afghanistan and I wanted to tell you how very much your support means to all of us fighting over here. I know that you write out of the goodness of your heart, many of you writing countless letters, which often go unanswered. You write and mail packages and pray for these fine young soldiers, the best our country has to offer, often in harm's way each and every day. I know that it might get a bit discouraging sometimes, sending letters and emails and packages into the "big black hole of Afghanistan and Iraq" and you must wonder sometimes if you are making a difference. Well that is why I am writing this...to tell you that you are!

Our soldiers...most importantly, YOUR soldiers, are doing unbelievably stressful and dangerous work. The average soldier in my Brigade lives and works out of a remote Combat Outpost. This can sometimes mean sleeping in the dirt, sleeping when they can in between incoming rocket and mortar attacks. They normally go weeks without a shower (thank goodness for baby wipes!), eat cold chow, with few phones or Internet being available. We are in the midst of the "summer fighting season" which means that we are engaged in numerous firefights and IED strikes every single day. When you go "outside" the wire you are always tense and high-strung, searching for that command wire of an IED, meeting village elders as you immerse yourself in a totally foreign culture that you neither fully understand or are part of, and are often viewed with deep suspicion and frowns. There are indeed rewarding moments where you smile; children in particular have the unique ability to bring a smile to the face of the gruffest soldier, but you never let down your guard. When your armored security vehicle rolls back through the relative safety of the gate after days on patrol where you perhaps carried a 100 pound pack on a mountain at 10,000 feet it is sometimes all you can do to stumble to your sleeping bag for some much-needed rest.

So where do you come in? You, quite simply, are there to greet us with love and support when we stumble back through the gate.

Mail has always been cherished by soldiers in a war zone for as long as there has been the written word. It's hard to describe what it's like when those magical words of, "hey, the mail is in!" is excitedly passed from soldier to soldier. The atmosphere instantly lightens and smiles appear on the tired faces of soldiers who look 10 years older than their age. The closest I can describe it as is that it's akin to Christmas morning. The toughest soldier takes his box or letter from a loved one or a Soldiers' Angel and does his best not to grin like a 10-year-old getting that new bike from Santa, retreating to someplace quiet to open his mail. That's an unspoken rule for soldiers....unless 10,000 Taliban are about to storm the gates or a nuclear bomb is about to vaporize the entire countryside, you DON'T disturb a soldier when he or she is opening up their mail! It may be behind the guard tower or in their sleeping bag by the light of a red-lens flashlight, but a soldier opening his mail is a very intimate and private moment, one to be cherished.

What do you all bring to us over here? A slice of home. You may think that you don't have much to offer in your letters that often go unanswered. You may feel you are rambling on about the weather or about how you find cemeteries a peaceful place or who just won "American Idol." But to a soldier in a combat zone? That is life. That is normalcy. That is what we have to look forward to when our duty here is done. When you write these letters, even though they may go unanswered, you need to know that every letter that you seal and put into the mailbox will cause a tremendous smile on the other end.

On behalf of all of us soldiers over here I want to thank you for what you do. With the lack of Internet access, limited time, and plain old exhaustion, most of your letters and emails often go unanswered. Please know, however, that they are deeply appreciated. You are doing your own part in all of this...you are showing your support. And that is what a soldier needs...knowing that he is not forgotten, that his efforts are appreciated, and that many, many people back home are thinking about and praying for them. Thank you so very much for what you do.

Steve

Soldier Update & Other Misc Stuff

2010-03-10T19:20:00.006-05:00

So, it has been 5 weeks since Kyle left for Basic training at Ft Benning, GA. It's been an adjustment for me - living the single life, but, I have adjusted pretty well I think. It was pretty dang hard the first couple of weeks with an empty house, without his presence here, but as the weeks went by, I found myself not dreading to come home to the empty house anymore. It's actually quite nice to come home to a clean house, to a kitchen sink that's not full of dirty dishes, to a stove that's clean, to a house full of testosterone filled teenagers. :)

Of course, I do miss Kyle, very much. But, at some point in our lives, our children have to leave (the nest) and become the young adults which we used to be (I'm almost as old as dirt now). He's is own man now and will have to make his own decisions pertaining to his future. I am confident I raised him well and that he will make sound & wise choices throughout this period and in the future.

I didn't get many letters for the first 4 weeks he was gone. A couple the first week or two letting me know that he'd arrived at Ft Benning safely and some of the stuff that was going on while he was in the 30th AG Reception. He was there from February 2 through Feb 8. Mostly, it was a lot of Hurry Up and Wait while there, a bit boring just doing paper work, getting shots & hair cut. He got to call and talk to me during that time once, basically to let me know he was there and everything was fine.

I heard from him next (letter) a week later on February 16. I would come home from work and go straight to the mailbox. No letter. Next day - check again. No letter. It became very discouraging - I had no idea what was going on down there, why he wasn't writing me. Unbeknown to me, he was selected to serve as a squad leader in his platoon. Being a squad leader just took up a lot of his time, so much so, that he said he had 10-15min in the evenings of personal time....just not enough to sit down and write everyone. Every time someone messed up, he had to do push ups. Now, he's a "nobody" and likes that so much better! :)

He was a pretty good squad leader - of course I knew this because it was the way he was here at home. At the end of each phase (Red, White, Blue) they have to choose another squad leader so that others get the opportunity for leadership. His squad didn't want him to not be their leader because he was very good. Because his squad was ran so well, it earned the squad 20 minute phone calls this past Sunday. :) He spread the 20 minutes around to different family members and a few friends. Now that they have moved on to the White phase, they should be getting more phone time. *crosses fingers*

What all has he done?? He's received his M16 and initially thought it would be great, but once he realized that he had to take it everywhere with him and if left unsecured they are punished. Punished by having to hold it by the front sight and charging handle with just his thumb & forefinger, arms outstretched! I bet it didn't take but once for him to make sure it was always with him & secure! They've rapelled down a 50-60 tower - loads of fun, but painful due to the rope wrapped super tight on his butt & groin.

Gas chamber - in with masks on, take them off, recite last name & last 4 SS, put mask back on, take back off, put helmet on and then outside. Lots of coughing and tons of snot! :D They've done confidence/obsticle courses, land navigation, spent the night outside a couple times. Plenty of time at the range zeroing/sighting their weapons, live fire practice, learning how to clear rooms, how to identify IED's, and combative fighting techniques. With the identification of IED's (claymores), if they failed to find one & let the instructor know (i.e. someone stepped on one) - it went off and that person was covered with a coating of baby powder!

I knew he would be hungry between meals too!! He ate a lot here while at home and now, it's just 3 meals a day. He gets 7 minutes to shovel the food in, but says that he's still hungry. He's missing Bojangle's and candy. Sounds like they're feeding the guys well too. I'm sure if there is something on his tray that he hasn't tried before or didn't really like before, that he will eat it now!!! I think we will be taking him somewhere to eat where he can just pig out! He'll probably be sick afterwards cause he won't be used to eating such a large amount of food, nor will he be used to the spices/seasonings that will come on the food. Oh well, he deserves it!

Wow...there is just so much in these last couple of letters...5 pages (front/back) to me, 3 to his Dad & ex-stepDad....and each one talks about different things! He's done pretty good with the PT stuff, but has to work on the sit ups he says. He was doing them differently here and they are harder in Basic. He works on those every night before going to bed, doing anywhere from 25 to 40 sit ups. He also did well at the 2 mile run - 14:18min and was 20/240 guys!

That's about all - he talks about the weather down there - how one day it can be really nice and the next it just sucks. He's very tired of the cold, having numb hands/fingers & feet. They were out one night and when they went to sleep it was nice, but by 2am, it was cold/pouring rain, 40mph winds and the DSs got everyone up and sent them back to the barracks.

Things Kyle misses right now: Bojangle's Biscuits & Gravy, Fried Chicken & french fries; a medium steak and candy (as far as food). The thing he misses the most is sleeping in on Saturdays. He has to be up at 4:15am every day and then in bed by 9pm. They get 6-9pm as personal time too. This next one is just too damn funny!!!! He misses the WOMEN!!!! He says he really misses looking and checking out all the hot girls! All he has to look at are the lunch ladies and the ocassional DS's wife. He said that he's already looking at women that a year ago he would've never even looked at! OMG...I think it's just so funny to hear my son talking that way. :) "In a couple more weeks, if things don't change, I'm going to be turned on by ugly lunch ladies". LOL.

That's pretty much it for now. Hopefully, I'll get another letter in the mail for me this week. I've been mailing Kyle pretty regularly, at least every other day. He has to do 20 push ups for each piece of mail he gets. I wonder if he has to do extra push ups for the stickers I've been putting on the outside of the envelopes?? :D Oh yea, his birthday is this coming Saturday and I just could not resist getting a musical card for him. Two cards actually. /evil grin/ (don't worry - Kyle has always been the clown & can take it as well as dish it out, so he'll be ok with the cards). He will have to get up in front of the platoon and do the Chicken Dance and sing That Smell (Lynyrd Skynyrd). I'll try to keep this Soldier-In-Training updated as I receive letters. This one is so long because I've received 4 or 5 letters of length the past couple of days....

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Now for me....since getting injured in December, the sucky weather in January & February, I have not ridden but 3 or 4 times. Totally have lost all fitness in my legs/butt/lungs for cycling and I'm trying to build it back up slowly. I have a ride coming up April 10 and possibly one April 11 (not sure if I'll attempt both) and both are climbing rides. I have to get my ass in gear & train for not only those, but the main one - Assault on Mt Mitchell. So, while visiting the bf in Greenville, SC this past weekend, I thought I would attempt a 60 mile ride with a climb up/down/up/down Paris Mountain. Boy, was I stupid!

60 miles my ass. That's right...my legs are in no shape for climbing, so I abandoned that idea and instead opted for a plain ole 2hr ride. My butt and legs were so sore afterwards and the following day, it was hard to sit, get up, and even walk! But, I rode on Tuesday for an hour and will hit the trainer shortly tonight. I'm hoping that a week or two of easy riding then start on the intervals towards the last of March. I think I can be ready for AoMM. I sure as hell hope so.

Pretty much it for this post..........:)

I Went And Done It....

2010-02-22T19:51:00.000-05:00

Signed up for Assault on Mt Mitchell. I really hadn't planned on doing the ride this year, but a cycling friend sorta "pushed" me along to register. Now, that I've registered, I'm glad that I did. I've been either injured/sick or the weather has been frigid for North Carolina so I haven't ridden in, oh, going on almost 3 months.

I do have my work cut out for me to get ready for this ride by Monday, May 24 - but, I know what I have to do in order to be ready, and I will get it done. HTFU. I absolutely hate the trainer, but it looks like this week will consist of at least an hour of riding the next 4 days with a metric ride on Saturday. Yep, that's right, I said a metric (63mi) on Saturday. Remember, I haven't ridden outside since 1/23, which was a 40mi ride at a 16mph pace. HTFU. I plan on riding the Frostbite Metric route Saturday and hope to goodness I can manage a 16-17mph pace. It's pretty flat, a few of the Clayton-area rollers, nothing that I shouldn't be able to do.

I suppose after the metric on Saturday, I'm going to head down to the Tigerville, SC area the following weekend to do an AoMM training ride put on by the Spartanburg Freewheelers. This ride will go over Caesars Head - the one that I bailed on the climb last year because of cramping. It's a 6.4mi climb with an average grade of 6% (2000' climbing per the web site). Between that weekend and March 27, I will probably hang around this area and ride N. Raleigh with some "Irregulars" or the Hammer guys. March 27 is another AoMM training ride - Marquis de Sade, an 82mi training ride.

I guess the rides I do leading up to Mitchell will also get my legs ready for something else I have planned for this summer. I still can't publicly say what that cycling event will be, but it will be epic and not something that I've previously done before. So, time to HTFU, say the heck with the cold I seem to have picked up over the weekend with the bf, and get the bikes ready to ride and get my butt out there on the road. :)

Mt Mitchell doesn't give a rat's ass that I have not ridden my bike in 2.5 months - I gotta get my butt out there and train or Mt Mitchell will eat me alive come Monday, May 24!!

A Soldier In The Making

2010-02-16T21:45:00.001-05:00

Last year, my son had an Air Force scholarship and was accepted to UNCC. This AF Scholarship was based on my son completing a "technical" i.e engineering program at Charlotte. He decided sometime over the summer last year, that he really wanted to study History and work towards a History major - maybe teach at some point.

Because of this change in major, we (he) had to send in a Change of Major request to the AF. This request was denied. He was told that he would either have to pursue an engineering degree or a foreign language degree. Kyle had no desire to pursue either of these and decided to forgo the AF Scholarship. My thoughts were that he could go to Wake Tech or JCC for the Fall semester (possibly the Spring semester as well), re-apply for an Army Scholarship and hope for the best come the Spring.

So, he attempted to register at both places, but that failed. All classes were filled at Wake Tech and there was a problem with his registration at JCC and he could not take the placement tests there. Upon finding this out (spent one morning at work trying to find classes for him at Wake Tech), I gave him 2 choices --> either go to UNCC (he was still registered for Fall classes, but had no where to live) and maybe live with his Dad in Mt. Holly (near Charlotte) or he could enlist. I never in a million years thought I would hear what I did that evening upon arriving home from work. My baby boy told me that he would enlist in the Army. OMG. I was shocked. There were no words for how I felt at this time.

We spoke to the Army Recruiter down in Smithfield and Kyle decided that he would pursue a Warrant Officer commission and hopefully, fly helicopters. He had a physical and other things done in September, took the oath, signed on the dotted line and would be leaving in February for Ft Benning, GA. It was an up & down time for me. On one hand, I thought he couldn't leave soon enough and on the other hand, I was sad/scared that my baby was going to be leaving home, to venture out into the world on his own. It was tough.

And, the closer it got to February 2, 2010, the more upset I became. Good grief. Just thinking about him or at times, just looking at him, brought tears to my eyes (and does so while I try to compose this blog post). The last week he was home was pretty hard. I was sad/happy/excited/scared - so many emotions running through me. I could cry at the drop of a pin. But, I had to get that crying out and at least try to show a strong face the day he left.

That was hard. Very hard. I took the afternoon off from work to come home and spend the last bit of time with Kyle before the recruiter arrived at 3pm. I did really well during this time and while the recruiter was here at the house. But, I just could not hold it together when it came time to give/get a hug from Kyle. I simply lost all composure and the tears flowed. I could not let him go. One hug. Let him go. No - I have to have another and let him know that I am not crying because I am upset that he's going off to learn to be a Soldier. I let him know that I am SO very proud of him, excited for him starting this new part of his life, and that I am ok. Damn. That was so hard to do, but I knew he was excited and really looking forward to what lay ahead of him.

The next day was a little bit hard, but a good group of friends at work and a plan for cleaning out the kitchen kept me busy and not much time to think about Kyle. I kept fairly busy the remainder of the week - working on the interior of the house (painting kitchen) and other odds & ends, that I didn't have a lot of time to think of him. But, I still did come evening time. :)

He was in Reception from Thursday, Feb 4 - Sunday, Feb 7 and went "down range" to begin his 9 week Basic Combat Training (BCT) on Monday, Feb 8. I received a short note from him on Monday and a phone call! It was so good to hear from him! He sounded so grown up already. He told me that he had had 10 shots, head shaved, blood work, eyes/hearing checked, and a bunch of other things. He said he was in a barracks with about 60 other recruits, that it was hot because they were right beside the showers, he had top bunk and that he was really excited to be starting Basic. The first 4 days consisted of a lot of Hurry Up and Wait....

So, I have not heard from him since 2/7 or 8, but he did call this past Friday night and hung up without leaving me a message!! I assume he was calling to tell me about the snow they were getting down there in Columbus. I do wish he'd hurry up and write me again - with an address so I can start writing to him. I guess if I haven't heard anything by this weekend, I might contact the Base and see if they can find out what Company he's in and an address.

I will be headed down to Ft Benning the week of April 15 to see Kyle graduate. I'm really looking forward to seeing him and know that I will see a new man. I'll say it again....I am Very Proud of my son!!!!!! And, I love him very much. I'll update the blog when I have more info to share about Kyle.

Jan 17 - Jan 23......

2010-01-23T19:09:00.002-05:00

Just a weekly report instead of daily for this week...should work better since I've ridden this week, but nothing spectacular.

Sunday - no riding because, IIRC, it was raining. Or for whatever reason, no ride.

Monday - I was off this day (MLK Holiday), beautiful weather, high 50's to low 60's (IIRC), so I headed out for a short 20-something mile ride. Usual route out towards Auburn-Knightdale and back home. Felt pretty good, but I'm not trying to push the pace too hard. Yet.

Tuesday - another beautiful, warm day and I just had to leave work early and go for another ride. Same route as Monday. 20.5miles

Wednesday - trainer ride after work. Decided that I needed to start some sort of "training" since I seem to do better when I have a plan to work by. So, given that, I decided I would try to do some intervals. Because I've pretty much been off the bike for 1.5 to 2 months, I didn't think I could do 3 or 4min intervals, so I chose to do 2 minutes. Managed to eek out 6x2min zone 4 intervals. I was really surprised by this - as I've previously found intervals to be very hard on the trainer. Not that these were easy, they weren't, but I'm pleased that I was able to do them.

Thursday - I didn't really want to get on the trainer, but I did because I knew it would be good for my legs and with the reduced calories I've managed for the week, it would also help with the weight loss. Since I really didn't want to ride the trainer, I told myself that I would just do 30 minutes and if I still didn't feel like riding, I could quit then. 30 minutes came and went. I don't think I'm getting enough warm up, with just 10 minutes, because by 45 minutes, I felt a lot better and decided to go on and finish the next 15 minutes to give myself a full hour of Active Recovery riding.

Friday - I decided to take the day off because Dallas had emailed earlier in the day about riding on Saturday. My legs were also a bit sore or I could definitely tell I'd been riding every day this week. Pretty much a lazy afternoon.

Saturday - Dallas said this was going to be an "easy-moderate, flatish 35mi ride". It was pretty flat, heading out towards the Kenly area, with the only "real" hills at the beginning as we headed down Antioch and took that from Thanksgiving Rd all the way to Hwy 222. We rolled out from Dallas's house around 10:30am, with myself, Dallas, Randall, Brent & Russell.

The return route was on a few roads that I hadn't ever ridden on or just didn't remember them - mostly flat with a few rollers. I did ok, I suppose, for my second ride with them, but by mile 26 or 27, my legs were definitely running out of gas. I just couldn't keep up with them when there was any incline to the road and fell off the back. Dallas and Randall stayed back with me and we rode a bit easier than Russell & Brent, who went on off the front, but would wait on us at turns.

I eventually, just said the heck with it (trying to hang on) and just rode easier, getting dropped about 10 miles from home. Dallas came back for me, set an easy pace and pulled me back to the rest of the guys who were waiting for us at the next intersection (Thanksgiving & Hwy 42). They decided to take Jordan-Narron Rd to Buffalo to get home instead of the usual Thanksgiving to Covered Bridge (which Dallas lives on)...dunno why other than they wanted to get that climb up J-N included. As usual, I am dropped on this climb, the guys waiting at the turn. 3.5 more miles home and I get in behind Dallas and try to hang on to his wheel. Did manage to do that.

Legs are super tired all afternoon and since my son is gone for the weekend, all I planned on doing was keeping the couch warm, watching some basketball & a movie or two. 40 miles/2:25hr, pretty much a slow 16mph pace. It was rough for me, but I'm sure it was really easy for the rest of the guys since they've continued to ride while I was out with the injuries. I felt like I had ridden a metric today - that was pretty hard. But, I'll just keep up with the trainer rides during the week and keep coming back on Saturdays - eventually, I'll be back in shape and able to hang with the Hammers again.

Oh yea, with the reduced calories per day (somewhere between 1000-1200/day) and all the trainer/outside time I've put in this week, I'm down 3 pounds (as of yesterday). Finally.

Next week will be more time on the trainer and a Saturday ride with the guys hopefully. Tomorrow will be Active Recovery on the trainer because it appears that it will be a rainy day, per the weather liars.....

2 In A Row

2010-01-16T17:40:00.000-05:00

With the weather being really nice around here for the first time in a while, I took advantange of it and got a few things done yesterday and today. My car was the first thing to get taken care of after I got off work on Friday. It had not been cleaned up since back in September or October and was filthy. Filthy both inside and outside. With that task completed, I headed home to do a bit of detail work on the car and spent about an hour with that. Just beautiful outside.

The second thing to take care of Friday was to get a ride in. Accomplished that with an 18 mile ride from the house out towards Auburn-Knightdale road, over to Shotwell, back through town and then home. Again, beautiful outside and I sure do wish I were able to ride longer right now. Patience. Friday's ride was not all that slow either - managed to get the 18 miles done in a little over an hour.

I had an email from Dallas earlier Friday asking me if I was able to ride now. I replied back that I thought I was, but I haven't ridden in almost 2 months and there was no way I'd be able to keep up with him, whether that was on the road or at Umstead. He told me that the guys were going to ride today and that I should come out and ride a bit with them. I agreed and the plan was for me to ride somewhere between 12-15 miles and then peel off to head back home. Wow. I believe I left a lung out on Hwy 231 somewhere. I did ok for the first couple of miles, but as soon as there was any kind of incline to the road, I struggled.

Thank goodness for Randall. As, I'm losing a lung and the wheel in front of me going up 231, I move over to the right a bit and motion for the guys to go on. They're not having any of that though. Randall comes up beside me and tells me to just keep going at the pace I'm going and he puts his hand on my back to "help" me along. I would not have made it if he hadn't done that - not once, but twice during the 13 miles I was able to ride with them. We finally reached NC 39 and I told Dallas I was turning to head back to the house.

Headed back via NC39 to Antioch, Thanksgiving, Covered Bridge. Ended up with 23 miles in 1:25hr. The time with Dallas and the guys was 13 miles, 40-something minutes with an 18.5mph average! Holy Crap! No wonder I lost a lung out there this morning! :)

Tomorrow might just be 30-45 minutes on the trainer then Monday (MLK Holiday) I will try to get out in the afternoon and ride 25 miles from the house. Gradually, getting back into riding.....

Early Riser, I Am Not.

2010-01-04T19:40:00.000-05:00

That is correct. I don't know why I thought I would be waking up at 5am to get on the trainer for 20-30min. I didn't manage to do so this morning and doubt I do at all. I am simply not an early morning person. So, to make up for that, I walked for 30min during lunch today and managed 45min with Coach Troy this evening.

I will walk again at lunch tomorrow, see Matt (my physical therapist) at 5pm and maybe do another 45min to an hour with Coach Troy. I also did really well with eating good today...right around 1450-1500 calories. Also, no sodas for 4 days now....

Short & sweet, eh? :)

21 Days

2010-01-01T17:05:00.001-05:00

21 days for my new habits to be permanent (hopefully). I need to get back on the training wagon (and losing weight wagon), which is going to be difficult due to being injured right now, but I'm going to try.

Ride trainer in the mornings for at least 30 minutes, start with 3x/week, working up to 5 days.
Workout with Coach Troy 3x/week.
No sodas. Period. Water or green tea.
200 healthy calories every 2 hours.

I would like to be able to do this until I see the doctor again in 3 weeks and have a weight loss of 5-6 pounds by that time as well. Hopefully, after that I can start the serious training for Mitchell and be ready for my first AoMM Training ride on March 6. That training ride is 60mi in Upstate SC, hosted by the Freewheelers of Spartanburg.

I need to be ready for AoMM in May and for something totally different by the first of June. If I can nail the above things for the 3 weeks leading up to my doctor's visit, I should be able to keep it up through to May and then June and be in great shape! :)

New Year's Day Ride

2010-01-01T16:46:00.000-05:00

Yes, you read that correctly. I decided I was tired of sitting on my butt watching tv and decided to make a few changes. One change was to get out this afternoon and ride...didn't matter that it was slow and very short (5.5mi/21min) - the whole point was to start with something instead of nothing. The second change I've made for the new year - I emptied all the sodas down the drain and cleaned the fridge of any unhealthy food (wasn't much).

The weather was overcast, a bit windy, and the temperature around 47F. I managed to get shorts & tights on fairly easily, but the base layer/jersey was a little more difficult. Finally dressed, pumped the tires and off I go! OMG...that felt so good to be on the bike.

Country Lane/Barber Mill Rd/Amelia Church Rd/Guy Rd/Hwy 42/Barber Mill/Country Lane.

Doubtful that I'll be able to get out this weekend to do another short ride because of the weather, but one can only hope. :)

2009 In Short Review

2009-12-31T17:33:00.009-05:00

January 1, 2009, I started off the year with a mtb ride at Tsali with Andy. This year has been pretty good in general - not what I wanted as far as riding, but I've learned that there are more important things in life than cycling 24/7. *shrugs* Guess that happens when you fall in love, eh? :)

I had great plans for riding this year and the first half of the year went well. The second half not so well, as far as cycling is concerned. I trained hard for my main ride of 2009 - Assault on Mt Mitchell - and I did really well. Finished in 9:08hr total time (although my PT has almost an hour less) but that could have been closer to 8 hours if I had not spent so much time at the rest stops. Oh well. It is what it is. Next year, rest stop time management will be one of the key things to work on.

I became a grandmother in March (3/17/2009)! How can I be a grandmother???? I'm only 44yr old!! :) I haven't been able to see the grandson as much as I would like to, but maybe next year I can see more of him. From the conversations with my daughter, he is growing like a weed....he's wearing 18-24mo clothing, weighs 25 pounds (as of this week), and is pretty tall for his age (9 mo).

I met a really nice man, from would you believe, an internet bicycling forum. :) I met Hank in March, a week after becoming a grandma. We talked for almost 2 months via emails & phone before finally meeting each other the day after AoMM. Wow. This guy is very special to me. It's not been an easy relationship due to the fact that we are 283.7mi or a 4 hour drive/2.5-3.5 hour flight apart and has very weird days off, but we've managed so far. Hank lives in Greenville, SC and I have spent quite a bit of time in the area. I really like it down there - wish there were some way I could be there more often than I am. But, I wouldn't trade any of the past 6 or 7 months of our relationship for cycling.....what does that say?? There are more important things in one's life than cycling?? Yea, there are. I don't know where we're headed in the next year, but I'm in it for the duration. (if you're reading this Babe...I love you). :)

I got my first cold in over 3yrs towards the end of June. By the 2nd week of July, I was full blown bronchitis. Meh, I said. I can still ride with Dallas and my Hammer guys (who I had been riding with since probably around April) once or twice a week. Right. I picked the fast night (Tuesdays) to ride and that was about all I could do until the weekends. I should have just taken a little time off the bike and let my lungs heal properly, but noooooooo.....I had to continue riding. This wasn't good. It affected the remainder of my year, for cycling.

I managed to drag myself up to Lancaster, Pennsylvania the weekend of August 15 for the Covered Bridge Metric. I had a great time, met some great people. Not sure if I'll do the ride again next year, but I might, if I'm not otherwise off on some adventure. :) (Still suffering the lingering affects of the bronchitis....)

The remainder of the year, after CBM, was spent riding with Dallas and traveling to Greenville. :) Hank and I were able to see the US Cycling Road Race at the end of August - we were camped out at the top of Paris Mountain. I saw George Hincapie. :) *drool* It was a great weekend, of course any weekend in Greenville has been great. :)

I also spent 5 days out in the Sacramento, CA area mid October. Met some more of my online biking friends, had lots of great rides. Foxy's Fall Century was a great ride....next year, I will bring my own bike for the ride so that I don't suffer from such butt pain!!! /eek/ If there were somewhere in California that I thought I might be able to live in, the Sacramento area would be at the top of my list. :)

I planned on riding the fall cx races, but my lack of cycling in general really sent that idea down the drain. Raced a couple of races, but realized I shouldn't pay registration fees/gas for just going out to have a little fun. So, I raced, 3 or 4 races and called it good. Modified the cx bike to a more mtb style and absolutely love the bike now. I had thoughts of doing the Winter Cx Series, but my most recent injuries negate that.

So, we are now almost current....Broke my right thumb and have a Grade 1 AC Separation of the left shoulder due to wild cats attacking me on my way home (riding the cx bike) and causing me to crash less than 0.5mi from my house. Those dang cats almost licked me to death! LOL.

And, here I am....making the last post for this year and thinking about what I want to do next year.....AoMM is still one of my goals for next year. There are a few rides prior to that one I would like to do - if they mesh with my training plan for AoMM. I have plans to do something with Hank next year - a tour. No other info on that at this time, but I'll post up something when it's appropriate. I want to get back to doing some day hikes or several long (a week or more maybe?) weekend hikes. I'm really interested in hiking all or part of the Foothills Trail. A ride of the whole BRP is on the list too. Not sure if it will happen this year or not, but we'll see.

I'm not sure on my final yearly mileage....I sort of quit keeping track of it when I got sick and was only riding, maybe, 2x per week. I think it might be around 3500-4000mi. 4000 miles if I'm lucky really. Oh well. Doesn't really matter in the larger scheme of things, now does it?

It's time to, as my good friend Martin said to me - "Enjoy the ride. Ride for the enjoyment."

Follow Up

2009-12-31T16:39:00.000-05:00

Saw my ortho this morning for a 1 week check up. X-rays of thumb and shoulder - the break in the thumb is barely visible, there are no hairline fractures or breaks of any kind in the shoulder. I am to continue wearing the brace on the thumb and use the arm sling as necessary. Doctor said that a Grade 1 separation can be way more painful than a Grade 3 simply because with the Grade 3, the ligaments are totally torn apart and not being stretched - so less painful. With the Grade 1, the ligament is stretched (maybe a slight tear also), but will be extremely sore to the touch. And, boy is it sore.

So, wear the brace for the thumb for 3 more weeks, do the ROM and strength exercises for the shoulder and get better ASAP. Hopefully, this will be my last injury/illness for this year. /rolleyes/

Doctor didn't say I couldn't ride my bike, so I'm going to try and ride outside some on the weekends, as the weather permits and hit the trainer during the weeknights until March 14, when the time changes.....

Adventures in Cycling

2009-12-22T19:44:00.002-05:00

I had a Christmas party of a co-worker to attend this past Saturday. It is a short 1.3mi to the co-worker's house and I had the bright idea that I would ride my cross bike there. It was cold, around 34F when I left the house around 7pm for the short ride over.

On the way over, I saw that there was a bit of wet pavement (mixed with the pine straw) near the edge of the road at Barber Mill, and made note of that - not to ride in that area on the way home. The party was great - good friends & food. I left around 11:30pm, and did just fine - the light on the bike is super bright. But, I totally forgot about that mental note I was supposed to remember. :( Took the turn a bit to cocky/brave/fast, right through the pine straw and wet road. I assume it was ice there because I know the temps had to be lower. Whatever. It happened very quickly - down I went on the left side. Landed on my left shoulder and head.

I lay there for a little bit, thinking "boy, that hurt like hell", got back up on the bike and rode the 0.5mi on home. I was pretty sore already, had a bit of trouble getting the sweater off but finally managed to and went to bed. The next morning, I was really sore. Couldn't move my left arm a lot and my right thumb was tender in the area closer to my wrist. I waffled about going to urgent care on Sunday or waiting until Monday to see my normal doctor. Finally decided to go to urgent care. The doctor took x-rays and told me the bad news. I felt like, after spending most of Sunday researching, I had an AC Separation, probably grade 1 and was really hoping just a sprained thumb (it didn't hurt near as bad as when I broke the left one in January). No such luck or so that doctor thought....

The doctor told me that I had broken my collarbone and thumb. The x-ray of the collarbone did look bad - like a diagonal break, almost a compound fracture. The thumb was a bit harder to see, but eventually did. (They didn't take very good x-rays at the urgent care). So, I left the urgent care with a splint on my right thumb and my left arm in a sling, with a prescription for Vicodin.

Made an appointment with the ortho Monday morning...Dr. Curzan at Garner Orthopaedics. He looked at the x-rays and said there was no break in the collarbone - it looked fine. He said that I did indeed have a Grade 1 AC Separation and broken thumb. There isn't much to do for the AC injury - RICE and then exercises to regain ROM and strength. The thumb was not cast either. He said as long as I could wear the brace, he felt that would be sufficient. Will go back next Thursday to check the shoulder and x-ray the thumb to make sure it's aligned properly. I should be good to go in about 4wks.

That is such a relief. I was all bummed out Sunday evening after the urgent care doctor told me it could be anywhere from a minimum of 6wks to 12wks for the collarbone to heal. That would totally screw my AoMM training up. Fortunately, I will be able to start my training the middle to latter part of January.

I have an appointment to see my PT on Thursday for 1 or 2 visits to get me started in the right direction for regaining ROM and strength in the shoulder. Off the bike (outside I suppose) for 3-4 wks, but will be on the trainer doing some fat burning base miles/time. I'm also planning on getting out to Umstead for some hiking and do some core workouts to build up the core a bit.

So, seems like I dodged a bullet this weekend....no more riding to parties for me! I'll stick to normal rides from now on.

Here are the 2 x-rays from the urgent care:

this is a zoomed in view of my shoulder....the doctor explained that the difference in the image color was due to the densities of the bone. The part that looks like it's getting ready to poke out of my shoulder is not a break - the other end of the bone is just a lighter image, making it seem like it's broke. Or so says Dr Curzan...

The Bridges of Greenville County, SC

2009-12-16T19:54:00.001-05:00

Addenum to the weekend adventures - Adventures in Flying My flight from RDU to GSP took me to IAD (Dulles, yes, up to Washington, DC to then fly down to Greenville, SC). The departure time from RDU on Saturday morning was to be at 6:10am. But. Yes, there is a "but". Taxied out to have a bit of frost taken off the wings, but the de-icing truck was broke. So, there we sat, burning fuel. Used up so much that we had to turn around and re-fuel, then back to the de-icing truck, which was now operational. Bad thing, though, it was now around 8am. My connecting flight in DC had a departure of 8:09am. Yep. Missed that connection.

Arrive in DC around 9:40am, United automatically rebooked me on the next available flight, which was to depart at 12:21pm. Hanging out in IAD when I should have already been in G'ville (and, I would have considering I was up at 3am and could have driven down there...). Time to board the plane at 12pm and what do we hear??? Flight 7896 from IAD to GSP has been delayed until 1:45pm. OMFG. I'm so pissed. Missing all day Saturday with the bf and spending my time in an airport. So, I give the bf a call and tell him to just go on to work at 3:30 because I doubt I will be there by then and will just catch a cab.

The fying gods must have been looking out for me this time...my flight touched down at 2:45pm. I swear, if there had been any old ladies/children to get in my way on the way to pick my bag up and meet the bf, I would have knocked them over & out of my way! :) We had just enough time to get me home, say "hi" and then he left for work.

The rest of the weekend was as much quality time with the bf as possible since we don't see each other that often (working on a solution to that though). I planned on flying back home Tuesday morning. Well, guess what?? Dense fog in the G'ville area. My plane is circling the airport waiting to land and we now hear this - "if the plane cannot land in the next 10-15min, the plane will be diverted to Columbia". No mention of what plane we would be on to IAD. Grrrrrrrrrr. And, the flight from IAD to RDU, departing at 12:21pm, was already delayed for an hour.

My plans of getting back to Raleigh and working for 3-4hr went out the door. All I wanted was to get home. Finally arrived at RDU around 2pm, picked up the bag, headed home. Well, I have one more surprise...while unpacking, I find a note card from TSA - my bag was randomly selected to be searched. I think next time, I'll just drive. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, the bf flew me down to Greenville for the weekend (this past weekend - Saturday thru Tuesday) and on Monday, he took me to see the only original covered bridge left in South Carolina and the oldest intact bridge remaining (1820).

The first one we stopped at was Campbell's Covered Bridge. There has been a few improvements to the area around the bridge, a few picnic tables, a walking trail, and some wood fencing near the bridge. Here are a few pictures we took:

Interior of the covered bridge

Looking upstream. Streambed is all bedrock.

me

Marker

Structure Diagram & Description

It was pretty neat to see this. I will have to do some research and see if there is anything similar in and around Johnston County.

The Poinsett Bridge (a very cool Youtube video about the bridge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMIXzFnpOhI)

The pictures....

Ice, Ice, Baby!

2009-11-08T17:29:00.001-05:00

So, ole Dallas wanted to meet at Legend Mtb Park this afternoon for an "easy" ride. Uh huh. When will I learn. He learned from the best - LJ. :)

Met him there a little after 2pm, put my pedals on one of his mtb's and off we go. Now, remember....I haven't ridden a mtb in probably a year, I was riding an unfamiliar bike (though it doesn't matter since I hadn't ridden in so long), and....this park is NOT easy/beginner friendly.

Off we go....I do ok until we reach the first big downhill...we stop at the top and he tells me that he's going to go down it the way (line) he wants me to go. Uh huh. I try. But on the way down, left foot unclipped, I grab a handful of front brake. Uh Oh. I didn't hit the ground but the bike did. :) Walk the rest of that mess. In fact, I walked quite a bit due to lack of confidence/losing my momentum on the uphills. Some how or another I bang my left knee on the handlebars on an uphill and will have a nice bruise from that too. I do so-so until............the big roots.

The big roots in a slight right hand/straight/downhill (very slight downhill) section. Not enough speed to carry me through and yep...I go down. On the drive side, on my right side. OMG. That hurt. A few choice, but somewhat lady-like words were said, repeatedly. Hurt. Ouch. 2 huge goose-eggs popped up on my leg just above my knee. While laying there on the ground, I could feel my leg twitching in pain. Finally, I managed to get untangled from the bike and walk around a bit. I told Dallas that I hope we are about done with this, but he says he has no idea how to get out of there....every time he comes over to ride that park, he gets lost. /roll eyes/ I tell him that the road is just "over there" and that's where I'm going. We exit the trails and head back to the car.

Ankle and the meaty part of my right thumb hurt the worst right now. A bit of ice should help out.

So.....will I go mtb'ing with Dallas again? Yep. BUT....we will have to enjoy the Harris Lake trails a few times to let me build my confidence/skills up before I will go back to Legened.

Damn....now my butt is sore from yesterday's 74mi ride and my right knee/ankle/thumb area/left knee is sore. It will be interesting to see how I feel in the morning. Planned on a road ride at lunch tomorrow. Know what? That road ride will happen....HTFU. :)

Long, Windy, Got Left By The Guys Ride :)

2009-11-07T18:53:00.000-05:00

I've been doing the cx races lately, but decided after last weeks race that I may not do all of those in the Fall series due to race/gas costs. At $23 registration fee and $30-60 on gas (depends on driving distance to race), it's just getting a little more expensive to do. Sure, it's fun, but I'm not going to win any races and will most likely always place in the 12-20 spots....so, I'm going to save my $$ for my Epic Ride next year.

That being said, it was to be a nice day today, albiet a bit windy and I mentioned to Martin that I would come out and ride with the "Irregulars". He had a 70mi route planned and I didn't see any reason why I couldn't do that. Uh-huh. I must have forgotten that I hadn't ridden that kind of distance in a couple months. My eyes were definitely bigger than my legs. Or my butt.

I'll just make it short 'n sweet for right now, but will come back when I'm not so damn tired to complete the write up....I'll leave you with the ending............

Just gonna leave it at, I rode an extra 4mi because the guys dropped my butt like a red hot coal once we turned onto Ghoston...I knew they would, as I'm now a slug when it comes to climbing, but I really thought they'd wait on me at the next turn. Guess I thought wrong. I got to the next turn and the guys were no where to be found. OK. I waited around for a couple minutes, trying to remember which way to go - left or right. I just couldn't remember, so I went left. Wrong. Rode about 2mi in the wrong direction, realized this didn't look familiar and turned around. Back on the route to BJP and I didn't think I would EVER get back to my car. Very tired.

Finally made it back, about 15min behind the guys. That's all for now...I have a couple pictures to upload too.

Stats:
74mi
4:56hr

NCCX #3

2009-11-02T20:58:00.000-05:00

No NCCX #3 race in Boone for me on Sunday. A bout of EIA even before I could warm up. The ride from my car down to registration and back up to my car invoked the EIA. That's ok....it seemed like an awfully hard course, given the rain and mud. I would've done the race had I been able to breathe.

This week will be spin classes on Tuesday/Thursday at Inside-Out Sports and a cross ride on Wednesday from IOS to Umstead. Gonna check about getting an 11-28 instead of the 12-25 currently on teh bike. Dallas thinks this will be a tremendous help with the climbing and I'm tending to agree. Up next is 2 races this weekend - Charlotte and Salisbury. Guess I'm in for both after I get the cassette changed out....damn, I suck at cx racing. Oh well, it is pretty fun!

Not much else going on right now....major ride announcement coming in the near future though.....no, don't ask. I'll let the followers know when it's time, but until then...just guess. :)

NCCX Race #2

2009-10-25T16:39:00.000-04:00

I don't think this will be a long post....I'm tired and my legs hurt a bit after the race this afternoon. I arrived around 11am and hadn't been there more than maybe 5min when Dallas rolls up. We chat for a bit then he goes to change into street clothes while I get my bike/stuff ready. We meet back up near registration, then just hang out watching the ongoing race.

He tells me about a few places to watch out for and then I head out to get in a practice lap or two. The course isn't really all that bad - there's a section near the last part of the course, near the finish, that is a very short/steep uphill and a right-hand off camber turn in another section. The first practice lap, I wasn't prepared for that short hill and had to unclip & walk. Made it through 1.5 laps and then lined up for the race.

I did pretty well for the first 2 laps, but going hard & fast in cool air will bring on the exercise induced asthma that I've had some trouble with previously. I haven't had much trouble with that in over a year, so I wasn't really expecting any trouble. But, damn...it hit me and I had to just slow down. Crap. And, I was doing pretty well, hanging with a couple other women, passing a few of them. I just had to slow down and ride easier. Oh well. Then there's "That Hill". I climbed it 3 times, each one harder than the last, but made somewhat easier by the fact that there were so many spectators in that area, encouraging you to dig deeper, telling you that you can do it, you're almost there! that there was no way I was going to unclip.

So, that's pretty much it for today's race. I'll be very surprised if I'm not DFL for this race. Dallas didn't seem to think I would be when I talked to him afterwards, but I'm not so sure. I finished up, went and changed clothes, started to head over to the Start/Finish to see my placement, but, just was too tired. I'll have to wait on the results to be posted online.

Next week, is Race #3 in Boone. That one is probably going to be a hard one with mucho climbing, which I totally suck at, whether it's on the road or in the dirt. No pictures today, other than the few I think Dallas took while I was racing. I'll post them up once he sends them to me...

Pretty tired now - had a shower and I'm going to lay on the couch with my kitteh and watch a little football this afternoon. :)

NCCX Race #1

2009-10-24T17:42:00.000-04:00

First cyclocross race of the Fall Series was today at Bond Park in Cary. I was waffling about going to the race Thursday & Friday, but talked to Dallas Friday evening and since he registered, I couldn't not register/race. My hesitation was due to the fact that I haven't been on the cx bike since probably March and the weather forecast was calling for 60-80% rain for the time of my race (12:30pm). But, rain is good in cyclocross!!! Makes it a lot more fun, especially when you can get all muddy!

I arrived around 11:30-11:45a, enough time to get myself ready and over to Registration to pick-up my number, take a lap or two around the course. It didn't really seem to be too hard of a course until you came upon the very steep downhill, leading to a long run-up and then back down. Oh boy. That run-up & back down was something else. I just got off the bike and either pushed it or carried it up the hill, doing the same on the downhill side. Just didn't have enough confidence to ride down, but stopped about 2/3 of the way down and hopped back on. After that section, it was a long stretch running by the Start/Finish, rinse/repeat.

I get lined up for my race, near the front (learned my lesson about starting in the back from the Wolfpack Classic Road Race in February) and we're off! Of course, I hammer with the group, but very fastly realize that I better knock it down a notch, as there is no way for me to keep that pace up for 30min. I settle into a pace I think I can ride for 30min and just do my race. I get passed by men, women, and children! But, I just keep on going...2 laps down and when I get to the S/F, I'm told I have 2 more laps! Holy Crap!! Thankfully, I knew I would only have one more at the pace I was going.

So, last lap, coming out of the woods to the steep hilly section, there is a woman in pink ahead of me. She gets to the top first, hesitates a bit and I catch up to her. We both walk the bikes down the hill a bit, she hops on her's but has trouble and almost falls. I'm on mine and see my hole....I get clipped in and then turn to the final stretch....it's a sprint between Pink and myself and I beat her to the line by, maybe, half a wheel length. YES!! :)

Afterwards, I meet Dallas and we talk about the race a bit, then I go change, check the results and discover that I am not DFL!!! Awesome, because I was figuring that I might be last or next to last. I placed 16th out of 19 women in the CX4 race. Hang around for a bit to get pictures of the fast guys, then head on home.

Tomorrow, I'll be back at it for the 2nd race of the series.

Pictures from the race:

And, finally, the pizza I made for my lunch/supper this evening. Spicy Italian Sausage, sauteed peppers/mushrooms/zucchini, spinach, jalapeno's, fresh mozzarella, and thinly sliced roma tomatoes.

Sacramento, CA: Last Day

2009-10-24T16:49:00.000-04:00

My last day in California was a fairly lazy one. My butt still hurt and not a one of us wanted to get on a bike this day. Mid-morning breakfast of a "pie" made, again, by Cook Extraordinaire Chris. It was made of diced potatoes, leftover veggies from the other night and on top of all that, he added 6 eggs. The potatoes were sauteed/cooked, the veggies added and eggs, covering to cook the eggs. Yummy!!!! Wish I had someone to cook like that for me, though, I like to cook well enough, that I could be the Cook Extraordinaire for someone. I forgot to get a picture of breakfast.

After breakfast, all of us were working on our respective blogs/reports and just being pretty dang lazy. Chris and Deb took the dogs for a long walk around 12:30-1pm while I remained home working (or attempting to) on the blog...once they returned home, I left and took a drive to Old Sacramento/Sacramento for some touristy stuff.

This first picture is for my friend Vega Vixen:

The rest are from various places around Old Sacramento...

I thought, after visiting Old Sacramento, that since I was basically "in" Sacramento, I would find my way to downtown and get a few pictures of the Capital Building and maybe see if Arnold was home (he wasn't home).

Sacramento, CA: Day Four/Foxy's Ride

2009-10-21T09:31:00.002-04:00

OK...here's my take on Foxy's ride....I'll have to edit/add more (later tonight) because I posted this in the NorCal subforum of BF..........

I really had plans to do the full ride, but even though I brought my saddle & pedals and Chris & I set his bike up to the measurements from my Ruby and Fuji (he rides a 54 and i ride a 52), I had some very serious butt pain. OMG. Even during and after my 200k in April and after AoMM, my butt never hurt as bad as it did during the ride up to the lunch rest stop. I felt great, my legs felt great, but my butt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMFG. Hurt like a mo'fo and the thoughts of riding 45-50 more miles was just too painful to endure. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't do it....Lesson learned from this - either ship your own bike or borrow teh correct size bike.

That being said....the ride was great!! The company was great!! It was so very nice to finally meet everyone. dauphin (John) - baybuh!! You are pretty quiet! Everyone was very strong and I was totally comfortable riding behind/with anyone in our group.   The route was fairly flat with a few rollers (similar to riding in the Wendell/Zebulon area here). After the first water stop, we're going along and all of a sudden, I hear Chris coming up and saying that the next section of rollers was their favorite to ride...and, he started to blow by me!! Curtis jumped on and I was a tad slow to catch the Tandem Train. But, I didn't let that deter me. Down in the drops and I put out a really good sprint to catch up with them. It was an awesome ride up & down those rollers. Butt be damned!! I'm riding this train while I can!

But, unfortunately, my butt just continued to hurt more and at one point I asked Chris & Deb if we had already passed the point where we could decide on the metric or the century. Yes, we had. Damn. OK, well, I'll try to go on, but I'm not sure I can. Oh yea...the Flat Fairy only visited us once on the ride too. So, we finally reach the lunch stop and I have decided to SAG in. Very disappointed because I wanted to do the climbs. Oh well, maybe next year.

I bid farewell to my group, got the car keys from Chris and tried to find someone to tell me where to find SAG.  I was initially told that it would be 3pm before anyone would be able to take me back to the start. Finally, a SAG wagon arrives, but the guy is unsure of whether he just takes our bikes back to the start/finish or does he take bikes and riders??? Yes, you take me and my bike!!! There is another guy wanting a ride back due to bad cramps, then one more with some serious back problems from a previous injury last week (plus his friend). We eventually get it all worked out, but we have to take the route back to the start/finish. OK, whatever, just take me back. Actually, that worked out pretty well because I was able to take a few pictures along the route and wouldn't have to come back for pictures.

We drove up Cardiac and I don't think I would have had any problems climbing it, would have been slow, but I could've done it had I not had the butt issues. Finally arrived back at the S/F, went and found some food (2 kinds of pasta, salad, bread, soda, and an ice cream sandwich) and sat outside waiting on Chris & Deb to arrive. They were about 30min behind me.

We sit outside, finish eating and lo 'n behold if bigbossman=bbm=John and bs=bikingshearer=Rich didn't show up. bbm is better looking in person than his posted pictures.  I was sorta hoping to see that pretty red bike that he always takes pictures with - maybe another time. And, bs is such the BS'r. Had a great time sitting around listening to everyone tell their stories. All great guys!

In the end....I had a great ride at Foxy's, albeit shortened, and I've had a wonderful time out here in NorCal.  I would really love to come back next year, bring my own bike and do the full ride. We'll see....you never know what ole wolfpack will be up to next year this time.....

Slideshow of the ride

Sacramento, CA: Day Three

2009-10-21T09:19:00.003-04:00

Let's see....Friday was a busy day - getting a ride in and getting teh house cleaned up, food fixed in preparation of the Pre-Ride Par-tay!
Not really sure where we rode on Friday, but it was a very flat route through groves of walnut trees and open fields. Even though it was flat, the area around here is very pretty. I could see myself living out here if I ever decided to make a move to CA.

Riding through the walnut groves, we noticed LOTS of walnuts laying on the ground, but not many were close enough to the road for us to take. Being close to the road means they are on the DOT right-of-way and free for the taking. Or so one would think. So, we finally see some which are right next to the road and we stop to gather a few to take back with us, thinking we might offer them at the Par-tay. Well, guess who gets busted picking up walnuts off the edge of the road?? Yep - me. Some guy comes up in a pick-up and tells me to only take what I can eat. Well, duh. Does it look like I have a basket on my bike? No. And, you can only get so many into jersey pockets. And, you know what? They weren't all that good - they were still fairly green, so not too crunchy.

So, we left from there (picking up the walnuts) and headed on into Winters, CA for some lunch at Speedy Eddy's (think that was the name of the place). I wish I had taken some pictures of the town, but didn't think about it. Lunch was a Greek Chicken wrap, coleslaw & ice tea. This was very good and a large portion - so large, that I took half of the wrap back with us. I planned on eating it later that afternoon, but once we got back home, I was hungry - so that was gone pretty quickly.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent helping Deb & Chris around the house - cleaning up and making it presentable to the other guests we were expecting for the Par-tay. On the menu for the Par-tay was ribs, salad, rice, Pumpkin Chip cookies, some beer tasting.....

OMG. Chris can seriously cook! These ribs are/were to die for!! The meat just fell off the bones. Wow....it was a TLO for the mouth! Everything was absolutely great. Diana (Overthere from BF), Curtis & Trisha (don't remember their BF names) were the only guests to make it - others either had something else come up or had to cancel at the last minute. That's ok...we had a great time! Curtis brought some beer and the beer tasting by the women - well, let's just say that was some of the nastiest beer I have ever had!! Yuck. The rest of the food/wine was exceptional.

So, that was pretty much Day Three - another fun and exciting time. Stayed up a bit too late and had one or two too many glasses of wine.

Slideshow of the ride with Chris & Deb Friday afternoon and a couple of pics from the party...
Slideshow

Beau & Ollie having dinner:

Good Beer (i.e. not hoppy!!):

Appetizer:

Ribs:

And, nothing left:

Sacramento, CA: Day's One & Two

2009-10-15T22:59:00.006-04:00

I'm not really sure why I decided to fly out to Sacramento this fall - other than my friend Deb mentioned this very popular century the weekend of October 17th and just said "hey, why don't you come out and do the ride??". I procrastinated a while on registering for the century (Foxy's Fall Century), eventually registered and then it was....ok, I'm registered so I guess I had better see about getting a flight out there.

Tickets for the flight were purchased and I the rental car reserved...I packed Sunday evening, knowing that I always like to unpack and repack again...I'll usually decide to leave items or find out that I need something else when I do this. Tuesday evening was the unpack/repack night and I was also like a little kid waiting on that big vacation, meaning I wasn't very sleepy. I finally went to bed around 1:30am, but getting back up at 3:30am to shower and get ready to leave for the airport 4:20am.

Day One:
Yuck. It was raining Tuesday evening, rained all night, raining Wednesday morning as I drove to RDU to catch my flight. Arrived at the Park 'n Ride lot around 4:50am, caught the shuttle to the airport, checked my bag and then waited in line to go through security. It was now around 5:30-5:40am and my flight was to take off at 6am (sorta long line to wait in too). Once I finally made it through security, I did the fast walk to get to my gate and on the plane. Window seat on an exit row....I like that, more leg room. I was pretty tired/sleepy at this point (only 2hr of sleep) and all I remember about the flight is taking off and landing in Atlanta. It was raining in Atlanta too.

I had to find some food before I did anything else - I was pretty hungry. My next flight was scheduled to take off at 8:25am, we arrived at 7:35am - so I didn't have a lot of time to search out food. Ended up eating a spicy chicken sandwich, fries & diet Coke for breakfast. Another fast walk to catch the next flight, Exit Row/window seat again. 4:48hr flight...slept for about 2-2.5hr, probably somewhere in the middle of the flight and was awake for the last part of the flight. Interesting fact during the flight....Captain told us that we were passing over Winslow, Arizona....a particular song came to mind...

Landed in Sacramento around 10:45am (1:45 NC time), picked up my luggage, got a ride to the rental car agency, picked up the car and headed towards Vacaville, CA. Finally made it to Deb's house around 12pm (had to stop for a drink & some food and a restroom break - I never use the restroom on these long flights...).

After meetin' 'n greetin' both Deb & Chris, getting my stuff to my room, meeting the doggies, they made a grocery list for the next few days and we all went to the store for food. Pizza was on the menu for Wednesday night...OMG...Chris can cook!!! This pizza was great!! Sausage, stir-fried Italian veggies, fresh mozzarella, basil, parmesean...delicious!!! Rounded out the meal with a few glasses of wine. I'm not much of a wine drinker, but so far, I've really enjoyed what I've had.

Deb also made some very good Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies. I'm coming home with that recipe. :) We had a few of those for dessert. That's about it for Day One...I think I finally went to bed around midnight (CA time) and didn't hear a thing all night long.

Day Two:
Well, I slept great last night! Finally went to bed around 12-12:30am (CA time) and slept till 7 or 8am. Felt pretty good when I woke up. Looked out the window after a bit to discover there were wet roads, slight rain/overcast conditions. Uh oh. We had a 30-something mile ride planned for today and we weren't going to let a little bit of rain stop us!!! The plan was to meet Scotty in downtown Vacaville and then head out on the ride.

It's about a 2-2.5mi ride from Deb's house to the meeting place - this would provide a nice little warm-up...I think I brought the Rain Fairy and the Flat Fairy with me from NC! About 10min into the ride, I had a rear flat. No biggie, Chris fixed it in no time. Met Scotty and we head out - into a bit more than a drizzle. Oh well. I didn't fly all the way out here to not ride and a little water, hopefully, wouldn't cause me to melt too much (you know, since I'm all sugar & spice).

Very nice route we took this morning, mostly flat but with a few rollers thrown in - pretty much like riding in the Clayton/Wendell/Zebulon area. It's very pretty out here, a big contrast to the San Diego area where I visited last year. We saw lots of wild turkeys, walnut trees, peaches & apricot trees (farms really), pomegranate & olive trees.

I didn't take too many pictures after meeting Scotty because it started to rain a bit more heavily, didn't want to get the camera all wet, and I was trying to keep out of the spray from the tandem. Not really a safe time for picture taking. I did go back later in the afternoon and drive the route so I could have a few pictures from the route. I also drove up Mix Canyon Rd, which is a narrow route to the top of Mix Canyon. Wow. I think I could make it up to, maybe, just maybe 3 miles, but after that?? I'm not too sure I could go further than that. It is VERY steep after that point. Took a few pictures as I drove up to the top....

Well, after about an hour or so into the ride, the Rain Fairy left us, but the Flat Fairy was in no way done with us. After the first flat at the start of the ride, I had 3 more rear flats with the last one coming as we were HAULING it down the service road of the 505. I have no idea how fast we were going, but I was tucked in behind Deb & Chris (on the tandem) and we were really rolling. Next thing I know, I hear the "whomp-whomp" of the rear tire going flat AGAIN. Damnit. Oh well, Chris get's this one fixed, but is out of CO2 and gets it pumped up enough with the pump well enough to get us back to the house.

Finally back home, we're standing around in the driveway chatting and I hear the sound of air being released...damn. I look at the bike and it's the front tire that has now gone flat! That makes 5 flats for the day. I sure do hope the Flat Fairy feels like her work has been done for this trip! No more flats please!!!

Pics from the ride:
The neighborhood where Deb & Chris live:

Chris & Deb

Mr RR, me, & Scotty (why didn't anyone tell me my glasses were all cock-eyed?):

I think this was the 2nd AND 3rd flat. Repaired the first flat, put the wheel back on and immediately had another flat (patch failed)

The next pictures are from my drive in the afternoon:

From very near the top of Mix Canyon:

A sampling of the very abundant wild turkeys in the area:

After my drive, I arrived back at Deb's home around 5:30-6pm, we hung out for a little bit, then Chris fixed Teriyaki Scallops with fresh veggies and a wild rice blend. OMG...yummy.

So, that was pretty much the day....a little bit of Foo surfin, writing up the days events and then off to bed around 11pm (I think)....

OK....up next will be Day Three, which will include another bike ride and a little Pre-ride par-tay at Deb & Chris's.....

Year-To-Date Numbers

2009-09-19T16:22:00.002-04:00

Just a note about how much/little I've ridden up to now....

Jan - 4 rides, 70mi, 5:08hr (broken thumb)
Feb - 17, 393.5, 23:33
Mar - 18, 501.8, 33:42
Apr - 16, 631.5, 39:16
May - 15, 598.3, 37:54
Jun - 13, 432, 24:18
Jul - 8, 290, 16:30 (bronchitis)
Aug - 7, 387, 22:00 (bronchitis)
Sept - (so far) 7, 319.5, 17:32

Total: 105, 3623.6, 219:53:20

I'm hoping to get 4500 miles for the year, but, we'll just wait 'n see.....

August - September

2009-09-19T15:58:00.002-04:00

Yea, go ahead, call me a slacker...haven't written anything here since the Covered Bridge Metric. But, really, there's not been much to write about. The bronchitis I got in the middle of July pretty much wiped out my riding for that month (8 rides for only 290mi). August had a little more mileage but still a slack month (7 rides, 387mi).

Here we are in September and it looks like I might get something like 450mi for this month. Yay!!! I had a ride planned for today up in WNC (Tour de Tuck), but since I've not ridden there since May and have some kind of allergic bronchitis, I opted to not ride. It was also forecast to be a cool wet day - had no desire to suffer through all that climbing and be wet too. I wish that I could have ridden more in WNC, but circumstances just didn't allow for that.

I've usually just been riding with some of the Hammer guys (Dallas, Cliff, Randall, Russell) on Tuesday/Thursday and Saturday. We usually get in anywhere from 27-35mi during the week and longer rides on the weekend. Today, Dallas and I rode with another friend, Ken, and a friend of Ken's, Amanda. Was to be a 67mi ride and Ken advertised as 20+ pace!! Initially, I wasn't going to ride because of the pace, but talked with Dallas and decided to ride since he was too. Met at Dallas's house and he & I rode from there to the Grocery Bag where the ride started. Very good route and in general, the pace wasn't too bad - 19.7 by the time we rode into Pine Level at 40mi.

Dallas and I ended up with 73.5mi/3:57hr. Not a bad pace - Dallas and I slowed it down a bit with about 8-10mi left and let Ken & Amanda dial it up. Neither of us have ridden that far in a while and when one member of the group attacks EVERY friggin hill, it just makes it hard for the rest of the group. A nice easy spin up the hills works better and keeps everyone together instead of splitting us up.....so - very tired legs and sore ass. I think I'll probably get out for an easy 25-30mi tomorrow morning.....

Oh yea - Dallas, Cliff and I rode our fixed gear bikes last Saturday - Archers Lodge/Wendell/Zebulon/Middlesex/Archers Lodge for only 45mi. That dang 45mi kicked my butt! Pretty hilly. I also had a couple other fg solo rides, a 70mi ride down to the Bentonville area and a 64mi solo ride to Kenly. Good rides.

Covered Bridge Metric

2009-08-26T21:27:00.002-04:00

I had been registered for this ride for quite a while and planned on making a weekend of it...the plan was to get up to Lancaster, PA around 3pm, check-in to the hotel then meet up with some BF folks for an easy social ride of around 18mi. Well, I left the house around 8am, but I had "other" things on my mind and I headed out on I-40W. Where the hell I thought I was going I have no idea (yes I do - I was headed back to G'ville). When I realized my mistake (Jones Sausage Rd) I turned around and headed the right way. For a short time. I get to I-95 and which way do you think I went?? That's right. I went SOUTH instead of NORTH. Sheesh...I should've taken the hint and just went on back to G'ville, but I turned around and finally got headed in the right direction by 9am!!!

One would think that traffic on the weekends around DC wouldn't be too bad. Wrong. From Fredricksburg to past DC, the traffic was awful. Stop. Go. Stop. Go. This was absolutely killing my time and I didn't arrive to my hotel until right at 4pm. Quick check-in, change clothes and hurry over to the Hampton Inn to meet everyone. I brought my fixie for this ride, figuring that 18-20mi would be good on the fixie. I meet 5 or 6 guys from BikeForums, but for the life of me, cannot remember everyone's name....sorry guys.

The Saturday afternoon social ride was very nice...rolling countryside, horses & buggies, cows, corn & tobacco. Big gardens too. I /love/ big gardens & fresh veggies - those reminded me of my grandmother's gardens. No trouble riding the fg either, except one little hill that was a bit steep, had to stand to climb it - otherwise, no troubles.

I was hoping to meet up with one of my good friends (& his wife) from BF on Saturday but it just didn't work out. They were late getting to Lancaster and missed the ride, but left a msg on my voicemail that they made it and hoped to get together that evening. Didn't happen. By the time I got back from the ride, showered, changed, it was after 6pm, long lines everywhere I went to find food, except the Pizza Hut next to the motel. /rolleyes/ Ended up there with some pasta & salad, back to the room and made it an early night.

Next morning I met Phil & Jen in the lobby and we headed on over to the ride start. OMG. I haven't been on a ride where there were so many people!!! StupidlyBrave (Jim) was in the same lot as Phil and I, and we met up with the BF members from Saturday's ride around 7:30am. It was a rolling start from 7:30 on, so we headed out shortly after the meet-up and getting a few pictures taken.

Here are the photos I ended up taking. Not too many because I was riding Steve's wheel and we were rolling! No time to take pictures of the countryside. These pictures are from when we stopped..

ok, a few at the ride start and the first rest stop..Phil & Jen in the orange & yellow jerseys

Steve and another BF guy (can't remember name)

Foo Jersey:

Phil (pgoat) and StupidlyBrave (Jim) to Phil's left

at the lunch break today on the Covered Bridge Metric

a few pictures by other riders:
the first covered bridge

and, Jim brought me a present:
wow....i almost forgot this picture....SB brought something special for me...

Overall, it was a great ride, tons of riders (something like 4100). Lunch stop was great - had Subway sandwiches with the fixins for us. Bad thing though....I sat under the shade tree with the guys at lunch and sat too long. When I went to stand up, both legs cramped something terribly. The outer quad on my left leg and the inner/middle quad on the right. So much pain. I managed to finally get them under control and head out with the guys, but was unable to maintain the pace set by Steve due to my legs.

Jim fell back and rode with me at times, waiting on me at turns and various other spots. I told him he didn't have to do that, but he said it was fine. :) We eventually make it back to the start and despite my difficulties on the last 30mi, I still ended up with a decent average - 63mi/3:45hr/16.8avg. Changed clothes and proceeded to go find the rest of the crowd and have some ice cream!

Later that evening, went out for supper with Phil & Jen to a local brew pub. Great greasy cheeseburger and about half of some kind of beer. Don't remember what it was, but everything tasted great!

Packed up the next morning and headed home around 10am. I initially thought I would try to take a different route home because of all the traffic encountered coming up, but changed my mind. I-95 straight home and in 5.5hr. Very glad to get back home. I think my next vacation/trip will not involve an automobile.....thinking that I'm going to do any traveling on my bike.

So....overall, I had a great weekend but, I doubt I travel 400+mi to do a 63mi ride anytime soon....

Centuries

2009-08-26T21:01:00.003-04:00

I've been pretty lax about keeping this updated. Pretty much all of July, since around the 15th, I was sick, but still tried to get a ride in with the guys on Tuesday evenings. I did the HP&A ride, rode maybe, 1x the following week then jumped right onto a century with the guys for August 1.

That century was really good...four of us riding (me, Dallas, Cliff, & Randall), the route had a little bit of hills/rollers from Dallas's house to Middlesex & Elm City, but we kept the pace reasonable - 18+/- average and I felt good despite my lack of riding. Once we left Elm City, we headed out towards Wilson - made a route around Wilson and headed towards Fremont. Very good roads to ride on, traffic minimal, and what traffic we did have, was courteous.

Weather was good to us as well - overcast for the majority of the day and the temps weren't too high. I hit the wall big time around 87-90 miles into the ride. Yes, I had eaten and drank enough, but I suppose asking my legs to churn out 100+ miles with not much mileage in them was a bit much. Dallas & Randall waited on me and paced me back in until we got on Thanksgiving Rd. They left me then, but I was ok with that - I knew where I was going. Finished up the ride about 10min later than those guys.

Stats (best I can remember): 101mi/4hr40min...

I didn't ride any the following week....too hot, not feeling great. Another century for the weekend was planned though. Same route but we added 2 more people and Randall was out. This ride didn't start out as planned - too fast to Middlesex/Elm City. The 2 new guys kicked the pace up to 20mph average for that 40 miles and it was just too much for me. I felt bad at Elm City, but didn't mention anything to the guys. Somewhere along 50miles or so, I started feeling those familiar twinges in my right quad. Yep, cramps coming on. They were bad.

I made it to Fremont and then finally to Kenly, where I had planned on waiting and having Dallas come back to get me. But, after scarfing down 2 cheeseburgers from McDonald's, I felt slightly better and thought I'd try to make it on back - it was only about 20-25 more miles back to Dallas's house. But, no, my legs were done. I made it to the little church at Old 222 and told Dallas I just couldn't go any further. He caught up with the guys (who had left us - he was riding with me now), but blew himself up in doing so.

I lay on the porch of that church in the shade (very hot on this ride) and cramped like I haven't cramped in a long time. So bad were the cramps they brought tears to my eyes. When Dallas finally made it back to me, he said he cramped up when he got home - rode his ass off to catch the guys...anyways, only made it 85miles in 4:40hr. Once home, had lots to drink and some food, plopped my butt on the couch, legs up, trying not to move much because if I did, my legs cramped.

These cramps were so bad, that on Monday I could hardly walk - the muscles were SO sore. Tuesday was a little better and of course, I didn't do any riding the remainder of this week.....

Hurt, Pain, & Agony

2009-07-25T18:26:00.002-04:00

Well............

First of all, for the month of July, I have been sick with a cold/bronchitis and have not gotten in teh typical mileage i'm used too...only about 250mi, maybe, just maybe, 300mi. Typical mileage for me is 500-600mi/mo. So, I definitely wasn't really ready for this ride, but did it on an impulse....here goes...

The ride started in Traphill, NC, which, per mapquest, was 180mi from Clayton. I went to bed at 10pm last night, got up at 3:45am and was on the road by 4:30am. Arrived in Traphill at 7am. Yes, I was cruising.

Got my stuff ready, rode around for about 20min for a warm up, then went to the start. I have no idea how many riders there were...maybe 200? The ride starts out fairly gentle, but you then make a turn onto another road and begin a 6mi + climb. I had charged my Garmin, but forgot it so, I can't tell you the grade up the climb. There were several sections that I got out of the saddle to climb - just seemed easier to break it up a bit. Then.....the last part of this 6mi climb was a short (but seemed like friggin forever) climb at 18%. I wasn't sure that I was going to make it, but there were people at he crest, ringing the cowbell and shouting encouragement, and I made it!

I rode past these people and pulled off to the side, this " " close to puking. OMFG. I don't think I've ridden anything that hard in WNC, save for the Allison Watts climb, which was a lot shorter than this climb. Damn...now, I really didn't feel all that great. But, those knowing wp, know that I was going to continue on....for a while at least.

After resting a bit, I started back on the ride. Unfortunately, I could really tell that I hadn't ridden much by now. I developed a headache from hell and my quads/hamstrings begin to inform me that they were going to start causing problems. It was also pretty much a solo ride...all the fast boys/girls were WAY gone. That also came into play, in my mind at least...I just wasn't in the mood for a solo ride...

Most of the roads were really good, light traffic, great downhills, beautiful scenery. The temps weren't too bad either. Once I reached the first rest stop, I headed out on the BRP. I riding the BRP. It is a lot different in this area as opposed to the BRP in the WNC area. The vegetation is different, as is the roadway grade. At least for the section I rode on (roadway grade). Did I say that I riding on the BRP?

A couple more turns, more climbing, more solo riding, stopped to take a few pictures along the way, legs hurting, head hurting....I do wish that dang SAG driver had NOT stopped to ask if I was ok. No, I wasn't, but if he hadn't been there, I would have motored on. But, since he did stop, I decided to catch a ride back in. Fark. I have to start riding more next week. No, if's, ands, or buts about it.

So, I caught a ride back to the start, changed clothes, got some lunch and headed on home. I know everyone will tell me it's ok (that I bailed again), but to me, it's not. I'm sorry, it's just not. Feels like major FAIL to me. Guess I need to get my ass in gear and do something about that then....

I may try to do this ride next year and, hopefully, I will be in peak condition instead of being sick. I hate being sick.

Here are some pics from the ride...

Sorry, but, there is no wp smile...that climb hurt!

more pics...(the 18% climb - it doesn't look like it from this pic, but trust me...it was!)

on the BRP:

wolfpack's new ride

2009-07-10T20:13:00.001-04:00

so, i replaced the '01 626 that was broke with a 2010 Mazda3 5dr 6spd....here it is

trunk area:

2009-2010 NCCX Series & Winter Cup Dates

2009-07-10T07:09:00.002-04:00

Oh yea!!!!! This is what I've been waiting on all year...ever since I raced those 2 cx races in January.

I have 2 organized rides left to do for the remainder of the year (Covered Bridge Metric - Lancaster, PA in August and Tour de Tuck in September) and then I'll be ready for cross season! Guess I need to work out some sort of training plan for cx.

Ohhhhhh....so excited!!! :)

Fabulous Fourth Weekend

2009-07-06T20:32:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately, I started feeling bad about the middle of the week (prior to the FF) and progressively got worse towards the weekend. My plan was to go to G'ville on Friday, spend the evening with Hank and get up Saturday morning to do the ride. Felt awful Friday night, several bouts of coughing, trying to hack a lung up, meant that I didn't get a good nights sleep either. I went back 'n forth about whether to get up and go do the ride or not. I knew, just as sure as I didn't go, that I would undoubtedly feel better and then wish I had gone. Then again, there was also the chance that I would go to do the ride and not feel too well as the day went on.

So, I decided to go ahead and do the ride....arrived over in Tryon around 7:15am, went to registration and signed up. Saw the used-to-be friend from WNC and amazingly, he acknowledged that he saw me and said hi. Finished up registration, got the bike stuff ready and then rode off to see if I could find Neal. I saw him near the start talking to some other rider, so I rode over there to say hi and wait on the start. WNC guy rolls up and says he has my t-shirt from the CC ride in TN last month and I just tell him ok. Neal gets the great idea that the riders he sees out on the road (who are actually warming up) are already starting the ride, so he suggests we go ahead and start the ride.

The four of us (myself, WNC, Neal, and Richard) start out at 7:40am and immediately WNC sets out at a pace that I know is much faster than his normal warm up pace. I know exactly what he's trying to do and I just say to myself that he's not getting away with this. Yea, I know....very bad idea, especially considering I'm sick with a chest cold. I knew better than to try and keep up with him, but I couldn't help it. It was that damn ego & pride I have that told me he wasn't going to drop me. I think at one point, I heard Neal say this was a pretty damn fast pace...no shit. WNC didn't drop me until we came to a short little hill and I didn't downshift soon enough and tried to do so while climbing. Not good. The chain became stuck on the big & small ring and cranks wouldn't turn. I had to stop, get off the bike and fix that.

While I'm fixing that little problem, I keep my eye on both Neal and WNC...not once did WNC look back to see if I was ok. Not one damn time. Strike 3. That's all I needed to see to confirm certain things about the so-called friendship. So, I get the chain back on, Richard catches up to me and asks how I'm feeling because he knew I was sick. I tell him I'm sorta ok, not breathing too well and I can tell I'm running out of energy. We ride together for a short spell, then a guy comes around us, just spinning away so I decide to catch his wheel and get pulled as far as possible. We do really well and eventually catch up to Neal and WNC, who appear to be just taking it pretty easy riding and talking. I think "what an asshole that guy is" and when New Guy pulls out to go past those 2, I go with him - not even acknowledging those guys.

I stay with New Guy till we come upon more hills, get dropped, catch back up, Neal & WNC eventually catch us on another climb and I let them ride on past me...I've already expended way too much energy and I'm losing steam pretty quickly. Decide to just finish the ride at whatever pace I can. But, I'm feeling real crappy by now. Sorta lightheaded & dizzy. I manage to get to the first rest stop, refill teh empty bottle and head on out again. I do fairly well, get caught by the group(s) of riders who left at that proper start time, but, I'm unable to hang on to the group. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. Should've been able to hang with a group like that - guess that shows me that I shouldn't have been riding at all on Saturday.

After getting dropped by 2 separate groups of riders, I latch onto the wheel of some guy coming around me and let him pull me all the way down SC 11 and to the first Grunt climb. OMG. That climb was seriously steep. I haven't looked at it on mapmyride, but I bet it's over 18%. Last year, I had to stop, get off the bike and walk up that climb. This year, even as sick as I was feeling, I was determined to ride my bike up this. Success. But, I swear, I bet I wasn't climbing any faster than maybe 3-4mph. It was very hard and took every bit of energy I had left to make it to the top. Once at the top, took a right onto 176 (or was it 276? don't remember) and headed back towards Tryon.

About 2mi outside of Tryon, the route took a left and up another hill. I just couldn't do anymore - knowing I had another Grunt climb and the Watershed climb ahead of me and asked one of the volunteers how far back to town. They suggested that I wait on one of the trucks to take me back, but I decline and ride back to the start. I finished up with 33mi in 2:10hr or something like that. Yea, I am disappointed that I didn't finish the ride...but, I also wasn't really prepared for the ride and was riding sick. Oh well. I have the route and can go back and ride it any time I want to.

I load my stuff up and head on back to Greenville. Spent the remainder of the weekend there - coming home Sunday morning. I've spent a bit of time (on the way home, yesterday evening, and some today) thinking about the remainder of the year, as far as riding. I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to do Roan Moan this year (I'm not ready for it either), that my last organized ride in this area will be Tour de Tuck in September, then I will be getting into cyclo-cross season. Next year, I'll do Assault on Mt Mitchell again to see if I can decrease my time, most likely Tour de Tuck and that will be it for organized rides. It's time for something else. Anyone can go out and ride metrics/organized rides - well, I don't want to be just "anyone". I want to be different.

Different....I really enjoyed the 200k Brevet I did back in April and doing more of those could be in my future. Riding all of the BRP is definitely on my list. What else? Not sure yet....I'm sure I'll think of something and also get plenty of suggestions from others.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This week I'm still sick, but I'm going to get out and ride tomorrow with the friends from IOS in Cary, do the OMV group ride Wednesday (fixed too) and ride with Dallas on Thursday. The weekend - not sure yet, but considering the Cyclepath ride Saturday morning......

Post Caesars Head Challenge

2009-06-22T12:01:00.002-04:00

Well, after that ride, I was really not feeling much love for the bikes. I was tired & sore and the thought of riding my bikes last week was very unappealing. I talked to Andy Sunday evening and told him that I wasn't going to go to TN to ride Cheohala - I just wasn't ready for it, mentally or physically.

The weather helped me out a couple of days the first part of the week with rain, so no riding. I just didn't want to ride. Felt burnt out. I decided (with the suggestions/advice from a couple of friends) that I would just not ride last week, but try to get out over the weekend and do some riding...smell the flowers, enjoy the scenery rides. I broke out the fixie for rides over the weekend.

Saturday, I was up fairly early and took the fixie on a 30mi/1:50hr ride...omg...loads of fun riding that bike!!! Only 2 almost mishaps...first one going over RR tracks - you can't coast!! and the second one was on my first downhill section. The speed picked up quickly and I suppose I became a bit scared of it...losing control...but regained and continued the ride without further incident. The downhills weren't all that bad after I just let my legs go. The uphill sections weren't too bad either - keeping the momentum going, standing out of the saddle for parts. It was actually kind of easier climbing with the fixie on the few upgrades I encountered vs the geared bike. I started to continue on for another hour towards the end of the ride, but thought it might be best not to for the first ride.

Sunday, I didn't get up early enough to ride in the morning, so I had to wait till later in the evening to ride. The wind was also a factor earlier but not so much later. Only rode something like 15-18mi around Clayton - I did entertain thoughts of doing the Saturday ride again, but my legs told me no.

The bike is loads of fun to ride - I just can't believe how much fun it is...I'm entertaining thoughts of doing the Clayton-Goldsboro Century on the fixie....that would be so cool. The fit is pretty good - I do feel a little stretched out and may need a shorter stem, but I'll just leave it as is for right now.

Today, commuted into work on the fixie. I don't know if I looked at my watch (timer) incorrectly when I got to the parking lot, but I thought i read 44mni. If that's the case, that's a 20+avg for the 15mi commute. Hard to believe that. Maybe it was 47 or 48min...dunno...there is no coasting, so maybe it was a fast pace. It won't be that on the way back I don't think.....

Remainder of the week...maybe go do a group ride in Cary with some of the Inside-Out friends tomorrow, commute on Wednesday, Hammer ride on Thursday, commute Friday, weekend not sure...

Caesars Head Challenge 061309

2009-06-15T07:14:00.003-04:00

I found out about this ride the first part of last week, maybe on Tuesday, and decided to go down for the weekend and participate in the ride. I wasn't prepared at all for riding Saturday...meaning, I haven't been getting enough sleep, I didn't hydrate during the week, and I didn't eat all that well - skipping supper a couple of nights after riding because I wasn't hungry....

Well, that proved to be my downfall. This ride was FAIL. I didn't make it to the top - bailed and turned around with something like 4-4.5mi to go. I had already stopped 2x and by the 3x, I knew I couldn't do it, that it was going to take me at least an hour to get to the top. No way. I was hot, tired and cramping. Cramping bad. Someone stopped and asked me if I was ok, no I wasn't...they offered ice - but it didn't help much. When I asked and was told that it was that far to the summit, I knew I couldn't do it.

I know that everyone has told me I did great, but in my books, it's still a FAIL. The Ruby Ride was almost a FAIL too. I've fallen off the Reservation while Andy was gone west and I have to get back on. And back on this week because I have another major ride coming up on Saturday....anyways - back to the ride report...

It started at 9am and was already fairly warm & humid. I started out with my friend Neal, but it didn't take very long for him and the rest of the riders to drop me on the first long climb. I have no idea how long it was, but it was long enough and I was slow enough to get dropped by the main group. I ended up riding with about 4-5 other riders that were going at a pace I could handle. I have no idea what that was because I don't have a computer on the bike. (that's changing this week). It was really a beautiful day and great scenery on the ride.

I stopped at the 1st RS, hoping for some bananas/oranges, but all that was there was fig newtons, Power gels and Power Bars, neither of which I really like. But, I did eat half of a Power Bar and headed on out with the group I had been riding with. The route, best I can remember, wasn't too bad from that point to the 2nd RS. Same food at this one. The temps were getting up by this time - it was around 11am and I was really feeling the effects of the heat/humidity...I'm really glad I chose to carry an extra bottle of water for just pouring on my head. It helped, but not enough.

I drank both bottles of Perpetuem and then refilled with water on subsequent stops. I didn't realize how low I was in P or I would have gotten more before I left Raleigh. I didn't have enough for the whole ride, only 2hrs worth. I was expecting pretzels, bananas, oranges, cookies, pb sandwiches at the RS's, so I didn't really worry about not having enough P. Wrong. I guess being the inauguaral ride, they (sponsors) didn't know what all to have at the RS's.

From about the 40-45mi mark, it started going downhill and not literally. I started feeling the first twinges of cramps coming on in my quads, rode through them, but knew I was in trouble. I finally made it to the rest stop prior to starting the climb and they had oranges!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I ate 3 while sitting in the shade. Filled the bottles up and continued on. Once I got to the intersection of 276 & 8, where the climbing starts, I was really having doubts. First 2x I stopped, I got off the bike and stretched a bit, poured water on my head, got back on the bike and rode on. But, the last time I stopped, I just knew. Knew I couldn't go on. Fail. Disappointment. Upset/mad at myself for screwing up the week prior and not being able to finish. This was on par with the Fabulous Fourth of last year. But, I did finish that ride.

So, I turned tail and descended back to teh campground. Cramping on every little speed bump I had to go over. Loaded the bike up, saw Neal & talked to him a bit, went and got some food then headed to the hotel. I was so damn tired, I didn't really even feel like taking a shower. I don't think I've ever felt that bad. And cramps...did I mention that I had cramps? Yes, all night. The tops of my shins, the tops of my feet, my calves, inner thighs, quads, everywhere you can get a cramp in your legs, I think I had them. Not a great night. Seriously dehydrated because I never went to the bathroom till the next morning. This won't happen again. Nope, not again.

Anyways, that's it. I'll either get back down to that area and just do the CH climb or stay somewhere in Greenville and ride from there and to the top. I have a few pictures that I'll post later.

Redemption Will Occur Next Year:
June 12th, 2010 at 7:30am for the second annual Caesars Head Challenge!!!

New Addition To wolfpack's Stable

2009-06-15T07:08:00.002-04:00

Yes, there is a new addition to the bike stable. I now have six, yes, that's six, bikes. 80's Lotus Excelle, Felt F1x cross bike, Mangusta FG/SS, Fuji Team RC, The Ruby, and the Rossin (need components to build it up this summer). I was offered a deal on a Specialized Ruby Sworks with SRAM Red that I simply could not pass up. I purchased the bike from Motion Makers bike shop in Sylva, NC.

All I can say is Wow!! This bike rides like a dream - accelerates like crazy when you get out of the saddle and put the power to the pedals, descends like a rocket, and smooth as butter ride. What a big difference between the Ruby and the Fuji. It has been great - I've put around 300mi on it already, with the first ride being The Ruby Ride in Franklin, NC on 5/30. That bike is just great! I'll post some pictures later tonight when I get home (can't do it from work) and maybe do a little more write-up...Not much more to say about the bike except it's just awesome!!!!

Yearly Mileage

2009-06-01T20:23:00.002-04:00

Updated my cycling log this evening and here's where I'm at so far this year...

Jan: 70mi/5hr/4 rides (Broken thumb put me out for this month...)
Feb: 393.5mi/23:33hr/17 rides
Mar: 501.8mi/33:42hr/18 rides
Apr: 631.5mi/39:16hr/16 rides
May: 598.3mi/37:54hr/15 rides

YTD: 2205.1mi/140:08:20hr/71 rides

Richland Balsam - 053109

2009-05-31T18:58:00.003-04:00

This morning Andy and I met Neal and Barry at the Pinnacle Ridge overlook to take a leisurely recovery ride up to Richland Balsam on the BRP.

Very nice morning! Temps were in the mid 60's when we started around 9-9:30am...

Despite having some serious butt pain yesterday, I did ok today. Andy changed the saddle on the Ruby to something he had laying around and it was ok...I think I just need to get the butt used to this saddle. Either that or find a seatpost with more setback so I can use the Bontrager saddle.

Anyways....Seems I always start out leading....I did this time, but I made sure that I took it fairly easy, even though I was leading the guys. Barry caught up to me in no time; we rode together for a little bit, then he just dropped me "like that". I didn't even attempt to keep up with him. I might have been able to for a little bit, but it was an 8mi climb and I wasn't going to blow up, so I let him go.

Waited around for Andy and Neal, then the 3 of us rode together to the top. It was pretty windy too and as we climbed higher, it got a bit more cooler. Not cool enough for warmers or anything, but I would not have wanted to stand around for long...

Made a couple of stops at overlooks for Andy to adjust his bike some. I needed no adjustments....just another saddle or butt. I felt really good this morning....determined to not use the 28 cog either. I was always in at least 2 lower. Felt good in that gear too. For a change.

At the last stop Andy made, when we left, ole Neal just passed me like I was standing still...I let him stay ahead of me, not chasing. Yet. I gradually closed on him and when I passed the water spring, I turned it up a bit, as I knew how much farther I had to go. Closed that gap and passed him. Damn. That felt great because I'm never the first one to reach any summit with these 2. They always drop me. Barry was already there, had been for quite a while, not sure of the time 'cause he had no watch or computer.

Took a few pics up there; Andy talked to everyone up there, motorcyclists and the Park Ranger. He knows everyone. Since it was a bit chilly with the winds, we finally told him that we were headed back down. I set off, and just freakin' bombed down that mtn!!! OMG. That bike is awesome. It takes the curves very well. I only touched the brakes at one curve, where a truck/travel trailer was over center a bit. Otherwise, it was "go as fast as you can". I let one car pass me, but about over took them as I started descending again. Gawd, that bike is awesome!!!! No computer, but I bet I hit, minimum 45mph on the descent. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Here's some pics from the ride:
Barry & Neal

of course....the calves

General pics along the ride

Neal says this was an 8% grade per his garmin

The Ruby Ride

2009-05-31T18:56:00.001-04:00

Up here in WNC this weekend to ride the Ruby Ride with Andy & Neal...

This was a very good ride, great route/scenery/support/weather, etc! Got to the start around 8am because all 3 of us had to register. Got that done, bikes ready to go, talked with a couple of people from BF and some of the local people that Andy knew. Met one of his friends, Robin, who ended up riding with us for the majority of the ride.

All 4 of us started off before the actual ride started....we saw cyclists heading out and Mr.-I-Haven't-Ridden-In-A-Month said maybe we should head on out too. Anyways, we do go ahead and leave shortly before the 9am start. I was feeling really good on this new bike. Turns out later to be feeling not so good.

The route covered one of my favorites up there, Burningtown, which has some nice rollers, nothing too terribly hard. Too bad for me...I was setting a blistering pace for the first 25-30mi...that dang bike just wouldn't slow down! I don't know how fast we were going or what pace I was setting because I didn't have a computer on the bike. Need to fix that....

We reached the first rest stop, which was well stocked, and met our friend Barry. How'd he get there before us since we left before the official start??? We've yet to figure that one out. I did miss a couple of turns, but we always turned around very shortly and no one came through or passed us on the way to the rest stop.

Gotta say, this bike handles great! There's one section of Burningtown, that I've totally missed the curve and had to go up a driveway or crash. It's been the driveway the last couple of times on the route...but, yesterday - I made the turn. Just awesome!!

Anyways, we leave with Barry and the pace is still hot. I do ok until we get closer into Franklin....hit some hills, I get dropped and I just can't catch back up. Used my legs all up in that first 30mi or so. I never did catch up to them until the 2nd rest stop at the top of our first "real" climb - Skeena. That climb wasn't really all that bad, even with out of gas/cramping legs.

At the top, I refilled the bottles and ate a pb & banana sandwich, back on the bike for the awesomely fast descent down the other side of Skeena. Coming up next was a climb that was "almost" as hard as the Allison Watts climb. Damn, the road just turned up, probably in the range of 15%, but no garmin, so I don't really know. I managed to make it up that climb, then there was another one shortly after that. Up that one too. Then, it was just rolling terrain back to town.

I missed another turn....I turned in town when I should've gone straight...added maybe 2miles to the ride. Finally made it back, where we had some lunch and then I headed back to the house for a shower and nap while Andy went to his daughter's gymnastic thing.

Very good ride....not sure on the ride stats...~65mi/4hr & change?/~5000' climbing.

Pics from teh ride:
Andy

Andy & Neal

me (the serious, blistering pace setting face on. )

Andy, Robin, Neal

the Silly One

and, i would be remiss if i didn't include the calves that i enjoy looking (when i can keep up with Mr. I-H-R-I-A-M.

Barry and the others

Barry

on the Skeena climb

this was the hardest climb on the ride...it doesn't look like it in this pic, but this was the only one i could get before starting the climb. no way to take a pic and climb at the same time....the grade went UP.

Paris Mountain

2009-05-27T07:14:00.003-04:00

This past Saturday/Sunday, I went down to Greenville, SC to see a friend (Hank) and, of course, I brought my bike with me (I think it lives in the backseat of my car now). Hank suggested that I go give Paris Mountain a try Sunday afternoon before I left for home....So I did...

We started on the "easier climb" side, up, over & down the "hard climb" side in the car so I could get a feel for the climb. Saw a couple other cyclist climbing as we went down to the start. Parked the car, got the bike out, rode down the road for, maybe a minute, then started the climb. Hank followed me in the car, telling me how I was doing and encouraging me along the way.

Of course, Start Fast To Finish Slow wolfpack did just that. *roll eyes* I knew I was starting too fast, but I felt good and it wasn't extremely hard at the beginning. If I *knew* I was starting too fast, why did I not change the way I was climbing? Who knows? Anyways, there were some great views on the climb, wish I had had the camera, but Hank had it taking pictures of me as i rode. There were a couple sections before the crest that were hard, but I pushed on through. Then towards the end, Hank drove on up ahead to wait on me and tell me to keep going - that I was doing great.

It's a good thing he did because this last little section was a bit hard. IIRC, the garmin had 12-16% grades for that last section. Finally made it to the top - 18min later. I guess not a bad time considering how I started and the first time doing the climb. Set a new PR for 20min power (well, guess it's actually 18min, but I could've went for another 2min to get an actual 20min power) - it was 224/218w. Took a little rest time once at the top, then a screaming descent!

It was an awesome climb, even awesomer descent - garmin shows a max speed of 51mph! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :)

A couple of pictures of me before, during, after the climb. (hmmm, seems i can't add the photos while at work...will do this evening...)

Assault On Mt Mitchell

2009-05-20T19:21:00.005-04:00

I left Sunday (5/17) morning around 10:30am, headed towards Marion, to meet up with a few other people to take a chartered bus from Marion to Spartanburg with bikes included. It rained on me pretty much the whole way to Marion, IIRC, and once in Marion, it was a lot cooler than when I left Clayton.

Parked the car at Tom Johnson's, loaded up my bike and bag and then waited for, probably half an hour on 2 other guys, who got lost. *roll eyes* Finally rolled out of Marion around 3pm, arriving at the Marriott in Spartanburg around 4:45-5pm....after the driver got lost 2x. How do you get lost??? Especially when you are using a GPS??? Whatever. Unloaded and went to my room then to pick up my registration stuff.

Wow!! The bike expo was very lacking, compared to last year's expo. Very. And, I paid for a t-shirt, which was no where to be found and all sold out. I did get a refund though. It appears that you can purchase the t-shirts online now through Active.com. I'll probably get one. My friend Neal also rode the bus down, but was staying at the Days Inn down the street. We met for supper, which consisted of penne or bowtie pasta with either alfredo or meat sauce, bread and salad. It was ok, but I sure couldn't eat $15 worth of pasta. Dessert was a banana bread pudding and cookies....chocolate chip cookies. Those cookies were Great!!

After dinner, everyone (the 2 late guys, Neal and I) said our good nights and I went on up to my room. Slept from 9:30-11pm, then up for a little while and back to sleep around 12-12:30am. I set 3 alarms for the next morning. I always have this fear that I'm going to sleep through the alarm and miss my ride! But, I woke up prior to the alarm going off - got a shower, dressed and then had to figure out how to carry everything I wanted to take with me or leave stuff behind in my bag.

Temps on Monday morning were in the high 40s to low 50s, so I opted for the light wool base layer (no vest then) and arm warmers. Packed the knee warmers, vest, hat in the bag. Now - how to carry all 7 baggies of Perpetuem, a bottle of gel, pills, camera, & phone. Should've just left the camera cause I never really had a chance to use it except right at the beginning. I managed to stuff all that stuff in the 3 pockets, headed down to check out and go wait for my wave to head out...

I started in the last wave of riders, at 6:35am or so. There was this cute little guy in a Columbia/High Roads kit...we didn't really talk too much prior to the start, but I decided that I would hold his wheel as long as I could without jeapordizing my plans for my MM ride. I did well at the start - did not "jack-rabbit" out and try to keep up with everyone...just rode easily, getting the legs warmed up good because of no warmers and because that's what Andy would tell me I should do. *smiley* I don't know how far into the ride, but I found High Road and let him know I was there.

We were now in a group of about 40-50 cyclists! And, surprisingly, the group rode well. None of that slowing/accelerating that happened at Burnsville. We were hauling the mail! Blew right by the first rest stop at 22mi in less than an hour. I kept High Roads wheel until sometime around 36-38mi, when we hit the first little hill. Knowing that Marion was NOT my ride, Mitchell was my ride, I had to let everyone go. Hard, but I had to remain focused. You guys (Andy, VV, skiffrun, et al) should be very proud of me! I did it. I Started Slow To Finish Fast. Hell Yes. So, yes, I got dropped around 38mi, but, I didn't let that deter me. Skipped the 2nd rest stop, as I had enough left in 1 bottle to get me to the top of Bill's Hill.

Turned onto the road that leads to BH's, riding solo for a short time, until I hear "on your left". Hearing that, I kicked it up a gear and proceeded to jump onto the back of a 4man paceline that pulled me all the way to the turn up to BH's. It's amazing what a year's worth of riding will do for you and all hte climbing I've done in that year. Last year, I had to stop shortly after starting the climb because I was already starting to get cramps. That climb was hard - last year. This year - meh. Nothing to it. Damn. Do you believe I just wrote that???? Well, it's true!!! It was easy, ok, well, not easy, but not nearly as hard as the prior year. Nor was it anything like CMR, Ellijay, etc...

Stopped at the rest stop to refill bottles. Neal was already there, so I asked how long he'd been there to guage my climb. He said he'd been there only 3-4minutes. So, I guess I'm not really climbing all that bad. Maybe it's just all in my head now. *rolleyes* Neal and I left together, but he soon dropped me. No big deal. Not part of my plan to try and keep up to him. Around 50mi into the ride (where I cramped severly last year), I just went up that climb like it was nothing. How's that??? I hate to keep saying it, but these climbs were just not all that difficult to me....

Rode solo for a while and then, again, hooked up with 3-4 more guys, strong guys. I let them pull as long as they would. I did take a couple turns at the front, but not for long - keeping in mind what Andy told me - let the others do the work for me and get me to Marion....Stopped at the 4th rest stop for my one and only pee break for the day. Neal and I set out, again, hooking up with different groups to help us get to Marion.

I don't know if the guys (or other women) feel this way, but when you realize that you are making the turn that result in you riding 75mi from Spartanburg to Marion - it's emotional. For me at least. I can't explain...it's just, uh, I get a lump in my throat, a tear in my eye, at what I've done. It's awesome!

To Marion:
75mi/4:13hr/17.8avg.
Last year: 4:59:11hr/15.1avg

So, I made it to Marion, keeping The Plan intact. I'm so damn proud of me!!! See - Andy - I can do it...I can listen when it truly matters.

Stopped at the 5th rest stop and filled up only 1 bottle. I was the 500th rider to go past this stop. I sorta left Neal....I was ready to go and he wasn't, so I left him...knowing he'd eventually catch and pass me. I took it sorta easy, spinning the legs out, trying to get a tiny bit of recovery before the climbing on Hwy80 started. I'm so glad that Andy and I went up over Easter weekend and rode 80/brp to MM entrance. It helped somewhat....

I did fine going up & over Lake Tahoma dam, letting more people pass me. I had my own agenda to follow and no one else's. I reached the turn where Hwy80 turns Up...a brief stop to take the arm warmers off, as they were bunched all up around my wrists and seriously getting on my nerves. That was my only stop on Hwy80. Andy had told me, when we did the ride, to not stop at #6 because a lot of people don't make it any further when they stop there. Rode right on by that one.

Oh boy...the last 3 miles up to the BRP were friggin miserable...I seriously had doubts about being able to finish the ride. I was in a world of hurt. I wanted to call someone/anyone/Andy/VV/G'ville guy...I needed some words of encouragement...I needed someone to tell me I could do this, that I could finish the ride. I didn't see how I was going to be able to finish another 15-16mi. I had thoughts of just giving in once I reached the BRP. But, no. THERE IS NO QUIT IN ME. I dug deep and found out that I'm stronger than I think sometimes. My right knee hurt like hell, as did my hamstrings. The hell with them is what I thought. The half miles ticked off...eventually, I came to one of the last hair pin curves and a nice lady was standing there - she told me I didn't have far to go...next turn....there it is....BRP Next Exit or something to that effect.

I made it to the BRP. I stopped for a little bit, ate, probably 2-3 oranges, tried to call Andy, but no service. Tried to call G'ville guy. No service. I made it that far, but I still needed those encouraging words...well, I didn't have them. So, I climbed back on my bike and proceeded to climb the BRP. That was difficult too, but not as hard as I thought it would be. The oranges were kicking in I think. I climbed and climbed and climbed. Eventually, I reached the crest, where RS #8 was located. Legs were still in a world of hurt.

I got off the bike, removed the helmet and just lay on the ground for a while. Oh man, I was so friggin tired. More oranges - probably 3-4 this time. Tried calling everyone again. No luck. 10mi or so to go....you're not quitting now!!! A fast and fun 2.5mi descent then hte last climb to the entrance to MM. Stopped at RS #9 - more oranges. Lots of oranges. Finally, just get on the damn bike and finish!!!!

Started the MM climb and it was as hard as I thought it was gonna be after 95+ miles in my legs. Reach the sign that tells me the summit is 3.9 (?) miles further. I finally reach the Visitor's Center, skip that last RS cause you ride a false flat for a ways, till just past the restaurant, then it's back to the real climbing. I finally see people sitting at the parking lot, shift up, and give it everything I have left, which wasn't much, but I stood out of the saddle and finished strong.

Damn. What a great feeling that is!!! I did it!!!! Hell Yes. I crossed the line and stopped where the lady was tagging bikes. Got my patch, handed over my trusty steed, found my bag and changed my clothes. Didn't even get the soup. Didn't want any either. I just wanted out of those clothes and to sit down. Damn. Writing all of this just brings all those emotions back. I damn well did it. Wooooooooooo-Hoooooooooooo

OK...so I got changed and went straight to a bus. Propped my bag up, laid my head on it, and I think I was out -->| |<-- like that!! Next thing I remember is waking up somewhere headed down the BRP. We took the long route down, not down Hwy80, and didn't get back to Tom Johnson's till a bit after 5pm. I went for food. Two plates of spaghetti. Damn. That was the best 'sghetti I've had in a while! Then, it was the wait on the bikes. Rumors circulated that the bikes were going to Spartanburg!!!!! No Way!!! Eventually, that rumor was squashed, but it still took FOREVER to get my bike. Did not get it till after 8pm. Grrrrrrr. I had a motel for the night in Marion, so after getting my bike, I went straight there and the rest is history..... Marion to Mt Mitchell:
3:57:33hr/28.5mi/7.2avg

Total (per Powertap):
8:11:12hr/103.5mi/12.7mph

Mitchell "Official" Time:
9:08hr

Damn. Would ya look-it that!!!! I had a negative split!!!! Hell Yes Again!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now....would I do it again? As I stood around waiting on my bike, my answer was HELL NO. But, today, two days later, the answer is HELL YES. I have a goal - I have to see if I can beat that time next year. *roll eyes* even if it means waiting on my bike again.

Additions To The Bike Stable

2009-05-16T09:33:00.003-04:00

Yes, I am adding to the stable. I have a friend on bikeforums who had a Rossin frame/fork for sale and I bought that off of him last week. It should be arriving sometime next week. Postal service between the US and Canada for large packages is a bit slow. My plan is to put some vintage Campy on it, but I don't have any parts yet. Watching ebay for those things.

In the meantime, while waiting on this bike, I've been wanting to build up a fixed gear/single speed bike for the longest time. One of my friends at work, who also rides, told me that Ed at CycleLogic had some road frames that he had cut the road dropouts out and replaced with horizontal dropouts. Great price too - $150. So, late yesterday afternoon, I took off for the LBS with the intent of purchasing the frame/fork and other parts for a build. Left with the frame/fork and everything needed to build it up. I got busy last night and was doing well until I cut the chain 1 link short. Damn. Measure twice, cut once. I obviously didn't measure twice. And, ran into another problem...my stem is for OS bars and the bars I have are skinny. Will head over to Performance a little later this morning to see if I can get a shim for the stem and a link put back into the chain. I should be done this afternoon and will just take it for a ride up/down my street a few times.

The work in progress:

I'm Such A.....

2009-05-16T08:49:00.002-04:00

Slacker. I haven't written anything here since Tour de Cashiers. I've been riding, but I haven't done any real training since the week before TdC. So, what have I been doing you ask? Mostly working and getting a few rides in during the week and some longer rides on the weekends.

Week after TdC I took 4 days off the bike - 2 of those days were due to rain, if I remember correctly, and the other 2 days I had other things I needed to get done around the house, so I didn't ride. But, let me tell you...I think that was the longest 4 days off the bike I've had in a while. Thursday after TdC, my friend Dallas called to tell me he was riding and to come on over after work and we'd go for a ride. It was just he and I to start with and we then met up with another friend, Jason, unplanned, about 3-4 miles into the ride. Chose a route that was pretty darn flat - rode for right under 2hr and 38 miles. When we got back to his house, both of us felt like we could have ridden another 38mi. I felt absolutely GREAT!

Friday off, then met another friend, Martin, at the butt-crack of dawn in North Raleigh for a 75 +/- mile ride to Mt. Tirzah. There were about 8 of us (I think - don't remember exactly) and once again, I was feeling really good & strong. Martin has a write-up about the ride - check out the Irregulars blog I'm following...my PT had a distance of 75.5mi in 4:30hr...right at a 17mph pace. I felt fine with that pace, could've probably ridden it a little faster but it was a group ride and I couldn't ride off and leave anyone...especially since I had no idea where I was!! I did have a cue sheet though.

Off on Sunday & Monday.

Tuesday - hmmmmm, called Dallas to see about riding. Met at his house - had a newguy riding with us...4 of us riding and when we leave his house, we always go down Covered Bridge Rd and I will pull out, tuck in low and bomb down the hill. Guess newguy took that as a challenge. I pulled the guys up the other side and to Thanksgiving Rd. Once on T, newguy took the lead and was hauling it - the pace was TOO hot!!! 24-25mph and me on the back hanging on for dear life! I was not happy. I did not want to ride that hard during the week prior to AoMM. Anyways, I made it clear to the newguy and Dallas that the pace was gonna slow or I was peeling off and doing my own thing.

Poor newguy....writing checks he couldn't cash at the end of the ride...by about 18 miles into the ride - he was in some hurtin'. We put the hurt on him for trying to start us out so damn hard. By 31 miles, he was dropped. I was the nice one (usually with the Hammers, if you get dropped on a ride, tough stuff, they (we) don't wait) and waited on him to get up to me and then I pulled him back to Dallas & Russell. Dallas then proceeded to crank it up again headed down Thanksgiving towards Covered Bridge. He held on to that point, but then he pretty much just coasted in. We were finished about 10min when he finally showed up. LOL. Those checks bounced. 36mi/1:45hr/20.5mph pace! Hot, Hot, Hot.">

Took Wednesday off for rest after that Hammerfest. It's really amazing how far along I've come since this time last year. Last year, had I tried to ride with the guys at that pace, I would've been dropped within 7-8 miles most likely. I would have never thought that I would be able to ride with The Hammers and do a ride with a pace of 20-21mph average. I can this year though. Tuesdays will be our Hammer ride, going at that kind of pace - getting stronger & faster as the summer progresses. Thursdays will be our easy ride, knocking the pace down to 18 or 19mph. Damn. I can't believe I'm writing that...last year, 18-19mph would have been about as hard/fast as I could have done.

Thursday - called Dallas to see if he wanted to ride because we were getting some brief showers in the afternoon. Ride on. Randall rode with us on his new bike...a pretty orange & white Project One Trek. Very nice bike. I told Dallas this needed to be an easy ride - 18mph average or so. And, it was there 'bouts that...only 28mi/1:30hr.

Now, we are up-to-date....AoMM is now 2 days away and I planned on taking the 3 days off prior to the ride, so I didn't ride on Friday and I won't be riding this weekend any at all.

See the next post for more...

Tour de Cashiers

2009-05-04T19:16:00.004-04:00

Well....this was a great route to ride and would have been a lot better had it not started raining about an hour into the ride. It was off/on rain, heavy at times, finally letting up after the Cullowhee Mtn climb....

I stayed with my friend Barry in Cullowhee and we got to the start early enough for him to get registered and us to get our stuff together. NealH was there also and the 3 of us started together. There were quite a few riders out to do the ride despite the forecast and the ominous clouds at the start. We get going around 9am - start off with some climbs on 107, trying to weed our way through some of the riders. After one of the short climbs, I spy a tandem! I know how they roll so I moved in quickly because we were starting a descent and if you aren't on the tail end of that when it starts, you're history! We go for a little ways and I see Neal up ahead. I know it will be hard for him to jump on, but I try to let him know as soon as I can that we are smokin' by him! He wasn't able to latch on and I just about got dropped on the descent.

Rolling terrain until we turn up Pine Creek - the first climb of the day. I felt pretty good climbing this one, though I think it had started to rain a bit by then and I had resigned myself to being wet. I lose the tandem on this climb too. Hell, I lose everyone on climbs. Not that I'm dropping them - I always get dropped! I probably could have kept up, but would have blown completely up in doing so. I'm climbing really well though, not breathing all that hard and behind me, I hear this really loud breathing! I mean, huffin' n' puffin'!!! I thought the guy was gonna die the way he sounded. After a short descent, pass by CMR and I know there's one more little climb on Pine Creek. It wasn't bad either. Next up was the awesome descent down Walnut Creek! The rain had made the roads wet and even though I'm pretty confident descending - I take caution when on wet roads. Still, I hit 51mph down WC on wet roads! Damn, bet I could've come closer to 55mph if the roads had been dry.

At the bottom of Walnut Creek, there was a volunteer standing off to the side...I didn't pay any attention to road markings and he didn't give any direction as to turning either right or left. I knew the next climb was Ellijay, so I took a right. Wrong. I was supposed to have taken a left. Maybe if I had, I would have seen a rest stop too. I was looking for the rest stop at Hwy64/Ellijay Rd...there wasn't one! I thought "what the hell?" cause I had about 3/4's of a bottle left for the climb up Ellijay. Not really a problem because I sometimes dump the water on climbs, especially if it's near the end of a ride. (Ellijay is the last climb on the Ring of Fire - so I do dump the water for that psychological edge cause it's not far from the cars once you reach the top). So, I'm stopped at the waterfall where I always stop to take a picture, get the picture and what do you know...here comes Neal and Barry! I ask them where the hell they came from because they had dropped me on the Pine Creek climb. Found out that I missed the turn then. Oh well. Ellijay wasn't that bad of a climb either, but I was soaked and had a bit of water sloshing around in my shoes.

Reach the crest, refill the bottles and start the descent down Tilly Creek. Good grief I was so damn cold. I was so ready to bail, but didn't. At the bottom of TC, made the right turn to head up to the Cullowhee Mtn Rd climb. I think I was zapped by then. Reached the point on CMR where I start the interval for the climb and I knew immediately this was not going to be a good climb. My speed just kept falling. I tried to go harder, but just couldn't. It sucked. And it poured down at times. 9minutes slower than my last time climbing. I think the rain, cool temps, totally wet clothes didn't help either. Descend this to Pine Creek, refill the bottles at the next rest stop and begin climbing again. Only about 10mi more to go, but I'm beat.

The last part of the route from the rest stop to Hwy64 was rolling and I didn't think the climbing would ever end. The mental game was lost now. Every time I saw any kind of upgrade, it was just a struggle mentally to get over it. I told myself I never wanted to see another climb. Ever. I was sick of climbing. And, what the hell am I doing 2 weeks from now?? AoMM. Great. Mental attitude was shot. But, finally reach Hwy64 and had some great riding, one small climb, the rest pretty much descending. Finally get back to the start as it begins to rain ever so slightly again.

Barry & Neal were already finished when I got there. My time was 4:50hr for 60mi and 7000' climbing. Not what I wanted (time-wise), but considering the weather, I guess it's ok. If there's one thing I wish for - it would to be able to climb like these guys. I get dropped on all the climbs. Damnit. I'm gonna work hard this summer to get this last 12-15 pounds gone and hopefully that will help. Other than my sucky climbing and the rain - it was a great day/ride/route. I'd love to come back and do the ride again sometime this summer....

Pictures....

Barry with his stash of food (he carried a pack of nabs, Payday candybar, a Powerbar and who knows what else!)

Of course, my photos would not be complete without pictures of Very Nice looking calves (Barry's):

Just pictures along the way...

Ellijay Valley:

From Cullowhee Mtn Rd.

Mitchell Training Ride

2009-04-26T19:12:00.002-04:00

since i didn't get to make the climb up to the summit on the ride with Andy during the Mini Assault on MM, my friend, NealH, and i planned on doing the BRP to MM the sunday after the burnsville metric.

it was a beautiful day for riding!!! i guess it was around, maybe 80F, during the climb, but i could be totally incorrect....i thought it was hot tho and searched the shade out when i could.

we started at the BRP & Hwy80 around 9:30 or 10am. granted, with somewhat fresh legs, i didn't think it was all that hard on the BRP, but the 5mi up to the summit parking lot was a different story...i thought parts of it were pretty hard, but once past the visitor's center, you get a respite for a little bit....then it's back to the hard climbing. i think i did ok. i'm gonna have to remember how i felt today and for the other climb up 80 in a couple of weeks and just keep telling myself "you can do it" when the real ride gets here. omg. climbing 128 after 90-some miles....i think i'm gonna die....

well, Neal gets his groove on and leaves me on the 128 climb....that's ok with me...once i get up to the parking lot, he's no where to be found. i see that the pathway up to the actual summit is paved....i'm like, what the hell, i didn't ride up this to not go ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP!! wow. the first section, i take standing up out of the saddle. take a short break for a picture, then head up the last bit...all the way to the top of the tower!! freakin' awesome!!!!

here's some pics from today's ride...the climbing just goes on forever on the BRP:

NealH:

32mi/3:06hr....climbing....3500'??....Andy????

Burnsville Metric

2009-04-25T20:18:00.000-04:00

This is gonna be pretty short & sweet, I think....

Started with cool temps, opted for no warmers cause it was going to get up to the mid 80's and i didn't feel like carrying them around. The ride got started around 9am - Andy, Neal, and myself were close to the front but not with the lead group. Those guys were fast!!!

I took off and didn't attempt to stay with either of the guys. Andy had told me not to worry about him and treat this as an AoMM training ride, which it was...hooked up with 2 cuties in green kits from Boone maybe and 2 other guys. The 5 of us were doing well together, taking pulls (I took short ones, remembering the advice of "don't do any work, let the others pull you around") and then we got swallowed up by the group Andy & Neal were in. Probably 30+ riders.

Lots of slowing/speeding up, which I knew was going to happen and I wasn't nearly as concerned about it as last year. Not to say, it wasn't nerve wracking, it was, but I was better prepared for it. I stayed up towards the front of this group until around 36mi, where the first climbs started. Got to this point in 1:30 and at this time, I had a 23mph avg.

Andy and Neal caught me on the climbs, as I knew they would, both passing me. I didn't find the climbs to be all that difficult this year. Last year, I thought they were hard as hell. I eventually caught up with Andy a few miles from Bakersville and we got to the rest stop together. 41mi/1:52/22.5avg.

I felt really good to this point - last year, I suffered and didn't think I was ever going to get to that rest stop. We refill our bottles, and set out to do the climbs on Hwy80. Not anything like it was last year. I was spinning pretty well up some of the climbs too. I started to feel a little on the bad side towards the end of the climbs on 80 - I could feel my calf getting a little tight and when I stood on some climbs, my dang quads wanted to start cramping. but, it was never enough to really cause any problems.

Reached the last rest stop, where Andy was waiting on me...he asked, as I rolled up, if I needed to stop and I said no and kept on going! He caught up with me shortly and I pulled us all the way to the next turn, which took us off of the main, trafficky road and told him he could do some pulling. He comes on by me, says "get my wheel" and off he goes! I didn't even have a chance to!! He dropped me!!!!

So, I didn't bother trying to catch him, I was getting tired, had a headwind, and my legs were not feeling too good. Started to get a serious cramp in my inner thigh, left leg when I was very near the last climb in Burnsville. Managed to keep going and finished about 6min behind Andy.

I am very pleased with how I rode today. 62miles/3:18hr, 3100'+/- climbing. No pictures from the first part of the ride, but if you want to see hte scenery, check out Andy's Burnsville Metric Recon thread on Bike Forums...I do have a couple of pics from late in the ride, but haven't downloaded....later...

Tomorrow, Neal and I are going to ride teh BRP from hte intersection of Hwy80 up to Mt Mitchell. Another training ride.

The Name of The Game....

2009-04-23T20:50:00.002-04:00

was Control and Pacing this evening...

Messed up on the 1min intervals on Monday by not staying in control and pacing myself properly. Fussed at by Andy and Martin about doing this, so this evenings goal was to be in control - show both of them and myself, that I can do this.

Set out with the goal of starting the intervals in the 250w range and increasing 15w or so for each interval. Success!

20min warmup which included a 5min VO2 interval, followed by 5-6min easy spinning then begin the intervals....

#1: 251/96/19.2
#2: 276/95/21.8
#3: 292/102/21.2
#4: 311/95/23.4
#5: 256/99/20.6
#6: 272/96/22
#7: 271/91/21.2
#8: 300/ 93/22.5

The first set was great. The second set was ok until the 3rd interval. OMG. I held it up around 290-something for about 20-25s, but, the burn! I just couldn't hold it. The last interval started at over 300w, but fell quickly. It was SO hard. It was everything I could, including a bit of yelling, to get it back up to 300w after it fell all the way down to 288w. Whew. Kick Ass last set of intervals.

I'm tired now...and was very hungry when I got home....didn't have enough to eat during the day today...

Tuesday Hammer Tempo Ride

2009-04-22T10:21:00.002-04:00

Tuesday was to be a 1hr Tempo ride for me and I thought that I could maybe do this ride with Dallas and the guys, so I called him and left a message...he gets back up with me and says to come on out!

Since I told him I needed to get a good hour of riding in, he sorta picked a route out (we do this on the fly, no Q-sheet) that had nice really long stretches and not very many turns. It was an awesome ride...a good 25-30min warmup and then I took the lead and pulled for only 20min. "Only" 20min because my power was way above what it should've been for a "tempo" ride and I need to learn to control my pace better. So, I came off the front but didn't go directly to the back...sorta just rode in the center of the lane so that I wouldn't get any benefit of a draft from the guys. Pretty much rode like this for the whole hour - those guys taking rotations off the front.

After the hour, in which Dallas & Cliff really cranked it up and did a tempo ride with me, we were in cool-down mode for the return trip. Until the last couple of miles. It was getting on after 7:15pm, ominous clouds in the sky and I don't think any of us wanted to be caught out in any storms. Dallas kicked it up a notch or two on the way back, pulling us along at around 25-26mph! Very easy to sit in behind Dallas and tool along. :)

Stats:
41.5mi
2:04hr

Homeowner Now...

2009-04-21T09:19:00.002-04:00

That's right. I am now the sole owner of my home. I don't usually post much info on what's going on in my personal life, but I'll make an exception (or two)...

It's been a year since the separation started and I wanted/needed to get some stuff behind me in order to be able to move on. Getting the house into my name was one of the final things left to do. I refinanced and took out enough in the loan to pay the ex his half of the equity in the house giving us no more ties to each other...except one more thing....all that's left is getting the D. That should be final by 5/22 and I will officially join the ranks of the single again.

How do I feel about all of this? It's been an emotional roller coaster lately. Up & down, up & down. There were good times & bad times, so it's just been hard...not going to get into all of that though, other than I'm very ready to get off the roller coaster. I'm much more happier, now that things are coming to a final conclusion. I've learned to be happy with myself, that I don't *need* a man around to make me happy. Seems when you stop looking - good things just fall into your lap. :)

OK...that's enough emo stuff...

I'm feeling good too, in that, the weight is coming off, too damn slowly for me, but never-the-less, it's coming off. And, with that comes some attention...attention that I'm not at all used to...oh well, it's nice. :) I may have to go to the closet to find that Big Stick by summer time. :) hee hee...enough...

Later.

My PT Spoke To Me Today....

2009-04-20T19:49:00.002-04:00

And It told me this - "YOU SUCK!" That's right. My intervals sucked donkey balls big, big time this evening. Seems like I'm never going to learn to Start Slow to Finish Fast. Damnit. Way, way too hard on the first one of the first set and just totally blew up for the remainder of the intervals.

Hell, they were so sucky, I'm not even posting them.

Talking to Andy this evening about it and he suggests (same as he has before) that I try to go easier at the beginning and build up to the last interval of each set being the best, i.e. 270, 285, 300+ watts. Oh yea...he also threw in an extra interval for each set, so now, on Thursday, I'll do 2 @ 4x1min intervals. Great. But, I want to get better and he says this will help, so I'll do what I'm told.

Tomorrow is a 1 hour zone 3 Tempo ride (151-182w). Wednesday will be easy spin day, then hit those intervals again on Thursday. I hope they're better than the last ones I've done. Then it's off to Burnsville on Friday for the Burnsville Metric.

Saturday's AoMM Long Training Ride

2009-04-20T19:48:00.001-04:00

Saturday was to be my long ride, 100mi to Goldsboro and back - trying to get in another 100mi ride in preparation for AoMM. Talked with my friend Dallas on Thursday after riding with him and he said that he would ride with me. The Hammers were planning on a 50-60mi ride that morning, so he and I rode with them for almost an hour, to the split for those guys to turn around and us to start long.

There were 8 of us initially in the group and this made for some really good, fast paceline riding. We averaged 21mph until the split and Dallas & I still had that average when we reached Fremont. It's too bad the rest of the guys or at least some of them, wouldn't come with us. It would have been very easy to make this a 5hr century. Oh well, maybe next time, when everyone has a few more miles in their legs besides me.

Once we got to Fremont, we refilled the bottles and headed on out 222E - nice flat straight road and really beautiful country side. Had some wind with us on that stretch, more of a cross wind, but once we turned off of 222 and headed south towards Goldsboro, oh boy! Headwind. This started around mile 35 or so and we had it the rest of the ride. Dallas is a dang workhorse! He wouldn't come off the front and pulled and pulled and pulled.

We got to Goldsboro in 2.5hr (50mi) and then cruised a little bit finding our way through and over to Hwy 581. Into the wind. Still. We took 581 all the way back to 222 and into Kenly, where we stopped for a short break - the only one all day. 72mi in the books at that time in something like 3:45hr. At this point, Dallas had gone further than he has in a long time and was ready to get home and off the bike. I was just ready to get home. I knew we weren't going to get the 100mi in either because it wasn't 30mi back to Rick's house and neither of us wanted to make it 30mi...

So, we left Kenly and headed back towards the house...87mi/4:40hr. I think if we had gone to the south of Goldsboro, we would have had the 100mi, but whatever. Still a good ride. My legs are quite sore today though and I'll probably get out sometime this afternoon to do a "recovery" ride. In the wind no less.

4 more weeks till AoMM....