Turkey Turkey

    I had a great Thanksgiving. I spent the weekend house and dog sitting for Keith and Misty while they went to visit family in Florida. They left me to care for two of their three dogs, Lucy and Carmella, and also their cat, Vivian.

Lucy

Carmella

Vivian

     I took advantage of my time off on Thanksgiving Day. It was a warm morning, but the cold air was pushing in from the north and the forecast said the temp would start dropping after lunch as rain moved in. I was on the road early for a planned 4 hour ride. I left Keith's house and hopped on the 62-mile loop used for the CRAM and Labor Day rides here in Clarksville. I did the loop in reverse. That brought me a nice tailwind early on, but I paid severely on the way back. The wind was over 20 mph and there were times where I was riding hard downhill in my drops at 13 mph. I ran into Ivan Murdock about halfway around the loop. He was going a different route, so I went about 8 miles out with him, then turned and came back to my loop and finished up. It started to rain for the last 14 miles, but the temp was still warm so I didn't mind too much. I ended up with 71 miles in 4 hours and 10 minutes. Got finished in just enough time to get a shower before heading off to my grandparents' house for dinner.

    The temp dropped as expected. It crashed 30 degrees in just a few hours, leaving us well below freezing by morning. The dogs and cat are used to sleeping in the bed, so they were piled up next to me all night. Lucy woke me up at 3am. She let me know she needed to go outside by walking on my chest! The dog is nuts sometimes. I hit the snooze on the alarm for work the next morning, but Vivian wouldn't let me go back to sleep. She kept poking me in the face with her paw. There's no way you can oversleep with that cat around! I was almost late for work after I couldn't get into my car. The rain had frozen the doors shut and I couldn't get inside to turn on the defrost. Keith's neighbors probably thought I was crazy when I tried to go into the car through the trunk. I tried to get the back seats to go down and so I could crawl through, but was unsuccessful. There was a guy out walking his dog when I came up out of the trunk. Two glasses of water finally got me inside and the defrost going. Wasn't expecting winter weather this early!

     Friday was cold and nasty, so I took the day off the bike. I took Lucy out for a run Friday night and it was freaking cold! We didn't stay out too long. I was still sore from my run on Wednesday and cut it a little shorter than planned. It was back to the flat roads for more miles on Saturday. It was sunny, but still cold. And windy. The damn wind was rediculous. It turned slight grades into mountains. I managed to make 55 miles before my legs and ass gave out. I can tell all my rides have been short lately. The butt is no longer made of iron.

     Sunday wrapped up my min training camp with another road ride. The goal was at least 3 hours. I have been wanting to ride to the Jefferson Davis Monument in Fairview, KY for some time. We used to ride up there a lot when I was younger. I bet it's been 10 years since I last rode there. I wasn't quite sure how to get to the monument, but you can see it from many miles away, so I just kept turning toward it and soon found myself sitting at the bottom looking up.

     The roads around that area are very fun. Lots of small, but fast rollers and some long flats where you can crank it. I went hard at times, but overall kept it at a fun pace. The legs felt good and the wind was tolerable. I ended up doing over 3 1/2 hours for 66 miles. It was a great end to a fun weekend. I loved only having to worry about training. I guess that's what it's like to be a real Pro. Keith and Misty had a great trip and I had a good time taking care of the pups. It was a good Turkey Day and weekend indeed. I am very thankful of all I have.