I Done Wore Out

Knocked out 70 miles this morning....I don't feel beat up but I feel beat. With most of the guys down in Alexandria for the Racing Rapides stage race, we had a small group of fast guys heading for Keatchie to get 100 k's in (oh, no, I don't consider myself one of those fast guys...yet). David and Jimi did most of the driving for the six of us who kept going past I-49. RW1 was on his TT steed but said his legs weren't up to snuff today...which was good because it was tough enough to stay with him as it was. He'd drop off to stop somewhere...for personal business or to eat....and he'd come motoring back up to us real soon. Arnold and I just did our best to hang on but we weren't doing a good job of it on the way to Keatchie, getting dropped in the last 6 miles or so. When we got there, arriving at the store, everyone else was inside getting refueled or using the facilities. We all sat around too long letting our legs get cold so when we started off again it was like a new ride.

After a handful of miles out of town, we hit the smooth pavement on the Keatchie-Keithville Road with a slight tailwind and we were moving more-often-than-not at 28-30 mph for the next 7-8 miles. I like smooth pavement...it makes you feel fast. I felt pretty good, too, and took some pulls. But it took a lot out of me, and with the heat/sun I fell off the back a couple of miles before we got to Linwood Avenue but still kept everyone in sight. I had planned to get in 3 hours but was only at 150 minutes so when I got to Linwood I turned right instead of following everyone to the left. That took me back to I-49, into the village of Frierson, and eventually back to where I was parked. Of note was that I covered virtually the same distance I did a couple of weeks ago in the Tour de Goodwill but did it 30 minutes quicker! Overall, a good ride, quality saddle time, but my legs are aching!

Not a dull day

I remember being awakened by Jonnene around 5 am, saying "There's a new hole under the new sidewalk out front." Whaaaat? She had walked Sophie before leaving for swimming workouts at LSU-S and spotted a sinkhole that had developed where we had the sewage line replaced last week and it was directly under the sidewalk. I put on a robe and walked out to take a look, saw water in the hole and I was immediately curious as to what I was looking at and what caused it.

I went back inside and got ready to do a run. It was foggy out and I decided a bike ride wasn't a good idea. Plus I wanted to do a run that several guys I knew did every Wednesday morning from a nearby tennis club. I had been invited to join in before but hadn't been out there yet. It's an easy 4-mile run they do, easy to converse at about a 9:30 or so pace. Counting my run to and from the house, I got in 4.5 miles all told.

Called the plumbers and they came out. Thanks to all the extra dirt I had in the yard, they were able to fill up and pack the ground under the sidewalk so we'll see how that goes. They also fixed the front sprinklers that weren't working after the sewage line had been replaced. Our theory is that one of the sprinkler supply lines wasn't sealed up well enough and the escaping water might have caused the sinkhole. Well, we'll see what it looks like later this week and if the repair worked like it was supposed to.

Spent much of the day working for a T-shirt design and then got a call to do another helicopter design...actually, I already had the design done for a Ranger 407 aircraft but they wanted to see the layout on an EC-135. Here's how the Ranger paint scheme I did last month turned out in real life:
It looks pretty good and was exactly what the client wanted. Click on the image to see it bigger. I probably have 12 or 13 helicopters around the country sporting paint schemes that I designed. Flying right now. There have been about another 20 I've done over the last fifteen years...don't know if any of them are still spinning their blades.

Pictures from Hot Springs

A nice shot of a squirrel nibbling on something he's dug up after burying it last fall. This is in downtown Hot Springs in the park.

Our visitor from Down Under, Elena, and Jonnene walk along Bathhouse Row.

Me...off the bike and off on my second run.

Doing Da Du

Here I am zooming into transition after dealing with the bike course.

Nicely organized, flat out-and-back run courses, and a bike course that keeps you interested...that was the Du For The Parks duathlon (Arkansas State Duathlon Championship). About 121 individual finishers and 18 teams on a hot and sunny Memorial Day morning, starting from the old train station in downtown Hot Springs.

As much as I wanted to be the first Louisianian to do this race in about 4 years, I found myself joined by Richard Cottrell from West Monroe along with Curtis Scrugham and his son, Kyle, from Barksdale AFB. Kyle did the kids' duathlon. Other folks were from Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, and the expected large contingent from Arkansas.

The bike course didn't give us much of a chance to relax. Lots of curving roads, including an S-turn that you can hit 30+ mph on. It's also out-and-back but the thing is that the elevation drops as you leave town resulting in some fast speeds. The return is just the opposite...you have to gain elevation as you get back into town. Somewhere in the last three miles was a long section of road that was the most perfect false flat I've ever seen. I thought I was going downhill but was curious as to why I was struggling to go 20 mph! I thought my brakes were rubbing against my rear wheel but, nope, that wasn't it. I passed quite a few racers on the uphills which helped my position tremendously.

Mixed up in the middle of it all.....

My first run was fine even though my legs weren't feeling lively before the start (too much walking around downtown the day before?), averaging a 6:58 pace (6:40 first mile) and you could tell it was hot plus you were running into a stiff breeze during the return. My second run was lousy time-wise, totally opposite of the race in Opelousas last March, but I felt I was running faster...I passed two runners and nearly caught a third...and the wind was worse on the last mile, too. And one of the runners going the opposite direction as I was finishing yelled out "Go, Shreveport!" as he went by...don't know who he was.

I finished third in my 50-54 age group but got the first place "hat" because the two guys ahead of me and another in the 55-59 age group were placed 1-2-3 in the Grand Masters finish order. So I won my age group by default but I can say I was the 4th fastest Grand Master. I was 23rd overall, 20th male and finished with a time of 1:05:37 over the 2m run-12m bike-2m run distance. My bike average was 20.9 mph but it was the 12th fastest of the day...the bike return killed my average speed but I know I can improve on that now that I know the course. Fastest average was 23.8 mph if that gives you any idea. You can find all the results HERE.

My good pal, Paul...that's him at left posing as the Angry Photographer, came down from Little Rock to see the race and take his usual quality pictures. We had lunch with his parents and niece afterwards before we had to return home. There was no rest once we got back to Shreveport. Had to change and go to a small party for a couple we know who are going to spend the next two years in Saudi Arabia in connection with the Air Force's liason office. It was real nice and lots of food as well. Can't beat that!

Mid-Arkansas

Just a short note...we're up here in Hot Springs, Arkansas enjoying the Memorial Day weekend. Jonnene's friend, Elena...who's in from Oz...is here and getting a look around the countryside. We got in Saturday evening, staying at the local TravelLodge because we're cheap and it's very close to the duathlon race site where I'll be knocking myself out Monday morning. I picked up my packet this afternoon at the Arlington Hotel at the head of Central Avenue in historic downtown Hot Springs, then we headed out to scout the bike course. Essentially it's a 12-mile out-and-back ride with a few rollers, good surfaces (generally speaking)...nothing I shouldn't be able to handle. With luck I should do this duathlon in under 1:10 and maybe place in my age group. I'm not counting any chickens yet. The main thing is to get my third race out of the way so my ranking in the region (2nd in my age group last time I checked) will be official for 2008. I wouldn't mind having a good race either!

Earlier today, we went up to the Observation Tower for the view, toured the Fordyce Bathhouse on "Bathhouse Row" along Central, and did a bit of souvenir shopping. Elena said it was the most walking she's done in quite some time! Tonight we ate at the Embassy Suites...we ended up sitting at the same table where Jonnene and I sat back in October and we had the same waitress...although she looked like she was a few months pregnant this time. But same great service and food.

Well, I'll let you know how the race worked out. Hopefully, I'll do a halfway decent job out there.

Dig It

Here are two pictures of the same house. However, there are differences between the two pictures. Can you spot the differences? Look closely, some are not that easy to spot.

Have you found the differences yet? Take your time....

That's right, the grass was mowed between the time the two pictures were taken!

Okay, I'm funning with you. We're having major sewage line work done at the homestead this week. We had standing water in our shower and tub last week so we called the plumbers to come out and clean out the line, which they did and things were draining great...for a bit over two days. Then the water backed up into the house again and we called again. It was determined that the huge rains we had last week weren't really the cause but it seemed that our connection to the city main line was knocked off kilter enough over the years to allow seepage into and out of our line. This allowed roots and debris to gather up, and you know what happens next...no flow!! So now we've got our front yard dug up from stem to stern (house to street), getting the entire line replaced...we figured since we were there that we might as well...

We had to bring two different backhoes, on two separate days, to make the hole deep enough to reach the city main, almost 12 feet down! I didn't imagine our sewer line was that deep. I had a chance to view the inside of the old line when a supervisor ran a video camera inside. Kinda reminded me of those National Geographic shows where they run a small robot inside the Egyptian pyramids. We got to see where the stoppage was (kinda gross but interesting at the same time). Anyway, we're getting an entire new line replacing the old one and it's a thicker PVC pipe which should thoroughly repel any invading roots. Plus it's stronger and shouldn't be messed up by any ground movement since the land in this neighborhood is clay-based and tend to contract and expand a lot depending on conditions. Hopefully by tonight, we'll be able to run the showers, toilets, and washers at the same time and have no problems with drainage. Then I'll have to spend some time smoothing out the front yard with all the dirt that'll be spread around. I'm so looking forward to that.


This is our brand-new lap pool! We're going to have a diving board installed in the deep end.

One-Time Hero Move

During tonight's ride, I made my every-once-in-a-while patented hero move that gets everyone's attention. It mostly gets noticed because everyone, including myself, is surprised by something good I do in the training ride. Tonight we had a group of us flying back home from Frierson thanks somewhat to a tailwind we had (though it was still mostly us) and I was in the back sucking air big time. I was on my TT bike to get some time on it with the duathlon coming up in 10 days. I was tired and my legs hurt...I was still feeling the Tour de Goodwill ride from last Saturday in them.

JP was off the front, having motored past us with aw-thor-ra-TIE and had pretty much gapped us. We had some stud hosses in the bunch with RW1, Bolt, Calbo, and Doc along with Frank, Duce, and Frenchy (don't you just love all these nicknames?). Bolt was in front and slowly closing the gap but doing it REAL slowly as everyone was tucked in behind. I had slid off to the left to see what was going on, wondering why Bolt wasn't putting on the blasters to put the kabosh on JP's breakaway. Suddenly I had the stupid thought of trying to catch JP myself and, like an idiot, I quickly convinced myself to do it. I was pretty sure I could get to the front of the group...but catch JP? I wasn't that confident, especially the way my legs were aching. So I wound 'er up, jumped out from the back of the line and....crawled past the first couple of riders at around 27 mph. But I got faster, beginning to move, finally blowing by Bolt and finding myself between the group and JP....I had to do something now or the move would have looked pretty silly. I shifted a gear and went for it.

Now, admittedly, JP looked like he was starting to slow as I came upon him but I was going nearly 30 and I decided to pass him instead of settling in his draft. So I put Alan's Move Of Intimidation on him (I wonder if he noticed?) and flew past. For about 10 seconds I was clear of everybody since I saw no shadows of the other riders behind me but that didn't last long...RW1 led a long string of riders past me and I sucked it up to jump into the tailend of that thing, hanging on the best I could to the Crossroads. That was tough to do since my legs were definitely fried. Later, RW1 would recognize my move as a high point of the ride. Thanks for the compliment, Russ. It is appreciated.

Now I wonder what my legs will feel like in the morning?

Well, we're in a situation here at the house. We had plumbers come over Tuesday, before the rains, to clear out the lines since our bathrooms had backed up. Since then everything worked fine until we got home from the rides and took our showers. Everything is solidly backed up AGAIN! Standing water in the tub and in the shower stall...looks like I'm calling the plumbers again in the morning. Since we're having company for the next two weeks it might be good to have the pipes clear...ya think?

The Weather Outside is Frightful

At about 8:00 last night, we got nothing but rain and lots of it. The precipt kept coming down all night with little relief and it was interesting to watch the entire back porch disappear under a 1-2" layer of water. The carport was full of water as was the back half of the driveway and the street wasn't doing too good either. Jonnene expressed some concern about water getting into the house but I was pretty sure it wouldn't happen. At least I felt that I felt pretty sure about it....

Now all the rain is gone but there are still plenty of areas dealing with flood water, but we're not one of them. My mom's house lost its power early this morning and water got into the patio room so they'll have to deal with that and get it dried out. I'm not going to bother with my usual Wednesday time trial ride since I have gotten the impression from the radio and weather channels that Ellerbe Road around Wallace Lake might be under water. I've seen it like that before and you can't ride it on a bike. I wouldn't even advise it in a car. So I'm taking the day off, from the bike and from any working out....a holiday of sorts. I'll try to get a morning run or ride Thursday but I'm less than 10 days from the duathlon up in Arkansas on Memorial Day. Then it's the stage race in Alexandria just five days later. Gotta get on the ball and drop a couple more pounds if I can!

Not One of My Best Days

Saturday was the Tour de Goodwill, a local bicycle tour that's been a lot of fun to do over the last few years. I design the logo, the T-shirt, the entry forms, and lots of other stuff, then I do the ride. Last year I knocked out the 75 mile route and this year I intended to do the 100 miler since I needed the miles and the saddle time to get ready for the races I plan to do in a few short weeks.

Everything started well. I was in the front group and we were motoring along pretty good. It wasn't unusual to see 25-28 mph on the bike computer and be rip-roaring around the turns as we meandered our way out of Shreveport into the countryside. We tipped along 32 mph at one particular stretch which got my attention but we had some hosses pulling the pack along so I wasn't surprised. We also shelled off a lot of other riders who hanging in with us and as we ended the first hour of riding we were down to only 15 in the front pack. I looked over at Mack...who was about to drop off himself...and told him I couldn't keep up this pace much longer if I intended to do the full 100 miles. I knew a number of the guys in the pack were doing the shorter distances so they could afford to expend the energy. Thing was, I couldn't. So Mack and I both dropped off the leaders and went on at our own pace...a bit slower than the 23.4 mph average we had been doing for the past hour!

Both of us rolled along for the next hour on our own, by ourselves into Texas and stopped at the first rest stop about 38 miles into the ride. I was hydrating well and needed to use the portalet. Then we went on mostly at a slower pace around 19-20 mph so we could recover from the first part of the ride and still shoot for a 20+ mph average for the 100 miles. As we made the turn south we were caught by a group of six and we had no problem using them for drafting and picking up the pace a little. The wind wasn't in our favor most of the time so I didn't mind putting more space between the times I spent at the front. I really wasn't having any problems but at around 50 miles I took a nice little pull up a hill, dropped to the back and suddenly I was getting gapped! I tried to catch back on but it wasn't happening...it was like I lost all my energy just like that! I watched Mack and the rest go on, so I decided to just keep pedaling until I felt a little better. That wasn't going to happen....

For the next 20 miles, I found myself just hurting...my neck, shoulders, arms, legs...I wasn't bonking and I wasn't having any problems with the heat (although I was glad it stayed cloudy all day). I just wasn't doing well. I was having a bad day. I did 70 miles two weeks ago and had no problems, but here I was, currently riding nowhere near as well as I did then. I found myself crawling at 13 mph as I came into the village of Keachie and made the decision to pack it in. I had 30 miles left and I was figuring that it would take me 2.5-3 hours to cover that the way I felt when, normally, I could ride that distance in 90 minutes easy. I wasn't going to sit on a bike saddle for almost three hours when I didn't have to, plus it was only going to get worse if I kept on. It wasn't a race and I already had some quality miles so far...why continue the suffering? I've already done my share of bicycle death marches over the years and I didn't see a need to increase the number by one on this day. I stopped and called the organizers to send a truck out to get me. I did 74 miles in 4:04....that's ridiculous. I was taken to the rest stop in Frierson and Jonnene came out for me later. The shower at home felt great.

J had a much better ride. She did the 68-mile route and knocked that out quite efficiently. She had a group of triathletes to ride with and they motored along real well. I think her average speed was 19.9 mph (mine ended up a paltry 18.3!). She did very well. We had pizza that night and I downed a 20 oz Dr. Pepper like it was in a shot glass. Yummy! Ride to eat, eat to ride...that's why I do this!

Sunday we went down to Natchitoches to have lunch with my niece who's attending the arts and sciences school for high school students at NSU. We wanted to give her a change of pace since she was staying the weekend there instead of going home. It was fun. We ate at a nice south Louisiana themed family restaurant downtown, went window-shopping, and visited. I hope she enjoyed the day since she had to do some serious studying that night...finals are going on over the next two weeks! I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore! The real world is tough enough.

This morning I went out with the morning ride group and it was a hard ride for me. I was still feeling Saturday in my legs and I actually had to do some work to keep up with the other five guys in the paceline. All I could feel was the pain in my thighs which eventually went away toward the end of the ride. I even ended up doing some hill repeats before I got home so I'm recovering bit by bit. There's rain in the mid-week forecast so I need to do tomorrow's morning ride in case Tuesday Worlds gets rained out.

Happy Anniversary, Baby...Got You On My Mind

It's true...Jonnene and I have been oooh-ficially together now for two years! We've spent only a little less than 16 months together in each other's presence as a married couple but that immigration thing a while back put a crimp in making a go of it from the gun. It's been great and a lot more fun than I could imagine. She's made a big difference in my life and I want so much to do more for her.

Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe her now

Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don't need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me
Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe her now

You're asking me will my love grow
I don't know, I don't know
You stick around now it may show
I don't know, I don't know

Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me
Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe her now

"Something" by George Harrison (The Beatles)...Frank Sinatra once said that Something was the greatest love song ever written. Yeah, I can believe that....definitely top five for sure.

It's been busy since I last posted. The mum-in-law and sister-in-law stayed with us for about 18 days the last half of April. We sent them off to Vancouver, Canada (where they had more adventures with American Airlines) and they'll be on an Alaskan cruise to finish out their trip. We understand that they have 51 people in their tour group, all but FOUR are Aussies!! At least they'll be with folks who speak their language!

Right now we get a 3-week rest and then a friend of J's will be coming down to spend a couple of weeks with us at the Moore Manor. Elenda is in the States from Perth and currently is up in Chicago visiting family before she heads our way. The good thing is that it encourages me to continue getting the house in shape. I'd have done all that anyway but maybe I would've been a tad slower in the process. I have some cabinet doors to put up along with the continuing saga of getting all my "junk" out of the living room and put up somewhere out of sight, like in the attic. Then there's still plenty of yard work to keep up with. No rest for the common man.

Last Sunday I was honored with the presence of Johnny Cobb, aero-expert-extraordinaire'. He lives in Tyler, Texas but is originally from Shreveport and is one of the men most responsible for helping Lance Armstrong win his seven Tour de France titles. JC perfected LA's position on his time trial bike so he could go fast. Apparently it worked! Johnny's also worked with other famous cyclists like LeMond, Hampsten, Botero, and that guy who won Le Grand Tour (de France) last year. He also designs all the stuff for Blackwell Research. Anyway, he was in town for a family funereal and needed to get a photo enlarged for the services. He needed a scan done and I took care of that for him. He's now a big hero in the family for pulling off this mission. I was glad to help and it was nice to have him drop by the house for a bit.