13-20-6-5

No, that's not the combination to my locker. :)

The SAS Pro ride on Wednesday left the parking lot with 13 riders, gained 7 on Weston Blvd, then 6 of us opted for the short route and 1 got dropped (finally it wasn't me!!).

Great ride today and the "Friday" group finally showed up for a Wednesday ride which meant I had a few more semi-pro riders to keep me company.

Other than the heat, it was "too hot to stop", it was great ride. We kept a good pace the whole way with a few attacks to keep it interesting. Didn't notice any new bikes but we had a "shirt-less wonder" join in (shirts really should be required on group rides), and Mary "look at me I'm in Fortune magazine" was sporting a new set of wheels.

In the end logged 20 miles through Cary and Morrisville.

-Dwight.

Make-up ride

Wasn't able to join the Thorns and Roses this weekend so I road with a group of 4 from SAS.
It's been said resently that my posts are a bit verbose, so just for this once I'll make it quick.

Road 22 miles that went something like this: easy start, tough hills at easy pace, very fast pace line, blew up my legs, recovered and caught group, blew them up again on huge hill, caught group, couldn't stay with group and got stuck at a light, fought gravity and blowed up legs the last 3 miles on a different route, beat the group back!

Have a great week everyone!!

-Dwight.

Friday SAS Pro Ride - and weekly Summary

Great ride today. Total of 24 miles with a good average speed. I was the only non-SAS Pro rider today (they have taken over what used to be an easier ride).

So, yes, they dropped me again, but it took them longer this week. :)

It seems like only last year, oh wait it was last year, that they would drop me within two miles.
Then I could make it to the end of Weston. Then this year I could get to the mid point of Morrisville Carpenter. Last week I almost made it to UpChuck.

Finally this week I got within sight of GreenHope high!!!

I might never be able to stay with them for the whole ride, I'd have to train a lot more, but it sure feels good to stretch it a little farther each week.

Weekly Summary:

Only road on Sunday and Friday this week for a total of about 74 miles. Will try to put in that 3rd day again this week.

On the fund raising front for the Jimmy V Foundation, it came to halt this week, but I haven't been advertising much either. Don't worry, I'll start bugging you again soon.

On a general cycling note, here is Chris Horner's update after missing out on the Tour de France but putting in an awesome effort in the Tour de l'Ain http://tinyurl.com/l5ev8k .

Also the viral Performance rap video http://bit.ly/s3XnP .

Have a great weekend!!

-Dwight

No wrong turns but a Flat

That's right, this time I went the right way in my 16 mile solo ride before meeting up with the Thorns and Roses.

Last week I was running late because I couldn't find my gloves, well today I left on time and completely forgot the gloves! For the non-cyclists the gloves give you some padding so your hands don't go numb but for me the key is keeping my palms dry. With today's high humidity, it was a feat to keep from slipping off of the bars.

I made the solo ride in good time with no incidents. Didn't see any Big Game this week, but a "killer squirrel", did mount an attack. Luckily my quick reflexes avoided a sure disaster. :)

Due to leaving on time and no wrong turns I actually had a few minutes to rest and talk with the group before heading out again.

The group pulled out of Caribou's at about 7:35 and headed into Preston Woods before getting onto Carpenter Upchurch (aka. Up Chuck). That's where my flat hit. I couldn't find a hole so I'll just chalk it up to a bad tube. I'll check it later to make sure. Of course I need to hit the store for another backup before riding again.

I figured the change might take awhile without the "team car" so we had most of the riders continue on with 4 staying back to help me catch up after the tire change. As soon as we got back on the bikes Steve (Capt'n Carbon) makes the comment that I have to "pull" since it was my flat. So much for getting help in catching the group! Of course he was joking, a little, but I did most of the pulling anyway. After a few miles we caught the main group and were on our way again.

One thing I've learned in this group is that it's REALLY hard to win a sprint. Two of the guys are super fast, and probably weigh 50 lbs less than me, so I decided to be a "lead out man". That means I pick a friend and let him draft behind me while I go all out. Then as soon as the other sprinters get close he jumps out of the draft with fresher legs and hopefully wins the sprint. The sprints take a lot of effort, but they break up the ride nicely.

At Lake Jordan, the group spit up with the Roses going for a longer ride at a slower pace while the Thorns headed back home. At UpChuck we met up with the Cycling Spoken Here ride and 2 of the Thorns split off to do another 20 miles with them (that's why they are "Thorns". The last 3 of us stayed together until UpChuck T's at HighHouse and I split off for home.

All told, 2 water bottles, 1 Gatorade, 1 tire tube, 50.5 miles and a fun ride in the country side!

- Moot

Gym Closed :-( and this week's summary

Happy Friday,

I was all set to get in a work out with weights yesterday only to find out that the Gym was closed for Thursday and Friday. That also complicates my ride for today, but that problem was solved with a lunch-time meeting. My back up was to do a long commute this morning, but little mr. E decided to have a rough morning so I didn't get out of the house in time.

Now I'm trying to figure out a way to get in a run around 1 or 2 today. It'll be a little hot but most of the trails are shaded. I'll have to shower in one of our other buildings with the Gym being closed.

Looking forward to a good ride on Sunday!

Since I won't be riding today, I can post the weeks wrap-up on riding and fund raising for cancer research.

Only got to ride twice this week, but with the big ride on Sunday I still got in 74 miles total. This week's goal is 100 miles total.

The funds continued to come in for the Jimmy V foundation this week. As of this morning I'm at 84% of goal!! Thanks to everyone who has donated and please continue to pass the word along.

- Dwight.

Mais, Ca fais chaud, oui!

I know I've seen hotter coming from Lafayette plus time spent in Texas but
90 degrees with 60% humidity on a 23 mile ride at lunch is damn HOT!!! I think I lost 5 lbs just in sweat!
Sorry no pictures, the camera couldn't focus in the heat. :-)
I wonder what the actual temp was on the road? At one point we were going to stop to recover but it was too stifling so we just kept riding.

All that said, it was great ride!

- Dwight

Swimming Day

I decided to swim on Monday to loosen up the muscles. Definitely sore from the long ride on Sunday.

- Dwight

Go the extra mile

Even if it’s just because you took a wrong turn. :) More on that later.

Like last Sunday, I decided to get in extra miles before meeting up with the Thorns and Roses for the Sunday group ride. “The Plan” was to head out at 6:30, get in an easy 16 miles and have a couple of minutes to recover in the Caribou Coffee parking lot before heading out again. So much for plans!

Actually everything was on schedule until I realized at 6:28 that I didn’t have my gloves. On short rides I don’t worry too much about them but knowing it was a long day I really wanted to find. After 5 minutes of searching and no gloves I decided I better get moving if I wanted to stick to the plan.

I ended up rolling out of the Garage at 6:35. I still wasn’t worried because with fresh legs I knew I could make up the five minutes over 16 miles. Once I got into the “country”, which only takes a few minutes in Western Cary I was feeling pretty good. A deer was grazing next to the road, then a few hundred feet further one trotted across my path; not too close, but close enough to get a really good view. I thought about stopping for a photo but then remembered that I was just barely going to make the start of the group ride. By the way, someone needs to come up with an easy way to carry a camera on a bike.

A few miles after the deer spotting I came to Green Level Church Rd. and couldn’t remember which way to go! I tried recalling a picture of the map I pulled the night before but the details just weren’t clear enough. I chose left. After a 100 feet or so I was treated to an awesome downhill at near 40 mph and then a nice climb back up. When I got to the top the map in my head suddenly cleared I realized I needed to go the other way in order to make the 16 mile loop. After repeating the hill in the opposite direction I was on my way again. This route is basically a large loop into Western Wake county and back to within two miles of the house. Of course now I’m really cutting it close after the wrong turn.

It was 7:28 and I still had to get across Hwy 55, Davis Dr and finally to Cary Parkway where the group meets. I knew they usually ran a little late in starting so there was still a chance to catch them. I put it in “high gear” and flew down High House. I pulled into the parking lot at 7:35 and at first thought for sure that I had missed them, but then I saw them gather up on the other side of a large SUV. I made it!! But they were all mounted up and pulling out as I pulled up. I had time for a U-turn and then just had to get in line. I was SOOOO glad I brought a third bottle of water!!

Luckily the group starts with a warm-up through Prestonwood neighborhood at about 12 to 17 mph so I could get my legs back after the sprint to the coffee shop.

After a few miles the group ended up on Carpenter UpChurch (road where Green Hope High is) and at the end is a sprint to an imaginary line. This week I was ready for it but the veterans still got the jump on me. I was able to pass one of them though and came in a close second. That made up for the stress of the first 15 miles.

The makeup of the group this week proved to be more difficult than normal. Usually we have 3 paces called the Thorns, Stems and Roses. Thorns go to races on the weekends and think nothing of riding 70 miles a day, Stems want to Thorns, but are hard pressed to keep up and Roses ride for the scenery, although a few move up to Stems and Thorns as the weeks go by. Well this week there was 1 rose, 2 stems and 5 thorns. I’m really with the Stem group, but can keep up with thorns most of the time. Since we really didn’t have a Stems group I road with the Thorns while the other Stem road with the Roses.

Other than riding a little faster than normal, with a few extra attacks, the rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. We did go through a “squirrel crossing” and had a flat later in the ride.

The group leader ends up posting the details of the main ride on their blog so I’ll let you get the rest of the story from there: http://trailsandtrib.blogspot.com/ .

By the end of the ride, with the wrong turn and few extra miles in the group ride, I ended up with 51 miles at an average pace of 17.6 mph. If you’ve kept up with my posting you might notice that’s the farthest AND fastest in 3 weeks!!

See you on road!

- Dwight.