Febrero 2009 Archives

Elena has always been crafty, but recently she has found friends who are showing her some tips and tricks about art. She has been drawing more cards, more pictures of her friends and more fairies. (girl that she is...) We've always been proud of her craft, but its been harder to share knitting and bracelets on a blog than it is pictures.

So below we present a set of princesses .....

I think she needs to develop a set of character cards (like Pokemon...) I think she would be very successful with the under 14 crowd..

Another Sunday with temps in the 60's - another ride. Shirtsleeves in February is the reason I stay in Chattanooga. A query posed to the Chatta-nasty friends was fruitless and so I rode with the Chattanooga Bike Club. Last week was on the west side, this week was on the upper east side. Snow Hill, Birchwood, Georgetown. The outer reaches of Chattanooga suburbs. The smell of fresh farms. A great ride.

This ride didn't have any climbs to speak of, mostly long flats and gentle rollers, but it felt good. The bike club has such a great mix of abilities and strengths - and I fell right in, sometimes feeling like I was going to snap from the pace, and other times feeling strong enough to fly off the front.

A smaller group opened up the pace nicely on Birchwood pike as we crested down around Skull Island. We rode hard together from there all the way to our designated store stop. Maybe 10 miles. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the paceline. The reward of digging deep and working really hard to get on someone's wheel is that when you arrive, suddenly the aerodynamics make it really easy to stay there. It feels a lot like you are floating or flying. In addition, the tight coordination of riding 8 inches off a wheel brings a focus and a purpose to your riding that just doesn't need to be there when alone. And then you ease off together and get to talk. And that is fun too.

The legs feel a little less toasted tonight, and the heart churned right along - even though I was worried that I was pushing a little too hard too fast. We did about 2 1/2 hours of riding and all was good. This year's goal is to figure out the balance between riding hard and staying within my heart's limits. I've pushed the riding part these weeks and I'm pleased with the feeling.

Some like their art classical - some like it more thoughtful.

I celebrated a 60 degree day by riding with Jeff Cross for about 45 miles this afternoon. I left from Church at 11:00 and so had to surprise a bunch of parishoners in my bike clothes. I wandered through town on Main Street and Broad to StElmo where I met Jeff and Brent Jackson. We pushed over the butt of Lookout Mt to Tiftonia. That is a nice gentle climb, but I'm still getting back to the point where climbs don't scare me. So I dropped back. We dropped Brent in Tiftonia because he wanted to ride with the bike club that was coming along about 20 minutes later. We headed down the valley, up 299 through the mountains (between i24 and the train lines). We got passed by a freight train just as we went under the large trestle over stone creek. Nice.

The climb up the stair steps on Hwy 41 was tougher than I remembered, but then we hammered back around the grand canyon of the Tennessee river. The river shone through bare trees in stark winter fashion. The mountain ranges hemming the river in tight and even framed the sky. I kept looking for the break where Hwy 41 climbs out of the canyon to go over to Tiftonia. I was wearing shorts (in February no less) and my knees felt the cold. They started really hurting on every climb. I thought about bailing in Tiftonia after we climbed back over the ridge on Hwy 41 by Racoon mountain, but when we came down to the old Bi-Lo parking lot I felt good enough to go back over the butt of Lookout to Stelmo.

About 45 miles, little more then 3 hours, longest and hardest ride since October 2007. The heart felt great, the legs sucked. No power at all. My knees have hurt all evening, but its hurt good.

Hope the power and the pain switch places over the next few months.