road trip!

the kids (aka: our bikes) were so well behaved on this trip. the (beer) cooler got along real well with them too. about 6 weeks ago, we decided to throw caution to the wind and said, let's go to Georgia and do our favorite hell of the east ride called 6 Gap. we absolutely heart this 104 mile, 11,200+ feet of climbing ride and had not been there to do it since 2008. the weather can be a little tricky there since it is hurricane season. we were registered to do it in 2009 but a ton of rain caused much of Georgia's major interstates to flood and it was a royal mess, so we opted not to risk it. plus, you don't want to go down these descents with slick roads. you risk your life and i'm not kidding when i say that. cyclist have been seriously injured there and i know of one woman from south florida who died of massive head injuries in 2008 after losing control of the bike. this ride is not for the weak at heart or to be more blunt, it is not for the chicken shits who are afraid to go fast downhill. you have to have excellent bike handling skills, period! i'm thankful for the bike handling skills i developed with many years of mountain biking that i began doing back in the early 90's.

oh yeah baby! love me some mountains. every time i drive into this area of Dahlonega, i start to wish i could live there. i can see it now ...a nice comfy cabin, a rolling river stream out back, a jacuzzi on the deck, you get the picture? the only thing stopping me from moving there? a job in my chosen field of work! unless i want to work at Krogers, Ingles, or a mom & pop joint, there's nothing there. not that there's anything wrong with working at any of those places, but really, there isn't any major company there and i'm a little spoiled with not having to work holidays or weekends. it is a pretty low key town. maybe when i retire, i'll buy a vacation cabin there and ride like a fool everyday. a girl can dream can't she?

this is the historic area of Dahlonga, called the square. this is where the ride packet pick up and expo were held at. there were some killer deals to be had here too and leave it to me to sniff em' out. Jason at Cook|Train|Eat|Race, i'm still waiting for your wish list of tri related products and permission to use your credit card. you know i'll find the best deals out there on whatever you need. they also had criterium races on saturday afternoon and evening. we watched a lot of them and i even took some videos with my phone but i haven't quite figured out how to get them on to my blog. the pictures you see here were taken with my phone and that was easy to figure out so i dunno why the videos would be any different to upload but they are. whatevz!

deal of the century at the expo were these Bahati Foundation, Louis Garneau, matching arm and leg warmers being sold by the RealCyclist cycling team. both for $10/each!! unreal deal, right? the J-man said, "but you don't have anything that matches those," to which i replied, "so what!" actually, i do have cycling stuff that matches, he just doesn't realize how much cycling apparel i really have, ha-ha! living in Florida, my winter cycling wardrobe is pretty minimal. up to this point, i had only 2 pair of arm warmers (one i love the others i hate), and a crappy pair of leg warmers that don't fit right and i only wore them one time last year and then put them in the black hole drawer never to be worn again. i can't wait to use these new one's once the weather starts cooling off.

okay, let's get to the real story behind this blog post shall we? to be exact, it is 103.8 miles and 11,230 vertical feet of climbing. i won' t bore you with too many details except to say that this ride is tough as nails, you better have prepared for it thoroughly, don't take your fancy carbon wheels because you may end up dead, know how to feather your front and rear brakes when descending, and scream yeeee-haaaaw when flying down the switchback mountain roads. my max speed was 46.1 mph!! that is better than any Disney ride ever made! here is the best part of all. THIS IS NOT A RACE! at least that's what the announcer kept saying over and over and over again the day before at the square and the morning of the event. guess what dude? you gave everyone chips to put on their ankle and this triathlete races when she has a timing chip wrapped around her ankle. this ride is always a race in my mind and race i did! i placed 5th female overall and 4th in my AG (those 40-44 year old females are fast!! but, i wonder if they can do an Ironman?). my main reason for doing this ride was to use it as one of my training rides for Ironman Florida. mission accomplished!
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in other news ...
*36 more days til IMFL! OMG!
*if IMFL were this weekend, i'm ready.
*someone bought me race wheels for IMFL, delivery scheduled for tuesday. thank you honey, you rock!
*i'm seeing a flash mob of leg hugging in the near future (inside joke).
* i'm always impressed with all my fellow bloggers who manage to blog almost everyday. how in the hellz do you do it??
*to everyone racing this weekend, bust a move and git er' done! everyone else, happy training and have an awesome weekend!

much love and peace out!