Rest & Recovery

Tis the day. The day of rest. Planned on a small ride, 1 to 2 hours. As long as the weather wasn't to shoddy, but the weatherman was indeed unkind. Little warmer than yesterday, and little less rain; but overall quite dreary and overcast. Instead I stayed in bed, cozy and warm, until 9 (quite the feat) and then relaxed with my breakfast and coffee. Spent some time on school stuff (in order to minimize the falling behind) and then headed into Clemson with some of the boys. A cool little college town about a 20 minute drive from the house. Spent a while hanging in the coffee shop, critiquing the local student barrista, and generally enjoying a latte. Headed up to a local used book store that Thuss knew and picked myself up 2 new books - In Defense of Food & Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Ideally this should a) give me something to do other than browse the same crap on the internet, & b) get me back into reading. Both should be good things. Quick stop at the grocery store en route, and home for dinner. Nice fish dinner with a new marinade I half discovered in a cook book I was browsing at the shop, and half created in my head at the grocery store. Pretty damn good. Did a little more drafting work for school while waiting for the stove line-up to subside and enjoyed some fish, lentils and veggies. House movie night, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, playing on screen number 1. Seemed a well enjoyed piece from my portable collection. Tomorrow's weather and ride is looking much more promising, looking like perhaps heading out for another long day with the camp kids for some good miles and plenty of climbing. Last ride for those buggers, and I as well appear to be moving into my final week here at the house. How time flies. Soon I'll be back to snow, school, and general regular life. At least whenl school is out and I can resume rising at 7 and riding my days away... On a down note, it appears I will now be driving home solo. So if any readers out there are down here now, and looking to head back North on March 1 (instead of perhaps with the OCA van), talk to me. Otherwise, no worries. I've done long drives before, and I'll do them again. Travel seems to come with this occupation. On a sad note, I am out of Nutella. And due to a recent explosion in the cylcling community population, the local grocery stores are sold out. We have checked. This is dangerous as I derive many ride calories from Nutella sammies. Back to jam for now...

Favourite food of the week: blood oranges. Tasty little buggers. Like a normal orange, slightly different taste (perhaps sweeter?) and a red interior. Not sure exactly why I'm loving them... they just seem to strike a cord with me. And I hear they're in season.

Can you say shattered?

You see that weather causing riders to drop out of ToC with hypothermia? Thats what we got today. But colder. High down here in the valley of 4 and pissing rain. I hear -12 up on the Blue Ridge. We had a long day on the sched, I think you get the picutre... Me and the Race boys (plus Geoff) headed off about a little before 9, to get a hour in before heading to the camp kids house to pick them up and lead their 6 hour ride. Figured it would be good to get our extra miles in before the afternoon rain. After all, we planned a 7-8 hours. Picked up the kids group and hit the road up and into Georgia. As we arrived into Georgia, 4 hours for Sandy, the rain began. Light for a while, but then it got hard. Soon, we soaked and rolling back. Pull up to the house to drop the camp kids off after about 7 hours before heading off for the solo trek home. Most people were a little smarter than me and cut home earlier. Cold to the core, but happy. End totals, 7:45, 210km. Shiet. I'd say this qualifies as the definition of epic. For sure the best shower ever after that. Now a few layers of wool sweaters and plenty of tea. Needless to say I should sleep like a bloody baby tonight. On the plus side, my legs are feeling strong, and my body is looking forward to a well deserved rest day tomorrow. Enjoy your evening, I need some food and then sleep.

A random day in my shoes

7am - wake up, breakfast, internet surfing and generally enjoying the momentary quiet through the house.
9am - 2nd cup of coffee, greet new kitchen arrivals, perhaps some fruit to snack on pre ride. Check weather, and plan a route. Generally the tele seems to be turned to Fresh Prince of Bel Air at this time too.
10am - depart for ride. sometimes varies. But this seems to be a normal, civilized hour for the house. Tomorrow will be 8am to try for 6 hours before the rain hits. Some are unhappy about this decision. I really would prefer not riding in 7-8 degrees and rain. But hey, harden up.
10am to mid aft - ride time. Route dependent, random stop (aka food, water, pee or flat). Generally 4-7 hours for me. Sometimes a little less for those pesky recovery days.
after ride, pre-dinner - Shower, warm clothes, then food. I go for the spinach omelette, a fresh orange, and some tea. Pull out the computer and screw around some more with some of the many time wasters available. Favourites: cycling websites, this damn blog, and facebook. I'd play some kind of video game, but let's face it; I suck at them. I seem to lack some kind of focus or perhaps hand-eye co-ordination. And of course, think about dinner.
7pm - Dinner. Usually a 2 hour operation. Give or take. Preparation, wrestling match for stove elements, cutting boards, pots/pans.... etc. Not gonna lie, kitchen live can get ugly with 12 hungry, skinny cyclists all looking to one up each others meals. Well, most everyone is preparing a good meal. Not everyone. Pour a glass of vino, and relax with a hard earned meal. Maybe nurse some battle wounds.
8pm to 10pm - General chillaxin out maxin out time. More internet, movies, random TV, reading (as long as you are a litterate member of he house, no hate) and perhaps some good humoured jostling. This is the time for the Alpha cyclist to shine. Dominance must be asserted through taunts, quick reflexes and general "yo momma" type jokes. Things can get crude, such as a "fart-off", but I will leave that information out as to not further cause your opinion of cyclists (and me) to drop. I'm certain other sports have these bonding methods as well.

Thats it. If its a rest day, or you feel like it - throw in a nap, or more computer/tele time. Just keep your feet up. And drink plenty of water. I usually end up cleaning the kitchen a decent amount too. I think I can hear my mom laughing already about that last bit. Tomorrow should be a picture day. I got a bunch today from the ride with Geoff. A nice chill spin through the hills. Solid.
PS-wicked lunar eclipse tonight. Pretty cool to see so clearly over our lake.

The day after the day

The birthday has come and gone. This makes 2 years in a row to be celebrated in the Carolina's I believe. Little extra cool this time as it was also my boy Eric Robertson's, same day, same year. We are now pretty much brothers. If only he weren't a Leaf's fan, I may be able to acknowledge his his presence in public. In other news, quite the fart-off on the ride. Five and half hours, including the world's slowest ascent of Caesar's Head. Nice endurance ride, with bloody Hunt letting them rip whenever he would hit the front. Windy and pretty cool (probably as I am now a little spoiled weather wise) but the wind was quite forceful. So much so, that while descending Caesar's Head, a large gust felled a tree (ok a branch the size of a tree, but I like the word 'felled') right accross the road about 10m in front of us. Luckily traffic on Caesar's Head is quite light on a weekday afternoon, so other than a surprise, we were all fine. Pretty cool though. Massive headwind for the ride home, but a quick stop for a honey bun and some more water made the rest of the ride fly by. Got home, quick bite, shower then off to the grocery store for some dinner supplies. Birthday dinner: chicken nachos. What can I say, the need hit me about an hour into the ride. Just ask Keir, they were fully some of the best nachos ever. Except maybe for my copious amounts of fresh jalapanos. Forgot how spicy those suckers are. Both of us had some serious overheating action happening after some large mouthfuls of those puppies. A few Sierra Nevada brews and we'll call it a meal. Quite the celebration in the kitchen actually. Even got a few pictures of our massive groups. Some of the other boys made some delicious fresh bbq'd pizzas. Today will be somewhat chiller, probably 4-5 hours nice and easy with Geoff. Thursday will be a tough long day, so some recovery time today will be paramount. Enjoy your day. I know I will.

Thuss tossing the pizza pie. Thumbs up for nachos. The birthday kids.

The days

They are flying by. Incredible how time passes. Already done with a week of 3 here in the South. House is going well, lessons to be learned from a few on general living skills, but hey. Everyone has gotta learn sometime. Wicked ride today. One of those rides with some weightless legs, great weather and not enough time. It was quite honestly everything I could do mentally to not really push myself on the climbs or take a particular left hand turn (up the wicked Highlands climb) and hold myself to only my planned 5 hours. Hit near 17 degrees down by the lake, but with some stiff winds. Rode up through the valley, hooked up with some of the camp kids for a few kms before setting back off on my own up Whitewater Falls climb/Devil's Staircase. A solid 40 minutes or so of climbing (though I did allow myself some tempo on the steep final pitches of Devil's Staircase) allowed me to discover both how much I had climbed and as well (by association how much colder it was at this new altitude). Close to 6 degrees to be exact. Found myself quite glad to be my usual somewhat overdressed self. Kept on going for what is definitely one of the most scenic and beautiful loops around. Followed the road up some more into Cashiers, and then again a little more up all the way to Sapphire. Did stop on the edge of Cashiers to take advantage of a nice looking coffee shop for a cappuccino and a massive maccadamia nut/white chocolate cookie. Well worth the $3. Back on the road, and into the headwind for some descending and rollers all the way home. Just danced along the pedals, iPod picking out some well suited tunes, working hard to stay in my zones (not the harder pace my legs were craving) and enjoy the sun. Busted out some more bbq action tonight as well with some more homemade fries and good vino to end off a solid day. Almost time for a grocery run however. I figure I should be able to last a few more days anyways before I'm out of fruits and veggies. Really find myself wishing I had brought my camera today. I will now fully have to do this ride again. Luckily the weather seems to call for sun, the plan for plenty of miles, and the legs cry for pain.

rain

Bit of an ugly day around here today. Light rain all morning so far, and into the afternoon, and apparently some decent thunder showers hitting us later in the afternoon. Went out for a nice easy 3 hour spin, plus a easy paced climb up Cashiers. Nothing strenuous, just ride until the legs started to come around. Felt pretty dead in the legs for the first 2 hours or so of the ride, but kept the cadence up and the heart rate down until the legs came along. Other than being a little wet and cold after arriving home, a good day. The last of the kids (I think) arrived late last night, so needless to say Geoff and I woke up to find a new roommate. Luckily I was not awoken with his arrival, so it really made no particular difference to me. House is definitely pretty much at capacity for the moment. Going to be a super chillax afternoon, maybe a nap is in order. Just one of those days. Lazy, rainy day. We'll see whats in store for tomorrow, but hopefully a nice 5 hours in some ideally better weather. Word is sun will return for the next couple days at least anyways. Had a wicked bbbq dinner last night. grilled veggies and pork chop with some baked sweet potato fries and a nice glass of wine. Best way to top off a solid day is a solid meal. Cheers to naps.

Solid day. plus some solid weather.

Knee warmers and arm warmers today. Even rolled the arm warmers down on a few of the longer climbs. Fully hit up the mid 20s for most of the day. Went out looking to take advantage of the weather with a planned 5 hour day. Lost track somewhat of time with a few extra long climbs, ended up home with a solid 6 hours and 160km in the legs. Legs felt wicked. Kept the pace nice and easy and was definitely feeling a little better on the climbs. Closing in on the end of the first week here, and looks like it'll be a nice big week hours wise with the legs feeling stronger and better as the days go on. Saw plenty of funny stuff on the solo ride today, I think I can sum up South Carolina with one word: guns. Riding along one of the highways, saw a pickup pulled over. Looking closer, noticed two dudes in full camo holding some large guns staring into a field. Odd, yes. I figured my best option was to drop it down a few gears for the remainder of the climb, drop my head and try my best not to look like something that needed to be shot. Of all the days to not wear my 'captain America' Cycling Center kit.... Apparently should be some ferocious rain pelting us tomorrow, so pretty glad to have only a 3-4 hours on schedule. We'll see how that goes.

Up on top of the Continental Divide. About 3 hours and change in.

The sunrise from the house. Looks like the start of a good day.

Watching numbers and my shadow as I climb.