And So It Begins

The down hill run to Christmas. I have a friend who says "the best time of the year is ruined by Thanksgiving and Christmas". I'm not that cynical (yet) but the older I get the more I

see where he's coming from.




Contrary to that statement Thanksgiving was perfect this year. Lil Ball, BJS, Blake the Snake (BTS), and another Junior who's name I can't remember, met at 8:30 Thursday morning at Forest Meadows for a 2 hour MTB ride. I thought it was going to be a hammer fest but it turned out to be mellow. I got back home in time to enjoy the obligatory dinner and after a glass of wine I fell asleep on the back porch. Ah, my kind of day.





I did something that afternoon that I hadn't done in a while and that's walk 9 holes of golf. It's usually a disaster and destroys my normally calm demeanor but not this time. I had the whole course to myself, yep just me and my PBR. I actually didn't play that bad either.





Friday I got on the cross bike that's living at my house while Big Worm is in Africa and rode for about an hour. It was frustrating at first but after awhile I started to enjoy it. I can see the attraction. I feel my R.A.S. starting to focus.





Anyhoo we did the fam thing over the weekend which didn't include any two wheeled entertainment so it was good to get back on the bike Tuesday night for the Higher Ground/ BC ride. The Wrecking Ball family managed to destroy their lights, as did Big Worm, which led to much shouting and squealing in the dark.





The Old Man Training Plan (OMTP) that I'm developing is off to a slow start. Can you imagine that? I've got my average training hours for last year, set up my race schedule for next year, and upped my gym time. I'm bad about getting on these little kicks only to get tired of fooling with it long before it does me any good. We'll see how this goes.

Misc.

Only 2 work days this week then I'm off. This is good.

During a 2.5 hour MTB ride last Saturday it felt like I was pedaling in peanut butter. I wrote it off as just having wimpy legs. But, while cleaning the bike later that day I found what looked like black hair wrapped around my axle, my cassette, and both my derailleur wheels. Nothing was spinning freely. It took me an hour to clean the mess out and get things turning again. It was some type of moss (has PP been near my bike?) that had the strength of fishing line. No telling how long it's been in there since I hadn't washed the bike since a week ago Friday. In defense of my sloppiness it was very hard to see, being black and all. Anyhoo I expect to be able to easily stay up with BJS now that I have fixed that problem.

Oh, and look at my new green grips. I am such a slave to aesthetics.

I am currently reading a book which will surely turn my cycling into a form of torture. The Cyclist's Training Bible is like a text book, complete with suggestions about taking notes and making lists. I'm so confused right now I'll probably just put it down. Is it really worth all that just for a ribbon with a little medallion hanging on it? If I do well then I just get promoted to the expert class and have to do another lap. I can already see my motivation slipping away.

I hope we get in some rides over the Thanksgiving holidays. I'll see ya on the downhill slide to Christmas.

Cold Showers

Finally we were able to do the camping/ riding trip I have wanted to do since last year. BW and BJS were the only two brave souls who signed up for a weekend with me in the woods. B caught a cold the week before so he was out (and mad). Everybody else had some reason or another not to attend. You know who you are, and yes, you missed a great time.

Three grown men shopping in the Ingles Grocery store in Thomaston, Ga. must have been a sight for the locals. We loaded up on fried chicken, white bread rolls, and anything else we could find that wasn't good for us. The pastry aisle got quite a bit of attention also. BW kept riding the grocery cart up and down the store. It was like traveling with a child.

Camp Thunder Boy Scout Camp is located in the Pine Mountain Range along the Flint River. It must have 500 canvas tents set up on wooden decks, each group of tents arranged around a central fire pit. It costs a whole $4 per person per night to rent one of the tents. I was worried we might have to share a tent (BJS snores and looks at his phone all night) but we each had our own, in fact we had our own section all to ourselves.

Friday night was cold and I was glad I had bought a new sleeping bag.

The showers at the camp were an experience. You had to hold a string to keep the warm water flowing. So the dance went like this: 1. Hold string and try to stand out of the way of the ice cold water splashing on you while you waited for it to warm up 2. Jump under the flow of warm water 3. Let go of the string to grab the soap 4. Soap up 5. Grab the string again 6. Scream when the first burst of water is cold again 7. Repeat. Keep in mind the shower stalls were about 10 degrees warmer than the 28 degrees it was outside. Refreshing to say the least. But the tents were comfortable and the woods around the camp were in full fall color. I did feel sorry for the Atlanta dads that had to camp out with their Cub Scouts. It sounded like a small war at the bottom of the mountain.

Saturday was the Thunder Mountain trail ride guided by BW. They told me it was old school mountain bike trail. They had me kinda nervous. Turns out it was great trail. I managed to ride quite a bit of it. We did 13 miles and averaged 5.1 miles per hour. I'm not going to try to describe the trail. I will say that despite my whining at the beginning I ended up enjoying the ride.

Sunday we packed up and headed for Dauset Trails for some new school MTBing. Once again I can't think of a way to put these amazing trails into words. It was a different type of ride from Thunder Mountain and after 19 miles we were tired and had had enough. This remains one of my favorite trail systems, I can't believe we only saw 5 riders on the trail all afternoon.

You tend to forget about the adult problems that normally go through your head when all you have to do for the day is eat, ride, and sleep. On the way home I could feel the weight of my normal world slowly settle back on my shoulders; funny, I hadn't realized I had left it behind until it started creeping back. I guess that's just what goes along with being a grown up. But for 2 days I got to be 17 again.

Go Hawder

We got there at 9:15 on a cold, clear, windy morning last Saturday. B was going to race the Juniors class which was supposed to start at 10:00. I expected to see cars lined up at the gate to get in, I was nervous we might be late to get signed up and get him warmed up. When we rolled into the parking lot and only saw one car I thought we had the wrong day. Welcome to our first experience with Cyclocross racing. Race in the front, party in the back. After getting yelled at by the occupants of that lone car for parking in the wrong spot (they were parked under a tree 50 yards from the track) we made our way toward what we hoped was sign up.

Yes, we were the first to sign up, and no, there were no other Juniors. That'll be $64 thank you. Ok, a little steep but that covered two classes for B, one for me, and two one day racing licences. We walked back to unload.

Could we ride practice? Which way does the track go? It all was very low key, so low key in fact I wondered if there was really going to be a race at all. Finally a couple of riders in FSU kits started to ride so we jumped out behind them. The track consisted of some grass field, straight woods roads, a little bit of pavement, and one man made obstacle that you had to dismount and run your bike over. Not very challenging on my MTB but B said it was interesting on his borrowed cross bike.

The promoters let B run with the collegiate Men's B race, that made for three of them in that race. Notice the crowds in the picture below. B finished that close to the leader to get 2nd. I know, he only beat one guy but still. He was worn out but he got a nice stocking cap for 2nd.

Finally people started to roll in about 11:00. My first race and B's second, the Men's C class, started at 12:15. Almost everybody we normally ride with was on the line. I admit I thought I could at least get top 5 out of 17. But I didn't know what to expect as far as suffering goes. At least there weren't any logs to cross.

It was all over in the longest 34 minutes of my short racing career. It reminded me of Zac's dirty thirties, max heart rate from the start, no rest, and no podium. B was wondering why in the heck I had signed him up for two races when I only was riding one. Hey, it was for his own good. I got 6th.

I have a long way to go to get to the level these roadies are at as far as pedaling fitness goes. I can't even play the age card since Mr. A beat me and he's 61. That does give me some hope though that there's still some time to improve.

The best part of the race was listening to the crew yell at other racers (and each other). This, crew, group, pack, or whatever you want to call them, are funny. The crap they come up with is, well, you really have to hear some of it to appreciate it. At the end of the day I had another perfect day to look back on. I've been fortunate to have quite a few of those lately.

We went back again Sunday for more abuse. Not as many crew riders there as Saturday. The course was changed to make it faster. I wasn't as pumped to race as I was the day before and B was showing signs of being tired also. Out of the 12 in the Men's C, B got 6th, and I got 7th. Yea he beat me. He's beaten my times in a XC race before but I think this is the first time he's beaten me in a heads up race. Anyhoo I'm proud of him.

I don't think I'll be buying a CX bike but I do think a couple of road bikes are in our future. I'd race this race again if it comes back next year just for the laughs. Mr A taught me a few things and got me fired up to improve my pedaling fitness.

That should be it for the racing until the Gone Riding Georgia State Series starts in April. Before that there's the Tour of San Felasco in January and the Amsterdam Ride (maybe race) in February.

Yes, that's a cupcake wrapper someone left in my shoe, complete with icing and sprinkles.

Strange

Halloween's a big time at our house. We've done something like this for the last 10 years. We have people show up early just to see if we're ready. We don't try to scare the little kids, it's the teenagers we have the most fun with. Even though they know it's coming we can still get them to jump. I keep thinking that B will lose interest as he gets older but look at me, 55 and still dressing up. Kinda weird huh?

On the cycling side we did a fam ride last Saturday at Forest Meadows. Then on Sunday B, TC, CC, and I rode Tom Brown. We just happened to run into a skills class at Piney Z and spent some time hanging out there. When TC goes and you run into someone to talk to your gonna spend a little time. It looked like 10-15 people came out for the class. I know I need a skills lesson but that was a little too basic even for me.

We then headed over to the Hill of Death so TC and the boys could try to climb it. It seems BJS had ridden up it before he had his most recent "issues" and TC was determined to give it a try. All three of them spent some time attempting to get to the top but never made it. I did hill repeats on the Jr. hill. It was good to watch the boys just mess around on their bikes. We tend to get into the habit of grinding out miles and don't spend near enough time playing.

The Higher Ground ride is growing. I thought when it got dark people would stop coming but just the opposite.

This weekend is the Cyclocross race in Tallahassee. B and I are tempted to race it. We'll see how the practice laps go tonight. It might be more fun just to watch. Even though every time I've done that I ended up wishing I'd raced.

I love this time of year.

It's already November. It'll be Christmas before you know it.