WTF, where is everybody?

So I'm totally bummed. We need to get the band back together. When are we going to have a regular Sunday ride again? When are we going to have a lunch on Thursday again? All the lurkers in the house say yaya!

K sizzle

I LIKES ME SOME...

TCBY (large cup of chocolate/strawberry mix)

Fig Newton’s on a road trip with the fellas

Beer after a particularly hard day at the office

Red Wine after a particularly hard day at the office

Good singletrack with very few sharp corners

Road biking on a road with very few sharp corners

Bikechain.com/bikeposse

Time away with Mrs. Slade

Market Diner in Thomasville

F150

Jimmy Durante and Dean Martin

Epic Saturday

Steve having a happy (gay) moment

The fellas

lil' Ronnie leading the way

Suns out guns out

Another happy (gay) moment

Tired

A year and a half ago, before I started riding bikes again, I was a fat sorry mess. My weight was over 200lbs and I felt like crap every day. My typical day consisted of: getting up going to work; eating a BIG meal at lunch; go home; eat a snack/drink a coke (maybe a beer); cook BIG dinner then eat it (while watching biggest loser) while sitting in my lazy boy; another snack before bed (mmmm Oreos and milk); sleep. I was so out of shape that I’d get winded walking from the house to the mailbox. A doctor’s visit put a little fear into me when he started talking about high cholesterol and chances of diabetes. It was time to get motivated so I started running then eventually riding bikes again.

So now I’ve lost a little weight (need to lose more), and get plenty of cardio. Funny thing is….I’M STILL TIRED. Granted, this is a different kind of tired. Me and the boys did intervals on the mountain bikes last night. They (the intervals) were particularly brutal this time. I’m not one of those people who ever had a need to puke during or after a workout, but last night was about as close as I’ve ever come. Silk and Marko swear that these things will make us faster, and they better be right (intervals = no fun). It was good to have Spanish Mackeral and Brother Kent join me and Marko for the painfest.

Tonight is the “Joe’s” ride. A special appearance by lil’ Ronnie visiting from North Cuba will make the ride extra fun. Don’t know if my legs have much pep in ‘em, but I’m looking forward to the ride.

Wish I could go back home and crawl into bed and take a long nap instead of sitting in an office all day. Oh yea, in case I didn’t mention it…..I’m freakin TIRED!

Peace and Love Baby

This blog has been missing something the last few days, PEACE AND LOVE.

Hey, group hug…..I love you guys!

Let the verbal assaults begin. I can take it.

Who else....

Had a good ride today?

click click

So, this past weekend had us driving to Athens and Winder for some more bike racing. Saturday was Ft Yargo for a pre-ride and post Xterra excitement. Mostly just me getting an Xterra race shirt which features a picture of yours truly on it. I hear they are going for $60 on ebay already so pick one up while the prices are still relatively low. Saturday night was a trip to Athens (where we stayed) to watch the Athens Twilight Crit. The crit was cool, same as usual - 'cept this time there wasn't quite as much beer and not near as much walking around. After little sleep, and a longer-than-expected commute, I was a little late getting to the race. I had about a five minute warmup and a sick stomach from stuffing down poptarts and muffins an hour earlier. Oh, and I had a frozen Jimmy Dean sausage biscuit also. Read about that little dietary secret in the Carmichael training systems book. Late to the line, absolutely and competely in last place on the start out of 26 finely tuned racing machines. Pick my way up into the top ten and have to fight off a late bloomer in the closing minutes of the race. I beat him, but he made me hurt. Nothing like reaching your MHR after 2.5 hours of racing and holding it there for 3-5 minutes. Well, no podium for me and Tally was calling my name. Me an the 'ol lady headed out before the white wave was over. We didn't get to see our boys finish, but we got the updates on the road. I hated leaving early, but it sure was nice to be home at 6:30 (they got back at 9:30). After half sleeping through work all day, I finally got a chance to see the results posted on the goneriding website. Not too bad. My lap times weren't consistent, but they consistently fell off as many others did. I am starting to recognize some of the names in my class and seeing how I beat them sometimes and they get me sometimes. Looks like everyone is picking up the pace since Macon, except for me. I am pretty sure my problem is the lack of rest leading up to the race and some very poor nutrition choices. With better planning and more rest, I really hope that I can serve it up to some my middle-of-the-packers at the next race. All in all, I am happy with it and very proud to be competing at this level. As for the others, well, BW looked to really be putting in a good fight on the first lap. I think his mind was writing fitness checks from Donald Trump's/Ryan Woodall's (depending on your own interpretation) account; unfortunately his legs and lungs were trying to cash them at his bank. He will have to recap the race, since I wasn't there. BJS dished on his blog about his race. Here is the recap of BJS's race - taken from the wonderful Big Jim Blog (since he refuses to write on here)..."Then there’s my race. No doubt I had become spoiled after winning the first two races in this series. I may have been a little overconfident (but I don’t think so). I knew I was in trouble during my warm-up. The legs felt really tired (not a good sign). I figured they would come around near the end of the warm-up but they never did. So I line up, Dave yells go and we’re off. I had a horrible start. In the woods about 5th place. I figure if I can just keep the leaders in sight that I’d be OK, but I just wasn’t feeling it on this day. I lost sight of a couple of the guys. Then, of course, I get mixed up with the slower guys in the classes that went off before me. I road clean, but again the legs just didn’t feel fast. When I crossed the line I had no idea where I placed. I was very disappointed in my race and my effort. When it was all said and done I got 3rd out of 19 guys. If this was a Florida series race I would have been very please, but considering this is GA where the competition if nothing like FL, I felt let down."

Just remember: fast is fun, slower is faster, it's all chicken but the bone, lips on my belly, good food and good times.