Sore butt and tired

Hi, I just got back from a 78 miler with some decent climbs and I'm tired. Yesterday I rode the recumbent climbing one hill in Indian Hill and then on to Walmart to get something. On the way back I decided to ride to the end of the bike trail. After getting to the end of the trail I thought about the ice cream stand and rode there and got a cone. Possum happy! Then on home getting 32 miles in.

Today was a beautiful day and was supposed to get in the low 80's which I think it did. I took off around ten o'clock and rode the trail to Stubbs Mill and then hit the roads and hills I went to Caesar Creek, but the wind was so bad up there that I returned shortly to the trail to try and escape the wind. The wind was brutal! As hard as any I saw on my XC trip......I think.

I wanted to check out the trillium as I knew it would be blooming as Athens was last week and I wasn't disappointed as the hill side was covered and then I rode up Hall's Creek and those were out too. Trillium ride in Southwest Ohio and loving it. There was also these yellow flowers that had a drooping flower and was very pretty.

The ride went well except for the fact that I was really tired and my butt is tired and a little sore. I bought new shorts and they have a thicker chamois and were very comfortable the first time I wore them. I guess I just have to toughen it up a little. So that's all from here and hope for more riding in the next couple days, but I also have a lot to do around here. Later.

Peace Paul

TTT April 19, 2009

Hello,I just got back from Athens to a greeting of rain. Yesterday was a beautiful day just about everywhere around this state so our ride was a lot of fun. Tom and I rode 72 miles and climbed 4400 feet so it was a fairly hard ride, but when you ride in Athens you ride hills because there are a lot of them all around. It is Little Appalachia in a lot of aspects and is pretty country. A lot of poverty and a lot of dogs.

The ride was the Athens Spring Ride (aka Tom's Trillium Tour) and there are a lot of wildflowers and the hills along a portion of the bike trail are blanketed in trillium. And then the bluebells took over for a scenic ride. They had fifty one riders and everyone seemed to really like the route.

We were riding along and this pit bull came charging out and I yelled, but seemed to have little affect so I got off the bike and the dog ran in to the yard, where the owner was yelling for the dog. I started to go and he came back out so I stopped and just waited until the woman came out and got it. By now the trailer emptied it's bowels of the other dogs! So now I have 'jaws' in the yard being watched by the angry woman and two more on the road, but the one was friendly and was cute, but it was time to move on. That was the first time I dismounted because I thought I would be bitten and wanted the bike between me and the biter. I've dismounted to chase dogs, but I was the winner in those.

So after 70 miles we decided that we had enough miles to feed the body and mind and we called it a day. The main reason I went to ride was that I wanted to test myself to see where I was on the hill climbing fitness level and what I had to work on and I found out, so life is good. I think all I really need is just more miles in the hills as my climbing is pretty good. I now know I can do the ride in California as I have over a month more to train and I feel good. It's raining today so I'll go work inside. Peace Paul

Another ride on the Merlin

Hi, well I rode the Merlin again today and covered 55 miles with 1000 feet of climbing and felt fine and the arm was not sore. I had to ride on the top of the bars though. Was tired but felt fine. Paul

Peckerheads in California

April 3, 2009 Howdy, I'm back with news from the wet Ohio River area. It seems as I'm headed to California in May to ride with several other Peckerheads in the canyons around Laguna Beach. Why do I go out there you ask? I have to admit I wasn't all that excited about the trip last year when Scott and I discussed it, but since he has been riding out there so much and building it up I have to go out and see for myself. Mark, Kent, Jay, and I are going out to be led around the area by Scott. I have to admit that I'm getting pretty psyched up the more I think about it.

Scott says he's doing this in appreciation for the times we tried to kill him on some our Glenmont death rides, but I think it's revenge and he's going to get us out there and drill us seriously in to the ground. I don't think that will happen, but I'm ramping up my training to make sure that doesn't happen, so wish me luck.

So the Merlin comes out of intermittent retirement to reintroduce my butt to the saddle. And the bent sits frowning in the garage from less time on the road.

Heading home Sept 16

Woke up this morning to a rough day weather wise, both here and at home. Hurricane Ike swung around and hit Cincinnati with high winds that did a lot of damage and our neighborhood got hit hard. Ann is without electric and has been for several days so I decided to call it quits and head for home to rescue the love of my life. Kent and Sloan dropped me off in Asheville and on the way back to Little Switzerland I stopped at Lowe's and bought a generator as there were none in Cincinnati to buy.

Kent had pretty much gotten over his cold, but Bruce was not getting better so with the rain and all I thought it better that he didn't need to ride in more rain. So I picked him up and loaded the bikes and headed home.

It seems like every time I leave on a trip something happens at home. On my cross country trip we were going through a drought that caused Ann to work her butt off trying to keep things alive and I owed her big time on that one, which I thought I was caught up on, and now this so I'm back to square one. Not really, as I was a hero who brought electricity with me! The neighbors also appreciated it as I ran the generator around so everyone could get a hot shower once in a while as we were without electricity for exactly a week.

So that was the end of yet another great trip and am looking forward to the next one. So the totals were 415.52 miles with 34,652 feet of climbing! Woohoo!

Mt Mitchell Sept 15

What a day! We all rode Mt Mitchell and had a nice time under beautiful weather. That is until we got to the top of Mt Mitchell which was socked in fog, but just while we were on top. It was a hard ride and I felt good, but tired. We made it back to the Lodge just in time to shower and hit dinner. We were afraid we might be late and possibly miss dinner and life would not have been pretty as I might have had to eat the lodge dog! Everyone did well and we tried to talk Sloan in to riding tomorrow, but she informed us that her season was over and she would not be riding.

So the next morning they are heading to Ohio and Bruce and I are heading to Asheville. So today was 55.5 miles with 6628 feet of climbing, great day!

Little Switzerland, NC Sept 14

We were close to Asheville where we had started so Kent and Sloan decided to ride back to the car and drive to Little Switzerland and meet us there. I think Sloan was getting tired as we had doing a lot of climbing and Kent really wanted to ride Mt. Mitchell. So we spit up and they headed to Asheville and Bruce and I headed to Little Switzerland. Kent is thinking about renting a road bike and ride Mt Mitchell with Bruce and I.

Bruce and I had a beautiful day to ride a hard ride, but at least we had a tail wind! Tailwinds are great, but if it's as hot as it was today you don't get the breeze to cool you off so it was hot. We came to a closed section of the road and took a 5 mile detour on a gravel road. We stopped a MBer and he said the road wasn't too bad so off we went and it wasn't too bad as I just took it easy and didn't have any trouble. Then after we rejoined the road a couple said that the closed section was going to become a bike trail as they weren't going to reopen the road, and that we could have rode that section. Oh well. So we arrived at Big Lynn Lodge and had a nice two days there. They had a list of rules that was extensive and one of the rules was that they don't allow bikes in the rooms. This worked out okay as we just locked them up outside and they were basically out of site and it wasn't a place that I was worried about anything happening to them. Dinner and breakfast were included in the price and we even had set times to eat and assigned tables. The people with seniority get the tables closest to the windows, which offered a nice view. We got a window table. Woohoo!

And then to our surprise Sloan said that she would ride Mt Mitchell with us! Life is good and I was glad to hear it. So tomorrow is the big ride! Today was 43 miles with 3391 feet of climbing.