Seventeen Down - Three Weeks to Go!

Week seventeen started on Sunday, October 9th and ended on Saturday, October 15th.

After taking much of week sixteen off I decided I needed to better this week.  My usual club rides are done for the year.  But as expected some of us can't take a hint and want or need to keep going.  I checked the Southern Crescent Cycling club's facebook page to see if anybody was riding on Sunday morning.  Sunday would normally be a recovery day.  Since I didn't have anything to recover from I thought I had better get my butt out of bed early and ride when I could.  I worked late Saturday night so I wouldn't get my required 8 hours of beauty rest.  My alarm was set for 6am.  That should give me plenty of time to get ready and drive to our new meet up location at the Starbucks Coffee place on GA-20.  Well, my alarm never went off.  I looked over at my clock and it read 6:47am.  I was gonna have to fly to get there by 7:15am.

Well, somehow I made it with a few minutes to spare.  It was totally dark when I arrived, except for the parking lot lights.  We sat around and drank our coffee as more riders arrived.  I had eaten a muffin and drank some O.J. on the drive over.  I had a second muffin at Starbucks.  My muffin from the DeKalb International Farmers Market was better.

Our group of 10 riders took off at around 7:45am.  The sun was coming up so it was light now.  I turned on my tail light anyway.  Better safe...  The temperature was 60-degree and very windy.  I think it was the windiest day that I've ever ridden.  It was cloudy too and every now and then a few small rain drops would hit my face.  I was cold for the first 30 minutes.

We were riding the Jordan Hill route.  If you're not familiar with the area, Jordan Hill is just like the name implies, a long steep downhill followed by a long steep uphill.  As we're heading down the hill a 35+ mph a car passed us on the left.  Okay!  As the car is passing a Jack Russell terrier dog is chasing us on the right as his owner sat silent on the porch.  Okay!!  About 5 miles further down the road on GA-3 we had 4 dogs chase us as their owner stood in the front yard again, totally silent.  Are you kidding!!!  The common factor here is Spalding County.  Apparently, having a loose dog is required.

Ultimately, we rode just over 36 miles at an average speed of 19.7 mph.  It was a good ride and there were no major incidents.

On Monday the rain moved into the Atlanta area.  By the time Susan and I were ready for our ride it started to drizzle.  Susan said nope, not in the rain.  I needed 2 hours of riding so I hit the road.  I planned to stay close to the house by making 4 loops around the lake.  I finished 1 loop and went home.  I wasn't cold but was pretty wet.  I stopped my ride early because I didn't want to crash.  My brakes were less effective in the rain and I knew if my tires lost their grip I'd really regret it.  Back at home, Susan and I used our basement gym.  I ran on the treadmill and she used the various machines we've had for years.

On Tuesday I swam in the lake.  The weather was not nice at all.  There was a light drizzle of rain and since the sun had not shown in days, the water was cool.  The wind also made the surface of the lake pretty choppy.  I swam 2 miles from the dock, to the dam and back in 1 hour and 15 minutes.  That's not my best time but it felt good and I'm getting used to the longer swim sessions.

On Wednesday Chip and I rode our bikes 30 miles from work to somewhere near Brooks, Georgia and back.  Then we ran 5.5 miles at Chip's pace.  It was a good brick workout but Chip's concerned that I'm not putting in the long runs.  I plan to fix that later in the week.

On Thursday Chip, Richard, and I planned to swim in Lake Peachtree swim at Drake Field.  The kibosh was put on the by the weather.  Instead, I stayed close to home.  I ran 10.7 miles around the lake near my house and then swam 2 miles in the lake.  It got pretty cloudy but the weather really never got bad.  I did get rained on during the last mile of my run.  On the other side of the coin, the lake surface was as smooth as glass when I started my swim.

On Friday Chip, Richard and I rode 112 miles on the Silver Comet Trail back out to mile marker 57.  Richard and I followed the ride with a 15 minute run brick.

Chip getting ready for our ride

Richard staying warm in his stylish sweat pants

At mile mark 39 as the three of us were headed west we had a wreck on the wooden deck.  With Chip in the lead, followed by Richard and then me, we proceeded at about 10 mph over the wet wood.  Chip lost traction, then Richard and then me.  We went down like bowling pins.  Somehow my bike went completely under Richard's.  I was the least hurt, just a little bump on my hip exactly where I hurt it when I wrecked the last time on the SCT.  Richard was the second best (or worst) off but he also landed on an area of his body that he had hurt in another wreck a month or so ago.  Richard laid down quite a bit of profanity afterwards which is unusual for him but it seemed to make him feel better.  Chip was the worst off.  He got a nasty bump on his hip and knocked the crap out of two finger.  It took us about 15 minutes to make a few minor bike repairs and regain our composure.  We'd only completed about 1/3 of our bike and already we were feeling demoralized.  We soldiered on!

Richard and Chip trying to regain their composure

Richard and Chip check themselves for injuries

My bike covered with wet leaf debris

Looking to the west

Looking to the east

A mark by somebodies pedal

Chip showin' a little leg

Richard checking out his own injuries

Richard smiles for the camera as Chip readjusts his handlebars

Chip and Richard on the ride back

We finished our ride in 6 hours and 11 minutes of saddle time.  Start to finish was a 7 hour ordeal including stops.  Richard had an awesome ride and stayed in the front much of the time.  Chip and I let him stay up there.  We thought it would be good for his self esteem.  Yeah that's it!

On Saturday Susan and I ran the Peachtree City Classic 5K and 15K, respectively.  Susan had a good race and so did I.  I'll post the race reports soon.

So, I ended the week with having swam 4 miles, ridden 190 miles, and running 39.62 miles in a total of 17 hours and 51 minutes.  That's close enough to my planned 19 hours and 45 minutes for me.

Even after all that working out I still found time for some Community Service (of the Jailhouse Brewing variety).  Unfortunately, I don't get a Conjugal Visit (also a Jailhouse Brewing beer).

Carbo loading done right

Finally, time to start my taper.

Thanks for reading.