Weekend

Before I go into the weekend I posted a couple more pictures of the dog below. Prepare yourself they are bad. The dark color is the bruising he sustained from the bites. I'm happy to say that the owners have agreed to take the dog to a farm and never to bring him back to the neighborhood. A dog like that does not belong in the city, the same way he attacked our dog can do to a child. And Cody, he's bouncing back, he's face is finally showing happiness when he sees us, before he was just groaning and wimpering.



Anyway, had a good week of riding went twice to Reagan park and rode to work once. Thursday it was just a two hour receovery ride to get ready for the Rain Ride in Indiana, 160 miles, one day one way.Steve, Joe and myself were riding, PJ and Peggy were our "PSV" personal support vehicle. We arrived at the hotel checked in and went out for dinner. Before I go on, earlier in the week I called the hotel to confirm the reservations and to my surprise they had been cancelled. I went into panic mode with 1200 riders and a golf tournament in town, rooms were at a premium I called a dozen hotels and checked online for about 3 hours. Finally found rooms available at the Holiday Inn. After dinner we came back to the room and started getting ready for the ride. I looked like a mad scientist mixing all kinds of Hammer Nutrition stuff, in all I fixed 8 bottles of Perpetuem and Heed together with powder electrolytes.


Got up at 5am got ready and headed to the start. Got there got our bikes ready and rolled right through the start line. The ride "race" (it's not officially a race but when you time and event it turns into a race) we were about 10 mins. ahead of the first pack of riders which flew by us at about 26-28 miles an hr. When the second pack came around I told the guys to hitch a ride. We weren't planning on going as fast as we did because it's the first time for Steve and Joe riding that distance, I did the ride back in 2006 in 97 degree temps. We held on to that group until the first of my many stops to pee. The temps held steady in the mid 60's all day and I wasn't sweating what I put in. I appreciated the guys waiting for me and not complaining. My other group of riders I ride with would have thown bottles, yell, smack me over the head with a bottle and left me to ride by myself. Well, I think they would have waited but make me go take moster pulls to make up the time. We didn't waste too much time at the scheduled rest stops, PJ and Peggy had everything ready for us, they were such great help words are not enough to thank them. Our longest stop was lunch since they wanted to eat something, myself I just stayed with my Hammer mix and gels, the only solid food I had was two bites of a ham and cheese sandwich.


The rest of the day was spent riding hard and catching groups of riders, resting and then hitting the gas again after resting. And of course we had the stragglers trying to hitch rides and don't do any work but everybody that knows me knows that I put and end to that right away, you either help or get out of our pace line. The ride itself doesn't have any steep or long hills, it is full of rollers and they hurt at end but it is worth doing it at least once. Total ride time not including the rest stops was 7:28 and a 21.3 mph average. Our total time has to be a little over 8 hrs. The weather had a lot to do with the pace, in 2006 it was very hot and humid at 97 degrees and we managed a total ride time including stops of 7:46 and a 20.5 mph. back then I was sweating and didn't have to stop once other that our regular stops to fill up. Joe and Steve rode a superb ride and we all finished strong. After the ride we went to a hotel at the finish, cleaned up and went to dinner. We went to Chucks in Richmond and hit the jackpot, "all you can eat ribs for $15.95. Four of us order that and ate until we couldn't eat anymore. The place even switched one of their tv's to Versus so we could watch the Tour recap and even let us take home whatever we had left.
Overall a great time and again a big thanks to PJ and Peggy for their support and willingness to be our "PSV". Below are a few pictures, later in the week I'll post more whenSteve gives me a cd with all the pictures.
Next this coming weekend is "Off Road Assaultt on Mount Mitchell" hopefully I'll be fully recovered or I'll be in a world of pain for 65 miles and 16,ooo feet of climbing.




Our support vehicle













No set of pictures is complete without my smiling face.

Dog pictures