The past couple days have been cooler up here in Blowing Rock. I actually ran with a long-sleeve shirt Friday morning! It was only 50 degrees out. On my way to master’s practice Thursday, I turned the seat heaters on in the car. It’s definitely a nice climate change to always melting or sweating to death.

I’m missing the Firecracker ride in Raleigh today, and I must say that I am pretty bummed about it. I know it’s hotter and yucky down there, but a lot of my friends do that ride and there are sooo many people. I just love all the bikes together in one place… and all ability levels are present, which is cool too.

Today I had planned on doing a mountain bike ride in Davidson River with Deb, Bryan, Rae, and Dana. But I broke the fork of my mountain bike a couple of weeks ago when I pre-rode the Triangle Triathlon course down at Harris Lake Park. I did a loop of the single track down there with Alicia Parr, and afterwards there was this really weird looking bug on the clamp on my rack. I was too scared to touch the bug, so I didn’t clamp my bike down on the roof rack. Well, after changing, I had forgotten about my bike, and it flung off the roof of the car… breaking the very bottom tongs of the fork that hold your wheel on the bike. Argh.

We’ve taken my mountain bike to Appalachian Mountain Sports, and they are shipping my fork back to Fox to get it fixed. In the meantime, I’m without a mountain bike, and it looks doubtful that I am going to be able to do the 60 mile Iron Mountain Bike Race in Damascus, VA on July 12th. *Insert SAD FACE here!* I am really bummed. I’m still hoping for a miracle, but right now, it’s looking grim.

Instead, I am going out on a road ride today from Blowing Rock, but haven’t quite decided on a route yet. I’d like to get in 4 hours or so, then a short transition run afterwards. I’ll have to think some, but I’m sure a loop will come to me soon.

Happy Riding, and Happy 4th of July!

After a failed attempt to go swim this morning in Valdese (the pool was closed until 11:30am, why I don’t know…), we went to breakfast with my brother in Morganton at the new bagel shop in downtown. It was really good… it’s the same shop as Boone Bagelry, so I knew it was going to be good before we went.

I made a second attempt to go swim once we got back up to Boone, and this time I was successful. Other people were already there doing some laps, so I hopped in for my solo swim. Oh how I miss my master’s group in Cary… buuuttt… during one of my sets, the lady in the lane next to me asked me if I lived in Boone and if I wanted to come to their master’s group that swims on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8:30am. SWEET! Yeah, sure I’d love too! I’m so happy to have a group to swim with for at least a couple days a week. So guess where I’m going tomorrow morning?

The Wednesday Night Ride from Magic Cycles was a lot of fun, as always. It was so great to see Mike Boone again, and I got a really sweet draft behind Shaw down the parkway. I’ve missed riding with those guys… so happy that I get to do it again next week… and maybe a couple more?? We’ll see!

In other news, I am getting a tattoo on Friday morning. I can’t wait!

Yesterday was two rides, two runs… we stayed at my parents’ house in Drexel on Monday night so I could do my bike fit with Sonni. I rode in the morning with Joe, then took Sheldon out for a run.

Later that evening, I went out for a ride in Hickory with Deb. We went on the Hickory Velo ride, and the route was out Bakers Mountain.

After we went up Bakers Mountain, one dude was with me and that was it. He said to me, “Who the HELL are you??!” I was like, “umm… huh?” He repeated, “Who the hell are you goin up those climbs??”

Meekly, I replied, “umm, Alisha.” Then he said, “Alisha Lions? (no, I thought, NOT plural… just ONE FREAKIN’ LION… but that’s okay…) Oh, I’ve heard of you.”

Well, I guess that’s a good thing? I dunno.

I met some really cool people last night though. I met a guy that my mom delivered BOTH of his children 17 and 20 years ago… he remembered me when I was a little girl running around the hospital with my mom. He said that he told my mom, “You need to get that girl into sports… she has WAAAAY too much energy!” Ha, guess I’m into sports now.

I also met a girl named Carrie that I ran against in high school. That was cool. And a dude that’s doing his second Ironman this year… he did Louisville last year and is doing Florida this year. Sweet. And this guy is 61! He definitely doesn’t look it!

I had to run when we got back to Deb’s house from the ride… which ended up being more of a trot I think than a run, but whateva.

I attempted to swim this morning at the Valdese Rec, but the pool was closed when I got there at 8:30am. I guess because of the thunderstorms that went through?? But I’m not exactly sure why… so we went to breakfast instead, which I thoroughly enjoyed… and I spose I’ll be tryin to go swim at the Watauga pool in a bit.

Wednesday Worlds tonight! I hope I don’t die.

…of climbing, that is. That’s how much I climbed today on my ride. I got this loop in my head yesterday at the Lake and knew that it wouldn’t go away until I rode it. So I did.

For you locals who know the Boone area… I went from Blowing Rock- out 221- down Shull’s Mill- into Vale Crucis- up 194 (one of my favorite climbs around here)- into Banner Elk- up the backside of Beech Mtn- down to 321- up 321- down into Bethel- up George’s Gap- up Mast Gap- back into Vale Crucis- back up Shull’s Mill- thru Blowing Rock to the house.

The weather today was absolutely perfect. Sorry, don’t want to rub it in for all ya’ll off the mountain, but it was absolutely gorgeous. One of the most perfect days that I can remember being up here, actually. The sky was so blue, the few clouds nice and puffy, and the mountains so green. There was pretty much no humidity either. I was nice and hot going uphill, but got a little chilly coming downhill.

The ride was great, except for the fact that once I had crested 194 and was dropping into Banner Elk I noticed that I didn’t have my water bottles with me. Yeah, that was pretty sweet.

So I called Joe and made a detour out 184 to 105 (which added another 1/2 hour or so and more climbing to the ride originally planned) to get my bottles. Yeah, what an idiot. That’s definitely the first time I’ve ever done that. Joe was nice enough to drive them out to me before he went out on his own ride (no, he didn’t want to ride 5 hours with me).

So my loop ended up being longer than expected, but I really didn’t mind. The weather today was so perfect, I couldn’t imagine not spending it on my bike.

I’ve enjoyed the lazy mornings and rolling out whenever… I don’t have to worry about getting out before it gets too hot or anything here.

It’s time to pack up and head down to visit my parents tonight, and I also get to see Sonni again for a bike fit. Tomorrow I get to see my good friend, Deb!

12,000 ft in 76 miles

Today I “slept in” until 7:30am… wow, lame. I didn’t set an alarm last night, and this was going to be the first morning all summer that I didn’t HAVE to wake up at a certain time to go to a scheduled workout. I guess I’m so used to waking up at 5:15 or 6:00 that it isn’t going to get much later than that… oh well.

After a lazy breakfast and some reading, I went out for a nice ride around Boone and Blowing Rock. It brought back so many memories of when I just started riding my bike. Lots of memories chasing Ben everywhere… literally. I’d chase him up climbs, down twisty descents, on flats (the few that are around here). It brought back memories of the Wednesday Night Ride from Magic Cycles (”Wednesday Worlds” we called it). And, it brought back memories of many solo rides by myself… just plugging away up the roads, like I had something to prove.

I love being here. I feel so at home. This place will always be special to me no matter where life takes me. I’ve always been able to “find” myself here, no matter how lost I may feel at the time. It’s really refreshing and helps break up the monotony that you can find yourself in sometimes, without realizing it.

After a short transition run, I’m ready for a shower and some lunch. We’re going to spend the afternoon on Lake James… a good time to get an open water swim in, if I feel like it.

Today I rode with Sonni on an abridged route of Blood, Sweat, and Gears. Neither one of us really wanted to do a 100 mile road ride. And, since we’ve both done this event multiple times, we didn’t have the feeling of “needing to do the whole thing to prove we could do it.” Been there. Done that. Love the ride. Just don’t wanna do the whole thing… but still wanted to get in a solid ride today.

Well, I definitely got a solid ride in with Sonni. That’s always a guarantee. We started before the actual ride took off and just did a steady pace… we were able to catch the riders in Todd and after the back side of Snake Mountain, so that was cool.

Sonni pulled like the entire way, so that was pretty sweet. We even got to ride with Jeremiah for the long stretch up to Tennessee and to George’s Gap. I was so glad when we got to George’s Gap that I didn’t have to make that turn and do that last loop of the ride… holy god… those climbs are brutal that late in the ride, and you’ve already got so much junk in your legs at that point that it is NOT a fun time. Lucky for me, Sonni and I spun right up Mast Gap and back to the car.

I laid out in the creek behind the Mast Store Annex, then got changed so I could watch the century riders come in for a bit. I even ate some Pizza Hut Pizza… yikes! I’m pretty snotty about pizza, and generally will only eat Mellow Mushroom… but for whatever reason the Pizza Hut stuff looked appealing, so I ate it. It was good too. Guess about anything is after a long bike ride though!

Time to take the dogs out for a hike in a bit… they’ve been at the house lounging around all day and need some exercise!

Just arrived to Blowing Rock for a couple weeks of training and relaxing… doing a modified version of Blood, Sweat, and Gears with my coach, Sonni, tomorrow morning… will write more then!