11 Days

11 days out 'til Battenkill, and I am getting the tingly all over feeling of pre-race jitters before my last few training rides. It's way early to get this feeling, however it does send my level of annoyance to people around me to an all time high.

The training rides of late have been pretty horrible, and haven't left me with much in the tank as far as spending time on here with ride reports. This lack of energy, and the lack of my ability to take photos on these rides manifests itself in an infrequently updated blog. In one of my less than admirable moments the other night I had all forms of mucus leaving my face, and poor Erich was in my contrail. Most unfortunate. With all of the required suffering from these training rides, it is all in the hopes of being with the lead group at this point:



50ish miles in at Meeting House Road, a horrendous climb that is as mentally taxing as it is physically. The ability to see so far and see a wall of a climb ahead of you like this one, especially since the surface is gravel, would make anyone fancy a picnic on the side of the road.

I realize that this is a wholeheartedly "meh" of a blog post, but in addition to actually training, I have some new things on my plate that may require some sizeable changes in my life. The decision weighs heavy on my mind, and I've found myself on more than one occasion, staring blankly at an inanimate object in the middle of a conversation. Pensively caught in reflection and, perhaps, in a new direction. More to come on that subject later, but hopefully I'll get news in the next couple of days that will make it much easier.

CL and Dixie

Fastest CL yet, 22.2mph average. Felt good, aside from a few of the pitches on Petree and Robinhood. Afterwards E and I stopped in to watch some of the crit action at Dixie. I snagged a few photos in the chicane, the B race looked good!

Mitcher in the CLM kit:




Pat Rimron, da Major!:




Richie Nance off the front:

Yard Workzzz

So, off day today. I've decided to put in a decent garden this year in the hopes of growing and possibly canning my own vegetables. After setting up a water catchment system and a compost tumbler, I was feeling all "pat-myself-on-the-back-for-being-environtmentally-friendly-esque."



This all went to pot when I had to drive eight miles to the gas station to fuel up on dinosaur souls for the lawn mower. I started up the lawnmower and my small semblance of having accomplished something today went to the crapper when it spit out loads of blue smoke. Perhaps I should just get one of those old-timey reel mowers?


As an aside, Sunday I decided to hit up Hobby Park to watch some of the SERC race. Good times were had by all...well, most. I snapped about fifty bazillion photos none of which turned out even moderately acceptable. I am still trying to learn our new camera...it's a process

CLM/Saddleblock man, Brad!!


Dude. leaning.

Recovery Ride

On the docket: recovery, stupidity, and hilarity. A great first day of spring was spent on the bike, enjoying the sixty-ish degree weather and some of the quality roads here in the western Piedmont. I got hungry about halfway through the ride and decided upon a little snack:



CLM AHTBM VSPORT supporter Kristin A.K.A. the Bicycle Spaniard gave Erich this as a gift, I think it will serve as an apt reminder that when we do the 'kill we'll have supporters cheering us on! What should we name her....him....it?

Hamstring Bedlam

Plans fell into place to do a pre-ride of the Boone Roubaix. E and I did this last year with the CLM, but this year we were joined by Stack from PRP. After meeting in the wee hours of the AM (read: 715) Erich and I headed up towards Boone. We had planned on getting there around 9, but came rolling in in the anemic 4cylinder around 830. Stack promptly greeted us with his two hound dogs (one of which was in the cone of shame). After getting kitted up, we were off. We quickly hit our first dirt/gravel section and Erich and I both had bottles abandon ship. Thoroughly ejected. About seven or eight miles in things started to look vaguely familiar from last year's course, but not before we had gotten in another section of gravel. After rocking most of the course, we stopped in at River Girl to refill bottles.

After stopping in at River Girl we rode most of the smaller loop again before heading back towards Stack's place. We opted for a bit of a different route and headed down Dell Coffey Road. If you are ever riding in Boone and have a near constant cache of grit in your teeth from your yearning to ride gravel, hit this road. It's no joke. E and Stack dropped down this thing like they were anchors. We regrouped at the bottom, which means, basically I unpuckered my hind end and caught up with them on the flat, and headed back towards Boone.

The three of us kept the pace pretty hot for the entire morning, and true to form, Erich and I were both hurting in the same spots along the course. He had mentioned in his blog that he noticed that we have been having some examples of the effects of training symmetry.
E shaking out some of the lactic acid in the hopes of not cramping:

We finished with about 45-50 miles and probably around 4ishK feet of climbing. Needless to say, with the vagaries in the previous sentence, I not only forgot my heart rate monitor, but also forgot to charge the GPS.



Post ride hilarity ensued at Black Cat Burritos when I had a massive hamstring cramp in front of the whole place. Normally, when experiencing one of these cramps, I would liken myself to a woman in labor. I would typically sputter a few words, fall to the ground and weep while making my legs entirely rigid. So as not to embarass everyone in the place, least of all myself, I decided to man up and fight it off. I think I heard thunder and saw lightning as I fought to stave it off, but to no avail. After about three or four minutes of misery, gnashing of teeth, and sweating the cramp finally subsided and I got to finish my food. This was all much to the amusement of my compatriots. Loving every minute of it!

PNW Redux

So, Lisa and I are back from our adventures in the Pacific Northwest. If only the weather were slightly more acceptable, I think we would seriously put in some consideration of moving there. Portland and Seattle are both vibrant communities of a pretty fit populace that seem to enjoy being outside in spite of the weather. Incredible restaurants, great parks, mass transit, cycle culture are all in abundance. I put together a little compilation of some of my favorite photos out of the over 800 we snapped while there. Scenes are from the aforementioned cities, but also include the Hoh rainforest in Olympic National Park, La Push beaches in Washington, and a couple of here and there places on the peninsula.

Skyline Drive

Well,I have finally arrived on the west coast after some massive debauchery by the airlines at O'Hare. Chris and I enjoyed a ride yesterday on Skyline, and had just a few glimpses of the mountains in the distance. I'm hoping that today will be more clear and will better allow me to get some quality photos.

Cattle and Rottweiler

Four legged animals seemed to be the theme of today's training ride. I left the house reluctantly this afternoon, knowing that I may miss a special delivery, but thankfully, Lisa was around to sign off. More on that later.

The schedule for the day was to ride 30 miles at 21-21.5mph with some rolling hills. The route was planned, so I mounted up and took off. After only about two miles on the road, I ran into my first four legged friend of the day, a speedy, but cool dog. He met me at the side of the road and ran alongside for about 50 yards at a dead sprint. The mutt looked to be having a ball trying to hold on, nothing malicious, just playful. I continued on the route, tagged the high point on Flint Hill and started on my way back. Little did I realize I was being helped along by a tailwind on the way out, but I definitely felt the headwind on the way back. At the turnaround I had a solid 21.6 as my average.
The turnaround with Sauratown Mountain in the distance:



The wind hit me hard on the way up Yadkinville after crossing the river. It was definitely a low point on the ride. Onto Vienna-Dozier and the climb up my average had dropped to 21.0. Crap. I knew the climb on Seward might drop my below coach's goal for the day, but I was burying myself trying not to let it dip below 21. By the crest of the climb, I was at 20.9, and wanted to headbutt my handlebars. The Seward climb kept it right at 20.9, so I hopped over onto Balsom since it is so smooth to try to re-up my speed. I hit the 30 mile mark at 21.0 even. Fantastic, I met the goal!

Cool down:


The other part of my four legged friends tonight involved some cattle that were loose on Seward road. I had been charged by a bull in that area one day while driving. (He very nearly hit the truck). So I had to crank it thinking about a 2000 pound mean as crap bull hitting me, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. Right before the end of Seward on my cool down a nice fat Rottweiler came out to greet me. I had just enough legs left to outrun him, plus his extra 20 pounds he was carrying didn't hurt my cause.