Winter Training Series Ride #4

Yesterday was the Winter Training Series ride #4.  We started at Bare Bulb Coffee & had 19 people show up for the ride.  The weather was great & I didn't need much more than arm & knee warmers for this ride.  We started out & headed to Roberta using the hilly route.  About 22 miles into the ride Charles said the KOM attacks could start which they did commence.  I needless to say was not one of the protaganists in this endeavour.  I still need to get the weight down before I can even think of being competitive on the hills.  I just stayed within myself, know there was still a lot of riding left to do & not wanting to wasted energy I didn't need to at the time.  I rode up the hills at my steady pace & was actually catching people.  I made up time on the descents & caught another group ahead of me.  I rode with them for quite sometime.  We hit the base of Firetower hill & I stayed at a steady cadence.  This hill usually has me riding up in single digits, but this time I was able to keep the speed in double digits.  I guess all the riding so far is starting to pay off.  After the store stop, we headed back though Fort Valley.  Once we got rolling, we starting practicing rotations.  This is where you have two lines of riders and as once  you hit the front of one line, you move over & start falling back in the second line.  Once you hit the back of the second line you pull over & start moving forward again.  If you have a group of riders who are good at doing this, you can keep up a good pace for quite some time.  It took us a bit to get it going, but once we got it down, we did well into Fort Valley.  After leaving Fort Valley it was a double paceline ride back to Bare Bulb Coffee.  It was a good ride & everyone had a good time.  Here is the data for the ride:
Total Distance: 77.74 miles
Total Time: 4:11:18
Average Speed: 18.45 mph
Max Speed: 40.47 mph
Average Cadence: 85 rpm
Average Heart Rate: 139
Max Heart Rate: 170
Calories Burned: 3426

Riding at Night

Last weekend I had found my lighting system.  I had been looking for this for quite sometime & when I brought down the Christmas decorations, it was in the same box as the Christmas lights.  I was happy to find it because this meant that I would still be able to ride outdoors for a bit longer & not be a prisoner to the trainer as of yet.  I charged up both batteries & made sure that the entire system still worked.  The system worked great & so I thought I would give it a try up at my parent's house the following Monday night.  I used to commute to work quite regularly when I was working in Macon & really enjoyed riding during the dark.  It's a totally different feeling when riding in the dark.  You have to become more attuned to your surroundings & listen more carefully so you won't get run over by either a vehicle or some kind of animal jumping out in front of you.  I decided on a loop near my parent's house that wouldn't be too busy with traffic.  I mounted the lights, tail light, & wore my neon yellow wind vest for extra visibility.  I chose the wind vest over the reflective vest I have for this ride because it was still about 70 degrees out & the reflective vest makes it quite warm during the ride while wearing it.  The headlights worked great & the traffic really wasn't as big a hassle as I thought it might be on one of the roads.  This route is good because it has some steady uphill sections on it & I can vary the route so it won't get boring.  I rode two laps of this course & it took me an hour to complete it.  My legs felt good during the ride & the uphill section wasn't as bad as I though it would be.  I feel I'm getting stronger on the hills, but I still have a long way to go yet.  All in all it was certainly better to ride outside at night than to be stuck on the trainer.

Winter Training Series Ride #3

For this Winter Series Training ride, we joined the group from Macon on their winter ride.  This was not going to be a good day as I soon found out.  I was on the way to the ride when I remembered that I had forgotten my water bottles at the house.  I had to turn around & get them.  This simple lack of being prepared would cost me later in the day.  I was running behind, but hoped I would have a chance to warm up just a bit before everyone left.  I was just about finished getting ready when the entire group took off.  I latched on to the back of the group, but we were already doing 20+ at the start of the ride.  My legs were certainly feeling the effects of no warm up at all.  I wasn't able to stay with the group for long.  I had a map & just rode at my own pace & tried to get my legs to warm up.  At one intersection I ran into Manuel & asked him which way the group went.  He told me he wasn't sure & he was trying to figure out which way to go.  I had a map of the general route, but it was hard trying to read the exact roads to ride.  We kind of found some of the roads & made our way back to the start point.  Even though I wasn't able to hang with everyone, it still wasn't a bad ride.  Here is the data for the ride:
Total Distance: 50.21 miles
Time: 2:41:43
Average Speed: 18.63 mph
Max Speed: 38.43 mph
Average Cadence: 88 rpm
Average Heart Rate: 155
Max Heart Rate: 165
Calories Burned: 2687

Training Camp Weekend

This post is a couple of weeks late & I apologize for that, but just haven't been in the mood to post anything lately.  A couple of weeks ago we had our first training camp for the team I will be riding for next season.  This was the first time the entire team was able to get together & ride as a team.  The weekend consisted of rides on Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, & Sunday morning.  The weather for the entire weekend was fantastic, didn't rain at all during any of the rides.  It was a bit on the cool side on the beginning of each ride, but once we got further into each ride, the weather warmed up.  The ride on Friday was for about 2 hours give or take.  We rode down in Milledgeville & I forgot how hilly it was down there.  The route had a couple of good climbs on it that had me doing single digit speeds up them, but I need the hill work anyway.  Here is the data for the ride on Friday:
Total Distance: 36.89 miles
Total Time: 2;09:13
Average Speed: 17.17 mph
Max Speed: 45.17
Average Cadence: 84 rpm
Average Heart Rate: 148
Max Heart Rate: 174
Calories Burned: 1976

On Friday night we had a team dinner with the sponsor & his family.  Our sponsor is fantastic & really is treating the entire team great.  We received our helmets & shoes for next season.  Then we received a couple of surprises.  The first was a duffle bag in team colors with the team name embroidered on one side & our name on the other side.  The other surprise was that each team member received a chair in the team color with the team logo on it.  Everyone was surprised by the gifts & it makes everyone that much more inspired to do our best this upcoming season.

On Saturday the big ride was on the schedule.  We were doing about 67 miles that day.  We started out on the same route we used on Friday, but added some more hills on the ride.  We worked on riding in a paceline, with each person taking a turn up front, then we kind of split up on the hills & became two groups.  One group was made up of the stronger riders & pushed the pace.  The other group was the riders just getting some base miles & saddle time.  I was in the second group.  We worked well together & really enjoyed riding with each other.  Here is the data from Saturday's ride:
Total Distance: 67.36 miles
Total Time: 3:35:27
Average Speed: 18.86 mph
Max Speed: 43.36 mph
Average Cadence: 85 rpm
Average Heart Rate: 143
Max Heart Rate: 170
Calories Burned: 3133

On Saturday night, we had a get together at the club house where our sponsor has a condo.  We had pizza from Mello Mushroom, salads, wings, & soda or water to drink.  Charles talked about what he had planned for the team this up coming season.  It was great just to hang out with the other team members in a relaxing atmosphere & get to know each other. 

On Sunday, we checked out of the hotel, had a worship service for those who wanted to attend, then it was time to head out for the final ride of the weekend.  This was somewhat of a recovery ride after the long ride the day before.  We did the same route we did on Friday afternoon, my legs were feeling the effect of the hills all weekend, but they really weren't as sore or as heavy as I thought they would be.  We rode in a double paceline & took turns up front & generally had a good ride.  Here is the data for Sunday:
Total Distance: 36.20 miles
Time: 2;04:23
Average Speed: 17.46 mph
Max Speed: 44.33 mph
Average Heart Rate: 136
Max Heart Rate: 168
Calories Burned: 1603

All in all it was a great weekend of riding & getting to know everyone on the team.  I look forward to racing with these guys during the season.

Winter Training Series Ride #1

Yesterday was the first Winter Training Series Ride put on by Middle Georgia Endurance.  The weather was a bit windy to say the least.  I met up with Charles & Justin at Charles' house, then headed to Bare Bulb Coffee to get a cup of coffee before the rest of the group showed up for the ride.  We had a great turn out for the first ride.  Kim, Steve N, Steve W, Keith, Tyler, Colin, BK, Derek, Chip, Martin, Felix, Trey, Charles, Justin, & myself.  As I said before, the wind was the biggest problem during the ride.  It wasn't that bad as we started towards Perry, but as the ride progressed, the wind did pick up & was gusty from time to time. We rode in a double paceline for the first part of the ride, taking turns up front for anywhere from a minute to 2-3 minutes.  The stronger riders in the group took the longer of the pulls.  My legs were feeling quite good the first part of the ride & I did take my share of pulls up front.  We made it through Perry & headed towards Fort Valley, using Camp John Hope rode made for an eventful ride. This road has quite a few hills, some short & steep, some a bit longer, but going into the wind made it even harder.  We made a store stop in Fort Valley, then headed out back towards home.  We were doing a rotating paceline & it took a few mintues to get the rotations going, but once we got it figured out, it worked out quite well.  We had somewhat of a headwind the rest of the way home, but with doing the paceline, it really wasn't as bad as it could have been.  All in all it was a fun ride with a great group of people.  Here is the information for the ride:

Total Distance: 69.83
Total Ride Time: 3:58:25
Average Speed: 17.56 mph
Max Speed: 36.07 mph
Average Cadence: 87 rpm
Average Heart Rate: 141
Max Heart Rate: 171
Calories Burned: 3356
Blood Glucose Pre-ride: 208
Blood Glucose Post-ride: 111

Recovery Ride

After yesterday's hard ride, today was a very needed recovery ride.  I made it a point to do two things on this ride, one was keep it in the small ring, no gearing higher than a 39 x 16 & the other point was to keep my heart rate under 140 bpm.  I used a loop I have used quite often since I've been in this area.  It's a great route to use for recovery, no really big climbs & it's relatively flat for around here.  The weather was fantastic, a bit of a ENE wind, but I didn't worry much about that.  This ride was all about enjoying the scenery & making sure the legs felt good the entire ride.  I was chased on parts of the ride by some dogs, but as soon as I yelled at them, they just decided to leave me alone while I was riding.  My legs felt good just spinning the gears.  I made it a point to have a tailwind on the last part of the ride, so I could just relax a bit more & enjoy being out on my bike.  All in all it was a very nice day to take an easy ride.  Here is the ride info if anyone is interested:
Total distance: 17.53 miles
Total Time: 1:03:30
Avg Speed: 16.56 mph
Max Speed: 27.46 mph (downhill coasting)
Avg Cadence: 87 rpm
Avg Heart Rate: 121
Max Heart Rate: 140
Calories Burned: 655

A Ride to Hawkinsville

Today was a ride with a group to Hawkinsville & back.  The pace was going to be between 18-20 mph.  I was looking foward to it, but not the weather at the start of the ride.  It was 38 degrees when I left the house & headed to the starting point of the ride.  I wore a compression shirt, bibs, jersey, insulated vest, arm & leg warmers, & toe covers on my shoes.  I made sure to spin the legs on the way out to meet the others to let my legs warm up before the real ride started.  There were four of us who braved the cold for this ride, Martin, Steve, Trey, & myself.  We headed out towards Hawkinsville via SR 247.  We had a bit of a tail wind on this part of the ride & the pace was quite brisk.  We each took our turns up front & worked well.  On the way back from Hawkinsville, we had a bit of a headwind, but it wasn't too bad.  The weather had improved & warmed up a bit during the ride.  We rode through Perry & past the GA National Fairgrounds.  All in all it was a good hard ride for everyone. 
Here is the data from the ride:
Total Mileage: 55.12
Total Time: 2:48:46
Average Speed: 19.59 mph (everyone else had over 20 mph avg speed, but didn't ride as far as I did)
Max Speed: 32.57 mph
Average Cadence: 90 rpm
Average Heart Rate: 144
Max Heart Rate: 166
Calories Burned: 2426
Blood Glucose Pre-Ride: 110
Blood Glucose Post Ride: 100

Sorry for the lapse in posts

I'm sorry it's taken so long to post something new, but life has a way of throwing curve balls.  I've been unable to get to a decent working computer for quite sometime, so hence no posts.  I've gotten my computer fixed & it's time to start posting more often.  I've been busy with work here lately, so I haven't been able to exercise as much as I would like to.  The time change is coming soon & it looks like it will be trainer & roller season before you know it.  I'm not really looking forward to it, but it is a necessary evil if you want to be ready for the next racing season.
Speaking of the next racing season, our first team camp is coming up in a few weeks.  I'm really looking forward to getting to ride with the rest of the team.  I've ridden with several members during the local group rides, but some of the team members I've never ridden with.  I'll go into more details as camp gets closer.
Today I was able to get in a little over 2 hours on the bike.  It was a bit windy, but things like that happen.  I rode out to Perry & rode the Perry Parkway, one of my favorite roads to ride on.  I had a tail wind down the Parkway & put it in the big ring & kept it there on that stretch of road.  My legs were feeling pretty good & I was able to keep up a good cadence & speed.  I had a headwind on the way home, but still kept it in the big ring trying to build up some more power in my legs. 
Here is the data from today:
Total mileage: 39.52
Ride time: 2:07:48
Avg Speed: 18.55 mph
Max Speed: 31.80 mph
Avg Cadence: 88 rpm
Avg Heart Rate: 147
Max Heart Rate: 168
Calories Burned: 1930
Blood Glucose pre ride: 140
Blood Glucose post ride: 122

Long Ride Today

Today I was able to get in a long ride.  The weather was a bit overcast and cool at the start of the ride, so I wore arm warmers to keep the chill off.  I started out doing The Bike Store sunday route & during the ride I ran into a lady with a flat tire.  I stopped to give her a hand until help arrived, then proceeded on the ride.  Once I hit 341, I decided to head toward Camp John Hope Rd & ride that until it hits 127.  It's been quite sometime since I've been down that road & I had forgotten how hilly it was.  I managed to survive the worst climb on the road, even though I was only doing 8.5 mph up it.  Once I hit 127 it was pretty much a tail wind into Perry.  I had been keeping up with my hydration & eating during the ride, but decided to stop in Perry to check my blood sugar.  I had started out with a blood glucose of 134 but by the time I hit Perry an hour & a half into the ride, it was down to 95.  I stopped & had something to bring it up & then headed down the Perry Parkway for the rest of the ride.  The legs felt great down the parkway & I was able to keep up a good cadence & speed.  I came back down Arena Rd, towards Houston Lake Rd to head on back home.  My legs felt good the entire ride & I did a much better job at watching my blood sugar during the ride.  Here is the info for today's ride:
Total mileage: 54.02
Ride time: 2:54:33
Avg speed: 18.62 mph
Max speed: 35.79 mph
Avg cadence: 91
Avg heart rate: 148
Max heart rate: 169
Calories burned: 2659
Blood glucose pre-ride: 134
Blood glucose post ride: 141

Staying Steady

I'm pleased that I was able to get a 3rd straight day on the bike.  The weather has been quite cool & overcast, making for some great riding weather.  I kind of took it easy today because I'm planning on a long ride tomorrow seeing as I'm going to be pretty busy with other obligations this weekend that prevent me from doing long rides.  Today I just headed out to Perry again to ride some different roads I haven't ridden in a while.  Here is the data from today's ride:
Total distance: 29.06 miles
Total time: 1:35:58
Avg speed: 18.16 mph
Max speed: 29.87 mph
Avg. cadence: 91
Avg heart rate: 133
Max heart rate: 153
Calories burned: 1221
Blood glucose pre-ride: 119 (probably should get it a bit higher pre-ride)
Blood glucose post ride: 87 (don't really want it that low again)

Thanks for reading......

A Good Ride Today

Today I was able to ride one of my favorite roads.  I love riding the Perry Parkway, it's just a rolling road that you can keep up some good momentum while riding it.  I try to incorporate it into several different routes I ride.  The weather was cool, overcast, & a bit windy on the way out to Perry.  I had armwarmers on, but once I reached the Parkway, the sun had come out & I decided to take them off for the rest of the ride.  My legs felt good the entire ride.  I guess one benefit (if you want to call it that) of the poison ivy is that I had to take time & completely rest from any cycling & running.  My legs seem to be coming around quicker than I thought they would, but I really haven't pushed the issue with them yet. 
I received a new bike computer over the weekend & have been learing about it.  I now have a Sigma Sport BC 1909 HR.  It is wireless with heart rate & cadence.  This thing is pretty cool.  I've always tried to spin my legs to save energy during a ride, but never really knew what my cadence was, now I can look & see. 
Here is the ride info for today's ride in case anyone is a numbers geek:
Total distance: 33.87 Miles
Trip time: 1:49:15
Avg. speed: 18.60
Max speed: 31.08
Avg Cadence: 95
Avg Heart Rate: 144
Max Heart Rate: 166
KCal burned: 1601
Blood Glucose Pre-Ride:122
Blood Glucose Post-Ride: 100

All in all a great day on the bike & looking forward to another one tomorrow.

A New Start

This is the restarting of this blog.  I have decided to get back into racing my bike for next season.  I was offered a chance to join a new local cycling team & the opportunity was just too good not to pass up.  I'm getting back into the swing of steady trainging again & it feels good.  I've been dealing with a bout of poison ivy for the past few weeks & haven't been able to ride.  I was able to get out on the bike yesterday & do about 19 miles.  It really felt good to be back on the road again.  I was going stir crazy not being able to exercise until the poison ivy was cleared up enough to ride.  I'll try to better post my exploits, both the good & the bad here as often as possible.  I'll also provide insight on riding & racing as an amatuer with Type 2 diabetes.  I hope my adventures will either inspire you or at least amuse you.  Thanks for anyone who reads this. 

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!