good rides

LOVIN the new ride..very good climbing gear so far. Hit up the Blvd a few times, climbed all over the area. Droped a few bikers on the bottom blvd, I love flying by the tri guys all tucked in with their areo bars and slick wheels. Baggy shorts, flaming skull socks and old ugly steel SS bike crushing the shaved leg crew!!! Rode this morning in Oak Ridge, hooked up with a group of 3 guys. We rode hwy 58 and 95 and some sweet back roads. The SS was rockin!!
I now own more SS's than geared bikes. 1 SS santa cruz chameleon-1 SS 29er Surly , 1 SS roadie...1 geared santa cruz superlight-1 geared giant carbon TCR
I am going to try and post pics of the stable this week.
Drew

long time no post...

New SS roadie 53x21 gearing..good climbing gear..lil slow on some flats..

new lawn tractor...got a lil burned out after PMBAR, took a few days a messed around on the bike. Ran a lil..rode very little. But the new steed has renergized me. Been riding the Surly 29er alot, been on the new SS roadie the last 3 days and getting ready to take off again. Good day on the Big Ove's dad's boat yesterday..lot of jet skiing..i got that beast up to 58 mph...very fast. Gotta run..going for a ride to a cookout...

ACM New Male Vocalist of the year!!!!

FINALLY!!!!! Rodney won ACM's new male vocalists of the year tonight! This just tops off an already great night. We went to watch the legandary Tony Rice w/ Allsion Krauss and Union Station at the TN theatre. Awseome show! For those of you who dont know, I grew up with Rodney, he is like another Big Brother. My Mom spoke with his mom and dad right after they announced him winning, they were just over joyed with tears. It is about time he gets recognized for all his hard work. Congrats ROD!!!!

Tellico Rides

The last couple of days have been great! Saturday Murray, Stover and 1 Speed went to Madisonville for some good ol road miles. We park at Fort Loudon Park and headed towards Tellico River. We kept a good pace rotating like a bunch of MTBers on road bikes, no real order just organized chaos. Only kidding but we rode around some beautiful country. It had been a while since I rode "out in the country." Living in the Tri Cities, I always rode waaaaaay out in the sticks and until Saturday I didn't realize how boring my current road routes were. Our destination was Bald River Falls, we made a few turns and was into Gods country in no time. We rode parallel to the Tellico River and on some very tight roads. Good long climbs, not steep, just steady. Once we got to the falls, we hung out for a minute and Jeff's Garmin said 32 miles, so with this being an out and back, we should get 64ish miles. Jeff said it should be about 65 miles or so we were right on track. On the way back my legs started to cramp a lil, so I thought maybe go on a brake explode the legs and once they catch me, just roll back to the car. Well, off I went, tongue out head down and flyin. I felt real good, legs were good and snappy. I looked back once and saw them lined up and cruising about a .25 mile back. So harder I go, there was lactic acid all over the place. After about an hour into this "attack" i was thinking surly they should have caught me by now. Then I started to look around and I didn't recognize anything. I asked a guy in his yard where I was and evidently I missed my turn a while back. I hobbled by broken ass back to HWY 360 and made my way back towards the car. I was dying, hot, almost out of water, and then like a night in shining armour here comes a Honda CRV loaded with bikes, I'M SAVED!!!!! I'm saved by a bunch of chuckling smart asses. "Beer's are on me, I'm the jackass!" was my response to the giggling and smiles. But oh well, at least the guys had an excuse now for the wives as the reason they are about an hour and half late. I guess I got in around 70 miles or so. So much for keeping the HR low and getting in an long aerobic ride. *Note to self: If you decided to take off from the group, know where the F*%k your going*

Sunday was a day on the lake with the family. What a way to spend Mothers Day, great weather and even better company. We wake boarded all day, and today I'm a lil sore. But no worry's I got my message chair on Sunday, OH SOOOOOOO NICE!!!!!!

I enjoyed the ride so much on Saturday that I went back and rode in Tellico after work today. I was working down there anyway so I packed the bike and met the BIG OVE for a lil recovery ride. We got in 30 miles in 2 hours, this was Parkers longest ride of the year so I was excited to be there with him. He is progressing very fast, we hooked up with a local guy who showed us some new routes off our ride. We had a good time, took alot of pictures. We rode past Bald River Falls for about 10 miles or so, the scenery was incredible. I got to see Baby Falls, which Parker has ran in a open boat and a kayak. He was showing me alot of good runs on the river. After the ride we ate at the Diner, I must say "one of the best burgers ever."

Good Times

Do you think OVE loves beer??

Drew

feeling better

This week has been rather rough, due to the "lethal PISGAH burrito" incident, and PMBAR. I have not had much motivation this week to do anything. I tried to spin on monday but barely mad it 20 minues. On wendesday, I picked up some ERGON grips from Tim at CBC, and decided I needed to try them out. So I went to the ridge for a quick spin. The parking lot was packed, I ran into some fellow PMBAR participants. 1 speed and Apking were getting ready to take off, but I thought it was best to ride alone. My legs were feeling very heavy, so I just rode around and tried to get used to the new grips. On thursday I went out for a good trail run, I did soccer, up and over ridge, middle, lake and west shore. Overall good run, hiked the hills, my foot felt pretty good. Mick is going to do a gait analysis next week, to see if there is something he can change with my slog. I am getting ready to go meet Stover, Jeff, Thomas for a 60-70 mile road ride out in Loudon. Looking forward to putting in some good base miles in.

Stover and Jeff had to DNF at PMBAR, stover's BLUR had some problems. I hate that this happened to them but they were not the only ones. From what I heard alot of teams had to DNF due to various reasons. Brad and I both lost our brakes so we had to walk just about every trail for the last 3 hours or so. Shawn and Ivory rocked PMBAR, finishing in the top 15, and Thomas and Eric had an impressive 22nd. I'm glad somebody from Knoxville had a strong race, cause we just wanted to survive. This was my first time riding at Pisgah so it was all new to me. On satuday night I said I would not be back.....but on sunday during my GI explosion, I cant recall who asked me this but, they asked was it worth it..."if i knew yesterday morning I would finish this race and get horrible food poisoing .....I would have still done it" What a great feeling of accomplishment.
Desire brings PAIN

Survived....barely

12 hrs 28 mins...4 check points...If PMBAR doesnt kill you the burritos will.....

Taking it easy

This week has been all about taking it easy and getting things ready for PMBAR on saturday. Yesterday the only workout i could get in was a good weight session. Today i took the superlight out to concord after work and rode for 40 mins. Not to hard but hard enough to make sure everything is working perfect. I did a quick 10 min run afterwards just to test the foot out. I had another session of PT with Mick today.

After last week which was a big week of around 14 hours on the bike, I was in need of a recovery week. The next two nights will consist of packing for PMBAR and getting good rest.

Some of the boys came over last night and watched 24 SOLO, it is good motivation for this weekend.

The wedding was a blast this weekend, 3 days of no exercise was not normal for me, but i needed the rest. I had a little bug on friday but felt better thru the weekend. This weekend was crazy as usual, lets just say there was a "Trashy Mom siting." The Darkness purchased a $500 bottle of the bubbly...i must say I prefer a nice cold PBR instead. we got to watch the Big Dawg try to convince a employee at the Speedway to sale him beer after midnight. We found out that you cant purchase booze after midnight in Ohio.....booooo. Needless to say he did not get it but she did get to see his naked rearend. We do believe that the video of him will be used on "how to handle a drunk customer" for future Speedway employees. Gotta love the Big Dawg. His new philosophy is pretty good though..."Its not that I want to get drunk and make a fool of myself....but people are counting on me"