Well, "that" time of the month now. I hate this time. I'm bitchy, bloated, and just "ill" in general. Just don't talk to me. I can't even ride tomorrow because I won't feel like it. But maybe Friday will be a little better. If it is, I'm gonna do some farkin' 8min x 3 intervals in my zone 4.
There's no actual group ride scheduled for Saturday. I've been trying to find people to ride with, to no avail. May just end up doing the Frostbite Tour 63mi route by myself or maybe JayC will ride with me.
I did register for the Frostbite Tour and Raven Rock Ramble today. Also printed out the registration for the Burnsville Metric.
Well, after looking at the projected forecast, it appears that I will not be riding on Friday (intervals) as it's supposed to be raining. I haven't heard anything about group riding yet for Saturday, so I may just do the intervals Saturday morning and get in about another hour's worth of riding and call it good. I guess I won't ride with the "hammers" Saturday either as BWNC says it's just not part of my plan right now and I know he's right. But, dammit I want to. Hold on girl!!! Look at the big picture and what you want to do this year. Remember Assault on Marion is the priority here!!!!!!!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Mid-day Ride
Wow! It was a beautiful day here in NC. One of my riding partners asked me over the weekend whether I might want to ride today. Of course, the answer was yes!
I left work around 10:30am and arrived at Jay's house around 11:15am. The wind was blowing steadily at about 12mph, but the sun was out and the temps around 75F! We head out down Hwy 50 towards Benson and usually I have trouble holding his wheel on the climb up 50. Not today. Not on any grade we hit today. Yay!
Anyways, we go down Old Fairground to some other road to the right that is nothing but climbing until Johnson CoLine road. Cross this heading into Harnett county. This road we are on is terrible...bumpity, bumpity, bump. Finally end up at a little store that's just off of the normal route we take. We never new about it! It will be added to our Benson/Coates route as a 3rd stop. Sorely needed at times.
By this time, we're close to an hour into the ride and I'm finally starting to feel better. Didn't feel bad, but it takes me a while to get warme up. Jay did most of the pulling up till now. I did a lot after the store stop. With him riding behind me, I always feel the need to go as hard as I can for as long as I can. Not necessaryily the best way to train, but that's just the way it is with us. HTFU.
We had one more short stop just off of Hwy 1010 before heading back to his house. Great ride today! Our overall stats were 34mi/2hr ride time. I unfortunately, went home, took a shower and went back to work!
***off topic***
My son had exams today - Spanish & English. He thinks he passed both, especially Spanish, since he was not doing well in there lately.
************
I left work around 10:30am and arrived at Jay's house around 11:15am. The wind was blowing steadily at about 12mph, but the sun was out and the temps around 75F! We head out down Hwy 50 towards Benson and usually I have trouble holding his wheel on the climb up 50. Not today. Not on any grade we hit today. Yay!
Anyways, we go down Old Fairground to some other road to the right that is nothing but climbing until Johnson CoLine road. Cross this heading into Harnett county. This road we are on is terrible...bumpity, bumpity, bump. Finally end up at a little store that's just off of the normal route we take. We never new about it! It will be added to our Benson/Coates route as a 3rd stop. Sorely needed at times.
By this time, we're close to an hour into the ride and I'm finally starting to feel better. Didn't feel bad, but it takes me a while to get warme up. Jay did most of the pulling up till now. I did a lot after the store stop. With him riding behind me, I always feel the need to go as hard as I can for as long as I can. Not necessaryily the best way to train, but that's just the way it is with us. HTFU.
We had one more short stop just off of Hwy 1010 before heading back to his house. Great ride today! Our overall stats were 34mi/2hr ride time. I unfortunately, went home, took a shower and went back to work!
***off topic***
My son had exams today - Spanish & English. He thinks he passed both, especially Spanish, since he was not doing well in there lately.
************
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Sunday Afternoon on the Clayton Bypass
Well, it was a beautiful day today and I asked the SU if he had much planned for today or wanted to do anything...not really was the answer, so I said that if it was ok, I was gonna ride some this afternoon....didn't say no, so...
I emailed my riding friend Jay, and asked him if he was interested in riding today? He said yea and suggested that we try out the Clayton Bypass. 2 lanes in each direction, unopened, no traffic. This route is simply all rolling terrain and didn't seem to have any flat sections. But, I did fine. It was really nice to ride with Jay again as we haven't ridden together in quite a while. Last year this time, we seemed to ride every weekend and even some during the week.
He's encouraging me to play hooky from work on Tuesday....it's supposed to be around 74F! I most likely will and we'll probably do the Benson/Coates route, about 50-55mi. It is a rolling to hilly route and is the route on which I got hurt last year.....Anyways..
I emailed my riding friend Jay, and asked him if he was interested in riding today? He said yea and suggested that we try out the Clayton Bypass. 2 lanes in each direction, unopened, no traffic. This route is simply all rolling terrain and didn't seem to have any flat sections. But, I did fine. It was really nice to ride with Jay again as we haven't ridden together in quite a while. Last year this time, we seemed to ride every weekend and even some during the week.
He's encouraging me to play hooky from work on Tuesday....it's supposed to be around 74F! I most likely will and we'll probably do the Benson/Coates route, about 50-55mi. It is a rolling to hilly route and is the route on which I got hurt last year.....Anyways..
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Ramblings...
Just a bit of rambling....SU got the complete Led Zeppelin cd set today. It was like half price from Amazon the other week. We listened to some of that while fixing supper tonight. It is pretty good. I have XM, so for the past 2 days, in my car and at work, I have been listening to XM59, which is nothing but LZ, Page/Plant music along with some commentary.
Now, we're watching the Carolina Hurricanes play St. Louis Blues. They're losing at the moment. We have had half season tickets for 3 years now. Not sure what we'll do this year. I know we'll probably get them again, but I could use my longevity check to pay for part of the trip to Colorado in July.
May add more later this evening or tomorrow...........
Well, not much going on the next day (Sunday, Jan 6). Reading the newspaper in the AM, to BJ's for some chicken breast & thighs, stuffed pork chops. I had an afternoon ride and the SU was home playing on the xbox & reading. Kid home being lazy & studying for exams next week...
Now, we're watching the Carolina Hurricanes play St. Louis Blues. They're losing at the moment. We have had half season tickets for 3 years now. Not sure what we'll do this year. I know we'll probably get them again, but I could use my longevity check to pay for part of the trip to Colorado in July.
May add more later this evening or tomorrow...........
Well, not much going on the next day (Sunday, Jan 6). Reading the newspaper in the AM, to BJ's for some chicken breast & thighs, stuffed pork chops. I had an afternoon ride and the SU was home playing on the xbox & reading. Kid home being lazy & studying for exams next week...
Metric Century Today
Well, I planned on doing a group ride this morning, which started in Wendell and would be 51miles. I wanted to get at least a 100k of riding in today, so I thought that I would park about half ways between my home & Wendell and ride there, do the ride, and then ride back. That would have given me around 68miles. Well, when I get to the ride, most have bailed on the 51mi ride to the 39mi ride. That was ok with me - just meant that I would have to ride a little extra at the end.
The route is really nice, not a lot of traffic with rolling terrain. I think the Ring of Fire ride really helped me, if not physically, mentally. The last time I did this ride, I was dropped on every hill, then struggled to get back with the group. This time, tho, I attacked just about every one of the hills, standing out of the saddle to climb them. I was amazed at how much easier they seemed to be.
Arriving at the rest stop, the 5 that I was riding with had an average of around 17.1mph. But, upon leaving, we had the wind in our face and it proved to be a strong one. All went well on the return trip and once back to Wendell, I said bye and headed back towards my car. This return trip was a bit harder due to being solo and the wind. My hamstrings also started to tighten up and feel really uncomfortable. I had eaten about 6 gels during the ride, but stopped at a store for a Baby Ruth bar & a Coke since I was feeling slightly worn out. I took a little longer route back because I really wanted to get the metric in and I still had to ride on past my car....I had 60mi at the car, so rode 1.5mi past and then returned. I'm pretty proud of myself....the longest I have ridden in quite some time.
Once home, a long, nice hot shower and a shave and I felt a lot better. Did my stretches for the legs...those felt great. Had a beer and discussed supper with the SU. We wound up going to Lowe's Food for steaks, tuna & a couple of beer. Supper was great!!
Now, I've been searching for flights to Denver, CO so that I can ride the TBP in July. Haven't found anything yet, well, I have, but have to discuss with SU before I purchase either 1 or 3 tickets. If I go, I'm planning on going out the 9th and returning the 15th or 16th. I really think I can do this ride. And, I'm really looking forward to the ride!!! I hope I get to do it.
Tomorrow will have to do a short easy ride:)
The route is really nice, not a lot of traffic with rolling terrain. I think the Ring of Fire ride really helped me, if not physically, mentally. The last time I did this ride, I was dropped on every hill, then struggled to get back with the group. This time, tho, I attacked just about every one of the hills, standing out of the saddle to climb them. I was amazed at how much easier they seemed to be.
Arriving at the rest stop, the 5 that I was riding with had an average of around 17.1mph. But, upon leaving, we had the wind in our face and it proved to be a strong one. All went well on the return trip and once back to Wendell, I said bye and headed back towards my car. This return trip was a bit harder due to being solo and the wind. My hamstrings also started to tighten up and feel really uncomfortable. I had eaten about 6 gels during the ride, but stopped at a store for a Baby Ruth bar & a Coke since I was feeling slightly worn out. I took a little longer route back because I really wanted to get the metric in and I still had to ride on past my car....I had 60mi at the car, so rode 1.5mi past and then returned. I'm pretty proud of myself....the longest I have ridden in quite some time.
Once home, a long, nice hot shower and a shave and I felt a lot better. Did my stretches for the legs...those felt great. Had a beer and discussed supper with the SU. We wound up going to Lowe's Food for steaks, tuna & a couple of beer. Supper was great!!
Now, I've been searching for flights to Denver, CO so that I can ride the TBP in July. Haven't found anything yet, well, I have, but have to discuss with SU before I purchase either 1 or 3 tickets. If I go, I'm planning on going out the 9th and returning the 15th or 16th. I really think I can do this ride. And, I'm really looking forward to the ride!!! I hope I get to do it.
Tomorrow will have to do a short easy ride:)
Friday, January 4, 2008
1st Week of the New Year
Well, this has seemed like a really long week for me. I sure wish that I could have taken this week off as well and just started the New Year on a complete week. It wasn't really that bad, just seemed long for some reason.
I didn't ride any after the New Year Day's ride because the temps did not get out of the 30's(F) for Wednesday and Thursday and included very strong winds. This made the windchill probably around high 20's to low 30's. No ride today either, tho one was planned. I stayed up too late last night and overslept this morning, so nothing was ready to ride. And, I am out of Chocolate Gu. I had to find some from somewhere, so I did this during lunch. Performance is still out of stock in the store:(. The Spin Cycle had an opened box with 10. I bought all of them! Will probably use 3/4 of them on tomorrow's ride.
So, I would write more about general life, but it seems pretty boring to me. And, you never know who will be reading the blog, so I wouldn't want to write something that might, ummm, be read by the wrong people and taken the wrong way.
I'd like to do some traveling, maybe this year or next year, to other parts of the US to meet and ride with other BF members. VegaVixen is talking of going to Cali when BWNC does so that we can have a Suth'un Invasion! That sounds good, but I'm not all that sure I can do it this year. I had thought about doing the Triple Bypass out in Colorado, but BWNC thinks I should wait till next year and get more mountain training "under my belt" so to speak. But, I think I could do the ride if I trained for it - the only thing is, you can't train for that elevation around here. We max out at 6500'+ and I think that ride starts at that elevation and goes past 10,000'.
Tonight, I'm going to attempt to make the pasta puttanesca that BWNC fixed me & Jason last week. I hope the family likes it. It has olives in it and the SU and son don't like them. Why is it that they (SU) are not very willing to try new foods??? Basalmic vinegar? Forget it. I say the hell with it. I'm gonna start fixing things that I like to eat and they can either eat it or fix something else. This should be good for carbs for my long ride tomorrow.
Looking to ride around 60-65miles. Gonna ride 8mi to the start of the ride, do the 51mi ride, then ride 8mi back to my car and drive home. We're starting a little later (10am) due to the chillier temps forecasted at 9am. I have to get to the point where I can ride for at least 75mi and produce 2400kJ of work in order to be able to do the Assault on Marion ride. Plus, this will help me ride my first century on February 23 at the Frostbite Tour. Anyways, I'm tired of typing now:)
I didn't ride any after the New Year Day's ride because the temps did not get out of the 30's(F) for Wednesday and Thursday and included very strong winds. This made the windchill probably around high 20's to low 30's. No ride today either, tho one was planned. I stayed up too late last night and overslept this morning, so nothing was ready to ride. And, I am out of Chocolate Gu. I had to find some from somewhere, so I did this during lunch. Performance is still out of stock in the store:(. The Spin Cycle had an opened box with 10. I bought all of them! Will probably use 3/4 of them on tomorrow's ride.
So, I would write more about general life, but it seems pretty boring to me. And, you never know who will be reading the blog, so I wouldn't want to write something that might, ummm, be read by the wrong people and taken the wrong way.
I'd like to do some traveling, maybe this year or next year, to other parts of the US to meet and ride with other BF members. VegaVixen is talking of going to Cali when BWNC does so that we can have a Suth'un Invasion! That sounds good, but I'm not all that sure I can do it this year. I had thought about doing the Triple Bypass out in Colorado, but BWNC thinks I should wait till next year and get more mountain training "under my belt" so to speak. But, I think I could do the ride if I trained for it - the only thing is, you can't train for that elevation around here. We max out at 6500'+ and I think that ride starts at that elevation and goes past 10,000'.
Tonight, I'm going to attempt to make the pasta puttanesca that BWNC fixed me & Jason last week. I hope the family likes it. It has olives in it and the SU and son don't like them. Why is it that they (SU) are not very willing to try new foods??? Basalmic vinegar? Forget it. I say the hell with it. I'm gonna start fixing things that I like to eat and they can either eat it or fix something else. This should be good for carbs for my long ride tomorrow.
Looking to ride around 60-65miles. Gonna ride 8mi to the start of the ride, do the 51mi ride, then ride 8mi back to my car and drive home. We're starting a little later (10am) due to the chillier temps forecasted at 9am. I have to get to the point where I can ride for at least 75mi and produce 2400kJ of work in order to be able to do the Assault on Marion ride. Plus, this will help me ride my first century on February 23 at the Frostbite Tour. Anyways, I'm tired of typing now:)
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Starting Off 2008 With A Ride
Beautiful day here in NC, tho, just a bit windy. I started the year off with a 39 mile ride from teh local shop, The Spin Cycle, around Lake Jordan. There were a lot of fast riders there, but I was not there to "hang" with the fast riders. I was there to just ride and stay in Zone 2.
Wind was a little difficult at times, pretty much in my face until we turned onto Martha's Chapel Rd. Then some tailwind, then cross winds, head winds, etc...It was a really good ride - all the "hills" I encountered were nothing compared to my Ring of Fire ride. Anytime I thought it was hard, I just remembered Cullowhee Mtn Rd, and those thoughts were gone.
So, unlike last year or the year before where I didn't do anything on New Year's Day, this year, I rode my bike!!!
Wind was a little difficult at times, pretty much in my face until we turned onto Martha's Chapel Rd. Then some tailwind, then cross winds, head winds, etc...It was a really good ride - all the "hills" I encountered were nothing compared to my Ring of Fire ride. Anytime I thought it was hard, I just remembered Cullowhee Mtn Rd, and those thoughts were gone.
So, unlike last year or the year before where I didn't do anything on New Year's Day, this year, I rode my bike!!!
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