You know it's going to be a bad day.......

....or maybe it's just west by god virginia.......

Ringgold Victorious AGAIN!!!

since my last post I've been covered up a bit- we held a Kingdom Sports Junior training camp the weekend prior to new years, a Hincapie/Barkley Devo team camp the next weekend, then It's been work, work, work-but this past weekend it was one of the most positive experiences I've had in regards to my actual profession as Athleteic Trainer at Ringgold High. We took an underrated group of the toughest most determined kids I've ever seen and ran thorugh the GA class AAAA State Wrestling Duals tournament and won it! I think we were a bit under the Radar ans nobody in teh state even expected us to qualify for teh tourney, then nobody thought we'd make it out of our brackett then nobody gave us a cnace against a tough EastSide team- but our kids knew what was up. It was an exciting tourney and although I got virtually no riding in the past week- it was well workth it- I gained a new perspective for the power of will in watching these kids win- during the final, we had 3 of our kids getting drilled only to turn around and win by pin- unbeleivable. We were up by 8 with one match to go so Coach Daniel decided to give up the forfiet and win by a score of 38-36 and not risk any tempers getting in the way on both sides of the mat.

now, maybe I can get back on an actual training schedule.......

The Road Less Traveled

...atleast by road bikes.....

I got out for a good scouting ride the other day- I had planned to ride down to the Pigeon Mountain preserve just west of Lafayette and ride an unpaved ridge over to Daugherty Gap (the Tour de Georgia went down that last year), into the cove and back towards home- unfortunately I got out a bit later then planned so had to cut it short- BUT, I was able to get there and ride the climb to the ridge- it was fantastic- a one lane, twisty chip and seal road that probably averaged 10-12% over the 4 1/2 K climb- all in the woods- deep in the woods.

The pictures are the sheer cliff I had just ascended and was about to go down and the second is the sign pointing to where I will visit in the future.

This has the makings of an epic ride- I will try to get out to in in a few weeks- hopefully it willbe as foggy as it was on this day.....

Warren Zevon?

So I'm driving home this evening and I hear an unmistakable tune on the radio- it's Waren Zevon's "Werewolves of London"....WRONG- it's some lame ass Kid Rock tune- My exact thought at that moment was "you've got to be kidding me, I hope Warren's estate got some cash out of this one because it's the exact riff from the original".

So, I listen to this disgrace for about 47 more seconds and change the station- then what do I come across?- as horendous cover of Judas Priests "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" Now I'm in a world of pain, memories of my more formatable years have been significantly dented in the span of less then one minute.

What's next, some unjustified rip off of a Frank Zappa story or destruction of my memories of a Grateful Dead experience? Man, I'm in the dumps, there's nothing wrong with covers, but do the original justice please.....

Snow-

got in 3 hours today in the snow- nice......I got a couple pics on my phone- if I can figure out how to get them off the phone I'll post them....

just got it done- thanks T....

Todays ride.....

ahhhh, thanksgiving, time for a trip to the inlaws- me, my wife, our 4 kids and a hyper 5 month onld 45 pound Great Pyrenees puyppy, what a trip.

Got to Southeast Ohio at like 1:30 this morning, got to bed at 3:00, got up at 8:30 and managed to get a ride in- I feel a bit better about our future today as it was COLD, WINDY, DAMP, NO LEAVES ON TREES. Made me smile- this is what late November is supposed to be.....
the thing about riding up here in the appalachian foothills is there are crappy little patchwork, chip and seal roads. Even detoured to a grave road at one point....cool....There are more short 1K 10% climbs then you can imagine and enough dogs to keep things interresting. I hit a few roads I have always looked at but never gone down and I was rewarded with a backwoods feel to todays ride. If you've ever seen Silence of the Lambs- when the move starts and they are driving out to middle of nowhere WV- that's what it's like riding around here- roads go over hill and through hollow and it's pretty cool. Although there is te sense of what's waiting around the next corner. Especially after witnessing a hill jack domestic disturbance on the side of the road......

So I now feel like winter is agian approaching, tomorrow is supposed to be 25 degrees in the morning with flurries, I'll probably get in a 55-60 mile ride over in and around Huntington WV (Go Herd!). It will be nice....(and miserable)

Todays ride.....

I got out for a decent 2:40 today- and man was it beautiful. I was able to ride one of my favorite roads here, Dripping Springs road in Walker County Georgia. The only thing bad about the road is it's too short before it meets up with a highway but that's life. As I was riding I started to do some thinking in between glances at the power meter. My overwhelming thought was how warm it is. I mean, I was in shorts and thin arm warmers and was sweating. It's just not normal for their to be beutiful multicolored trees and 70+ degrees in late November.

So, my thoughts turned to this whole global warming thing and I started thynking how it would affect things like cycling (not that cycling is something of great worldly importance, but it's part of me so that's a natural thought pattern). Here's what I envision (hope I'm wrong)- in like 20 years cycling in the US won't be a summer sport because it will be like 130 degrees in the southeast, we'll be racing in balmy 80 degree temps in January, on the Canadian Boarder. If the trend continues in like 50 years there really won't be any organized sport because we'll all be cave dwellers living on mushrooms and dead bats, with the skin tone of Sean Kelly (THE MAN) in February no less. Those who choose to still be surface dwellers will face an existance parallel to Mad Max.

Over time, we will evolve into large eyes full pupiled creatures that haven't seen the light of day thier entire existance.

Sorry for being so down but it was an odd thought pattern I thought I'd share. So, in the meantime, hope it doesn't happen, enjoy the ride today and spend some time thinking about how you can effect change for tomorrow.....

BTW- 164.5 post ride today ;-)