Riding in WET circles...

This post won't be long...

I just wanted to acknowledge some Gainesville area cyclist who have gone above and beyond the basic dedication to "off-season" training. Danny M., Scott P., Rodrigo S., Jayson O., Myself and Carl all braved the winds and the rain Tuesday night out at Progress Park.

The battle for the Progress Park "Ironman Award" is still being waged as Jayson, Scott and Myself have all been out to EVERY tues/thurs ride at Progress Park since they started in October following the end of Daylight Savings time.

Come on out on thursday when it will be a lot less wet, but probably a bit colder so bring your mittens, scarf and wonder woman underoos!

Wow, what a game!

I took a break from the bike this past weekend in order to submerge myself in the encompassing fanfare that is the UF v. FSU weekend.

Friends came into Gainesville friday and we partied downtown in celebration of what we expected to be a Gator victory. The Big Sky concert at Abbey Road (formerly Brick City Music Hall) would provide the location for our first 8-10 drinks. The victories had already started rolling as the UF mens basketball team defeated the seminoles 74-66 after overcoming a 17 point deficit!

We tailgated all day and Saturday, went to one of the loudest games I've been to in a long time and finished up with more tailgating after the game! I had completely lost my voice during our trouncing of the noles...and I loved every minute of it!

A great weekend, great football game, great friends, great weather...and oh yeah, thanksgiving was good too.

I saw a funny shirt at the game on saturday that I thought you all might get a kick out of. The first time a saw the shirt I only saw the front of it which read, "Gators drink Gatorade", and I thought that that was kind of a stupid saying to put on a game day shirt...until a few hours later when I ran across what was printed on the back of the shirt..."Seminoles drink seminal fluid". I really like that shirt (christmas gift idea, hint, hint).

Here are a few images from saturday...enjoy.

Where's everyone at?

There has been some discussion as to what happens to all of the GCC A-riders come this time of year. It seems like once Team Florida starts thier off-season training rides, the numbers at the GCC rides dwindle.

Perhaps the colder weather keeps the unadventurous inside, or maybe everyone is content to do thier own rides on the weekends. It has been suggested that the co-eds on the Team Florida rides draw some GCC cyclists in, as if in a booty trance. Another response was that the faster A-riders on the GCC rides push the pace too much for this time of year when we should be doing longer, slower "base-miles".

I think a healthy discussion about the lack of attendance on the weekends for the GCC'ers should take place...and what better venue for said discussion than right here on the good 'ole 5count blog.

In a related story
Many of us did partake in the Team Florida "Ride-a-Thon" this past sunday. It's always good to be in a 50+ person group, but the diversity in ability created an unobtainable "optimal speed". Nonetheless, for those of us who opted for the shorter 60 mile route...it was good miles and somewhat of a break from the norm.

Trash-talkin' a-plenty!

On our most recent jaunt around the corporate park (thursday night), the group carried on it's tradition of throwing around the obligatory smack-talk. I'm very pleased to see that we've become comfortable enough with each other that we can now tell mouthy Australians what they can do with their vegemite sandwiches...Or, inform the Mexican cycling contingent how we feel about their choice of cycling shorts etc., etc., etc..

Speaking of the thursday night ride...We had a group of 9 guys out there as well as a couple of other cyclists riding at their own speed. The temperature had dropped quite considerably from just two night before where no one was even wearing arm warmers. Thursday, the group was fully decked out with leg or knee warmers, long-sleeve jerseys and jackets, full fingered gloves and Scott even donned his Wonder-Woman underoos!



We did have a close call with a speeding driver who was driving without his lights on, both literally and figuratively. All are safe and disaster was averted, but for anybody planning on coming out to the Progress Park rides who is in possession of a blinking yellow hazard light, please bring it out with you.

In regards to...
Danny Muehlschlegel replied to a recent post here on 5count with a list of songs for a cyclist to have on his/her ipod while training. Although that response was more or less for fun...I'm going to take it a step further and share some of my favorites:

Black Betty-by Ram Jam
This is just a good ole southern rock song that you all have heard before even though the name probably isn't recognizable.

Crazy Game of Poker-by O.A.R
This is the live version of the song. O.A.R has got to be one of the best live bands out there, who coincidently are going to be playing at the O'Connell center on November 29th, 2005!

Eye of the Tiger-by Survivor
You all know this one! If you need to get pumped up...this one and the next one are classics!

Danger Zone-by Kenny Loggins
...like I said, a classic!

Gold Digger-by Kanye West
I know it's corny, but I couldn't get this out of my head.

Pass that Dutch-by Missy Elliott
For all of you HipHop fans (Doug) here's one with a great beat.

Ring of Fire-by Johnny Cash
This really is for Doug. It's been sung a couple of times on the "ride of circles", so I thought it would only be appropriate to include it in this list.

Rough & Ready-by Trace Adkins
To show you that I am a connoisseur of all music, here is country song that has some attitude.

Son's Gonna Rise-by Citizen Cope
One of my recent favorites...if you didn't know, now you know.

United States of Whatever-by Liam Lynch
A song unlike anything you've ever heard...whatever!

Your Love-by The Outfield
Quite possibly the greatest 80's hit!

...there's eleven of um for you. A pretty diverse list so there should be something in there for everyone. I'll probably do this again sometime soon.

How 'bout this weather huh?

Wow, we have been truly graced with an abundance of great weather here in North Central Florida. Hopefully, you took advantage of it and got outside.

I did 5 days of riding this past week, and logged about 240 miles. The tue/thurs rides have been a great way to put in a nice 80 miles during the week and I (as well as others) had this past friday off due to Veterans Day. Danny, Scott, Jayson, Myself and Brett Miller put in about 50 miles friday morning and then met Doug F. for lunch at "dinner" in the Thornbrook Plaza.

Saturday, Jayson and I met out at San Felasco for a little mountain biking. I only crashed once and it was pretty harmless. I've realized that my mountain bike is in need of some good ole TLC, unless the gears are supposed to shift all on their own. I told Jayson that maybe it would have been better had we not done any mountain bike riding before we tackle the 52 mile Tour de Felaso in January...that way we would go into it not really knowing how bad it was going to suck. But now, we have over two months of knowing exactly what we're getting ourselves into.

I rode with the GCC on sunday morning. I guess the Team Florida rides have been attracting a lot of the GCC members, cause there were only like 10 of us on the ride...and that included both the A-riders as well as the Gliders. We made the best of it as another gorgeous day accompanied us. We took a nice easy ride all the way north on 241 to Providence (not Rhode Island),
then east over to LaCross (pronounced "Lay-Cross" if you're Scott), then headed back towards home. Naked Ed instigated an increase in speed as we got about 10-12 miles from the Chevron. After a series of attacks and counter-attacks, everyone was dropped except Ed, Bryan (from Zimbabwe) and myself. The three of us faught the headwinds all the way home and I was able to come around Ed for the sprint finish.

Here's a question...
How many of you out there pronounce the word "derailleur" -de-rayl-yur
and how many pronounce it - de-rayl-er
???

Lance fans, check this out.

For those of you who frequent the paceline.com, you've probably already seen these.
For those of you who aren't in the know however, check out Grahm Watson's site. He has some Lance Armstrong images in the form of a 3-part tribute series of his career. Only Parts 1 and 2 are currently available, but part 3 will be up soon.

The first part seems the most interesting to me. They are pictures of Lance in his early, pre-cancer days. Part 2 deals with his comback (1997-1998) and I assume that part 3 will be the Tour de France victories...which we've all seen a thousand times.

See ya'll tonight at Progress Park!

A Good Ride!

Tuesday night saw the largest number of "night-time riders" out at Progress park yet this winter season. In addition to those of us who have been coming out regularly, Carl and Huan joined us as well. Scott's family was even on hand to get some fun miles in thier legs...and let me just tell you, Scott's 9-year old son, Justin, was out there holding 19 mph for the first part of the ride. So those of you who are taking it easy this winter season, are going to be surpassed by Junior sensation!

We did another 2 hours through the brisk night air with patches of low-lying fog that made for a very theatrical ride. We didn't encounter any deer this time, but the ride went quickly due to some great conversation with a good portion of "trash-talk" sprinkled in.

We encourage all skill levels to come out and ride the course with us, or at your own pace. The more the merrier!

In other news...
• The Gators are taking on the Cocks this weekend up in South Cacalaka. The Ol' Ball Coach will be leading his cocks against his former team. The Gators are struggling with some injury issues right now and will hopefully be able to overcome them in time to put a whoppin on what will surely be a highly motivated S. Carolina team.

• I'll be forgoing the GCC ride on the south end of town this saturday. Instead, I'll be out at San Felasco doing some cross-training in order to acclimate myself to the fat tire bike in preparation for the Tour de Felaso in January. Anybody wishing to join me, feel free.

A Good Week

One hundred and ninety miles on the bike this week! Not bad considering it's dark by 6:00pm these days.

As covered in the previous post, the tues and thurs rides have provided good miles in the dark. I capped the week off with a pair of beautiful days and great rides.

Saturday's GCC ride started off in the north at 9:00am. A Glider/A-rider combined ride created a large group of 20+. With the absence of Danny M. and Tony A., the pace was kept civil enough for everybody. There were a few fun sprints for city limit signs, but none of them led to splits in the group. The remaining cyclists (some people split off as we neared home) picked the pace up on 43rd. Huan led me out for a great finish to a great 68 mile ride.

Sunday, I opted to meet at "The Rock" at Turlington plaza on campus for the team Florida ride. Another beautiful day carried us through two and a half hours of northwest Gainesville cycling. The pace was a comfortable (and welcomed) 20mph for the duration.

I'll be out at the Progress Park again this tues (11-8) for some riding in circles...join me.

Tues/Thur Rides Live On!

Those of you who benefitted from the tues/thurs rides this year will be happy to know that though it may be dark out at 6:00pm, we're still ridin'!

Our ride location has changed to Progress Park off of Hwy 441 in Alachua. We meet at about 6:00pm and ride the 1.16 mile loop around the picturesque corporate park. If you can't make it until 6:15 or 6:30...so what?...all we're doin is going around in a circle so just catch us on our next loop.



With the first week of Progress Park riding behind us, we've managed to put in more miles than we were during day light savings time. Tuesday the group logged 37 miles and we put in just over 40 miles on Thursday.

I know that going around in a circle for 2 hours sounds repetetive and boring, but the social conversation makes the time fly. We've been keeping the pace at a brisk, but comfortable 20 mph.

The more people we have come out, the more enjoyable it will be for everyone. The park is relatively traffic free but bring some basic lights so the random car or truck is alerted to our presence. As the above map illustrates, we meet in the parking lot of the big glass building right out in front (the 441 side). We've been riding the loop in a clockwise direction, but we may get crazy later in the winter and do the loop backwards!

Thus far, Scott P., Doug F., Leslie F., Jayson O., Paul M., and Rodrigo S. have been the only motivated cyclists to take advantage of the training. All levels are welcome cause..."Yer never more than .508 miles behind (or ahead) of the group"

In other news:
• Aussy cyclist, Matt White, formerly of the French Cofidis team, has been signed to a 12 month contract with the Discovery Channel cycling team...Jayson will be happy about that.

• The Tour de Felasco is coming up in January and has already met the rider limit of 400. I'm registered and looking forward to doing 50+ miles of fat-tire cross-training. Let me know if you're planning on riding it at a fun, easy-going pace and we can meet up at the start. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to some yummy vegitarian chili at the lunch stop, mmm, mmm, mmm!

• There is going to be another pro stage race in the U.S.. The Tour of California will be held in February consisting of 9 stages.