Big Meat

Photo cred. Zac

Saturday was supposed to be an hour of skills and then 1.5 hours of zone 2.  Ah, the OMTP is a wicked master.  I left the Higher Ground parking lot alone and rolled over to Cambodia to session the little rooty climb on the back side.  The coaches instructions were to ride a section that I was not smooth over and to keep riding it "till I rode it like a pro".  Now if I did that I'd still be there.  But I managed to make a little circle out of it, and the next climb, and got to where I could get through it.  It's funny though the more you do something over and over the harder it seems to get.

I crossed the road to Red Bug and bumped into Paul who was down with a little skills work, so we sessioned some more rooty sections until I fell over.  We then just rode the normal Torture Loop before heading back to HG.

 

 

 

Once back at the shop I was hungry even after downing a bottle of Endurox recovery drink.  I could smell the pizza at Momos.  I tried to resist but it was futile.  I brought the huge slice back to the shop.  That's when Ryan mentioned that the beer keg was full and cold.  Once again my resistance was low and I poured myself a glass.  The pizza was loaded with all kinds of pork products (hey, that's like a paleo diet right?) and loaded with cheese.  My mouth's watering now just thinking about it.  The beer went down like spring water.

Unfortunately apparently beer and Endurox don't mix well, as I soon discovered.  I had a company function to attend in a couple of hours, complete with a full prime rib dinner, and more beer. 

I won't go into the details here, suffice to say it wasn't a pleasant evening for me.  My stomach moved around like a scene from Alien.  I was not in a happy place.

Photo cred. Zac

Sunday morning came quick.  When the crew schedules rides they tend not to care that I have 30 minuets more to travel than they do.  That's the cross I bear for the pleasure of living in Beautiful Downtown Havana.  Anyhoo, I made the 9 am roll time from Joe's with seconds to spare.  I always whine about riding my CX bike through Tallahassee but this ride took me places I'd never been.  Very little dirt but still quite enjoyable.  However I utterly failed to keep my tempo up to the prescribed level.  It was such a beautiful day and the company was so pleasant I just got lost in the ride.

Big Worm lets me have the finish at San Felasco.  Unlike last year.  The kid rolls his first 50 in 2013.

This will probably be the reason I get stomped in the Georgia Series this year, but every now and then you've just got to say; what the heck.

Darkness Darkness

 

I set out on a short ride last night.  As usual I had trouble getting everything together and was rushed to get in the truck.  The OMTP called for an hour in zone 2-3 with no stops.  I am still sketchy about the Quincy loop after my Yukon run-in last week so I decided to do what I call the Farm Loop on my CX bike.

It looked like an easy hour when I laid it out on Map My Ride.  18 miles, mostly dirt roads, sunset at 6.  What could go wrong?  I had a blinky light on the seat post and a headlight in the truck just in case.  The route is mostly on private land, hunting season ended last weekend so the woods are deserted.  Nobody to chase me on 4-wheelers hollering "what da hell ya doin up har?"  I left the truck tucked down a little two track road at a little after 5.

The weather was perfect, 72 and cloudy.  The county road had just been graded so it was as smooth as pavement.  Apparently the deer hunters didn't do a very good job.  Deer were as abundant as squirrels.  I was concerned one might run me over.  Hey, it's happened.  I have never seen so many of those four legged bush maggots scurrying about.

 

Anyhoo I reached the northern most point of the loop and noticed it was looking a little dark.  Oh, no problem, I've got my..., oh hell, I left the headlight in the truck.  Which was by now a good half hour behind me.  If you're not over 50 you don't have any idea how hard it is to see in fading light.  I decided to do a reroute and take a power line road back to the paved road.  This road is usually wet but it hasn't rained in weeks right?

Not only did I miss estimate the amount of water on the road, I failed to correctly calculate how long it would take me to ride the mushy, muddy mess.  I finally made it to the paved road as darkness settled in completely.

Now folks up in these woods are not accustomed to seeing old white guys wearing Lycra with little flashing red lights on bicycles after dark.  Or anytime for that matter.  I could hear the roar of mud grips approaching, the driver slowed way down, then eased around me, I could see faces pressed against the window, mouths hanging open, as they passed.  The 3 foot law is apparently not enforced in Georgia, I was glad they were going so slow since they were so close.  I can just imagine how the conversation was going in that truck; "Deddy, why's that there ole man aridin hes bike away out har in the dark?"  "Ain't he got no brains?"

I managed to make it back to the truck ok.  Even if I did have to creep along the two track at a crawl.

 

San Felasco was great this year.  I enjoyed it more than in years past.  The single track seemed more fun.  No cramps except for in the restaurant after the ride where I almost knocked over the waitress jumping up out of my chair.

Cramps are sure fun for everybody who isn't having them.

And you can still have an adventure in South Georgia, just wait till it gets dark.

Little Pink Houses

 

Southwood, where the houses aren't little or pink.  A planned subdivision on the south side of Tallahassee it has a little bit of everything.  Sort of an engineered small town.  You could live in Beautiful Downtown Havana and have the real thing.  We rolled through there on the nature trail (no, Havana doesn't have one of those) on the way to Munson from Tom Brown.  I wonder what some of these folks do for a living who live in these upper class neighborhoods.  Anyhoo it was a good ride on a winters day.

As prescribed by the OMTP I needed to put in 1.5 hours of moderate pedaling last Tuesday so I decided to do what I call the Quincy loop.  It's mostly paved with a short clay road section so I took the cross bike.  I was just riding along on the bike path next to state road 12 when a brown Yukon blew past me inches from my left elbow.  He was actually IN the bike lane.  I yelled, gave him the traditional salute, and pulled off the road shaking.  I had the first two digits of his tag and called the sheriff's office.  They patched me through to the Highway Patrol.  By this time I felt like I might be overreacting and apologized to the dispatcher.  She was nice about it and said she would've called if it had been her.  She even called me later to say they had not seen the truck in the area.  I don't like riding on the road.

As far as the OMTP goes she has me spending 3 days a week in the gym.  I am getting seriously buff if I do say so myself.  On the bike she is very adamant about staying in the prescribed heart rate zones.  I tend to want to do more and worry that I'm not getting enough high end work in.  Especially when my cohorts are out doing intervals every other day.  Not to mention the temptations of Strava.  But I gotta keep the faith.

This weekend is the 50/62 mile San Felasco ride.  I'm not as enthused about it as I used to be.  There's 400 riders of all types of abilities on the trail so it makes for some slow going at times.  Once again the plan has me staying in the lower heart rate zones so I'll be one of the slow ones.  The Kid is going, he's been off the bike while playing basketball so he should be seriously suffering by mile 30.  I guess I really shouldn't complain, heck it's going to be 80 degrees, and I get to ride my bike all day.  At least I don't have to worry about getting run over by a Yukon. 

Something Different

Guess what Santa brought me for Christmas?  I don't really know how to insert the video on the blog but I think this will work.  Forgive me, I'm still learning.

I have had a blast with this little Gopro.  I plan to film every ride.  Well, maybe not every ride.

I had the last 8 days off from work.  And yes, we had a good Christmas and a happy New Year, thanks for asking.  The weather didn't always cooperate with my riding plans but we managed to get in some good rides.  It was difficult to stay on my new OMTP with all the holiday stuff, which I let frustrate me a little.

Anyhoo, we rode local the whole time.  I didn't feel like spending hours in the truck.

The highlight was an easy day on the north side followed by beer and pizza at Momos.

 

 

To quote Big Jim "I could get used to this".

Oh, and Mom, just click on the arrow and the video should play.  No it won't hurt your computer.

Knock on Wood

I had just gone by Graham (who was stinking up the Cat 3s), had just passed 2nd place, and was catching first.  It was the second day of the Swampcross in Gainesville Fl., and the 4th out of what would be 7 laps.  The approach to the barriers had a tricky chicane.  The barriers were 2 2X12s stacked on top of each other and held up with re bar, and there were two of them in a row. 

Not me

Needless to say they were more substantial than the PVC barriers we used at the Gators practice facility.  I had had issues with these evil obstacles the day before so I should have been more aware.  But I had trophy lust, I was passing people, I was feeling "it".  I felt so awesome, until my foot clipped the first barrier.  I stumbled, in slow motion I saw the second barrier approaching.  I could not get my feet under me.  I landed on the second barrier on my knees.  This had the effect of increasing the speed of my upper body, which was still holding the bike.  My right arm and then my nose contacted the well compacted Florida soil.

I can remember the thudding sound my mouth made when it hit.  My first thought was my teeth, did I still have all of them?  From years of crashing in moto I jumped right up, you always did that so you didn't get landed on, not really a problem in a bike race though.  I ran my tongue around the inside of my mouth, everything was still where it should be.  Then I felt the dribble of liquid running down my lip, I looked down to see little red drops hitting my top tube.  A 352 rider who was practicing the course asked me if I was ok, then asked me if I had all my teeth.  I nodded and tried to get back on my bike only to find the chain had come off.  I was a little befuddled so he helped me get it back on and sent me on my way.

I had lost 2 positions, my knees hurt, my lip was bleeding, but I could see 3rd place not far ahead.  When I went by Ric he said "go! ohhhh" so I knew it must look bad.  I managed to finish 3rd in my class.  Won a great pair of socks. 

As I lounged on the grass after the race, holding an ice pack to my ever growing lip, and munched on a cheese quesadilla, my good friend BJS brought me a beer.  He was smiling as he leaned over to give me the solo cup filled with ice cold IPA.  He started to giggle when the cup slipped from his grasp.  Only a small amount of liquid fell on me, until he grabbed it again, squeezing it, and dumping the remaining beer all over me.  He claims it was an accident but I'm not so sure.  I swear he was laughing before the first spill.

Some would say I was lucky not to get hurt worse, of course if I was really lucky I would'nt have fallen in the first place.  Anyhoo, it was still a great weekend.  Tim won on Saturday, Ric won on Sunday, BJS went 4-2 on the weekend, and I can still eat an apple.

One Day

I admit I'm going to miss cross practice.  I like getting there while it's still light and hammering out a few laps.  It's weird, on the MTB I can't stand running lap after lap of the same thing, but on the cross bike I get some kind of perverse pleasure in trying to hit the same corner 10 times.

The new wheels could have something to do with that.  They took a whole pound off the bike.  Plus being tubeless allows me to run low pressure which makes the ride a little smoother.  Old guys need smooth.

I don't really know how it works but I turned on the Strava app on my phone before I rode last week.  Low and behold when I opened it up later that night I had second place on the gator cross loop.  It seems kind of suspicious, there's a lot of really good cyclists behind me (including BJS).  I must have cut the course or something.  But hey, it was worth it to call BJS while he was on vacation and inform him of my superiority.  Even though it will be short lived.

I started a new OMTP this week.  After much research and advice from the old guard in Bike Chain I went with LW Coaching.  I don't know why I like this type of structure.  At my age you'd think the last thing I'd want was some tart telling me how much to exercise.  http://lwcoaching.com/

I've been watching my competitors from the Old Man's Class last year.  I've seen them on FB.  Don't you guys think I haven't been watching.  I see you out there winning races in the Florida Series Mr. Ham.  And did I see you mentioned in a trainers photo also?  And you Mr. FRSS, yea I got the invite to the Snake Gap Time Trial you did.  The only person I haven't seen much of is Santa.  I was really hoping you guys would sit around all winter eating sugar cookies and watching TV.  But noooooo, you have to get all in shape.  Bastards!

This weekend is the Swampcross in Gainesville.  I've never done this event before but everyone tells me it's fun.  I bet there's some juiced up 60 year olds on the line with me Saturday morning.  I'm looking forward to the pain.  Maybe one day I'll beat these guys.

 

 

 

 

 

On the Porch

Sitting on the porch at Joanie's in beautiful downtown Havana after a slow recovery ride on the CX bikes with BJS.  Three beers down on a 74 degree afternoon.  Watching the clouds go by.  I love this time of year.

The day before we had done a variation of what we call the Grapevine or Big East loop on MTBs.  Which was very similar to the loop we did the Friday after Thanksgiving.  BW did manage to change it up enough so it didn't seem like a repeat.  We started off at a moderate pace but after losing most of the group BJS made me hate him just a little coming back in on the Greenway.  We finished with free BBQ and free beer at Higher Ground.  I was tired.

Last night's ride was attended by an eclectic group.  Not the regular crew, though some of them were in attendance.  It made for an interesting, if not fast, (for me) ride.  There was drama, crashes, and getting lost.  I'd have to say I enjoyed it.  Maybe because all of those things happened to someone else.

I bought new wheels for the CX bike.  No, it doesn't make much sense to put lighter wheels on a bike I only race maybe 5 times a year, but  I couldn't help myself, all my friends had them.  I'd buy more stuff but there's this thing called Christmas coming up where I'm supposed to spend money on other people.  Shudder.

Anyhoo, the next race is the Gainesville Fl. Swampcross.  BJS and I are going.  At least he says he's going. 

It's time to start getting into XC shape, the first race of the Georgia Series is only 16 weeks away.  I hope to redeem myself after my 4th place series finish last year.  I'm still looking for the perfect coaching plan.  Maybe something that requires beer after long rides.

But until then I hope to have more days on the porch.

Just remember;

Inside every old person there's a young person wondering what the hell happened.