Scenes from the commute -- The Embrace

In tough times, we could all use a little support. I ride past these two daily, locked in their slow embrace.

L-L-L -- first run

This Saturday, four of us (Bryan, Maria, Mike and myself) set off for the first run of my new L-L-L RUSA Permanent. After a tough winter, we were treated to perfect weather with start temps in the 50's and high temps in the upper 60's with bright blue skies.

I wasn't certain I'd be able to do the ride this weekend -- I've been struggling with a gnarly cold for the last couple weeks. I finally got confirmation from my doctor this Friday that I have a sinus/throat infection. Armed with antibiotics, I decided to do the ride -- I hope my sporadic coughing fits didn't irritate my riding companions too much.

When I announced the route, I did have one well meaning local rider question my sanity for including so many hills in the route ;-)Well, it was my goal to create a route that was challenging. Despite being light, I'm not a great climber -- I want to work on that and what better way to do that than to spend time climbing.

Bryan's GPS showed a total of about 6800 feet of climbing which is in line with what ridewithgps.com calculated. Yeah, sure, there were some tough spots, but overall, it really didn't seem that bad.

At the first control, Mike and I decided to sample some of the local gastronomical delights -- that's the chicken biscuit in the photo album. Um, let's just say, that wasn't the greatest of choices -- it went down like a lead balloon -- at least it stayed down, though we were both worried about a possible digestive revolt.

Overall, we all had a great ride yesterday -- couldn't have asked for better weather. The cue sheet was dead on and nobody got lost. Everybody road strong and mostly stayed together through out the day -- if we got separated on the road, it was never more than a couple minutes and we regrouped at the controls.

I'm already looking forward to the next ride!

New RUSA Permanent route for North Carolina!

Well, I finally got off my butt and decided to put together my own RUSA Permanent route. We have quite an active randonneuring community in North Carolina, and I've been inspired by Mike D., the "Godfather of NC Permanents" to build my own.

The new Leesville - Leasburg - Leesville (L-L-L) route is an out-and-back route leaving out of the north Raleigh community of Leesville and turning around in the rural community of Leasburg. I've tried to take the route out of Raleigh as quickly as possible, leaving the suburbs behind and sticking mainly to very rural back roads.

Let's ride!