Spring Tune-Up Wrap-Up...

If this were a normal Spring Tune-Up weekend, I wouldn't be doing the wrap-up until tomorrow evening. But since I'm not going to ride tomorrow, yesterday and today are it. Aren't you glad?

First of all, though, one of my cycling goals for this year is to improve upon the mileage for each month compared to the same month last year. I'm all about visual representation, so here's a graphic to illustrate my success so far:

As you can see, I've managed to ride more miles in every month so far this year compared to last year. And I've still got 9 more days in April. I'm a little concerned already about June and the prospects of riding more than the almost-600 miles I did last June.

Spring Tune-Up Friday

This weekend's ride was located in one of the prettiest parts of our state. Lots of beautiful farmland, many horses, very scenic. The weather, however, didn't cooperate. It was misting Friday morning when we left, and it never warmed up sufficiently for me to take my jacket off. It wasn't miserably cold, and the sun eventually came out toward the end of the day, but it wasn't the picture-perfect spring weather we typically have for this ride.

We rode 61 miles on Friday. The highlight (?) of the day came after several of us stopped on the side of the road to see a cow that may or may not have either just given birth or been about to give birth. Witnesses gave conflicting accounts of the situation. There was a mama cow with some ... stuff ... hanging out of her nether regions, and she was licking a tiny calf that was very unsteady on its feet. Someone said that calf was tagged, though, and she was about to give birth. I didn't stay to watch, for one reason I thought she deserved some dignity, and for another I didn't see why she would be licking a young calf if she was about to give birth herself. Wouldn't she have her mind on other things? I was convinced the birth had already happened.

At the next rest stop, the conversation (argument?) continued. Someone asked if we had seen the birth, and we said we saw her licking the calf, but that was all. One of the eye witnesses said, "No, not that one. The one that came out of the BACK end!" Our resident cop/cyclist piped up and said, "I think they ALL come out the back. Just so you know." If I had been drinking at the time, I can't say for sure I wouldn't have had some fruit punch PowerAde coming out of my nostrils.

This same town has been the location for the Spring Tune-Up ride for several years now. This year, though, they changed up the routes just enough to make it fresh and new. We went to some of the same towns, but the routes we took to get there were different. And just as cycling-friendly.

Spring Tune-Up Saturday

I remember saying on this very blog that if my beloved Gym Dogs didn't make the Super Six this afternoon, I was going to ride the century ride, because I wouldn't have any time constraints. I didn't mean to lie, I promise. Rozmo wasn't interested in riding the century, and while I have ridden a century mostly by myself before, I wasn't crazy about doing it today. My legs weren't interested in riding 100 miles either. So Rozmo and I stayed together, and when we got back our mileage was 68 miles. We can't have THAT. So we went on down the road past the end of the route for a mile and turned around and came back, giving us a total of 70 miles.

We stopped for a few minutes at a lovely garden beside the road. Actually it was more like several gardens, and a work of art. There was an old shed-type structure, and several flower gardens and herb gardens. They were meticulously kept and while I'm not typically a garden-type person (I would really like to be, but I'm afraid that gene skipped me), I was intrigued with the cleverness and the beauty of these gardens. I forgot my camera today, but I took several pictures with my phone. I'll try to post those (and any pictures from Friday that turn out decently) when I'm not quite so fatigued.

It looks like we did the same ride both days, but you might notice we went south and east on Friday, and today we went north and west.

I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't looked at the maps side-by-side. I'm observant and cognizant of my surroundings that way.

Weekend and Week End.....

It's the weekend I've both been dreading and looking forward to all year long. It's time for the NCAA Gymnastics Championships, which are being held about 20 minutes from where I live, and it's also the weekend of the Spring Tune-Up Ride, one of my favorite bicycling events in one of my favorite parts of the state.

I knew all along there would potentially be a conflict between the two events. If the Gym Dogs had not qualified for nationals (as in the horror we experienced two years ago), the conflict would have been easily resolved. But they did qualify, creating the next quandary, which semi-final session they would be in. If they were in the noon session on Friday, I wouldn't be able to ride, drive the hour from where the bike ride is taking place, and get to the semi-final session on time. As luck (?) would have it, however, they wound up in the 6:00 PM session tomorrow, which means I can get up at an insanely early hour for someone on Spring Break, drive about an hour to ride my bicycle 57 miles, shower and change clothes, drive another hour to the competition venue, and then get home around 9:30 or 10:00 PM.

How the Gym Dogs do in their semi-final session tomorrow night determines my Saturday activities. If they are one of the top three teams in their session (I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope), they will advance to the Super Six on Saturday at 4:00 PM. If that's the case, I'm planning to drive BACK to the location of the Spring Tune-Up, ride my bicycle either 57 miles again or some shorter distance (how long it takes me tomorrow will determine if I need to shorten the ride and still make it in time for competition), shower and change, and drive the hour to the competition venue again. The good news is that I should be home by 7:30 or 8:00 PM.

If the Gym Dogs do not qualify for the Super Six on Saturday, I plan to ride the century ride (100 miles) in hopes that one kind of pain will dull another kind. I won't attend the Super Six (although I have a ticket) if my team isn't in it. It's not much fun.

I'm unlikely to ride at all on Sunday. That's the day of the individual event finals, and the competitors for those are determined by the semi-final sessions tomorrow. (I find it a little odd, that you can still qualify for event finals even if your team doesn't make it. And you could totally SUCK in the Super Six, but if you were "on" for semi-finals, you can still vie for an individual championship. It's nuts.) We should have at least one gymnast in the event finals (last year we had 4, and we didn't even make the Super Six), and since those start at 1:00 PM on Sunday, I'm not even going to TRY to ride and do all that driving.

I'm so sorry I have bothered you with all this (mostly useless) information. If it makes you feel any better, it is very helpful for me to put complicated plans in writing.

This will be so much easier next year, when the national championships are in Los Angeles. Then I only have to worry about riding fast enough to get back and watch online.

And by the way...where did my Spring Break go? This is the fastest week I've ever experienced. I can't believe it's already the end of the week.

Spring Tune-Up Sunday.......

It's hard to believe the weekend went so fast. Usually by Sunday I'm tired of biking and ready to go home, but I really could have ridden some more today. Only the thought of how much I needed to do to prepare for going out of town again tomorrow made me cut it short and come on home.

Rozmo and I created our own route for the early part of the day. We wanted to go by the famous Oreo cow farm, but that was only on the 57-mile route. And even Rozmo didn't want to do the 57. So we rode out on our own to the farm, had a bloody mary and one Oreo (my only cookie of the entire weekend, thank you very much), and then we followed the 57-mile route to the end. Our ride was 36 miles, and it was the perfect length. It was still cool this morning but not quite as windy as it has been.

The only downer on the whole ride was the scariest experience I have EVER had on a bike in my 20 years of cycling. We had just left a state park and were going up a pretty tough hill. I saw a truck approaching, and I could hear a vehicle of some kind behind me. I could tell it wasn't slowing down enough, and I was hoping it would get over far enough.

Only when it was right beside me did I realize it was one of those huge RV's. And then something touched my left shoulder. I think it was the mirror of the RV.

I screamed a profanity questioning the driver's maternal parent, and I flipped him off violently. I'm ashamed of that; it's something I NEVER do on the bike. I guess instincts just took over.

I was going to pull off on the side of the road, but Rozmo was ahead of me and I didn't want her to have to come back down the hill and then struggle up it again. She stopped at the top of the hill anyway to get her breath, and I was just about to collapse with anger/fear/relief when I got to her. I was nearly crying, and I was trembling.

I can't be 100% certain that the RV brushed me, because it didn't knock me over, it didn't make me run off the road, it didn't even make me wobble. But SOMETHING brushed my shoulder. I definitely felt something touch me.

The adrenaline rush helped me get up the hill, but that's not exactly the way I'd like to get more power.

I'm thankful for my guardian angel today. I hope she isn't going to resign in disgust after this experience.

Spring Tune-Up Saturday.......

It is still Saturday, isn't it?

It's been a long week today.

I had a friend dilemma today. In fact, I had two. With the same friend.

Rozmo and I started off today with the idea of riding 69 miles (but the ride is always longer than it's advertised, so we knew we would get at least 70).

After Rest Stop #2 is when I had my first dilemma. We were several miles down the road when Rozmo realized she had left her water bottles behind. Plural. Both of them. Which meant she would have to go the entire distance between rest stops with nothing to drink. And there were 21.6 miles between two of the rest stops. Besides. Rozmo is not one to sacrifice water bottles that cost $12 each, so she turned back. My dilemma was whether to turn back with her (she said I didn't have to) or go on without her.

I debated just long enough that when I decided she would do it for me and I turned around to go back to the rest stop, I had to ride like hell just to catch her. We had a tailwind in that direction. Which meant we got to do the HEADWIND part of that stretch TWICE.

Since we now had some extra miles, that meant we would be near 80 miles, and Rozmo got the idea that if we were that close to 100, we should do some EXTRA miles and get the century. The prize for that feat is a 99 cent piece of cloth proclaiming to the world that you have ridden 100 miles on your bicycle in a single day.

I'm over the bandanna thing.

We did backtrack a few miles, but Rozmo realized that would mean going up and down (mostly up) some of the same hills we had already done. Then she got the idea that we would get into camp, then ride back toward the last rest stop just far enough that we would have 100 miles. I told her there was no way she would get me back out on the road once we made it to camp, and we had better put in the extra miles before we got back.

I would like to think my amazing power of persuasion forced Rozmo to see reason, but I think it was more likely the wind.

Did I mention the 30 mph winds we had here for most of the day? And you would think they would have been tailwinds for half the ride, since we rode in a circle, but that's not how it works out. It's ALWAYS a headwind. Except for the times it's a crosswind that will push you and your bike into the other lane on occasion.

I hate wind. I will never take up sailing or kite-flying, because that would require that I occasionally see the benefit of the wind, and I'm committed to hating the wind forever.

We rode a total of 86 miles, and you would think it would have been easy to ride "ONLY" an additional 14 for the self-satisfaction of saying we had done a century.

You could think that, but you'd be wrong. I'm okay with the 86 miles we did.

Spring Tune-Up Friday.........

Today was a good ride. I debated and debated about whether to do a shorter ride that would allow me to get back in time to watch the semi-finals of the gymnastics national championships (more on that later) or do the longer ride. It was a tough decision.

Ultimately I decided that the gymnastics competition would come out the way it would come out, and my watching it would not affect the outcome one iota. I opted for the longer ride, and I left this morning with Rozmo and a group of other cyclists. Katydid was pulling Chico (a chihuahua) in a trailer behind her bike, so she decided to do a shorter ride due to the extra weight.

Sorry, Gus, but I don't love you that much.

Our group dwindled down to three of us: Rozmo, Kelly, and me. I would like to think we rode faster than the others and left them behind. I will go on thinking that if I want to.

It was windy at times, but for once (perhaps the first time ever), there was a noticeable TAILWIND toward the end of the ride. We hit a stretch of smooth pavement, downhill, WITH a tailwind. That combination will probably never happen again.

We rode a total of 65.5 miles, and I averaged 14.4 mph. That isn't my all-time highest, but I was pleased with it since there were quite a few hills, plus the wind. It wasn't ALWAYS a tailwind, I assure you.

I'm glad I chose to ride the longer ride, since that's what we came here to do after all, and the UGA Gym Dogs are NOT advancing to the finals of the national championships. It's just how the whole season has gone. We did okay on beam, bars, and vault, but melted down on floor exercise. Floor. How the hell do you fall off a floor? On a positive note, we have three gymnasts who qualified to advance to Sunday's individual championships, so we could end up with a national champion after all.

On an even more positive note, one that has me periodically shrieking with laughter, random outbursts that startle Chico, Florida's gymnastics team also failed to qualify for finals. They were ranked #1 all season long, posted astronomical scores right out of the gate, and suffered yet another epic meltdown at the end of the season. Last year they did it on their own home floor. I'm having a very hard time feeling sorry for them. In fact, I don't.

I toyed with the idea of riding the century tomorrow, but I don't think I'm going to attempt it. We'll probably ride 69 miles, and that will be a-plenty. That is, if the severe storms they are predicting for tonight don't blow us away in the RV.

A Couple of Firsts on a Bike Ride.....

Today Katydid and I had a couple of "firsts" on our bike ride.

We were camping in a state park about 10 miles from where the weekend's rides started, and yesterday we drove out there to start. Our camping location, however, was about 3 miles from rest stop #3 on today's route, so we decided to start there. We rode from the park to rest stop #3 and then rode the route backward to rest stop #2. That was quite a challenge, since at the beginning it was too early to look for oncoming cyclists. We had to look for turn symbols and signs on the OTHER side of the road at every intersection. Eventually, however, we started seeing a steady stream of cyclists on the regular route. I'm not a big fan of riding the route backward, particularly when there are large numbers of riders. (This weekend we had over 900, so it was larger than usual for a weekend ride.) When there is traffic, drivers have to watch out for cyclists coming in both directions, so they're doubly pissed off about that. This weekend, however, we were on mostly low-traffic roads, so it didn't pose too much of a problem. Particularly not on a Sunday morning. Riding the route this way gave us a nice round 40 miles for the day, and it meant we didn't have to drive to the beginning and then back to the motorhome when we were finished.

The other "first" involved this farm.


I've posted about them before. It's because they have cows that look like this.

They're not officially called Oreo cows, and I'm sure they have a real name. This farm has been on our Spring Tune-Up route for several years, and cyclists started stopping and taking pictures. The owner got wind of it, and he decided he would be an "unofficial" rest stop.

Three years ago, we came to a screeching halt at his farm when we saw that he had posted two signs. "Free Oreos" and "Free Beer." Those two don't really go together, so Katydid opted for the Oreo, and I felt obligated to take a beer. I mean, after all, the man had driven his golf cart all the way down his driveway with a cooler full of beer. Free beer. I didn't want to let him down.

This morning, because we were riding the backward route, his farm was only about 4.5 miles into our ride. And it was about 9:00 AM. As we went past, he shouted, "This is the booze cart!" And I replied, "We'll be back!"

He wasn't lying. When we came back a couple of hours later, we saw that he had once again provided free beer and free Oreos to passing cyclists.

But this year he had added something new.

Bloody Marys.

The picture above is of the farm owner, happily pouring free Bloody Marys for cyclists curious/adventurous enough to stop.

They said we could see the cows if we walked down the driveway.

I've seen cows before. But Bloody Marys on a bicycle ride?

That was a first.