All Natural

Since returning from Asheville on Monday, this week has been relatively routine.  With TNT training over with for the summer, I am now searching for ways to get in my miles during the week when I would have normally been getting them in with the Team.

Being able to commute home has been a real blessing.  Once I leave the store, I am left with the decision of which route I want to take.  Ultimately there are an endless amounts of ways I could head but I usually stick to one of the main three.  The shortest is 21 miles and the longer of the three is 31 miles.  The route chosen for the day is usually determined by my energy levels and the amount of time I have before I need/want to be home.

Yesterday my legs were feeling quite OK when I left the shop.  The temps were already screaming into the triple digits but I wasn't concerned as I had packed an extra bottle for the trip home.  I decided I was going to take the longer route home and head up the Old Gun climb.  That was until, I started to hear a hissing sound coming from underneath me.

I found a low hanging tree to pull over next to which would provide a few minutes of shade and also a low hanging branch to make into a roadside workstand. A couple minutes in the shade to cool off with the sweat pouring down my face and I was back on the road kinda.  For whatever reason, I didn't have a full CO2 cartridge with me and the one I had only filled the tire up to a little more than halfway so I had to ride very gingerly in hopes of obtaining another flat.  And if I did get another I would at least be closer to whom ever I called to come get me.

A Green Workstand

By closer, I mean on the same side of the river because once I crossed the bridge I had the brilliant idea to climb Old Gun anyway.  My thinking was, if I am going to have to wait for someone to come get me, it would be nice to do it in the shade not the wide open where all I would be doing was baking my potatoes.  The climb went as to be expected and I pointed the bike for home.  A few cuts through neighborhoods I don't normally take got me home in a slightly shorter amount of time and all was well except now I had to correctly fix my tire and start chugging recovery drinks.  More commuting on tap as the ADK 540 is now just 2.5 months away.  Just gotta keep em spinnin!

Trip down to Asheville

 "Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack" Jenn and I went to a Flying Squirrels game on Friday night.  A ballgame isn't a ballgame without Cracker Jack.

 Which one is more awesome?  No 1 or No 2? If we base our decision on the level of vulgar lyrics, No 2 wins hands down.  Excuse me a minute while I update a couple Ipod playlists.

 With Jenn driving, I took a nap before eating my chicken nuggets.  Once I woke up I put them into the Highlander's built in microwave.

Finally made it down to Asheville.  This is the view from our hotel room.

 

Friday = 1 more day

So today is Friday.  Seems the week has disappeared without really knowing it was here.  The holiday followed by a couple of days off from work made it go by quickly.  This is a good thing because tomorrow Jenn and I are leaving town after a short stint at work to join the rest of the TnT crew in Asheville.

After a short 7 months of training event weekend is here.  The Team has worked hard riding in the extreme cold and now the heat to prepare for what for many of them is going to be their first century.  I couldn't be more excited to have been able to help them along their way.  The smiles on the faces of those who are riding now what they once walked up in heap of frustration are priceless.  It won't take much convincing of me to realize they are ready.  The work has been done, now it's time to have some fun!

Part of that fun is packing.  OK there is nothing fun about packing.  Especially when you have to break it down into a couple of nights/days.  Do I need this?  Should I take that?  At some point this evening the phrase "Hey Hun, Have you seen the ____? No? Where the F is it?!" will surely be uttered.  Tonight is probably the worst part of the trip for me.  Packing will always put me into the Can we leave already?, mood.

So today, I have one more ride home from work before I spend some time wrenching on the bikes before I start packing everything up.  The morning will bring one last ride into work before Jenn arrives to start the journey.

What happens when you assume

Yesterday started out like many others wake up, pack the car, go to work and ride with the TnT crew.  Before I packed the car I took a few minutes to place the borrowed saddle onto Le Antique so I could try to get a feel for it before I went out on a longer ride later this week.

The ride started with a short cruise over to Westcreek where I arrived a few minutes early and got in a couple more miles while waiting for the remaining members of the crew to arrive.  Once we got started, I dropped back to chit chat with another team member and before we knew it had lost contact with the main group.

This is where my assumption got me into trouble.  Well not really trouble but it did make work a bit harder than I thought I was going to.  The last couple of weeks we had been going left onto Millers and then heading over to Shallow Well before returning back to WC.  I hung a left and gave it a bit more energy in hopes of catching back up shortly.  They couldn't be that far ahead, I thought to myself.

Once I arrived at the corner of Millers and Shallow Well, I began to believe that they had not come this way tonight.  I kept pushing on in hopes that my second assumption of the evening was wrong.  It would turn out not to be wrong.  I was chasing ghosts all night, always thinking I would see them "right around this bend".

That didn't happen either.  I arrived back to the lot a few moments ahead of the them.  Turns out they decided to take two shorter laps instead of one of the longer loops.   My assumption rating was 50% for the evening and it only cost me a few extra farmland miles.  One day my mother's advice about assuming things might just set in, maybe.