Prince of the Mountain

There were only 4 of us at Jackson Station on Saturday morning. We met at 6:30AM instead of the summer hours of 6:00AM. The sun was up but there was still a fair bit of fog. We decided to not get off of the trace until the mists had burned off. Believe it or not but my legs were STILL sore from the STADIUMS 3 days prior. The bike did make them feel better. We took it easy for the first 15 miles or so but when we turned off of the trace for the Epley Road King of the Mountain Challenge - the pace immediately quickened. Right now I just do not have the sustained speed necessary to sprint ahead and take charge but I did not want Lance to just walk away with a win.

I was not going to get the polka dotted jersey but Lance and Raland were going to have to work. We would be going at a relative quick pace and then no one would want to take the lead pull. The pace would slow a little bit. They were sandbagging. Once this started to happen I would jump out and sprint ahead for as far as I could. I just kept attacking. Sure the attacks lost a lot of there value when they realized that I was just not able to bring much – but I did make them work. The back part of the out and back is the hard part and at some point it ended up being just Lance and me. We battled a few times but Lance was the stronger of the day. My legs were burning up the last hill and I was giving it everything that I had but I just could not reel him in – Lance bested me by about 50 feet.

On Sunday I pulled out an old work out DVD – Power 90 (no X – I’m not that extreme) and I did the Sculpting session. I used to do this series a long time ago when the winters were cold in the mid-west. The videos were good for me – short, sweet and full of direction. I would like to get a routine of these in the off season to build a little bit of strength back and burn a little bit of fat.

I met up with the Sunday group ride and it was one of the most beautiful days of the year. The humidity had dropped, the sun was out and the air was – okay not cool – but definitely not hot. There was a large group and we rolled out to Sumrall and then beyond. We got off of the trace and hit some hills. My back tire started to hiss on one of these hills. I had a flat. This was the first flat on this bike since Christmas Day – the first flat in nearly 2000 miles on this bike! I changed the flat and got filthy and we were on our way. It was just a good brisk but conversational ride. We were going fast and it seemed like I had to work a little harder than I should have been. I am almost always right up front but not this ride. I was in the second pack and I was still having to huff and puff to stay up. I am getting back to myself but I am just not there yet!