Taking a ride in rural East Tennessee is like taking a step back in time. It is a beautiful place to enjoy back country roads and a more simple time of life. It has beautiful fields of daffodils, rolling cow pastures, creeks running along both sides of the road and through people's yards, and good climbs. It was a nice 45 mile ride with a good number of climbs and some fast descents. I topped out at 43 mph, but I've hit 46 mph on this hill before. It was still fast enough to break away from all the cars behind me.
Before I said this was the stiffest frame I had ever written, but for some reason I have been feeling a little shaky on the handling. I don't know if I have lost some handling skills, the rear triangle is soft, or if this new super light seat post is flexing a lot. I think I might swap it out with my old one to experiment with that idea.
It's time to decide what I really want in life and what I'm going to focus on. I keep telling myself that I am now focusing on training or whatnot. But it's time to lay down some real goals and guidelines to follow. Set some limits and rules for myself to reach them. I need some more self-discipline. As I was riding in the car home from Knoxville this evening, I realized that lent starts tomorrow. I have been telling myself that I getting more serious with my training would require a cut back on the beers and earlier morning workouts. Those two can't go together very well for me. So, I came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea for me to give up alcohol for lent. This will be able to serve more than one purpose and with more than one reason, I think I will have a greater chance of really sticking to it (esp. now that I wrote about it on here for all the public to see). I had some hard partying this past weekend in Knoxville with some new and old friends at a legendary thing UT students know as Boxing Weekend. So, those few nights will have to hold me over until Easter, or hopefully until after my first three big races in May. Best of luck to me. Oh and about to start running so look forward to a report on that to come.
I've included some pictures of the ride and the redneck nature of Appalachia.
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| No yellow line here |
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| Trying to pull the engine out of the car with a tree |
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| Old Run Down Barn |
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| Fun Descent |
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