Nothing unusual for today’s post. Last night I went out on a ride by myself that started at my house and headed out over Paris Mountain, down Old Buncombe, through downtown to Cleveland Park, and then to home.  I made it back just as it started to rain.

I was a little disappointed because I left the house and headed over to the university before going to the mountain.  I wanted to do a lap of the course I will be riding Saturday during the fund raiser.  As I finished the circuit, I pushed what I thought was the lap button on the Garmin.  It was the Start/Stop button.

I didn’t realize I had done that until I was near the top of Paris Mountain.  All the power data of the climb was lost!  I put it out of my mind just to enjoy the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful day.

As I started along the back side of the mountain I was very fearful.  It was the first time going down the Furman side since my accident.  To make matters worse, there was a level of fine sand in the turns along the top.  The fun finally started once I got below the sandy turns.

I forgot all about the computer issues as I looked out over northern Greenville county from the top of the mountain.  Out over Travelers Rest there was a thunder storm.  I could see the dark clouds and the wall of rain out in the distance.  There were flashes and the rolling sound of thunder, but it was so far away I had no concerns that it would reach me before I got home.

Old Buncombe introduced me to a headwind.  I saw my teammate Blair heading the other direction.  I envied him because he was enjoying the tailwind.  Finally, I made it through downtown Greenville and to Cleveland Park.

Once there I connected with Chris Hartzler.  We did several laps together.  There were a good number of cyclist out.  Some were just spinning along and others were hammering it pretty hard.  Just as we were finishing up, I saw Kirk Flinte with, I believe, his brother.

A lot of times you can learn riders by the clothing they wear.  It also helps to learn their bike.  However, with Kirk it is a little harder.  He is always showing up with some cool Hincapie clothes that are probably not even on the market yet.

The wind really picked up as I neared home and the temperatures dropped a bit.  I figured the rain would arrive soon.  After taking my bike to the garage, I went inside to change before eating some homemade enchiladas.  As I exited the bedroom, the rains arrived.

What a wonderful feeling to site with happy muscles, eating a delicious meal while nice and dry, and the rain falling outside.  Life is good!

 

Tags: Chris Hartzler, Cleveland Park, Kirk Flinte, Paris Mountain

This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 5:22 am and is filed under Life, Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.