Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Breaking Training (Kind of)

Every year in March I get together with a group of friends from my college days for a weekend getaway to the Hocking Hills. As we get older and many of us have ever increasing responsibilities it becomes harder for our group to spend time together and catch up. But this annual weekend is so much fun that everyone tries hard to clear their schedule for this annual getaway.

Our destination each March is Fox Glove Lodge located near Old Man's Cave. The cabin is beautiful and has a fireplace, hot tub, satellite TV, pool table and nearly any other amenity one could want. One of my friends even brought a DJ setup to mix music each night and it was a big hit with our group (he also brought along a fog machine which was pretty cool until it set off the smoke alarm and had to be turned off). Combine this with plenty of adult beverages and copious quantities of great food and you have the makings of a fun weekend.

Since the Hocking Hills is also a great area for cycling I brought my bike with me and was able spend a couple hours in the saddle riding hills on Saturday. Since next weekend's race is the Tour of Hocking Hills I was interested in checking out the roads and I must say I hope the rain in the forecast cleans them up this week. The roads I climbed included Revenge, Jack Run, Stump Hollow and Snortin Ridge. The cinders and sand on Stump Hollow were ground into a wet greasy paste and I lost traction on the ascent. I had to get off my bike before reaching the top. The trip down the other side was pretty dicey and I spent a lot of time on the brakes. Jack Run was a bit cleaner which is good since this may be part of our race course on Saturday. Road condition could be a factor in this race.

After coming home Sunday morning I was able to make it to Alum Creek for our club ride at 1:00. Despite indulging myself over the weekend I was able to spend some quality time on the bike both days. Hopefully I can have a good training week and be ready to suffer this coming weekend.

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