GRAVITY 1 – ZEKE 0

The winter rust was quite evident yesterday as I worked on meeting my goal of 30 in 30 during April. I rediscovered what happens when all forward motion ceases to exist and you are clipped into your pedals on a 15 percent or so grade…

My Final Excuse for 2013

Today I offer up my final excuse, err, accounting of the year as to why I’m not riding my bicycle as much as I’d like. I could blame it on the weather, you know, days and days of unending rain followed by cold, cold temperatures. How cold was it, you say?

LOW COUNTRY TRIP ENDS ON SAD NOTE

The Navigator and I are back home in the glory of our mountains as fall begins to make itself known here in beautiful Buzzard’s Roost, just outside of Canton, NC. The leaves are showing the first signs of color as some yellows and a few reds are emerging.

Our trip to the Low Country was, on the balance, another successful adventure. I managed to ride more miles last week than I’ve ridden since the 30 in 30 attempt in April. It felt good to be able to get out each day and power myself around on my Salsa Fargo.

Unfortunately, our trip ended on a sad and now final note for us…

WAITING FOR THE PHONE TO RING…

 

(Zeke – enjoying the sun at his favorite campsite.)

If you knew me personally or even spent some time near me, you would know that I am generally not regarded as a man of few words. Suffice it to say that my reputation is that I’m rarely at a loss for words. Sometimes, they are on target and others, regrettably, go far astray of their intended points. My siblings and I have lost both of our parents to cancer and, even at those times, I found that words had not abandoned me. The last time I recall begin truly unable to speak was at my wedding 28 years ago. Today is not such a day as I find myself…

NUMEROUS CHALLENGES MARKED WEEKEND PAST…

This past weekend did not live up to the fun schedule that was laid out in my last post. As noted last Thursday, August 12th, I was turning over my laptop for a clean install of Windows 7. Knowing that I would be without my connection to the blogosphere other than through my Blackberry Storm II, I laid out an ambitious final weekend of preparation for the upcoming Blue Ridge Breakaway on August 21st. Only a small portion of the planned training came to pass. More on that later in this post…

Friday was a sad day for us on two fronts. Our friend Big John Medford was buried following his battle with ALS for the past 6 years. John was a big man with a bigger heart and his passing was felt throughout our community. He was known for his generosity of spirit and willingness to help others. He will be sorely missed.

(John Manson Medford)

I’ll get to the other sadness in our day later… First though, let’s talk riding!

Saturday morning presented the opportunity to try out the 40 mile route for the upcoming Blue Ridge Breakaway. Several of us agreed to meet at 8:30 and ride the route checking road conditions and potential hazards to address before the day of the ride.

I was the last to arrive of the 4 folks riding that morning. Cross Country Stan was already there and warmed up. Ken Howle, one of the race coordinators was making his final preparations to ride and Christina from Sarasota, Fl decided to join us before returning home with her family. We met Christina at our Thursday night ride when she joined us for our weekly beginners and newly returning group ride. She informed us that she had begun riding in April of this year and had just completed her first triathlon.

After final checks and chats, we headed out south and west on US 19, which pretty much immediately becomes a climb of about 2 miles to the intersection of US 276. The grade isn’t bad so I wasn’t expecting any trouble. Ha! Within about a mile, I was already losing the wheel of the  rider in front of me. I seemed to be going backwards compared to my 3 companions. I was breathing hard and struggling. Now, I know that some days you just don’t have it but, generally, it takes more than a mile for me to figure that out. I looked down at my computer and realized that my good buddy Cross Country Stan was taking us out at a 16 mph pace going uphill. I couldn’t do it and found myself adopting Kent “Mountain Turtle” Peterson’s philosophy of “hasten slowly.” So, I did…

I settled into my own pace and slowly hastened right on back up to the crew where they were waiting on me at the crest of the climb. I apologized but told them that going from 0 mph to 16 mph with no warm up was more than this old body could do! From there, we settled into a nice rhythm going down US 276 along Jonathan Creek. This is flat for the most part and we had a nice 22 to 24 mph pace going as we approached the turn to Coleman Mountain.

A right onto Coleman presented the first climb of the day. With warmed up legs, we all pedaled our way to the top and then enjoyed a nice twisty descent to Iron Duff Road. We then dropped down to the crossing of the Pigeon River and took a moment for some pictures and to hash out the ride thus far.

(l-r, Ken, Christina, Stan) 

At this point, the metric century ride will turn right up river while the century and 40 miler will go left down into Panther Creek. We discovered later in the weekend that a cyclist riding on Rabbit Skin Road was taken down by a loose dog and is now paralyzed as a result. The rider was scheduled for surgery today Tuesday, August 17th. Apparently the dog is well known to many of the area cyclists, who ride that particular route. This event must have happened near the time that we were in the general area and within just a couple of miles. Panther Creek Road goes down the north side of the river and Rabbit Skin Road goes down the south side.

 (Three thorns as opposed to a rose between 2 thorns above!)

Upon resuming our trek, we climbed out of Panther Creek and dropped back down into Fines Creek where we checked out a water stop at the Fines Creek Community building. After giving it a passing grade and petting a well fed, happy Labrador Retreiver, we moved on and ran by a pack of dogs laying in and out of the road. One dog began to give chase but it was redirected by Cross Country Stan and his water bottle. Ken will be making a home visit to ask these mountain folk to put their dogs up next Saturday morning. Should be an interesting conversation as, culturally speaking, dogs often have as much or more rights than humans here in the mountains. Hopefully, the folks will be aware of last weekend’s tragedy and will be happy to assist us in getting some 250 cyclists through the county.

We enjoyed a brief stop at Ferguson’s Supply store at the intersection of NC 209 and Max Patch Road. This is also the base of Rush Fork Mountain and we were going to be climbing to the top. From the north side, the mountain is arguably one of the top 5 climbs in the county. The south side is likely one of the two toughest climbs in the area. It is for more experienced riders than I to come up with the final rankings. I do know this – it will wear you down with its 13% grade over approximately 2 miles.

We all made it to the top – some quicker than others and then enjoyed an exhilarating descent reaching 40+ mph on the straight stretch as we blasted past WeKirk Farms and the G.C. Palmer dairy. We had one more short climb on NC 209 to the Crabtree First United Methodist Church where a water stop will be located and the metric century riders will rejoin the route. Time was running low at this point so we opted out of the climb up the backside of Hyder Mountain and headed on back to our starting point at Lake Junaluska Assembly. Christina found some new juice in her legs on this final stretch and pushed us up to about 20 mph pace before we said our goodbyes to Cross Country Stan and made our way around South Lakeshore Drive to the starting point. 38.5 miles later we were back after enjoying a fine morning in the saddle.

This ride really whetted my appetite for the upcoming metric century. I’m looking forward to this Saturday!

The other sad event…

On Thursday evening, the Navigator and I came to the sad conclusion that Mattie Anne, our 13 year old Golden Retriever,  had reached the end of her time with us. Three weeks ago on Sunday evening, we noticed that she was having difficulty breathing. She had been fine up to that point. We took her to the Vet on Monday morning and he took a quick look at her and agreed that she had the swelling in her throat that I had felt on Sunday. He said he wanted to run some more tests and would call us.

Less than 30 minutes later, he was on the phone with me asking that I return to the clinic. His tests confirmed what he suspected when he first examined Mattie. She had lymphoma and it was very aggressive. Without treatment, he predicted that she would last no more than two or three days.

After hearing our alternatives (put her to sleep now, Prednisone to make her more comfortable, or chemo), we chose the middle route of Prednisone. It had a remarkable and quick affect relieving almost all of her symptoms within 24 hours. To look at her, you would not be aware of the insidious disease taking its internal toll. It also bought time for extended family to say their good-byes.

We knew it was only a matter of time until the Prednisone was no longer working its magic and we knew we would be facing a decision soon. Mattie was originally a niece’s dog but spent most of her life at my father-in-law’s home when the niece moved on to other pursuits. My “better half” and I took over care of Mattie some 8 or so years ago when my in-laws began experiencing their own illnesses.

Finally, this past fall was a time when my father-in-law could no longer do the day-to-day care for Mattie and her health needs so she came to live with us and became an integral part of the daily routine along with Zeke and Orla, our two Labs.  Mattie would greet anyone and everyone with a big “smile” and apparently could not be petted to a point of satiation. She never met a stranger, either human or 4-legged. I don’t think I ever saw anyone turn away without a smile on their own face after a few seconds with Mattie.

Toward the middle of last week, Mattie became noticeably weaker and by Thursday, I was having to pick her up so she could walk. Her appetite was off and you could see the weight loss she was experiencing. We are thankful that she never seemed to be in pain but clearly, it was time…

So, Thursday night was a tough night as we tried to wrap her in as much love as possible knowing it would be her last. On Friday morning, we made her last ride in the truck and the Vet and his staff did a wonderful service in helping Mattie move on to her next journey. I sat in the floor and she laid her head in my lap as the Vet administered the sedative. It was a quiet and peaceful transition. I hope that I’m that lucky when my day comes…

(Mattie Anne – a gentle soul has left us leaving a void in our home.)

Until later,

- Zeke

FIRST RIDE OF NEW MONTH HAS SAD INTERLUDE

After my return to work following 12 days of vacation, I was ready to ride and discharge pent up stress resulting in catching up, getting subpoenaed to Court, and other aspects of my job. We’re in another wet pattern here in lovely and VERY GREEN Western North Carolina. I was keeping an eye on the local radar trying to gauge whether a break in the rain bands would allow the 20+ mile commute home.

After a steady rainfall of 30 minutes around 3:00 p.m., the radar seemed to indicate that no more moisture would be arriving for 3 or 4 hours. The next big band was well off to my northwest in Tennessee. So, it was on – my first commute of the month and my first ride on familiar roads since returning from our 2 week camping adventure.

At the close of business, I loaded up and headed out only to discover that the cadence sending unit on my VDO-Z1 bike computer wasn’t working. I’ve been meaning to change batteries and I guess it is now clearly time to do so. This was my first ride with my new SPOT II on the bike. I used it extensively to track our course while camping but it was always based in the truck so this was my first real test to see if it would report through my cycling jersey. (Note: upon returning home, I discovered the SPOT had nicely charted my course. I carried it in the back left pocket of my jersey. It is so light that I didn’t notice it once. The arm band that comes with it was not to my liking so I’m pleased that if functioned through the jersey.)

The streets had largely dried off except in very low lying areas so there was no road spray to speak of that would affect the ride. I was hitting the roads just as the end-of-workday traffic was picking up but I fortunately didn’t seem to hold anyone up so the only horn blowing I received was a friendly “toot” letting me know that the person was behind me. I waved them around when I could see the road ahead was clear and they threw up a hand in greeting as they went by me.

I was interested to see if the knife that I had previously placed on a bridge railing several weeks ago would still be in place. The knife served to get my mind off an unpleasant interaction with an auto driver and I’ve maintained, admittedly silly, interest in seeing how long it would remain on the bridge. Yesterday was the first time in over 2 weeks that I’ve been on the bridge. The knife had finally been taken. Someone came across it and took it away. It lasted longer than I thought it would in that location.

I ran the length of the Pigeon from the intersection of Richland Creek Rd. and NC 209 to east Canton where the road and river diverge. I was struck by how calm the river was yesterday. In places it barely appeared to be moving, which made for enhanced observation of the dark tea color of the water that results from the tannins in the paper making process at the mill in Canton.

As I passed the second of two churches and two climbs, the road had a clear view looking east of Canton and along I-40. One home in particular still had all of its Memorial Day colors on display. (Thickety Road northwest of Canton. Note I-40 ribbon in distance.)

I-40 through Haywood County into and from Tennessee has now reopened following the clearance of debris resulting from a rock slide months ago. The good news for local business owners is that the return of traffic has begun to bring business transactions back toward normal. The following image was taken from the same location as the shot above. I used the maximum zoom option of the Canon PowerShot to show how busy I-40 was on this first day after Memorial Day 2010.

(Traffic on reopened I-40) 

My ride continued on pleasantly for another couple of miles before taking a very sad turn of events. I made a short climb up to a 3 way intersection where I was the right hand turning “vehicle”. I waved a truck to my left on so they could go in front of me and clipped back into my pedals to get moving. As I made the right hand turn, a small dog at a home diagonally across the road spotted me as I began moving and started giving chase. A woman, whom I assume to be the owner, started calling him/her but the dog would have none of it. The dog had a full head of steam and was coming my way. This was a short, small dog and I was already well out in front of it so it posed no threat to me but I realized that it wasn’t going to stop and stay in its yard. It dashed underneath some pine trees on the edge of the road to continue its pursuit of me. I started trying to point it out to oncoming traffic as I realized the dog was coming into the main road. The lead car did start slowing down but then I heard a loud crunching sound following by a wailing dog as it tried to drag itself back home. Several other vehicles were approaching and I tried to slow them down as well. At least 3 of them stopped to offer assistance.

I was torn between going back or going on. I realized that there wasn’t anything I could do to offer aid and was concerned that my presence might be an added stressor for the owner of the dog. Even though I did nothing to cause the accident, I know that human beings see things differently in times of stress and I feared I might have been seen as the instigator of the event although I know that not to be the case. I chose to continue toward home and said a short prayer for the little dog. I hope that its injuries are not life threatening.

The unpleasantness of the situation made the remaining 10 miles of the ride home significantly less bright. I caught a few rain drops on the south side of Canton but otherwise arrived home wet only from my own perspiration. The few rain drops I did catch felt pretty good in reality. So, it’s home again and riding familiar roads, which is a fine feeling!

Until later,

- Zeke

THINGS TO DO ON A SNOWY SUNDAY

Yesterday was our umpteenth snowy grey day here in the mountains of Western North Carolina. It seemed like a good time to take stock of my cycling “to do” list. Here goes:

• Order extra wheel/cassette to use for trainer.
• Recheck recently mounted new tires to see that they are holding pressure.
• Clean bike:
• Read as many cycling related blogs as possible.

ITEM #1: In a prescient move, John (my LBS owner) contacted me via email and said that word had reached him that he was supposed to be ordering a part for me but he couldn’t  remember what it was. So, he logged on, read this blog, and determined that I probably meant a wheel and cassette to use on my trainer. I had to write back and let John know that we had never actually spoken about this matter but that, yes, I had been by the shop to inquire about the possibilities. So, following John’s recommendations, he has or will be ordering for me a 700X20-25 REAR UCP SPOKE HG8/9 ALLOY SILVER ALEX RP15 36H RIM AND KT ALLOY QR HUB pairing.

This will give me an easy on/easy off option for using the trainer in inclement weather. I’ll probably simply use my old set of tires before ordering a special compound tire for the trainer.  I’ll be mating a Shimano 9 speed HG 50 cassette to the wheel. 

ITEM #2 & #3: This was easy enough. After returning from a painting interlude at my mother’s home, I turned on the heat, called over my work crew consisting of Mattie, Orla, and Zeke, and promptly went about cleaning the bike and checking my tire installation for the 200th time.

(Zeke, the dog, can be seen checking for any OSHA violations)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Yep, chain needs a good cleaning…)

After Zeke’s exhaustive search turned up zero workplace violations, he and the rest of the crew retired to their individual beds in front of the fire. I guess they weren’t up to Sunday work. For me, I’m always amazed at how much grime and grit you can find on a bike (Fuji or Harley) when you seriously look for it. A solid hour of cleaning resulted in a much cleaner future ride.

ITEM #4: While no picture exists as proof that this item was accomplished, I can only report that it most of my regular authors must have taken to their own beds as there was very little new material out there. The exception being Jim Artis at Cycling Experiences, who continues on with his prep plans for the Tour of Discovery 2010: Ride for the Republic. I keep writing to the Stanley Tool Company suggesting to them that they become a corporate sponsor of the Tour as Jim is doing some interesting work adapting their products to his travelling needs.

Here’s hoping that we get bypassed for awhile with winter storms and can actually get outside and ride for a change.

Until later,

- Zeke

IT WAS SO HOT IN AUSTRALIA…

So, how hot was it, you ask? Koala’s were begging water due to the extreme heat. The 120 degree caused some unusual behaviors. I don’t know who to credit these images too so I’ll just send out a BIG THANK YOU!

 

A visitor looking for a cool place finds one!

Stay cool! Well, unless you live in the mid-Atlantic and then you may want to warm up! By the way, we are currently up to 1.5” of new snow in the last hour here in Western North Carolina (Friday, February 12th at 15:15).

Until later,

- Zeke

DRAT! THE CURSE OF FRIDAY THE 13TH!

The day started like any other Friday. Typically, my "non work" day of the week although I always end up working 2 or 3 hours doing end of the week stuff, I managed to grab an extra hour of sleep and woke to a pretty day. I brewed my coffee, heated my breakfast, and sat down to do a little reading on my favorite cycling blogs. After a couple of good cups of coffee and some fine reading and corresopondence catch up, I headed to my Rotary meeting and followed that with my monthly massage. The day was going swimmingly!

My "better half" and I were joining my sister-in-law and the "Wood-Man", my riding partner and friend, in Pigeon Forge, Tn for the weekend. We had a nice cabin on the side of the mountain with all of the amenities. We plugged the address into our Garmin Nuvi 260 and headed out. Little did I know that the curse of Friday the 13th was hiding just on the other end of the gorge. After our GPS unit took us on a very circuitous route to the cabin, we arrived on the western end of the neon horror show known as Pigeon Forge, TN. This shopping mecca was ablaze with all of the latest blinding computerized billboards that could possibly be packed along the sides of the road. Arriving near 6:30 p.m., we spent the next 30 minutes stalled in 6 lanes of traffic trying to negotiate the final 4 miles of highway before our turn-off to the cabin and an expected slice of Smoky Mountain tranquility.

Shortly after arriving at the cabin, the "Wood-Man" and I stepped outside to start the charcoal for supper. I stepped off of the deck into a pile of leaves covering the paver laden walkway below. Rather abruptly, I discovered that the leaf covered pavers didn't extend the full length of the steps. As I contemplated this fact from my now prone position beside the grill, I realized that the popping sound I had heard was my right ankle rolling off of the shortened pavers. Having been through many sprained ankles in the past, I was acutely aware of the swelling that was already beginning in the back of my ankle. The curse 1 - Zeke 0...

Now having the opportunity to reconsider my plans as I used the time tested ankle sprain reducing method of ice on - ice off, I settled in and enjoyed the remainder of the evening and nursed my excitement for the start of the Tour of California. We turned in and hoped for a good night of sound sleep, which more or less we accomplished. Heavy rains moved into the area after midnight but these were mostly just enjoyable on the tin roof of the cabin.

Arising this morning, the 14th, I quietly celebrated the end of another Friday the 13th. Little did I know that events of the previous evening were about to intervene in my ankle icing schedule for the day. Shortly after morning coffee, our cell phone rang. Our pet sitter was calling with the urgent news that our Labs (Zeke and Orla) had managed to get into their medication overnight and had eaten all of it! Worry over their condition resulted in phone calls back home to our Veterinarian, who advised that the dogs should be brought in immediately as the medication, in even small amounts, could lead to liver and kidney failure. To make a long and expensive story short, we had to get our close friend back in town to go get the dogs and take them to the Vet where they were started on activated charcoal, fluids, and had catheters inserted. The dogs are likely to spend the next 4 days under observation to be certain that they don't have some fatal response to their late night cavorting with their medications.

So, I end this entry knowing that my good buddies are safely in the care of the vet, my ankle is responding to 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off, and by golly Lance made a fine showing in the Prologue of the TOC today. The world is back in balance and Friday the 13th is over for...another month!

Until later,

-- Zeke