A Ride Only God Could Have Brought

Trip Dist: 29.04 mi
Trip Time: 1 hr 27 min 58 sec
Avg Speed: 19.81 mph
Max Speed: 32.49 mph

Total Odo: 750 mi
Total Time: 55 hrs 33 min

Weather: A beautiful 80 degrees, then decreased to low 70s as the sun went down. Extremely beautiful for cycling.

Pre-Ride Food Blast: Mac & cheese, peanut butter and jelly, grapes, water.

What a ride! Whenever it's Thursday I become excited from the time I get out of class at 10:25 until 5:45 when I leave for the ride. It's a mix of feelings becuase I know I will be pushed to my limits, increase my strength, yet have a great time. Today, I said a prayer for the ride and he definitely answered every one and more. All I have to say is that I serve a God that has a daily plan that is like what parents spend all year conjuring up for their children at Christmas time. I have been blessed. I see the effects of tithing more and giving when not asked. Praise the lord.

Mixed bag today. I guess people are afraid of possible biking in semi-dark conditions for the last few miles. Small group (7 this time), but it was really enjoyable. One of the head "A" riders was leading the pack most of the time. I forget his name, but he's really southern. He has the superman logo tattooed to the back of his right calf...he's good, but he can't fly. Come on man...uh booouuuuyyy. He's really strong though, that's for sure. His bottom of his calves are twice the width of the top of his calves. Basically...he's rock solid. So we went half way out, then he took off taking a few more with him. He's a nice guy. I met him today, he rode up beside me and shook my hand as I was in the 3rd position almost half-way out. Good guy. They lost me on an intense hill set, and he said, "you doing alright boss?" Of course I replied yes. My legs were the consistency of yogurt, but I had to keep going...it was only midway leg death. I knew I would pull out of it.

TURKEY CROSSING: We flew down a hill at around 30mph pretty close to one another. I heard some yelling and what sounded like "hold up!" I was cranking pedals, looking up and down every now and then. I quickly looked up, saw the bikes coming closer quickly, and slammed on my breaks. Turkeys! SUCKERS! (as Rich would say) My back brakes locked my wheel up and I skidded a bit at about 27mph. My back wheel wobbled a bit quickly back and forth. I let off the break and they straightened out. Uh bouy...could have been disastrous.

So the other guys broke off, and me, Rich, Dale, and George stuck together as we headed back through the beautiful country roads. We caught up with another one of the guys in the front pack when we almost hit the pack. I came in 3rd to last. I always fight all the way to the end, I have to beat at least one person. We hit the final hill, and took on some rolling hills to the shop. Last week I came in 2nd to last, this time 3rd to last.

So on the way back I met Rich. Apparently he gets a tons of Pearl-izumi socks and resells them on e-bay, making a buttload of monay monay. He said he has a pair of size 10 shoes and clip in pedals he's going to give me next week. So yeah, God just speaks FOR me. I didn't say anything at all! So I'll switch out the clips, with new ones. I'll be able to generate a lot more power with those solid shoes and get a consistent pedal every time. Praise the lord!

I cruised into the parking lot and said hi to George and Dale. Those guys are ridiculous. Dale is a good looking guy, he's a tower of a man. George is about 50, he's got a crazy laugh that is in your FACE. He is hysterical, really nice though. He's always rolling in with his VW hatchback with matrix bluetooth plugged in to his nucleus. He's got a great black spezialized Rubaix with a supercomputer plugged in. Major money.

So the head "A" rider, wish I could remember his name (maybe terry?) It was talking me up, it felt really good. He said, "Man! You were trucking it man!" (even though I got stuck back, i was carting ole steel along). Then we got talking about riding, and where we ride back home. He goes, "Man, we ought to get you on a carbon bike just to see how you'll ride!" In a really slow, southern accent he said, "You'd be one Hell of a climber! I'd hate go up a hill against you!" Haaahaha, ridiculous. He was asking me about my inseam measurements. Apparently he bought his girlfriend a bicycle and it only has about 200 miles on it. He said if she will part with it, he'll sell it to me for a great price. It's a GIANT bike. That sounds so sick, I just don't want to get my hopes up. George said he's got an alloy bike he may get me on.

Man, that would be so awesome getting on a smooth, carbon or alloy. What a diffferent experience it would be. I think I would still train on the ole Panasonic and race group rides with the carbon. I don't think I even want to stop riding the Panasonic. We've gone far, very far. He's got 4 states under his belt. Well, we'll see how it goes. New pedals and shoes next week from Rich. Thank you Lord. Great ride, SO INTENSE. Hilliest ride I've done yet, LOOK AT THOSE DIGITS! Fast ride, very fast. Praise lord. It was great getting to know them better and joke around. I told Rich about chainlove. Hopefully he an enjoy the sweet deals on it. Praise God for today's ride. What a blessing. UNTIL NEXT TIME!

Haha, I feel like I am their little project. "Rocco," test subject A. Also, i've been working with spinning higher "lance" cadence. They say you expend less energy the more rotations you spin. We'll see. Great ride. The panasonic lives another day!

Time to slam some major angel hair! BOM!

Pecs are way sore as well...100 pushups HERE I COME!!!!!! (carm, if you're reading this, you're probably feeling your pecs...stop)