… or at least that’s how long Robin told Chris the Lake Lure ride would be. ha!

My last ride in North Carolina was with a wonderful group of friends, led by Deb Elliott, around Lake Lure. We started in Marion, and headed out for the 4+ hour ride. That’s right… Lake Lure is a 4 hour ride, NOT 2 hours. But Chris didn’t figure that out until we stopped at the halfway point for some food… and we’d already been out for 2 hours.

Now Chris didn’t think this was funny at all, but I sure did. Whew! What a great trick Robin! I’ll have to use it sometime. Man it was hilarious. I mean, seriously I think it was the funniest thing I’ve seen in weeks. But I’m not laughing at you Chris… you’re definitely the victim here.

Anyways, the ride was very scenic, with lots of big rolling climbs and a few switchback climbs that were gradual enough you could get in a nice comfortable tempo going up. Lake Lure is the area that Dirty Dancing was filmed- my mom informed me of that after my ride. It’s really pretty around the lake area.

Deb and Robin both had on their new Kenda Tire kits. I think they look great. I like the look of the uniform.

At the beginning of the ride I thought I was going to have to turn around and go back to the car because it was still really windy from the winter storm that had went through the North Carolina Mountains the day before. Everyone was pacelining and stuff, and I just kept thinking, “What are we doing? This isn’t what I signed up for…” But finally the wind died down and it was really nice.

I ended the day with over 85 miles. What a great way to finish up training in the States!

I’m sitting in the Charlotte airport and wanted to make a quick post before I left US soil. It’s been a nice three weeks here in North Carolina, and I’ve gotten in good training and seen a lot of good friends. Most importantly, I’ve gotten to spend time with my parents and brother. I enjoyed a cozy home environment with the ones I love the most… what more could I ask for?

Now as I wipe the tears away from the sadness of leaving behind my parents, brother, and dear friends… I have the jitters and anxious happy shakes because I get to see Joe in a few more hours! All I do is sleep for a bit and wake up and he’ll be there waiting for me!

I will write an update about my last ride in NC and give you a full report from Munich tomorrow. Take care

I’ve been watching movies pretty much all day because we have a bad wind advisory here and I couldn’t ride. So… to pass the time, this is what I’ve seen:

*Wag the Dog
*Tripletts of Bellville
*some Keaneu Reeves movie, dunno what it was called
*Anchorman
*I Know What You Did Last Summer
*The Parent Trap- new one with Lindsy Lohan
*The Terminal
*Billy Madison

As you can tell, I’ve been bored. I’ve talked to Joe several times on the phone today, and I think he got tired of me calling. But oh well, he’ll get over it. So it’s been nice to pass the time watching movies on the multiple movie channels my parents get at the house.

Well, again our plan was changed due to unlucky circumstances. The weather forecast was calling for severe weather to hit the High Country in the late afternoon, so Grace, Robin, and I got up early early to get started with our big ride to try and beat the weather.

The wind made the ride brutal. Blood, Sweat, and Gears (BSG) is not an easy ride. You’re constantly going up and down, and the couple places that it was “flattish” the wind was horrible. We had a constant head wind or a cross wind… or a head-cross wind. The wind kept changing so we constantly were battling.

Then the rain came and we had to cut the ride short. We still ended with 88 miles on the day, which was good and hey, at least we got all that in before the weather hit. I doubt many people clocked that much mileage yesterday simply because of the front coming in.

Another long day of climbing- DONE!

Robin and I hit TCBY when we were done. I had this craving for some peanut butter ice cream. And fortunately the TCBY in Boone always has the peanut butter flavor. So we both got peanut butter shivers with reese’s peanut butter cups. mmmm… I think I’m going to have to drive to the TCBY in Morganton and get me some more now.

… is Mount Mitchell located in the Black Mountains of North Carolina. It sits at 6,684 feet (2,038 metres), and is right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. There’s a century that’s called “The Assault on Mount Mitchell” every year in May.

For whatever reason, I’ve never done the climb up to Mitchell. It’s 30 miles long. Why haven’t I done it? Well, the answer is simple: I had no idea where it was at.

I figured out where it was at when Grace Fluery emailed me and asked about coming up to ride it with me for training. So I looked it up and maped it out. You won’t believe this (because I still have a hard time believing it), but it’s only 30 minutes to drive to Marion from my house and if I park in Marion I can climb to the top of Mitchell and it’s only a 4 hour ride. Yeap. Absolutely AMAZING!

Okay, well I mean I’m really excited about it because I can drive 30 minutes and have access to a 30 mile climb from my parent’s house. Did I mention it was a 30 mile climb?? Climbing for 30 miles… oh yeah, I love it. It’s gradual, but not real gradual, but not real steep either. And it’s FOREVER. I love it. Hmm, I think you get the point. I really like this ride.

So I went and did Mitchell on Tuesday. Grace and Robin came up and we tried to do it today, but they were pouring concrete in the first tunnel on the parkway so we couldn’t get through. Bummer. That puts the cap on the number of times that I can do Mitchell before I leave to go back to Munich.

Probably a good thing though because I’ve totally worn out the pavement up HWY 181, a 12 mile or more climb up the Blue Mountain Ridge from Morganton to Linville. It averages 6 to 8% the entire way. Steep sucker, but it’s 12 miles and a 4 hr ride from my house so I like it. It’s just beautiful when you get up in the mountains.

The weather has been great in North Carolina this week. We’ve had unseasonably mild weather, hitting close to 70 degrees a couple days this week. Tomorrow I’m taking full advantage of it and going up to Boone to do the Blood, Sweat, and Gears loop with Grace and Robin.

Welp- I survived. That’s about all I can say about that! The Morganton Cross race was so much fun. Cross is so hard, it’s just an all out effort for 45 minutes, but I truly have a blast doing it.

First off, I have NO form. I’m sure I look just as silly and out of place as Chris Horner did at ‘cross nats with all the people that actually know what they’re doing through transitions, but whatever (just so you know, this is the correct form). Do I care? HA! NO… not at all. All I care about is this: I DIDN’T CRASH ONCE THE ENTIRE RACE… I think that in and of itself is a HUGE step forward in my cross “career” (ha, because just in case you’re wondering… I don’t have anyting remotely resembling a cross career goin on).

Okay. So I learned a couple things NOT to do before a cross race. Number one… you should probably do a few dismounts and remounts before the actual day of the race. Actually, you should probably even do some dismounts and remounts before your actual WARM UP lap the day of the race. But, if you’re me then you just wait until the warm up. I mean, when I go out and ride I just wanna ride. Who has time to actually work on form anyways? Like I said earlier- I have no cross career. I enjoy falling and looking like an idiot when I race cross. I mean, that’s part of the reason I do it because I know I’m no good and it makes it more fun flailing about the entire course. I consider it a victory if I just make it through a lap. And, like I said, I consider it a huge step up with the no crashing. I hope I keep this streak going.

Number two- it feels a lot better if you do some intervals or some efforts or some type of intensity what-so-ever BEFORE you do something crazy and decide, “oh yeah, I’ll do a cross race.” This race was the first real intensity I’ve done in a long time… hmm… yeeeaaahh, make that as long as since I can’t even remember.

The best part was my dad got to come and watch me race since it was in my parent’s hometown of Morganton, NC. It was very special for me to race in front of my dad. He doesn’t get to see me race on my bike much, so when he can come I wanna show him what I’ve got. He came to all my cross country races in high school and pretty much all of them in college too. He was the photographer for the race… here’s some of his handywork. Check ‘em out. He may have a career in photography soon.

Which brings me to my last and final thing I learned at my cross race… you should probably cool down after the race. I just rode over and started talking to my dad. Then I went for a run later that afternoon with my dad. I’ll just say this: quite simply… he drug me around the entire hour we were running.

Next weekend the race is in Winston-Salem. Robin and I will be treking down I-40 to suffer again for 45 minutes.

Watch out crosser’s everywhere… I might be headed straight for World’s at the rate I’m going.

see more Morganton CycloCross pictures

Off Roadin’ and on the way to the first Win of 2006