Okay, so this is definitely why I ride. I met a really great person on the Tuesday Spin Cycle Group ride and I just had to share this story.

We began talking about triathlons and cycling and racing, and he told me that he was racing Ironmans in 1981 (the year I was born)… and the bike he was riding on was a ‘79 model, a classic, that he actually rode during his first Ironman! How cool is that? I just thought it was so inspiring.

Hopefully I’ll have a bike someday that I rode my first Ironman on years from now.

Why is it that the ONLY radio stations in Asheville are country, blue grass, gospel, or Christian?? I have yet to find a station to listen to while driving through that section of the North Carolina mountains.

On my early morning drive (umm, yeah I was up at 5am) to Fletcher, NC for the Hilly Hellacious bike century I enjoyed a morning of gospel blue grass music. The Gospel Hour I think it was called. Hey, I figured if I’m doing a century in Asheville I might as well get the full effect of the culture and all. hehehe

So the ride was great… Justin England pretty much dragged us around all day and then left us around mile 70 on the last big, long climb of the day. The elevation gain of this ride was only around 9,000ft total, but what made it so tough was that it just constantly goes up and down and it really wears on your legs.

After the ride Alicia and I went for a 30 minute run. Just call us the two crazy Alisha/Alicia’s… hehehe… ah, we actually had a really good run though.

I stopped back by my parents’ house in Drexel before heading the rest of the way down I-40 to Holly Springs. I really enjoyed spending time with them this past weekend.

I got home exhausted from the early morning and hard day of training. I was greeted by my loving husband and happy little doggie… *sigh* It’s SO good to be home!

I want to send out a special word of congratulations to my Webcor-Platinum teammate, Catherine Matlone, for her sucessful racing career. She has decided to retire at the end of this season.

Join me in wishing her all the best in her future endeavors!

Alicia, Gary, and I traveled up the mountain on Friday afternoon for a punishing weekend of training in the mountains. Joe and Bradley (a Tri friend) met up with us in Blowing Rock later that night.Saturday was the Blue Ridge Brutal Century. We started at 8am on the dot… the weather was absolutely perfect. We couldn’t have asked for a better day! It was also special because it was Alicia’s birthday. She likes punishing herself with tons of climbing on her big day… hmm… I think we’re more and more alike the more we hang out. It’s kinda scary. I believe we were twins in another life.

I wasn’t feeling too hot, but I decided to tough out the ride anways. I made it in with a good group of guys. They were kind enough to let me suck wheel and pull when I could (which wasn’t very often). We finished up in under 5hrs, around 4:50 I think.

Alicia didn’t have a very lucky birthday ride. A chain mechanical slowed her up at the start. Joe and Bradley stopped and helped straighten her chain out enough to where she could do the ride. She rode the entire 100 miles pretty much.

If you’re interested, here is the ride profile and ride cue map. As you can see, it was definitely BRUTAL.

Congrats to Bradley for finishing his first organized century! He’s done some long rides before with co-workers, but this was his first official century ride. Tough one to start with!

Alicia and I ran after the century, then we all loaded up the cars and headed back to the house for an evening of relaxing and sitting around the house and cooking up some good food in the kitchen. Steve came over and my parents came up from Drexel. It was a great night just laying around and recovering from a long day.

Sunday held another day of training for me and Alicia. While the boys slept in, we got up and ran the Bass Lake Bridal Trails in Blowing Rock and then went on a 55 mile recovery ride. It was a nice, relaxed training day… with good company.

I actually think we got the better end of the deal because the guys had to clean up the house and pack up while we were gone training so we’d be ready to head back to Raleigh. hehehe- so all I had to do when I got off my bike was shower up and fix my post training meal and get in the car. NICE!

Now I’m lounging around at home, ready for a good night’s sleep before my training in the morning.

Alisha participated in the 2006 edition of the Blue Ridge Brutal Century Challenge in Ashe County this past weekend. With a promise of 12,000ft+ of climbing, over 500 riders woke up early to face the pain and torment of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The large peleton rolled along together on the Parkway, until a small group broke off the front on one of the long climbs. Alisha followed persuit in a group of 5 riders.

The action kicked up a knotch at the infamous “Buffalo Hump”- the steepest climb of the day- around mile 65. Andy from Boone Bike and Alisha rode off after the Buffalo ascent and suffered through the next 30 miles, which contained the biggest climbs of the day.

In the closing miles a group caught Alisha and Andy. This was a welcome surprise according to Alisha, ”I was so happy to see a group of about 10 or more guys catch up to me and Andy. We had been cruising along over Three Top and 194, but two little climbers don’t zoom along so well on those rollers. It was a nice break to have some real motor power drag us along that last stretch to the finish.”  

Alisha stopped the clock just over 4 hours, 50 minutes… she was the first female of the day to complete the ride.

Ashe Civic Center welcomed tired riders with food and live music after the long ride. As for Alisha, she went on a training run before she could do any relaxing as she is getting ready for the Duke Half Ironman on September 10th.

Well, I’m sure if you actually check my race calendar, you can see that I didn’t race Bandit’s this past weekend. I’ve had some serious stomach aches and pain in my left abdomen area and I spent Friday morning at the Urgent Care center trying to figure out what was wrong.

I’m doing a little better although I don’t feel completely right. So we’ll see. It’s just crazy not feeling like myself… especially because I’m so in tune with my body.

I still came up to Blowing Rock and spent the weekend with my Father-in-Law, Steve. I had a great time. My dog, Symba, had a blast romping around the big grassy fields with Steve’s dogs. Symba was happy to have playmates for a couple days I could tell.

On Sunday I went on a nice ride with Jim Harmon and company starting in Valle Crucis. It was great to get out and see the mountains again… and the weather was amazing. We had a high of 70 degrees with no humidity and it was so sunny. The climbs were great like always, and I was able to chat and reconnect with friends I haven’t seen in a while since being in Raleigh.

Steve and I met up for the afternoon to chat and check out the house in downtown Blowing Rock that Joe and I will be staying at next weekend for the Brutal Century to make sure that it was in order. Everything looked good and it’s a go for the coming week!

Til then… happy trails, enjoy your day!

I did a couple of great rides this weekend. After being off the bike all week long I was really happy to get out with some good groups for long rides this weekend.

On Saturday I went out and met up with a group that leaves from Apex. Joe, Chance, Diana, and Alicia all came out for this ride. There was a HUGE group! It was great… I met lots of new friendly faces and enjoyed the ‘cooler’ weather that we had. It was still almost 90 when we finished up around noon, but that’s aright. Better than 100 is what I say!

After the ride I went for a run at Umstead, and I was dripping with sweat when I finished that. Ew. It was so humid and I was so wiped afterwards that I just went home and laid on the couch and ate the rest of the day. I was a good “slug” … laying around like a big fat potato is what I do best after those long workouts! Joe can tell you himself.
I watched this free movie from our On Demand cable… The Final Shot or Last Kill or something. It was pretty good, for a free movie. There was an aussie guy in it. I like the accent. And it was set in New Mexico- somewhere I wanna live someday- so that was cool too.

Sunday I went on the Inside Out Sports Tri ride. Yes- I rode my TT bike. And YES (that’s a BIG yes) I am totally sore from it. My arms where they hit the pads are totally sore. I knew that it’d be a tough ride for me since I haven’t been in a TT position since May, so I just went and faired as best I could.

It was so much fun though- Alicia was on the ride and I met another tri-girl, Gina. It’s SO neat meeting strong women who ride. And it is even more fun to train with other women and stuff from the area and help push eachother and see eachother grow as athletes. Call me corny or cheesy, but I think that’s really cool.

Now I am off to go and meet another girl who just moved here for a ride. I’ve been hanging out bumming wireless off of Cafe Carolina and now it’s time to doge the afternoon thunderstorms for my evening ride.