2006 Ride Review

It looks like today's ride will be the last one of 2006. It's been a fun riding season, got a new road bike, found some new group rides and friends to train with.

Grand totals include:
2700 miles covered on the bike
9682 minutes or 161.37 hours in spandex (the boys aren't happy but my sanity and waist line are)
25 pounds lost
Fastest ride: 21.8 avg, Covington Century 50 miles and Tucker ride 44.6 miles (which I got dropped at 22 miles and crashed in the rain)
Highest Heart Rate: 197 Pizza Ride
Longest ride: Serrano 4 hours 44 minutes, 83 miles
6 Paid events, 3 were mountain rides
100 total rides for the season.

Aidan eats again

Aidan is stubborn. The eating battle has been waged for several months now. Our problem is, he won't even try the food we make for him. He just turns his head and pushes the plate away. Well over the past week, after an initial refusal to eat, he has given in a few times. Food conquered includes: Tamales, broccoli, brunswick stew, chicken tenders (again), baby corn and cream corn.

Athens is cursed, WBL Ride

Reger, Dana and I decided we would check out the Athens winter bike league ride today since it wasn't going to rain and it will tomorrow so the AP ride is out. The website says it's a 3+ hour ride around 20 mph avg. Lots of rules, serious ride.

It started out well; I forgot my power bars, my water (to drink in the car) and a towel in case we do get wet. Reger was running behind so we got a late start heading to Athens. We followed Joe's GPS which isn't always the best route, the wrong way down one way streets, in the wrong lane on the freeway, but we made it in time for the ride. It was supposed to be cloudy... no it was raining. Not just a little, everything was wet and it rained about half the ride. A giant turn out of maybe 15 people. The site says, there is a sag vehicle in case someone gets a flat. We'll somebody crashed (behind us somewhere, didn't see or hear it) and we all stopped and waited for them. I didn't see the car so I guess it stopped. We stopped for a nature break... they left us. A few minutes later, about the 40 minute mark, Reger gets a flat tire. Did the car stop after he was yelling, flat tire! No. What the hell. I chased down Dana and talked to the driver. They didn't care. Something about a dollar in the tip jar? We went back and picked up Joe to find our way back. Joe got another flat tire (glass in the tire). Change #2 in front a house with a dog (a boxer) running around an open yard... we moved down the road. Between the 3 of use we had 2 GPS units though there are no streets marked on it so it's great if there are roads to find and they happen to go in the direction you want. Made a few detours on the way back. Also picked up a couple of riders who got dropped somewhere on the way back in the rain. We looked like we had just finished mountain biking, with mud and road grime everywhere.

Almost 2 hours of riding, 30 miles... oh boy. Coach Chris was there. Said this was in his top 10 list of worst rides ever but this was not the norm for the ride. Dana had to have a burrito for lunch so we drove around for 15 minutes .3 miles from where we were at to find 3 parking places. Lunch was good, and cheap (college town). The drive back was also a joy. The lights are a mess and construction made the 20 to 30 min. addition to the drive a real joy. Though I am venting, it was better than not going riding.

Field Test / Fitness Test

Today was my fitness test day. 3 miles on the bike as fast as I can go. 10 min. recovery and do it again. 8:07, 180 avg HR, 22.3 avg mph. It seems like I should be able to go faster than that. I have before after 2 hours of riding, fighting in a group ride. Maybe that's better motivation for me. It was cold out and I feel stronger after about an hour of riding, not a 20 min warm up. However, the conditions were similar the last time I did this, my avg HR was higher but I was faster this time, so that means I'm doing something right? I need read up on this some more. I do this at Columns Drive near 400 and Powers Ferry. The road is mostly flat, 2.5 miles long so I have to do a 180 to finish the 3 mile course.

3 Gaps

Reger, Matthew and I made a trip up to Dahlonega for a stroll around the front 3 gaps this afternoon. We waited until after lunch for the temp to warm up, which was good because there was still snow at the top of each climb. Good thing I just got some booties for the feet. The goal was to keep the heart rate under 159. The Garmin beeped at me a dozen times or so to slow down. Ended up with a 143 avg. Not bad for 2:38 min of riding with 4011 feet of climbing. I'd like to head up there every couple of weeks. We're doing the back 3 next time. Hogpen... your next. Of course we finished with a Taco Bell feast.

  

Christmas Day

Aidan is now the master of tearing packages open. He's gives us the torn pieces and goes back for more. Of course he got tons of toys, too many to list but a very happy day for the boy. Leslie cooked all day, frittatas for breakfast, guacamole and salsa snacks and for dinner... Beef tenderloin, roasted potatoes, roasted broccoli and fresh salad... mmmmmmm.

  

Lights at Stone Mountain

On X-Mas Eve, we took Aidan up to Stone Mountain to look at the lights. We did this on a fun bike ride earlier in the week however, Aidan wasn't there and we missed the best part. The entire Village was lit up. What seemed like millions of lights decorated every building and tree at each turn. It was very cool. Aidan had a great time looking at the lights.

   

27 Miles at Silver Comet

Leslie and I joined Reger, Vanessa, Anna, Matthew and Stewart for a Christmas Eve ride on the SCT. The ride was at a social pace with goodies to eat at the end. Yummy. It's nice to find a group of people who like to celebrate a holiday with a bike ride.

Vanessa let me steal photos from her site, thanks!

  

300

Holly cr!@#$p this movie looks like it will be GREAT! Check out the trailer if you haven't seen it. I've only read a few of Frank Miller's graphic novels but I thought his first attempt at transitioning to the movie media with Sin City, with the help of Robert Rodriguez, was very successful. At least as far as the look and story were concerned. (someone should have helped with the dialogue). Spartans vs the Persian army. Action, Cinematography, Special Effects, Valor... I'm excited.

Were ready for Christmas

The work doors are shut (finally). We went to our usual Los Hermanos Friday lunch. My parents made it to town yesterday and my brother has come to visit (from East Atlanta). We fought our way through millions of people at the Dekalb Farmers Market today, got gifts for Max and Jojo (the dogs) as well as a 7 lb beef tenderloin from the butcher, so the meal is covered. I guess now were ready for Christmas. Aidan played with his last Hanukah present; a swing and slide. He LOVES the slide. The parents will be babysitting tomorrow while Leslie and I go for a Christmas Eve ride with the tri crew out at Silver Comet. I'm looking forward to it.

  

Website Launched for Los Veneros

Frequency 650, as part of the 3 Amigos, just launched a 4 page portal website for Los Veneros. The site will continue to be developed through the beginning of 2007.

F650 Client - Prometheus Partners

Prometheus V, LLC recently acquired 54 Taco Bell restaurants and 1 Pizza Hut Express restaurant from a group of five YUM! franchisees. This is the latest of several active investments.

1 Hour 25 Min. on the Trainer

More strength training tonight. This will continue through January. I really needed a ride tonight. Aidan is sick, teething and fussy all day, and work.... I'm surprised I have any hair left. Why is it everything needs to be done before Christmas? Nobody is going to be looking at it. Regardless, we HAD to build a website in 2 days along with site updates to 6 other clients websites today. The beginning of the week wasn't much better.

Christmas Lights Ride @ Stone Mountain

Dana's daughter Brit came over and watched Aidan, awesome - a new babysitter for us, while we joined 6 others (Reger, Dana, Vanessa, Anna, Andreas and Kim) for a few loops around Stone Mountain in the dark to look at the lights. This was the first time Leslie and I have gone for a ride together since before Aidan was born. It was nice to get out with the group together. Leslie got to try out her new helmet and gloves. She'll break in the shoes and pedals on Sunday. Some of the lights were a little tough to see without my glasses and riding in the dark but still nice. A funny stat, we decided to do some muscle tension work tonight and left the bike in the hardest gear (53,12) including the climbs. My average cadence was 27 rpm! Crazy slow.

I stole a picture from Reger and Vanessa. (thanks) I guess the group shots didn't make it.

Aidan is Sick

We made it back from Florida last night. Went very well with the exception of trying to get out of long term parking. They have an automated system now for use with a credit card and it tried to rip us off. A 20 minute fiasco. I was up late trying to get work back in line. I had a dinner business meeting too. Aidan was already sick before we left but now he's miserable. Eyes half closed, red and watering, running nose, coughing... he's a mess. You wish there was something you could do but all you can really do is comfort him. We spent some quality time watching TV today.

Tour de Tucker

1 Hour 25 Min. bike ride around the neighborhood with Reger and Dana. We started at 5:30 (dark) and got a nice bike ride in. Got to see lots of X-mas lights, well, after we went back and got lights for Joe and Dana... I know. It also gave me a chance to try out my new Garmin Edge 305. F'in Awesome, except for some reason it stopped recording after 10 miles. We only rode about 13 but still what the??? It gives me some interesting new stats such as we climbed 957 feet on our little route. It's hilly back here. Dana's driveway is a 12.5% grade (I think). It gives me stats based on heart rate zones so I know how far I rode, how fast, how much I climbed or descended and how much time I spent in 5 different heart rate zones. This will be good to know if I'm pushing it too hard during the winter base period. Plus it has GPS so know where we went in the dark. Because I was lost.

Fire Fire Fire... truck

The local Stewart police and fire department put on a "parade"... of 5 vehicles. Afterward, Aidan got to sit in the fire truck, play in the park and frolic at the beach (for the first time). Loved it!

   

50 Min. Run, 50 Min. Ride

After 3 days of rain, the sun finally came out. Leslie and I went for a short run and I jumped on my father-in-law's Cannondale hybrid cruiser bike. Lots of bridges with wide bike lanes to ride here.

Aidan goes on a french fry diet

Since we've gotten here, Aidan has decided not to eat much. Oatmeal, some waffles and Chex Mix is about it. The one thing he always eats are french fries. Steak and Shake was the lunch of choice today.

 

Launched - Mita Residential

Frequency 650 just launched a new website for Mita Residential, the official Punta Mita property rental company. The site showcases high end villas, condos and haciendas for rent in Punta Mita, Mexico. The site was developed by The 3 Amigos team.

First Night of Hanukah

Talk about the best of both worlds. Since Leslie is Jewish, Aidan gets 8 days worth of gifts from everyone in her family. Starting on the first night, he made out like a bandit. We'll be renting a UPS cargo plane to get all of this stuff back home. Then after all of this, we get to celebrate Christmas with my family... more presents more presents. Oh, since he didn't have a designated chair to sit in, he claimed one of the dog beds for his snack time.

  

New Project – Los Veneros

The 3 Amigos team just received approval on a new brochure website for a real estate development north of Puerto Vallarta called Los Veneros.

Florida, the Not So Sunshine State

We made the flight to West Palm Beach today, bumpy flying into pouring rain. Aidan was a trooper since the flight was delayed and the flight extended due to weather. 

Off to Florida

The family is off to Florida bright and early tomorrow morning to visit Grandma and Grandpa S. and the dogs are off to camp at 6:30 am. Life goes on hold for a few days... except for... the cell phone, internet email, a laptop and... I guess only the location and people change. If only I could figure out a way to get my bike in my carry on bag.

3 Days of MS SQL

I just finished 3 days of having SQL crammed down my throat for 7 hours at a time. Do I know more now then I did when I started... Oh ya. Most interesting topic... no. Clients will be happy to know I'm back working on your projects.

1 Hour 15 Min. 1 Person Spin Class

The bike is in the shop so my only ride choice is the Gym. Or mountain bike in the dark. Since my favorite spin teacher, Vanessa, is no longer servicing our LA Fitness, the Tuesday night class has no permanent instructor. No body showed up today. Just as well. This way I could follow my training plan of strength training. 8 min. low cadence BIG gear, 7 min. recovery and repeat for an hour. There were 2 other people in there for a little while. I actually made a few phone calls to make efficient use of the time since I didn't bring my mp3 player. That was weird, never done that. Keith walked in at one point. That guy is always there. Said he would have taught the class had he known...

The Bottomless Pit

I was at home alone with Aidan tonight while Leslie went to spin class (I was out all day with work stuff). Aidan has been on a self imposed no solid food diet until last week. Tonight he scarfed up all of his oatmeal and 10 pounds of Cheerios at dinner. A bowl of Chex Mix (snack). A bowl of Teddy Grams (another snack). Then a full bottle of Milk to top the night off. Growing spurt??? He's back to his crazy active self in the evenings again... love it.

Garmin edge 403

My gift from my loving wife this year is a Garmin 403 bike computer / GPS / HR monitor / cadence / toaster... ok not the last one but it's cool and does lots of stuff. The bikes in the shop getting tuned and will soon be equiped my new wonder toy... I mean training tool.

The Mita - HTML email for Punta Mita

Sent out the December issue tonight. We use Constant Contact to manage distribution for this campain. This is the 10th edition. Users can sign up on the Punta Mita website.

50 Mile Airport Ride... again

This ride is getting faster each week. Much smaller group than normal today. Road down to the start with Dana, Joe Remling, Bob and Matthew. I saw Vannessa at the nature stop (nice new bike)! I found myself (and the rest of our little group) toward the back of the group when it split due to the pace just before the half way point. I bridged the gap pulling the rest of the group back together. Matt and I took our turn pulling at the front on the way back. Dana has mastered the skill of siting in about the 8th position but not taking her turn in the front. This is one way to win races if she drops her hat into that ring next season. I have to give her crap since she's stronger than I am. It seems Bob was also a reason the pace picked up a few times. Since Reger didn't make it, I guess he felt it was his job to try and break away from the front. It was a fun ride day.

Holiday Shopping

Ugh... out and about early but this is not my favorite month. Still cranking on work today as well. Put up the tree. Aidan loves it... keeps taking everything off and almost pulling it down. It will be a fun daily task trying to save the tree.

Taqueria Los Hermanos

We have gone here every Friday for lunch for over a year now. It's become our second home. We know one of the brothers by name as well as one of the servers. We let Aidan eat chips with us today. He tried tortilla chips a few months ago but had some problems. He did great... until chip #4. Probably scraped his throat. He wasn't very happy. Didn't eat much after that. The picture is right before the melt down.

Yes I know, my camera phone pictures are terrible.

Marist Flash Portal Launched

Tomorrow a simple flash HTML email will go out linked to a flash presentation to solicit donations for Marist School. Clean and simple. You can see it here.

30 Minutes Weights and Spin Class

Went to Sudi's spin class tonight. A whole 6 people there. We climbed for 45 minutes with no breaks.

New Frequency 650 website version 4 is LIVE!

We FINALY launched the next version of the company website. It's been 80% done for at least 1 year. It needs some tweaking but at least there are some newer projects up in the portfolio.

1 hour of weights, 1 hour 24 minutes on the trainer

It seems it's good to work on strength training the same day you ride. You supposedly produce more watts on the ride because the leg muscles have been pushing heavy weights already. Yes, there is a lot more to this but that's the just of it. And why 1 hour and 24 minutes? Because I was supposed to ride for 1:45 but since I was on the trainer, I cut off 20% due to no downhills, lights, cars, people and any other hazard out on the road. I'm following Carmichael's training plan to the letter. And if I still suck... there's no hope.

Levitt is Done...well, our part is

Frequency 650 developed some flash headers for the Levitt and Sons new website. It's been handed off to the rest of their development team to run to the finish.

Chicken Biscuit?

Aidan went to Tumbling again today. Afterward everyone headed over to Chick fil A for breakfast and let the kids roam around the indoor play area. First time I've had a breakfast burrito in probably 10 years. Leslie of course had a chicken biscuit.

Dance and Sing

At 9:30 this morning Leslie took Aidan to "The Music Class". Controlled chaos for the little ones to do anything they want for an hour. Leslie braved it while I worked.

50 mile Airport Ride

Met Joe Remling, Joe Reger and Dana for the AP ride today. No problems for the first time. Everybody made it back with the group. No flats or dropped phones. I felt strong today so I took my turn at the front a few times. Went a little hard on the first one and had to move back and recover but toward the end I could rotate through without a problem.

Stone Mountain Playground

Took Aidan over to the park this afternoon to hit the big playground at Stone Mountain. We did this after lunch at Jason's and a trip to PetSmart and Toys R Us so he was only good for about 30 minutes before needing a nap. I think he was asleep before we even left the park.

Shots for everyone, and not the drinking kind

Aidan had to get a flu shot today. Leslie got one too. This morning, Leslie took the dogs in to get there's as well so everyone is good to go for our trip to Florida this month.