West End Sledding

Lisa and I made our way tenuously to Erich and Jills last night for some sled riding. We stopped at a bunch of stores to try to find a sled, but no dice anywhere! So I called Erich, and he scored one from his neighbor Kristin (Thanks Kristin!). After relaxing/shooting the breeze at Chez Grant, we headed over to Reynolds High. Awesome view of the skyline while sledding:

(Jill and Lisa heading back up the hill after a run)

Zable, their 95lb lab, came along for the fun. At one point, Erich had the brilliant idea to have him act as a sled dog...they were HAULING down the hill!

(MUSH!)

We explored some jumps



And we wandered around for a while and explored a few other hills. We finally ended up on Georgia Ave. Sheet of ice sledding down a steep road was most excellent, wish I had gotten some photos of Erich or I, but alas. After hitting up some of the best the West End has to offer, we headed back over to their house and watched some X-Games. Great night, thanks Grants!

Snowing

So, 8-15 inches of the white stuff for tomorrow. I can feel a hike coming on. Death march style.

Oh, and I registered for the 6 Hours of Warriors Creek tonight. April 3rd, 2010...giddyup!

Therapy

A bike ride is always my best form of therapy...well, that and the primal scream. Either way. I met up with CLMers Mitch, Chancey, Sirena, Scotty, Whitney and Erich. Along for the ride was CLM guest rider Rip. We met up at the old shop, and rolled out.

The route for the day was CC>shallowford>Wyo>Shallowford(C-H?)>Old Stage>Watkins>and back! On the way out, the group splintered a little bit after heroic pulls from Whitney and Rip. We regrouped at the church and decided to break up a bit. Whit, Rip, Erich and myself rolled out and went to Wyo and Powerlines climb. On Wyo, I managed to drop myself after pulling too hard and too long on one of the climbs, and found myself wagging off the back. Erich came back, fetched me up, and pulled me back. When we made the loop back to Shallowford (if it is still called shallowford at that point) and decided to hit the Powerlines climb. Along the way we picked up one of Pacelines customers Laurent. He sat in with us for a while as evidenced below.

On the way up the climb, I went out front for a bit only to be caught by Whit and Erich. Towards the end of the climb, it dumps back out onto Shallowford, so there is always a sprint. Erich took off, I tried to swing around, but ran out of gas. And, on top of that, that burnt what felt like my last match...and we were a ways away from the shop. As we got up to the stop sign, the remaining Mafiosas rolled past. With a little coaxing we were back in with them, and rolled back to Lewisville together. Regrouped in Lewisville. Scotty makes mention of calling Erich "E-pain." There was another comment that the pain he can make one endure is the stuff of legends. I said he was like a Unicorn. sweet. Erich took off, hearing this conversation and I decided to grab his wheel. The pain was on for the last 4 or so miles back to the shop. Much fun was had by all, it was good to get out on my bike and take my mind off of things. Thanks for riding!

Oh, and no, Erich was not drunk for the ride, he only looks it afterwards.

Goodbye

Had to say goodbye to my best friend tonight. Not much else to say but that I will miss her companionship. She was an incredible dog.

Registered

Well, I officially registered for my first road race. Seeing as I've only been riding a road bike for about a year and a half, I'm kind of on edge about what to expect. I signed up for the Wolfpack Classic in Raleigh on February 13th. It sounds like the course should be to my liking, as included in the descritpion is, "some short steep climbs." Climbing is about my only strong suit (relative) on the bike, so maybe this will work to my advantage. The Cat4's and 5's will be lumped together in this, and knowing the cat4's I ride with, it will definitely be a painful experience if I am to hold onto the lead group. Less than a month away, we'll see if I have what it takes to hang!

Coyote Ride

Cool event of the night: seeing a Coyote cross the road. It stopped in a field, probably only about 30 yards to my right. He just chilled and watched me ride on past. About the time that I got past him, he turned and ran off into the woods. It's always encouraging to see wildlife in the area. It's pretty often I can hear their calls at night here at the house, but this is the first I've seen of them. I remember the first time my brother came to visit we were bringing in his bags and we heard them, loud and clear. Anyways, the ride this evening had me sticking mostly to roads I am very familiar with. Over towards the river, down towards Winston (notable climbs Kilmurry Hill and Spicewood) and back up to my area. I was watching my heart rate, keeping a mental note of where I was in compared to my zones. I did have a few zone 5c climbs. Standing in the big ring on Spicewood put my HR up to 198. Interesting. Avg. HR 169

My goal wasn't really aimed towards any HR zone or anything like that, I just wanted to push myself far past my comfort zone. Mission accomplished. I rode for over an hour at about a 19.7mph average. With some decent climbs, I am pretty pleased with my performance.

Photos from the day:
Crusing on Balsom

Little riser on Balsom



I've been seriously considering vandalizing this sign, and renaming the road "Kilbarry Hill"


Be intimidated all you Cat6's out there, it's on this season. That's right.

Mmmm, Lacticcccccy

Order of the day: Lactate Threshold test. Erich's coach (and wife) Jill had some plans for him for the day. A simple test to hash out heart rate zones for interval work. The test is straight-forward enough, but packs a wallop of a punch in a twenty minute ride. The idea is to ride as hard as possible for 20 minutes...that's it, that's all...sounds simple! I nearly threw up. Not simple at all. at all. Though it was tough, it was good to get some concrete numbers for training. Now I know exactly what all my heart rate zones are, and can adjust my intervals accordingly. After we finished up, we headed back over to Chez Grant to change. West End Cafe seemed a fitting place to get some lunch and crunch some numbers. Thanks to Coach Jill for taking the below photos, and egging us on towards our goals! Thanks Erich for pushing me along too, you guys are awesome!

Erich, absolutely murdering it!




Me enjoying some suffering...




Post ride...

Little 500 Fantasy Team

I was perusing around on the interwebs today and found this rather intriguing website. The premise is much the same as fantasy football, but it involves the little 500 bike race at Indiana University. The incentive to win a gift certificate to one of the coolest bike shops I've been to is motivation enough!

Powerlines

I was talking to Erich last night trying to decide to go ahead with the original plan of riding from my house, or hop in on the ride the rest of the CLM was doing. Seeing as Scotty will be moving to Spain in a few weeks, we wanted to make sure to get to ride with him today. Decision made. It also helped me because I wasn't too terribly interested in doing a wheel/brake pad/chain/cassette swap last night.

The plan was to meet up at the old shop, and ride out shallowford for a good ways, and turn around. Well, plans changed a little bit mid route, and we threw in a good climb up Powerline. The crew for the ride today was Erich, Mitch, Scott, Sirena, Brad, Whitney, Duane and myself. Once we made the loop back towards Winston, Erich came alongside and asked if I was interested in doing some of our intended loop. I vainly searched for an excuse not to go out and suffer, but finally settled on not harming the new wheels...yeah, that sounds like a good excuse. Sounds like he enjoyed the gravel though, and got almost 60 in. The rest of the crew ended up with about 42 or 43 miles, with a pretty decent average of just over 19mph.

Erich also has a write up of this ride, including the extra gravel fun he did. Located here

No action pics for the day, just these at the pit stop:









Post Ride Banter

Hilarious Video!

Awesome, I definitely want to do this sometime this summer up at Pilot...it'd be unreal!

Flint Hill Gravel Grind 75K

Route chosen. About 48 or so miles, probably around 4k feet of climbing. A good time shall be had by all. Tomorrow, 11AM, my place. You, yes you, are welcome to come!

Hill Repeats

A hill workout was in order today. Not much to say aside from I feel as though I left a little of myself out on Carson Watts and Edmunds Farm roads. I'm hungry.


Post ride shadow capture.


Good ol' Pilot Mountain


My nemesis for the day.

Dr. Flint Medicine Man

The time came to push the envelope a little bit for Chris. His goal: break the 30 mile barrier? Do it under two hours with breaks? Done, and Done. Giddyup! We left from my place and decided to head in the general direction of East Bend, by way of one of my favorite local roads; Flint Hill.

For those readers that aren't local, Flint Hill Road is a beautiful, smooth road lined by farms and even a vineyard. Aside from the Dodge Rams and SUVs that pass, one might think they landed somewhere in the French countryside. We passed quite a few cyclists on the way out, and when we turned around, the goal was to catch them. We were moving along pretty good on the way back, but weren't able to catch the other crew.

Once we got back into Forsyth County, there was a decision to be made. Take the roads that are relatively flat back to my place, or take the roads that loop back towards the Yadkin, and thus have some pretty big hills. As far as I was concerned, the decision was made, and Chris agreed...hilly-ness was to be had!

I got this shot of Chris muscling over a little riser on Beroth Road, with Pilot way off in the distance (probably about 12 miles or so as the crow flies). We made it back to my place without too much suffering. Another good day on the bike!


Chris' CAAD9 post ride:


My bike donning the Eastons post ride:

Intervals

Intervals were the name of the game today. The new wheels feel reeediculously nice and stiff. The ceramic bearings accelerate to speed so quickly!

Lisa and I also got Y memberships last night, and I went in for my first weights routine of the year today. I know it's going to feel good and sore tomorrow, so I have a date with the Y again for some swimming and hot tub action. I'm totally going to be rocking these at the pool!



or these




Leave a comment to vote for #1 Graffitti or #2 Floral. I'm totally serious. Not joking even in the slightest bit...seriously.

CLM Party, Eastons, and a Sad Parting...

The other night, the CLM met at Noma downtown to have a little going away get together for Curtis. Pretty much everyone was there, including Cam! It was great to see everyone together in this type of atmosphere. It was a fun evening even though the undertone was for one of the CLM leaving.


The theme of the night was making fun of each others clothes for some reason. Everyone thought Cam's hat looked like a flowerpot


Scott couldn't get enough of Rob's scarf and coat combo...

And I was harrassed for wearing Lacoste...

Anyways, Curtis came over last night to help glue up my tubulars and to hang out for a bit. The tires, even after being stretched overnight, were still incredibly tight, and it felt a bit like we were wrestling an alligator to get them mounted on the rims properly. Once fitted though, we got them on the bike, and I'm impressed with the way they look!


I'm definitely sad to see Curtis go, but I know that I'll get to see him quite often with how frequently I make it to Asheville. It's still sad to know that a constant riding companion, and one of my best friends is moving away. But, this sadness is tempered by the fact that I know we'll be doing some long rides together again in the near future. Things have changed alot (as far as cycling goes for me) in the past year. The shop closed, I started road riding way more, and now Curtis is moving, but this makes me anxious to see what is coming down the line next.

Final Piece

Final Piece of the puzzle arrived today, incredibly light! Can't wait to get the tires glued up and get a ride in on Friday or Saturday...saweeeet!

-13

-13 windchill sounded like a good day to go skiing. Yes, definitely good. Very few people were out and about this morning as we made our way to Boone. The skiing was great, conditions were spectacular! Not much else to say, but that Lisa and I, and our friends, had tons of fun bundled up today!

A Year in Review

I tried to put together a series of pictures, one from each month, that showed some of my best rides. This is the product that I came up with. When looking through the photos from the past year, mountain and road, I realize that I have a great group of friends. Some will be moving in the near future, and some have already left, but contact will be kept, and rides will continue into the new year. I've been all over the place, riding, in the past year. Hopefully that trend will continue as well. I've been fortunate enough to have rides that were fun, but the rides that I really remember are the ones that pushed me, either technically on the mountain bike, or physically on the road bike. Each is unique, each is exhilirating. Hooray for new prospects this year!


January

Overmountain Victory Trail Wilkesboro, NC



February

Dark Mountain Wilkesboro, NC



March

Overmountain Victory Trail, Wilkesboro, NC



April

Pisgah National Forest, near Old Fort, NC



May

Pisgah National Forest, near Boone, NC (Rider Alex Ryan)



June

On the greenway to Owl's Roost, Greensboro, NC (leg:my leg, covered in bird pooooh!)



July

Creekside Trail, near Winter Park, Colorado



August

Rock Wall Trail, West Branch State Park Ravenna, Ohio



September

Cedar Rock Trail, Dupont State Forest, NC



October

Brown County Breakdown, near Nashville, Indiana



November

The only road riding shot I've put in this display. On the road to the mountains, Erich egging me on.



December

Heartbreak Ridge, Pisgah National Forest, near Old Fort, NC