Many years ago now when Apple introduced the iPhone 3GS Steve Jobs stated on stage that “the ‘S’ stands for ‘Speed'”.
Were it legal, or at least in fashion, in the mid-1960s to give your newborn the middle name of “Stubborn” then I should have received that honor. It would have been fitting, but didn’t happen.
Bo Knows Shortcutting, I Do Not
If you follow me on other social media you know what I did on Saturday. I allowed myself to get quite a sunburn on my arms. How? Read on.
First, let me explain that when I committed to doing Bo Bikes Bama I booked a hotel room not more than 2.5 miles from the ride’s start/end with the plan to ride to/from the event. Even in my current state I was hellbent on following through on this. If it hurt too much riding to the ride, I was just going to give up on the idea of participating.
Because I had not received my rider packet in the mail (it was in my mailbox when I arrived home on Sunday) I had to go to the Auburn Arena to get my number, wristband, and t-shirt.
As late as leaving my hotel room on bike I was committed to riding the twenty-mile route at Bo Bikes Bama. Even in my decrepit state, if I could ride I figured that I would be out no more than ninety minutes. Because of this I only took one water bottle, and only put sunblock on the back of my neck.
There were two huge problems with my plan:
- Unlike all other rides I’ve done there were two different start times, 2.5 hours apart. The sixty-mile route started at 7:30am CDT and the twenty-mile route at 10:00am CDT. Why would I want to wait 2.5 hours and allow the temperature to rise before starting?
- Unlike all other rides I’ve done the two routes weren’t the same. The twenty-mile route didn’t follow the sixty-mile route and peel off at some point, it went in a different direction. The twenty-mile route went in a clockwise direction whereas the sixty-mile route went in a counter-clockwise direction, only using a few of the same roads.
So I made a decision to start out with the sixty milers and shortcut my way back to my hotel in the case were I didn’t feel okay. Oops, I should have applied more sunscreen.
For the first time in three weeks I felt nearly painless again! Much like when I rode the trainer last week it was a struggle to get on and off my bike, but I managed. I started with the last group and I was not only keeping up, I was passing people. I finished the sixty-mile route in four hours, forty(ish) minutes, almost thirty minutes of that was spent at rest stops to get fluids, food, and rest.
Speaking of rest stops…
At the first rest stop I saw Bo Jackson, who along with Lance Armstrong and Brett Favre had taken off with the lead group. He was sitting on the tailgate of a pick up truck, “resting” in his words. About ten minutes later I saw Bo Jackson’s doppelgรยคnger get into a truck and drive off in the direction of the start. I’ll give Bo the benefit of the doubt that he needed to return to the start and welcome the twenty-mile riders. I never saw Lance Armstrong nor Brett Favre, this is too bad since I would have liked to greet both of these guys.
At the second rest stop I believe that a woman hit on me. She, who had a very distinctly-sounding cassette, drafted me for many of the first fifteen miles; as soon as I’d start coasting I heard the cassette, as soon as I started pedaling the cassette noise stopped. At some point the cassette noise passed me and kept going. At the second rest stop she walked up to me and said “Since you were nice enough to let me draft behind you for so long I thought that I should come up and say hello.” It’s a pity that she was not anywhere near my type, though it felt really good to have someone be so polite to me especially on a day on which I was struggling mightily. Just because I was pain free didn’t mean that my cardio and muscles weren’t working overtime to keep me moving, especially on a hot morning. I actually cramped in both legs with ten miles to ride and was fortunate to be able to ride through it to make it to the end.
Here’s the official sixty-mile route:
My mileage total for the day was around 65 miles, my legs were screaming by the time I returned to the hotel.
In addition to not taking my second water bottle nor applying an appropriate amount of sunscreen, here are some other things I did wrong due to not being in practice for riding:
- I forgot to wear my heart-rate monitor.
- At the start I realized that I was wearing two different cycling gloves.
- I didn’t eat breakfast, nor did I pack any food in the pockets of my cycling jersey. There was no food at the start, and boy howdy did I chow down at the first rest stop.
- I didn’t swap out my short-distance seat pack for my long-distance seat pack that contains more tools/supplies. Why would I, I mean I was only going to ride twenty miles, right?
It’s almost a miracle that I survived…
I Am Lame
While most of the definitions of the word “lame” are relatable to my current condition, it is definition #2 listed by Merriam-Webster to which I refer:
-
- having a body part and especially a limb so disabled as to impair freedom of movement
- marked by stiffness and soreness
- lacking needful or desirable substance
- (slang) not being in the know
After riding back to my hotel room, taking a cold soak, a much-needed shower, and then a short recovery nap, I did little else in Auburn.
I finally rallied myself to get out of the air-conditioned room only to eat a very early dinner (I rewarded myself with a Chinese buffet. Hey, don’t judge I burned a lot of calories out there!) and stop at a beer store called “The Kool Keg” where I picked up three six-packs of beer that I cannot buy in Georgia (as far as I know). I spent the remainder of Saturday night in my hotel room watching videos on my iPad (I couldn’t get the TV in the room to work) and going to sleep early. PAR-TAY!
Waffle House Stories
As Waffle House stories go this is lame, but it happened to me so I am blogging it. Why did I go to Waffle House? Well, the advertised 6am breakfast in my hotel was not ready and I was ready to return to Atlanta, so I stopped at Waffle House on my way out of town.
As I sat there awaiting the delivery of my breakfast a guy walked up and sat on the other side of my booth.
“Do I know you?” I asked my new booth mate.
In shock and embarrassment he looked at me and realized that he mistook me for his friend and had sat at the wrong booth. He apologized, I laughed, we shook hands, and he walked over to the correct booth. I could see why he mistook me for his friend, who looked a lot like me except for being much younger. I continued to laugh, his friend started to laugh, and then I heard the guy say to his friend “At least he talked to me. You just sat there quietly.”
Also in this Waffle House were a young college-aged couple; she looked as if she was wearing the dress that she had worn on Saturday night. ๐ Ah, youth…
One Auburn In A Weekend Was Enough For Me
As soon as I saw where Auburn, Georgia was as I looked at the start of yesterday’s Black Sheep Hash from my hotel room in Auburn, Alabama I knew that I would not be going to congratulate Sanitary Not on her 500th Black Sheep.
It also didn’t help waking up yesterday with a wee little bit of hip/leg/knee stiffness and pain, not surprising since I rode my bike for over sixty miles on Saturday. Stubborn is as stubborn does, and I was paying the penalty for my stubbornness.
Stay safe in today’s predicted heavy rainstorms and make it a great Monday.
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Wow, that was a lot. Hope I didn’t bore you all…
And a “happy” May Day to all.
So a friendly, polite, approachable woman who shares a common interest with you was most definitely immediately not your type? What was it this time: the horror of having hair too long or a visible tattoo?
I too had wanted to go to Sani’s 500th but the location (as well as the heat) kept me away. I’m glad the weather’s looking like a cool down is coming again. 90 degrees in April sucks.
What attracts us to people is personal. What others seek in a partner is different than what I seek, and I shouldn’t be reprimanded for that. She was very nice, not unattractive, but just not what I am seeking. It’s not like I ran away, or in my case, hobbled away. We had a pleasant conversation and that was that.
Reprimanding you? Please . I’m only repeating the same things you have written repeatedly here about women you meet and routinely dismiss for.
^^ my eye roll apparently didn’t show up.
“Let’s recap our score.
After 3 innings, it’s Stacy: 1, Paulie: 0”
Overheard:
Mary: “I sure am having trouble finding the right guy…”
Jane: “Yeah?”
Mary: “I’m looking for an older 5′ 7″, 5′ 9″ 50-ish sort of a fellow, dark hair, sometimes shaggy, a bit overweight, that walks with a bit of a limp. He has to be into beer and Chinese buffets.”
Jane: “I hear you! Keep looking….”
๐
Pro tip: Beautify is only skin deep, it’s what’s inside that counts.
JG/HamWithCam
If that’s the score then I am doing better than the Mets did yesterday; they gave up 23 runs to Washington.
I was going to joke that I dismissed her because I found out she was a Trump supporter. We were in rural Alabama after all. ๐
Okay, well now THAT’s legit. ๐ ๐
“What was it this time: the horror of having hair too long or a visible tattoo?”
๐
Busy couple of days.
I attended the NRA Annual Meeting at the WCC Friday and Saturday. I met up with a handful of Ham Radio buddies on Friday. We had a great time taking in the 600,000 exhibit hall. I was beat Friday night (having walked over 12 miles (some 20,000+ steps), but recovered sufficiently to do it all again Saturday. All day Saturday.
Paulie and John both unlocked the “stuff we over-did this weekend, despite knowing better” badge.
The event was pretty impressive on a number of levels. Aside from the obvious celebration of Second Amendment rights, I was struck by the broad mix of attendees.
There were entire families, fathers/daughters, mothers/sons, couples, blacks, Asians, etc. etc. I saw numerous LGBT/gay couples and tons of former military and sworn law enforcement officers. Even your expected assortment of old fat white men.
Nobody, at least that I saw, had on a Confederate Flag t-shirt or an AR-15 rifle slung over their shoulder.
Odd, there were “80,000” attendees over the 4-day event, many gun toting, and not a single incident reported, at least that I heard. I guess the local media was occupied covered the 20+ folks at the “die-in” protest Friday. I understand from an APD officer, with which I chatted, downtown purse snatchings were way down.
I noted Ossoff even ran a campaign ad decrying “we don’t need guns in Georgia classrooms”. Mr. Ossoff, there are guns in Georgia classrooms…today. Illegal guns.
FYI: The Georgia Campus Carry” bill (yet to be signed by Deal) specifically prohibits guns in classrooms (or dorms or frat/sorority houses, or sporting events, or where there are high students, etc, etc, etc. And you must be 21 and have a valid Georgia Weapons License.
Everybody with which I engaged or observed was super polite and respectful. One older woman, with which I chatted, even offered to show me her stainless 5-shot Smith & Wesson revolver in her “purse holster”. I declined.
I spent most of Sunday recovering, doing chores and grabbing a bite of non-Chick-fil-A food at OK Cafe.
A quick shot from the weekend:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hamwithcam/34268234066/in/dateposted-public/
I hope everybody has a great Monday.
73 de JG/HamWithCam
A really fun weekend. Nice drive to Louisville for Skyline (noticed a “Gold Start Chili” on the way out of Lexington yesterday. Might have to try the competition next trip). Bourbon touring Friday- Wlid Turkey and Woodridge Reserve. Both quite tasty. Dinner was so so Mexican and the place across the street from the house.
Saturday we tailgated at the cross country course. If we had a tent/fly, it would have been perfect. We happened to be under cover when the skies opened, so it was all good. The course was apparently pretty tough, as we waited a while for the first competitor to make it past our vantage point (just before the halfway point.)
Sunday we were at the course early for “the jog”. After 2 days of competition, the vets do an inspection of all the horses. Kinda of a formal affair, with gentlemen in ties and ladies in dresses. All but one passed inspection. A quick pass through the vendor area and we rolled South- just as the skies opened again. Home by 6 and asleep by 9.
Working on my packing list for next weeks’ departure as well as the work parties at the Ben Hilton. Trying to cram as much into a week as possible!
-FP
the Grove’s will disown you if you even try Gold Star. (or so I’ve heard)
I just realized our trip to Vegas & Zion is 10 days away – guess I better figure out what the hell we planned & make sure everything is in order.
I don’t recall I’ve ever had it, so it must be really good!! ๐
Sounds very Hatfields v McCoys to me. รฐลธโขโ
Allan said its imitation Cincy Chili – you better not be a traitor.
Busy morning –
WOW – you rode 60.
How frequent were the rest stops? having just 1 water bottle should have been fine.
I’d say something about the girl that talked to you, but Stacy & John have it covered.
We did something called Escape Woods Saturday night out in Powder Springs, another variety of the Escape Room craze. Its really not my thing, but it was entertaining for a birthday outing.
AND- my big news of the weekend was a spent Sunday afternoon hiking with the long lost WineHo. She’s fine, just been busy doing other things, had a bad case of Planter fasciitis, so could run or do much for quite a while. We are going to go mountain biking next weekend I think.
Yeah, I went the full sixty. There were three rest stops รขโฌโ 15, 35, 51. It was getting hot out there and I ran out of water before the final one.