On ThIs DaY We FeAsT

That is the tradition after all.  But why feast?

Its a moment to celebrate the abundance of your years worth of hard work and effort.

Its a moment to celebrate the health and wellness and the gifts the creator has blessed you and your family with.

Today, spend it enjoying and thanking the people that you care for most for being there and for being a part of this Universe that you exist in.

Today, eat more than you normally would if you choose to, drink more then you would, if you choose to, eat dessert first, if you choose to.

But most of all, dont forget; All the wonderful blessings that you have.  This planet we travel threw space on, with all its wonderful creatures and natural beauties.  We, us humans, are truly a blessed race.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and for goodness sakes, Have fun!

Shred!

Enjoy,

Laters,

LOS

EvEn MoRe ProPaGanDa

Check this link out:

You really should.

What is the Primal Blueprint?

Enjoy,

Laters,

LOS

HeAdWinDs AnD UpHiLLs

Day 2 turned out to be the exact opposite of day one. Lots of busy road, lots of uphills and lots of wind.

That didn't take away from the beauty.

Instead of doing breakfast before the ride I recommended we roll our way all the way out to heathrow and eat there. Estimated distance 20 miles.

"Let's eat a couple of bars and depart and see what happens", " We can snack along the way".

The Bird was with it and off we went. Despite the traffic, She and I were both enjoying the ride and the effort, the weather was perfect. We kept the pace to our next destination swift, taking breaks along the way when necessary. The Bird had never pedaled up hills as long and as big as these, so pace was important. When we got to Sorrento, we stopped at a Pizza Place, refilled on water and kept Blazing the Tarmac towards Heathrow.

After many miles and some obvious suffering for the Bird, we made it to Lunch. At Lunch we straight up feasted and then rolled over to Cold Stone Creamery and had some Ice cream goodness. My estimates were off all day long, I had us pegged for 20 miles to that spot, ended up being 24 and I had us pegged for 17 miles home ended up being 22.

The bird was a sport on it all and we just managed to catch so much beauty once we crossed over into Volusia county and picked up on the Naked Indian route. The time of day we passed threw there and the way the sun was hitting the land created a buffet for our visual receptors. It was like Eye candy as we rolled threw the Gemini portion of the NK route.

Eventually, we could feel the temperature had dropped a few degrees and I gave the bird my jacket and we fired up the lights. Yesterday had been quick, but today with all the stops, we ended up getting caught by the twilight. As we made our way closer to home I could Hear the bird complaining, but still wanting to fight. Today had been very painful for her. The accumulated climbs, the longest Road Ride she has ever done as well as her first City to City Tour was all adding up. But at the end, she got that fire in her pedal stroke and put the hammer down and we rolled up onto our property feeling jubilant about the accomplishment and stoked on our success.

The trip had been magical, we had nothing but the most positive omens the entire way. Not a single mechanical problem or flat, things just could not have gone better. We saw 3 eagles and many hawks, and other birds.
My technology skills are improving and I packed alot and still kept it light. I was very comfortable along the way.

Suffessful trip I think our next Tour will be to Edgewater, where we will step it up and camp.

Pics are on the way,
Enjoy,
Laters,
LOS

TaiLwInDs and DoWnHillS

That is the absolute best way to summarize our day one trip of the Apopka tour. I didnt even break a sweat over the 40 miles we covered. The trip was only 3 hours long and the wind either pushed us or the road was downhill. Perfect. Our plans got sidetracked slightly when we ended up leaving three hours later then our original planned start, but in retrospect that was the right thing to do since, any earlier would of put us at our destination super early. We had a great lunch and I may have finally tasted the best pizza in the world pictures and further details are coming. This is a live field post, we are still in Apopka getting ready and deciding whats the plan for breakfast. The road home will be Plymouth Sorrento road which is a hilly beast and it should prove to be 100% more challenging then yesterdays route.
It will then take us on state road 46 into Heathrow where we will jump on the bike trail and get some cold stone creamery as a reward for the intense effort.
On a tech note the packing went perfect and only using a rear pack and my bd1 ergon pack we carried all we needed plus toilettries and shoes and civilian clothing. And I still managed to keep it light, easy peasy. Stay posted for pictures and for more write ups and details as the days pass. Turkey day is coming and I will have a five day weekend so the post will be frequent throughout the days.










Enjoy,
Laters,
LOS

ThATs WhAt ShE sAiD!

Enjoy,

Laters,

LOS

RoAd TriP PaRt 2

Here is the route for part 2. I hope my wife is not tired after day one, cause in comparison its a walk in the park. Very hilly route and lots of Road, but Placemark 3 shows the location for Cold stone Creamery where Ice cream will be the reward!

Gonna be fun.

Get out there and ride Y'all, the weather is beautiful!!

Enjoy,
Laters,
LOS

RoAd TriP

My Wife and I are rolling out Saturday early. The mission, self supported bike tour to Apopka. Spend the night, then ride Hilly Lake county the next day home.

Should be good times.

The route will be mostly bike paths and urban singletrack(sidewalk in my speak), on Day one and on Day two mostly hilly roads.
I will be the Pack mule and carrying all of our clothing and supplies for our two day trip. The weather should be perfect to a little chilly luckily I have enough cold weather clothing to cover us both.
I will use my rear pack and my Ergon BD1(just for clothing) and we will ride out. An essential element of a good tour is destinations, preferrable somewhere you have never been.
This is stop 1:

Lake Jessup, were gonna explore just what there is to see at the end of this road. Hopefully we will find a nice spot to sit and chat and enjoy the sun for a little while.
Then we plan to do Lunch, hopefully find a place that offers food and beer which is good carbs for long rides. That plaza should have something, if not we will stomp around till we do find something.
Not long after a couple of good climbs later we will be at our destination, so we plan to maybe hit the movies and catch a flick.

Day 2, even more exciting, check back tomorrow for some Sattellite photos of that intended route.

Whats the point of all this? I guess to share what goes into my ride planning and the methods behind it, maybe encouragement for everyone to get out there and explore, you would be surprise the adventures you can have right out the front door without the burden of driving.

Enjoy,
Laters,
LOS

It MuSt Be ThE HoLiDaY

Season.

Cause I have been receiving lots and lots of questions and inquiries on how to lose weight and how to get healthier.

Here is a link for those who are interested in Going PRIMAL:

Mark's Daily Apple

I don't necessarily agree with everything he says but he is definitely knowledgeable and can help most of you get a healthier and better lifestyle for yourself.


Enjoy,
Laters,
LOS

HoRRibLe HunDreD

Its different. So different. In fact I don't know if I could enjoy an organized ride ever again, when there is such joy, adventure and discovery in a Self Supported Ride. Its no secret and I am sure everyone is tired of hearing about it, but I am constantly evolving and in the process of getting ready to do an extremely long ride solo. So every chance I can I am looking for ways to practice. Since first doing the Horrible Hundred in Clermont I have gone back every year to enjoy the challenge the terrain and route offers. The folks from Florida Freewheelers are great and they deserve Kudos for all the great events that they put on. At my current skill level, I gain no actual benefit from doing a ride that is completely supported. I need to push the envelope. So I packed up my Carousel Design rear pack, slapped on some aero bars and met up with my good friend Morrissson to tackle the course with no Support.My rear pack had two extra Dasani waters, and I had two bottles on the bike. In the bag I had enough food for an overnight trip, I learned after the Okeechobee incident that you need to plan for the unexpected and a route miscalculation could lead to a nutritional miscalculation which could lead to you being on the side of the road in tears needing assistance. I also had a rain jacket, two tubes, one inflator 3 co2's, electrical tape, tools, Sram link, patch kit, blue park tool and a Swiss army knife. I was packing, prolly 10 extra pounds to the bike, but I need the work out.

Immediately my Garmin didn't work as it should and the route was not coming up like it should have. I guess the data was old. On top of that it must have turned on early cause the battery was low when I had fully charged it the night before. Never mind though, we had a cue sheet which I could easily read, we had my memory of the route which was amazingly fresh and we had Orange Arrows courtesy of the organizers.
We set out on a joyful cruise. I start getting into a rhythm and ride out. Morrissson was always withing sight, and I decided every 25 to 30 we would stop to stretch and keep riding. It worked well and we kept doing our thing. I had to fix Morr's bike, no biggie, and we kept rolling, chatting and having fun.
Somewhere around mile 50 or 60 we both ran out of water. I still had the two extra bottles in my pack but really wanted to hold on to them till it was an emergency. Well as we finished a hill and made a turn, I saw a house labeled for rent and could clearly see it was empty. Without hesitation I called for a refueling stop and we both hit the spickets on either side of the house. Filled up and then kept rolling. Not even 5 miles after that we hit the town of Mascotte and had lunch. See, this is the thing about a self supported ride. I have done this ride several times and since It was supported I never bothered to notice all the little towns we rolled threw and all the historical markers. Because I was forced to be conscious of the possible supply spots, I kept my eyes unusually open vs. Unusually focused on hammering to the next stop. It changed the ride, dare I say, made it even better.


I pride myself on my COCK pit set ups and my Cross bike is outfitted for a loooong day in the saddle. The music played all day till I shut it off.


Look thats Morrrisssson, brother rode strong and well I never had to worry about him. He couldn't and wouldn't draft, but that's ok, I get more pride out of riding hard by myself then sucking a wheel.




My favorite self quote from the ride "Morrisson, now your about to find out why they call it the horrible hundred"
Eventually, we reached a point of doubt. The cue sheet said one thing, the cyclometer said another. Somehow we ended up hitting Buckhill road the 5 peaks, at mile 90 something instead of 80 something. We had somehow accumulated 10 more miles then we should have. We hammered buckhill, we hammered Sugar loaf mountain, refueled at the top and kept our roll on. It wasn't long before we stopped checked the sheet and realized we still had 20 or so more miles to go. I made the call it was time to push and we did. We rode dangerous roads in the dark, squinted for Orange Arrows, kept climbing even though it should have stopped and eventually celebrated the finish.
My Thigh muscles cramped which slowed me down some, I guess that's the danger of Self supported is staying on top of your hydration, lesson learned.
If you have yet to go out and do a century, solo, without babysitting, do it! It will change the way you look at the ride completely.
The ride for me was Poetic!
115 miles, 7 hours 20 min ride time. New record for me in both speed and distance.

enjoy,
laters,
LOS