Back on the BiKe

It is the end of April already. Gosh! What happened? Where did March go? Oh yeah....It feels like I slept for a month.

Anyway, Tuesday was my first ride back on the bike. Instead of taking it easy and doing a nice flat short ride, I took off to my favorite route. I went up the Blue Ridge Parkway from the Folk Art Center to Bull Gap. Then I turned around and climbed up the back side of Town Mountain road. So, this is probably close to 100 feet of climbing per mile. That is the best kind of riding and the most therapeutic (for me). I even used a 12x25 cassette instead of changing out to a easier gearing, 12x27 tooth cassette. I felt the bigger gear on the climb. I was riding a 12x25 comfortably before my surgery. So, I can tell exactly the ground that I have to make up. I'm not going to race to get my form back. I just needed to know where I am in my fitness right now. There is a little work to do.

I have targeted at least 2 centuries in the month of June. The Cherohala Challange (115 miles with more than 10,000 feet of climbing) and the Blood Sweat and Gears (more of the same). I've never done the BSG before. This will be my first time. It is a ride near Boone and there is a lot of good climbing there.

In the interest of my Southern Appalachian Road Climbs website, I've been working with Google Maps "My Maps" to create, duh, MAPS of the climbs for my web site. The climbs that I have created so far are Town Mountain, Brasstown Bald, Hogpen Gap, Wolfpen Gap, Woody Gap, and Santeetlah Road Gap.

I am hoping to link the climbs from my website to these Google Maps pages. There are pretty cool. I am doing a little work on my web pages in Dreamweaver Studio 8. I'm still trying to learn the software....and there seems to be a learning curve for me, which is unusual. I can usually pick up software pretty quick, but this is a new challenge.

So, I do feel good on the bike. My neck is still healing and I can feel some tenderness, but the ride feels great. It always does. I won't be riding in a tight group of people until I feel 100%. So, probably no racing until the summer. My first target is the Fletcher Flyer ride on May 20th. It does not have a lot of climbing and is a good 1st ride for me.

I've been back to work for 3 weeks and each week gets better.

The books that I've been reading over the last several weeks:
Johnson's Notes on the new Testament
iPod Fully Loaded
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and Flash 8 Visual Quickstart Guides.

I did go to the Tour de Georgia over the weekend. The Sunday road circuit stage in downtown Atlanta, GA was great. I took several great pictures. I hope to post some of the to my website. You can watch the last 9 minutes of the final stage on YouTube.

All for now.