General Jackassery

46 Miles, 150 miles, 6 reasonably difficult climbs and one’s a flat out bitch. That’s what I’ve done in the last two weeks and I’ve even been traveling. I have run 46 miles at an average pace of 9 minutes 30 seconds per mile. I’ve ridden 150 miles at an average speed of around 17.5, I’ve climbed Bankhead parkway 4 times, Cecil Ashburn once up the front and once up the back in the same day and I climbed Keel Hollow Road (probably the hardest climb I’ve ever done).

I was in Monterey, CA last week so it was an actual pleasure to go for jogs on the coastal trail. But when I got back on Saturday it was back to the heat and humidity. Jackie and I drove down to the Jones Valley shopping center and set out on our bikes up and over Cecil Ashburn and out to Keel Mountain. I road up to the top and then we headed back over Cecil Ashburn to the car. Not a bad 35 mile ride. I had a blast; I think Jackie thinks I’m doped up or something.

In my last couple of post I’ve talked about having some trouble with Plantar Fasciitis and I have to say I’ve been taking the Physical Therapist’s advice. I have had no problems with running the last couple of trips out and my foot is not nearly as tight in the mornings when I wake up. It seems like I’m finally healing up and starting really progress nicely towards my training goals. As I mentioned up top I’ve been running sub 10 minute miles in just about all of my runs, even the longer ones, and I have been feeling better and better.

Fundraising seems to be in the ebb and flow cycle. I seem to go through spurts where I raise $400-$500 dollars and then I’m stuck for a while. I’ve been putting out some feelers for corporate sponsorships but I haven’t gotten any bites yet. If you know anyone who’s got some spare change lying around it would be really nice to have someone drop $1000 to help get me over the top.

On another note, my buddy Kari is in town from Finland and we’re heading up to the Blue ridge Parkway next week to ride bikes. Kari is planning on riding the entire 469 miles of the BRP in a one shot deal, non-stop that is. I plan to try to ride about 120 miles or so in the 28 hours that it will take him to ride the whole thing. This will serve as a great training ride for the record attempt that I will take part in in August. On August 25th, I will take part in a team-relay record attempt where three other guys and I will attempt to ride from Cherokee, NC to Waynesboro, VA relay style and we’ll try to do in less than 26 hours. Should be a lot of fun. We will ride from the start of the BRP to the end of the BRP exiting the BRP only during the night time hours when we ride on Highway 221 from Blowing Rock to an area in Virginia where we’ll get back on the Parkway at dawn. Stay tuned for more updates on that.

Well that’s about it for now. Hope all is well out there in the world. Good talking to you.