Winter Blues

I have once again been bummed out by the next four-day forecast! More rain and icy garbage to deal with. This is really starting to become a soggy nasty winter for us here in South Carolina.
The winter started out really cold but dry, and has now turned into cold and wet wet wet and more wet!
I've resorted to breaking out my indoor trainer alot this year. As the pseudo miles roll by in the living room I watch out the big front window as the wind and rain howl by as if to say, "not today fat-boy"! I have become creative in my trainer workouts by changing up the DVDs alot. The new George Hincapie DVD documentary is great for entertainment, motivation and time on the bike. It is 81 minutes of interviews with George as he rides along through the foothills of Greenville. His documentary makes for a pretty good workout if you can stand to be on a trainer for that long. I then will add some difficulty into the mix by hitting the Time Trial DVD by Carmichael Training Systems. That one is rough if you do it like the DVD tells you to. You must have a heart rate monitor and cadence sensor to correctly complete the training and you should know your physical limits also.
There have been breaks in the nasty weather that have allowed for road cycling also but they have been few and far between. I have also done some running which to me is more like self torture, but works well for burning off calories and strengthening different leg-muscles. I usually pay for it the next day, I hate to run! My Wife is set to begin a routine to train for some of the upcoming spring 5k races and it will give me another reason to get out and run. I enjoy running with her and sometimes my Dad slows down enough to let me run with him too so maybe the winter will turn out OK anyway.
We just returned from Nashville, TN. yesterday and it rained all day long on us as we drove through the Smoky MT. National Park. the interstate through Asheville NC. I-40 is still closed due to the Rock-Slides so we ended up having to go through the mountains to get to the other side so we could continue on and it was a mess! I made the best of it by imagining that I was on my bike in the spring time spinning out routes through the beautiful hills that we were now navigating in the monsoon season. There were winds so high near the top of Newfound Gap that I could actually feel the steering of our SUV becoming light as we rounded several of the corners up there. Kinda scary I thought.
Well, we must press on toward that great thing called spring, so if you are one of the cabin-fever ridden cyclist out there, hang on, spring is not far off.(yeah right!)
I did take a chance today and put my ride through a thourough cleaning. I hadn't realized how dirty she was. I even disassembled my rear derrailuer and cleaned the individual pulleys, then cleaned the chain really well. after that was all done I washed and waxed the whole frame along with cleaning the wheels and tires too! the thing looks brand new aside from a few wear-marks here and there. So I encourage you also while the weather is foul to go ahead and shine up the ride and fix anything you need to in preparation for the next time the weather breaks. Later all!

Winter Riding with Red and RFL 2010!

This past saturday I had the opprtunitiy to ride with one of my best riding buddies, Red Wood. You all should give Red alot of credit since he is in his mid sixties and in pretty darn good shape! I convinced him this past June to ride in the SCride4life with me and he did a fantastic job seeing that it was his first one.
We set out saturday morning and headed up toward Eastatoee valley. The weather was a nice 45-50 degrees with a really wintery feel to it with cloud-covered skies. Red decided that he wanted to tackle the Dug Mtn. climb, otherwise known as the GranyGear hill, so off we went. I decided to get out my phone and shoot some silly little interveiws with the video function as we chugged our way up the climb. I think Red saw less comedy in it than I did but we had a good time with it anyway. We saw the usual stuff along the way with the added bonus of tons of squirrel-hunters and hog-hunters filling the woods along the sides of the roads throughout the valley but none gave us any trouble and were cautious about us on the roads, which was nice. You never know what kind of response you'll get in the mountains with hunters and grown men in tights! We wound around through the valley and headed up into the exit climb past the famous Bob's Place tavern (aka..scatterbrains) I catch alot of jokes about how the folks at Bob's would probably give us a hard time, but to their credit they've always been freindly and waved rather than made any off-color comments. I think most of them write us off as crazy for riding bicycles through the mountains anyway, I get the comment all the time that the only way they'd ride up there is with a motor! I just tell them that I am the motor and have a good laugh and ride on. We finished out the ride that day unscathed and had a great time just riding throughout the countryside talking about the upcoming spring rides and of course RFL 2010!
I encourage anyone and everyone who has a bike and will ride to check out this years SCride4life. It is the annual cross-state ride that benefits the Upstate Pregnancy Care Center in Seneca, SC. It's a great time of riding and fellowship for a great cause! Check it out at www.scride4life.com and join in the fun! We need support drivers and helpers as well as more riders this year. We raise almost half of the yearly budget for the center and they really need our help to continue the mission. You get three days of riding plus two nights stay and food, plus continuous SAG support throuout each days stage. Where else can you enjoy a multi-day cycling event that includes a custom jersey and all the mentioned support for a donation of $300? Plus you will be helping out a great cause in addition to having a great time! I look forward to seeing you there! To God be the glory and be safe out there. Until next time....

Source of Strength

I have to start this article by asking all of you who read my blog to forgive me. I have been writing this page for awhile now and haven't given any credit or praise to God for all he has done for me in my life.
I have used this page as a way to communicate to all who will listen about my cycling and training experiences and that is all fine and dandy but when I leave out the source of my strength and motivation it's all for nothing! That source is the Lord Jesus Christ! He is the fiber by which all is held together, just research laminin, the very protein that holds our cells together and you'll see that it is in the shape of the cross! Yes, the cross that Jesus hung on to give his life for the payment of all our sins. The bible tells us that he is the way the truth and the life, and that no man cometh unto the father but by me. Basically the one way to be able to get into heaven is by belief in Jesus, and no other. Don't shoot the messenger, it's Gods word! I just happen to beleive it's true. So with that said, I now can begin a new outlook for this blog, still about cycling and related stuff, but sharing my faith along the way. After all, God is the source of all my strength, motivation and desire.
I began this day with a nice breakfast with my two beloved ladies(Valerie and Evie)as I usually do. On the way to work Valerie called and said that she had forgotten a couple of bowls that she intended to use for her science lesson today in her 5th grade class. Well as the good husband would do I located them and loaded up in the jeep and took off to deliver them. On the way back I began to listen to some very motivating David Phelps tunes and my heart began to well up with thanks to God whom has been so good to me! I was beginning a round of worship that lasted for an hour or so after I got home. This hasn't happened to me in a very long time since I have been less than the Christian I am supposed to be. I recently began a new study and prayer process that my sunday school teacher and dear freind Gary Edwards had introduced to our whole class. It began with Psalm 91 and is now into Ephisians 6. It talks about being "in Christ". This may sound strange to you or may be familiar sounding but when you really listen to what that says you'll find that instead of Christ being in us it says to be "in Christ"! How is this? I encourage you to find out by reading Psalm 91 and then going to, http://undertheshadowofgod.wordpress.com/ and reading what my dear brother has to say abut this awesome passage of scripture. You will be blessed indeed!

January's Activities

Welcome 2010! Wow, the new year is here and I see that I actually have a follower and some commenters out there! It's exciting for me as the writer to see that someone has at least some interest in what I have to say. I guess I'll have to continue to ramble on about life on the road as a local crazy who still rides in these cold temps.

The cold this year has been worse than I can remember in a very long time. I started out the new year by riding with my dear freind Jamie Moon who braved the long roads of the SCride4life last summer as a new cyclist. We did a modest 25 miles of easy spinning out and around Pickens, SC. It was an enjoyable ride with not too much of the nasty cold getting to us.

I followed that up the next day with a freezing arctic blast with the Greenville Spinners on their First Fifty Ride that goes from Furman University to Table Rock State Park and back. I conned three of my great and dedicated cycling buddies, The Teets, to suffer with me. It was the first ride of that distance for Cindy, wife of my good friend Steven. I thought many times during the ride that if she had a gun I'd have payed with my life! She really did well though and my hat is off to her for persevereing along with us. The treat of the day was seeing George Hincapie out braving the cold along with us, it's good to have such a great cyclist in our area to draw inspiration from. He passed us with ease but took time enough to say "hi" as he passed by, he is one nice guy to be so accomplished. I don't know of any other professional athlete who would acknowlege his fans in such a common and freindly way while he was actually training, makes you feel included in a way.

I remember about an hour before we saw George, I was joking about training out in the cold and commented to Steven that I didn't see George out today, being sarcastic, and then just a bit later, there he was! I was later able to pry my foot out of my mouth, it was funny though.

I tried out a new gadget today that I am excited about! It is a USB sensor that allows infrared transfer of data from my Polar cycling HRM to the laptop and imports it into Polar's Pro Trainer 5 software. I thought it was cool to see in succession the last several days of training and the results in such a way. I enjoy following my training progress and seeing results! I have actually lost another two pounds this week, due to the ability to watch calorie burn and intake so closely.

If you want the ability to track and monitor your stats then Polar computers are the bomb! I have the CS400 and really like it. It tells me everything about my rides all the way down to the percents of grade and elevation, not to mention the physical stats given by the HRM. Cool stuff if you want to train right.

Well, thats all for now so until next time take care out there and keep pedaling away! Thanks again to all who read my stuff and keep the comments coming! I luvs my peeples! and to George, thanks for being you, you inspire us all! (Like he will see this!)