Back in the, um, groove

Month off the bike. Back yesterday with the VB group, A's and B's together.

Art is an animal. He and the rest of the A's took off from Orangedale back north and cranked it up to 27-28 mph with a tailwind (this after doing 24-25 in the headwind), leaving Grace and me (with Ed) in the rear, way back, again. At 210, Ed summarily decided we wouldn't follow. We headed straight back.

On Beauclerc Road, it suddenly occured to me that I had recently had 'roid surgery and that the adrenaline of being back in the saddle had worn off. I could no longer sit, so I stood the rest of the way — dancing on the pedals — back up SJ to OR.

Ouch.

At least I didn't crash.

Longest ride ever

This is the longest distance I've ever done on a single ride, rode a hard 110 miles Saturday on the tri bike. Two 55 mile loops starting at the Imeson trail head. Started out freezing & miserable for about 2 hours until the sun was up enough to warm things up.

Apparently, I didn't inflate the Zipps enough, on the first loop I struggled to hold 17mph. Got back to the car & inflated the tires & a vast improvement. Dealing with those valve extenders on the Zipps is a hassle, the air pump acts a little different than when it's straight on the tire valve vs the Zipps valve extenders, it's more difficult to determine tire pressure w/the extenders cause the pump doesn't hold the pressure to measure psi...another lesson learned.

Also had some gastric issues on the first loop & I think it's those damn Cliff Bars...on the 2nd loop had an Oatmeal Raisin Power Bar with me & it was more agreeable with the gastric plumbing. Another good nutrition discovery for long rides is Wheat Thins, I'll be packing those little crackers at IMAZ.

Hey ART - At breakfast did the Starbuck's double shot thingy I bought w/you Friday...hope that didn't cause the gastric stuff ,it would have been a good thing to have taken proior to hitting the 2nd loop.

So, with the under inflation among other things, it was a tough ride and on the final loop coming down 121 with the wind in the face...that hurt. Then it's back down the trail where, get this, I crashed! Lost concentration long enough to drift off the Baldwin trail & crash, I also think the wind assisted catching the Zipps, and BOOM! Not to worry, the bike is fine! I have road rash on the leg & arm, but as I said, the bike is fine.

At the end of the ride, got off the bike & felt a little dizzy so no mood to do a run, just headed home & took a 1hr nap then ended up going to bed later that night at 9:30.
Other than that...

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Tour of California

You'll notice that there is no coverage in this morning's Sports section about the TOC. (In case you missed it, it was leap-out-of-your-chair awesome at the end; Leipheimer wins the prologue by 1.4 seconds.)

I'm asking you to do a couple of things because somehow, my arguments have fallen on deaf ears. Please complain to the following people:

chet.fussman@jacksonville.com (sports editor)
mike.richey@jacksonville.com (managing editor)
wayne@ezell@jacksonville.com (reader advocate)

You can also leave a voice mail for Wayne at 359-4217. That works best.

Send this message to all the cycling people you know.

Thanks

Echo ... echo ... echo ... echo...

Is there anybody out there ... anyone at all ...

Yes it is

Had to bail at Bolles. Couldn't breathe; hacking up too much.

I do not want pneumonia on the menu.

Tomorrow, at 38 degrees, is iffy. A 9 a.m. start suddenly sounds better.

It's snot that bad

Assuming it does not rain heavily, I will be riding this weekend. I will need many nose-blow breaks, however.