Saturday

Woke to a crisp 48 degree sunrise this morning. Not sure why I woke so early but was glad a did. I had time to eat and let it digest before riding. I rolled out at 7:20 and met the Carti riders for an 8am ride leaving Burns Park and heading out to the farmlands and Scott community.I

t is a training ride and some of the riders are new so there is a little antsy feeling going on in the middle of the group. Everyone was having a good time and the morning was just beautiful. I took off my wind shirt when I got to Burns because it warmed up pretty fast on the ride in.

We kept it at about 17-18mph on the way out until a couple of guys took off. I was in mid-pack and couldn't seem to get a break long enough to chase. The front group got about 50 yards ahead and stayed there until the first rest stop for regrouping.

After the break we headed towards Scott and I was right behind JBar and Keith H for the lead out. Next thing I know a dude on a bike with areo bars came flying by and of course that set the stage. We go! There is a breakaway group and I'm a few behind and I thought areo-bar-man was going to keep it going but he blew. 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17 Ok, I gotta pick up a bit so I go out and around and me and a doc from the hospital cruise on out at 22. I pulled and pulled and pulled and then I couldn't figure out if they turned and they didn't but when I slowed down doc thought I was blown and whizzed around and I jumped behind to cruise on in to regroup area #2.

On the way back we caught a little head wind but not bad since we got to turn and then had great tailwind pushing us along. I rode with Dan H for a bit and we talked about his trip (cruise) he had just taken. One of the stops was Jamacia. I asked him if he liked it and he said no. I was surprised because all the commercials they run on the tube make it look great. Said the people aren't friendly. Ok, I'll mark Jamacia off the list as places I want to go.

I headed on to try and jump on the front group but was back to far and the wind was acting a fool! Paul B and I got us a little train going on and cruise at 23 on into NLR. Paul is a great guy to be around and I always enjoy my rides with him. Same with Dan H. Just good guys.

After the ride we all stood around sharing stories of wind, attacks, some car that flipped off the front group, etc. Then I headed on to Sherwood to the house. Rolled in at a little after 11.

Ended the morning with 55.43 and a 17.6 average speed. Should have been higher but had headwind and a big hill on the way home. All in all it was a most excellent day mate!

Photos from Rubicon ride

A couple of Rubes with Jenn, Razz and Jo

The photos below were all taken by Diane B.

Zippin' down Ft Roots

The crowd riding through Riverfront Park in North Little Rock

Listen up! There's JBar in the yellow with the black crow on it, Jo and me.

Mayor Hayes. Yep, our mayor rides.

Police dudes tellin' us not to pop wheelies.

Another Dime???

Hope y'all know how to ride your bikes 'cause gas has gone from $2.70 to 3.15 and then to 3.25 and as high as 3.35 around the city!!

I know I know...

I know I know... I've gone into blog-slackerville! I'll update this afternoon... I hope.

We interupt this silence with a post...

So gang, it's been a busy time at the office and Em was using the home laptop for school work.

Ok, update since Saturday's ride, lemme see...
I woke Sunday feeling like I hadn't ridden the bike the day before. I felt great! I really wanted to spend the afternoon out riding but I knew I needed to work around the house cutting grass and cleaning the garage. Y’all ever do that? I didn’t think so! HA!

Last night it rained – yep, another one of those pop up afternoon showers.

I was asked to speak at the Soundstart conference this afternoon. What an honor! It’s a conference for parents with deaf or hearing impaired kids. My part was the, “Don’t let a hearing impairment stop your child from being whatever they want to be!”

Team Rubicon is parked right out here in the parking lot right now! They are in visiting the cancer kids! I haven’t gotten to met them but they will host a ride at 5:30 today. I’ll be there! I see them now!! They are heading to the van.

OK, y’all aren’t going to believe this. When I went home yesterday they were right beside me but the team car says “Russ” on the side. I thought it was another team in town. Dang, they were in my neighborhood! Geo, you dork!

Oh well, more tonight…

Great day for a ride!

It was an awesome training day! I left the house and rode down to the river then out to the farmlands. I rode through England then planned to ride even further out but it was getting sort of like it was trying to build those spotty rain showers again so I headed back to North Little Rock. The corn was knee high, the wheat was ready and the rice was just starting and the snakes were everywhere. I've never seen anything like it. All kinds and sizes. All dead in the road. There was a swamp that I passed and I'm not sure what the splash was but it was a big animal. I kept thinking it might have been one of the alligators the Game and Fish have been talking about. we have them so bad now that there will be a first ever alligator hunting season this fall. But the air was filled with Magnolia, honeysuckle and several other smells that just made me so glad to be alive and able to enjoy the ride. Funny story: while I was out on the farmlands I could hear something and glanced over my shoulder to what I thought was a oncoming car but it was a whole herd of Carve riders ou for their training ride. They had a huge group. Always a bunch of friendly guys. They turned on Honey Road and I went straight to head on out to England.

Just as I get back to the river the BUZZ BBQ was in full swing! Oh man did it smell good! I rode a bit longer then stopped by my office and dined on Cheese Peanut butter crackers and an oatmeal cream pie. At first I thought the Little Debbie snack was going to make me ill because my tummy kicked a few seconds afterwards buy I strectched out for a few moments and was was well. I got back on the bike and headed out. 82 miles, not bad. I was in the office 17 minutes but it seemed like a lot longer.

I headed back over the Broadway bridge and over to the soccer fields to met up with friends for the CARTI training ride. I was feeling really refreshed and ready for more riding which was a big confidence booster! There are 2 groups and my buds talked me into going with them. When we hit 20-22 mph I thought this was a bad idea. I told Shawdawg and Shawkitty (yep, they are married) than if they dropped me not to wait. Dawg gave me the smile and said they weren't planning on waiting! We laughed and I told him I'd put a garage sale sign in their yard! They just put there house up for sell about an hour before they came. I hope it sells fast for them!

Any way we had a great ride and even went through a bust rain shower that lasted about a minue and a half but it was fairly hard. I stopped under a tree to drop my hearing aid into a zip lock. Nope, not getting that thing wet!

I rolled over 104 miles by the time I was home. I felt good all day. I mean ready good! When I got home and cleaned up I was feeling the love. I had a juice glass of Java Chocolate milk which set a little off with the tummy. Guess I ought to cool off a tad before drinking that stuff. But once I showered I felt good. I wasn't expecting that at all. I didn't feel any where near this good last Saturday after the ride.

Here's a few things I did different. I kept my gears in the small ring on the front most of the day. This was a coach trick and I think it worked. I love the big ring but it seemed to tire me out a lot faster. I drank FRS as my supplement drink. Yes, I really believe in the stuff. I rode solo all morning and kept it around 17 except for a short stretch on the farmlands where the wind was beating up on me and dropped to 14 at times. Wind is wind and if your solo riding it's going to slow you down. I rode with friends in the afternoon which seemed to help build up my confidence as well as allowed for a draft and get my speed up a notch. Jenn, Chris, Yale, Keith, Marvin and Razz... thanks friends!!

We headed down to see my folks who had just come in from FL today. They had a perfect trip thanks to Cathy and Doug and perfect weather and water. Both seemed rested and happy. My sister Sherry came over and brought mom the biggest mothers day card I've EVER seen. It was poster board sized! She's a third plotter!!! (Family joke). It was just really nice to hang out with the folks and Shery and my little bratty sister Barbie and her husband Tim. Never a dull moment.

Ya'll call your momma or think of all the good things about your momma!

Quick hit heading into the weekend...

Ok blog-o-nites and blog-o-nettes here we go with the weekend... Starts in 20 minutes!

Eat out with the wife for dinner. Go to Home Depot and maybe to Barney Nobels.
Home and check over bike. If eat and then home then I'll mow the yard then tell the neighborhood he needs to mow his. He he he.

Goal for the night: Stay away from the sweets!

Check over the bike. Bottles in the freezer. Put gear in the office so I don't wake anyone up in the morning.

On bike around 7 to Cook's, then out around the Cartin training loop or maybe longer. Back to the river. Stop by Murray Park to say howdt to BACA folks I've not seen in a year. Now that's really sad huh?! Over to the office if needed to break a moment and eat lunch if it's time. Back to river and ride until start of CARTI training ride (it's on Saturday at 2 this week). Then just ride out the time until stopping at 10 hours. Yeah baby! 10 hours on the bike tomorrow! I will feel the love by the time it's over! HA!

Then I have to head to the house and go to Benton to see my mom if they are home from Florida. I saw a couple of live cameras from down there this week and the beach was perfect! The water looked like a pool! Super clear!

Let the weekend begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!
Have an awesome weekend friends!
Geee-oh!