47.5 miles, a dog chase and a Baptism

Saturday was a great day for a ride. A high school friend of mine, fellow Cajun and now Godfather to our third child, was in for the weekend. We headed out to meet the Thorns and Roses at 7:50 ish, and rolled into the Caribou Coffee parking lot just as the cyclists were pulling out, so no time for the usual meet and greet.

Andre (sporting my borrowed orange 97 steel LeMonde) pulled alongside Love Train and got acquainted with the rules of the ride as Love Train shouted / sang his own rendition of "I'm an inconsiderate cyclist" when a car had to pass him by going into the other lane. Dwight shuffled back and forth between his guest and the other cyclists as he tried to find out the plan for the morning. Captain Carbon uncommittingly said we'd likely split into two groups once we reached the lake, however with only 10 in the group and lacking most of the Hammerheads, Dwight figured we'd stay together.

As the Thorns and Stems pulled onto Carpenter Upchurch, Andre was surprised that the group was double file on such a narrow road with the speed of the cars coming by. Dwight noted that this happened quite a bit that day, even on some of the highways, and the group might need a "talking to" by GOG.

With the sprint line in sight several cyclists pushed to the front to get the first race underway but Dwight spoiled the party by jumping way too early with only Captain Carbon chasing him down. Of course Captain caught up and taunted Dwight all the way to the finish. - GOG owes Captain $100.

The ride made the usual route from there going up Upchuck, Dwight opted out of that one, and on toward the lake.

At the rest-stop the group discussed what they would do with their winnings on the day, and Captain Carbon was strong-armed by Patti-melt and her minions into doing Col de Lystra.

Everyone made it, with Andre bringing up the rear due to the extra 10 pounds of steel he was pulling. :)

On the way back to the lake Dwight decided the group needed another sprint and designated the Bridge as the finish line. Since he was the only one that knew about this new sprint he won easily! - GOG owes Dwight $100.

Right before the Jig-jog at the strawberry patch Andre hit a wall and Dwight slowed to pull his buddy back to the group. At that point a dog came running down a drive after the two of them. (Likely stirred by Lovetrain) They both hit the gas but the dog was gaining fast and as it caught up to Andre the strangest thing happened. Going against it's "survival of the fittest" instincts, it passed up Andre and kept running for Dwight. It must have been the bright blue socks. :) Of course the dog could only run for so long and eventually pulled off leaving Andre and Dwight to catch up with the group.

On the last county-line sprint several Stems went into cahoots and successfully blocked-in Captain Carbon so that he couldn't win the sprint - again. - GOG owes someone else $100.

On the way back, Dwight and Andre left the ride a little early to get back to the family that was preparing for the Baptism that night.

Upcoming Rides to remember:

- Friday October 2nd - LIVESTRONG Day ride starting at SAS for SAS employees with all others joining along Weston Parkway for 20 to 25 miles through Cary and Morrisville. For more details visit http://www.livestrongaction.org/node/191464

- Sunday October 25th - Cary Cycling Celebration and Jimmy V Ride for Cancer Research

Donate, Ride or Volunteer via http://www.firstgiving.com/dwightmouton

- 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.