Start of the Peach Peloton!!!!!!!!

Today was the first of the Peach Peloton rides. This year there have been some changes. If you have any type of mechanical, you hope you can find a partner to help you chase down the group because they won't wait for mechnicals. I found that out the hard way today. We were going down a dirt road when I had the front tire go flat. I changed the tube & started back riding. It wasn't more than a 1/2 mile when the front wheel went flat again. I only had one tube, so I had to walk down the dirt road until I hit the pavement. Once I hit the pavement, I slowly rode the bike back to the starting point. I had Christian & another rider run into me walking up one of the hills. It's hard to climb some of those hills when you can't use any kind of momentum on the up side. They asked if I needed help & Christian gave me a spare tube & changed it for me. I was able to ride the rest of the route back to the starting point. I just want to give a shout out to Christian for the help today. Thanks, I really appreciate it. All in all I learned that I will NEVER leave the house without 2 spare tubes.

Life changes & new challenges

I know it's been over 2 months since my last post, but I've not felt like writing much lately. I'm not racing this year, so really haven't had much to post other than I've been riding, & just enjoying being on the bike. Over the last month I had an opportunity to test out a fiz:ik Airione CX saddle thanks to Epic Bikes. I rode it for a month & it's a great saddle. I was comfortable on it from the very first time I rode it. Over the month I rode it as much as I could & was very impressed with it. I liked to so much I purchased one for my own. I bought the version with carbon rails instead of the metal ones. I've only had the chance to ride it twice, but both times were for 2+ hours & it's a very comfortable saddle. I highly recommend it.
I've been debating a job situation for over the past month, there is a new company coming in to take over the facility I'm currently at. I could stay with the company I'm with or go through the hiring process with the incoming company & possibly have to take a pay cut. I'm staying with my current employer & transferring closer to Atlatna. What does that have to do with my cycling you may ask? Well it means I'll be able to ride with the group from Epic Bikes more often than I currently am. I really enjoy riding with the group there & I think that riding up there with Mike & learning from him will make me a much stronger rider. The things he's taught me so far have really helped me improve. Now the big thing for me is to get the weight down & concentrate on getting ready for next season. I'm planning on racing next year for sure & now is a good time to start getting ready for it. I'm going to be doing more core work & just getting some miles in. I will try my best to do more climbing (my biggest weakness) to get better at that. I'm going to miss the riding friends I've made down here. I just want to give a shout out to Eddie H. I've learned a lot from just watching him & listening to what he has to say. He's been racing for a long time & his experience & knowledge, along with his friendship will be greatly missed. I'm also going to miss Charles from The Bike Store. He has been a great friend & helped me out when I've needed things. Last but not least is Will, I know we haven't ridden much together this year, but his friendship will stay with me when I finally have to move. I don't know exactly when I'll be moving closer to Atlanta, but I will try to keep this blog updated so those who do read it can stay connected.
Thanks to those who read this & good luck to everyone.

Tour de Cure

Yesterday was the Tour de Cure in Tyrone, Ga. This has been one of my favorite rides for quite a few years. The cause is one dear to my heart. I'm a Type 2 diabetic, so are my parents, & my aunt. My late grandfather was a Type 1 diabetic & I can remember him giving himself insulin shots in the morning when I spent the night with them. The weather was overcast, cool, with a hint of rain. I went to the Red Riders Tent to pick up my registration number & new really cool looking new jersey. I went back to the car to get ready for the ride. I was doing the metric century route again this year. We headed out on the ride & I was with a group that had a good pace going from the beginning. We pretty much stayed together until the second rest stop. I had to stop to answer nature's call. I then pretty much rode on my own for about the next 20-25 miles. My legs felt good with all the climbing on the route. There were a few steep hills that slowed me to single digits on the computer, but the downhills more than made up for them. I stopped one more time to check on my blood sugar levels & then caught another group for the rest of the route back. The rain had pretty much held off until I had about 5 miles left to ride. It wasn't that heavy, but it was still there. After getting back to the start area, I ate lunch, that's when it started to rain even more. I was supposed to be able to geet a massage, but decided to skip that & head on back home before the weather got worse. All in all I did over 64 miles, averaged 19.55 mph for the ride, & felt good the entire ride. Thanks for reading.....

Charity ride & catch up time.

I know it's been over a month since my last post here & I'm sorry. I have been on the bike training. I have done two weeks of power workouts, two weeks of endruance rides, one week of leg speed workouts, & now I'm back on the power workouts. This coming week is also getting ready for the Tour de Cure. I'm doing the 62 mile route again. I feel stronger this year, even though I wasn't able to get in the base miles like I did last year. I'm still struggling to lose the weight, but I'm working on it.
Yesterday I was up in Buford, GA at the grand opening of Cafe:ine Coffee Shop & Addictive Bicycles. Jason Kriel, the owner of the coffee part of the business told me about a ride he was putting on to raise money for MS when I saw him at the Roswell Crit. I decided it would be a good cause to ride for & I needed to work on my climbing anyway. Blue Bicycles had some demo bikes to ride & I was lucky enough to get a RC8 with Dura Ace 7900 group on it. This is the first time I had a chance to ride a Blue. It was very comfortable & was quite stiff on the climbs. I have to work on the engine more when it comes to climbing, but it will come in time. The route had some good climbs on it & I certainly felt every one of them. The group doing the 50 mile route stayed together most of the ride. The group was accompanied by some riders of the MyoGenesis racing team. The group stayed together the majority of the ride. It broke up with about 10 miles left. I was able to stay with a good size group & it was a good time. After the ride there was a cookout which tasted very good after all that climbing. There was a raffle for some extra donations & I was able to win two pairs of DeFeet socks & a t-shirt. All in all it was a great time & a great cause to help out.

It's been WAY too long I know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know I haven't posted anything on here in quite some time & it's nobody's fault but my own. My offseason was pretty much shot to heck due to work & sickness. I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. I thought I might have to move closer to Atlanta for work here last month, so having to deal with all the associated things with moving, it put my training even further behind what I already was. Well, things with the job situation have settled down & I'm staying put where I am for now as long as I know. I'm finally able to put some effort into getting back into some type of training. I was able to do a ride with Eddie on Sunday for a bit over 44 miles. We did 3 efforts during the ride. The first one wasn't too bad, but still couldn't stay with him. The second was into the wind & it was absolutely brutal. After recovering from that second effort, the third one was with a tailwind. I was able to keep a great pace during that effort, but there was no way I was able to stay on Eddie's wheel. He was absolutely flying on that last effort. On Monday it was 5 x 5's. My legs were certainly feeling it after doing 4 sets of them. Last night was a pyramid workout on the trainer due to rain. I worked up to 6 minutes, then worked my way back down. I wasn't sure if I would be able to walk after I was done with that workout. Tonight was a tempo ride on the trainer, legs felt a bit better after that. We'll just have to see how the rest of the week pans out. I'm hoping to get some riding in this weekend, but it all depends on the weather. I'll do my best to post on here more often. Thanks for reading.

It's been a while!!!!!!

I know, I know, it's been way too long since my last post. I've been busy doing an offseason workout program & by the time I get home from work & do the scheduled workout, it really doesn't leave much time to post as often as I would like. I will do my best to post at least weekly. A couple of Saturday's ago, I rode down to the Perry Welcome Center to see if anyone was there for a ride. I was lucky enough to run into 4 other riders. I was told that they would be doing the Marshallville to Montezuma route. I decided to join them & it was certainly a fun ride. We had a bit of a headwind on the way out, but on the way back from Montezuma we had a nice tailwind. I was able to keep up the pace above 20mph the enitre way back to Perry. I took it a bit slower on the way home, but I still managed to get in 79 miles @ just over 4 hours. This past week I was sticking to the workout schedule up until the weekend. I seemed to get a bit on the sick side during the weekend, so I wasn't able to do much but just took it easy & rested. Yesterday I was able to get out on the bike & get in 2 hours on the road. It really felt good to get out & ride again. I'm just ready to get back into the swing of the schedule again. I'm hoping to get a good ride in this weekend, but it all depends on the weather. Thanks for reading....

Weekend wrap-up

Well the weekend didn't turn out as well as I had hoped it would. I was looking foward to a long ride on Saturday morning, but when I woke up it was quite foggy outside. I don't have a problem riding in bad weather from time to time, but I really don't ride in the fog. The last time I rode when it was foggy outside I was nearly ran over, so you can see why I don't care for fog so much. On Sunday I was able to get to ride with Eddie. We did a steady effort ride for 2 hours, it was a nice ride. We headed towards Perry & hit the Perry Parkway, one of my fav roads to ride on. We rode through Perry then headed back home. I ended up doing 38 miles & my legs felt pretty good the entire ride. I wasn't able to get to ride yesterday due to other obligations, but the day turned out pretty good after all. Today was just commuting to & from work. I'll probably get on the trainer tomorrow, the forecast calls for 20-30 mph winds, which really doesn't sound like much fun at all. I'm hoping for a nice day Saturday so I can go for a nice long ride. That's about all I have for now, stay tuned for more adventures or misadventures......

New Year's Day Ride

Today was the annual New Year's Day ride down here in wonderful Warner Robins, Ga. I met Charles on the road & we rode to The Bike Store. It was a bit on the cold side when I left the house, so I had to decide what I was going to wear. It was going to warm up during the ride, so I went with a long sleeve wicking t-shirt, my club kit, Pearl Izumi arm & leg warmers (best Christmas present I got, even if it was from last year), my Pearl Izumi skull cap, my Trek Oslo cold weather socks, & my DeFeet Slipstream shoe covers. My hands had on my cold weather gloves, but I brought along another pair of lighter gloves in case my hands got too warm. There was a great crowd at the start of the ride. The Bike Store was giving away 2 gift certificates, one for $100 & one for $50. We each drew a card & I was able to get lucky & win the $100 gift certificate. My new year is already off to a good start. We headed out slowly and stayed together as much as possible. We were out on the ride when we heard that there was a crash back in the group. I heard that Dave Sexton touched someone else's wheel & went down. As of this posting I don't know how he's doing, but I'll post as soon as I hear something from someone. The route was the usual Sunday route. We pretty much stayed together as a group until we were in Perry. Once we crossed the train tracks, some of the guys felt froggy & tried to sprint away. I was able to close the gap, but I started to get cramps & had to back off just a bit. The group I was with kept up a pretty good pace the rest of the ride. My legs are a bit sore, but I feel much better after the ride. I'm looking forward to the weekend, going to do some long rides this weekend. That's about all I have for now, stayed tuned for more adventures & have a Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!