Midnight Rider

I wish y'all could go with me on a midnight ride.  It's so black, it's almost like flying.  My headlight cuts a small slice through the darkness.  The day's heat has melted away and a cool breeze hits my face and quietly roars by my ears.  My legs quickly find their tempo and the chain whirs through the front chain ring and the rear cassette:  WHIR-WHIR-WHIR-WHIR.  My heart joins in:  THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP.  The miles begin to pass by quickly ... WHIR-WHIR-THUMP-THUMP.  The moon and stars are bright and clear over my left shoulder ... WHIR-WHIR-THUMP-THUMP.  Not a soul in sight; not even a car ... WHIR-WHIR-THUMP-THUMP.   My whole world a single purpose - relentless forward motion ...

WHIR-WHIR-THUMP-THUMP.  JINGLE-JINGLE-GROWL-GROWL.

WHIR-WHIR-WHIR-WHIR-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!!!

CAPTAIN'S LOG: StarDate 4.14.13.  The Starship Enterprise is on a routine training mission.  All systems operating normally.  Everything is quiet -- too quiet.

"Captain," shouts the normally stoic first officer, Mr. Spock.  "Unidentified intruder at our 5 o'clock position closing rapidly.  Appears to be an unknown breed of the canine species.  Intentions seem to be hostile."

"Mr. Checkoff, shields to full power.  O'Hura, prepare to open a hailing frequency.  Mr. Sulu, all ahead full, warp factor 4.  RED ALERT!  RED ALERT!  All hands, battle stations.  Checkoff, prepare to launch photon torpedoes!  Scotty!  We need more power!"

"Aye, Captain," replied Scotty, the engineer.  "I'm giving her all I got; she can't take much more of this.  Those beta blockers have clamped down on my power."

"I don't want excuses, Scotty!  Get the dilithium crystals and get me more power now!"

"Update, Mr. Spock."

"Captain, it appears we are beginning to pull away from the canine.  Further analysis indicates the intruder is an over-friendly labrador retriever.  I took the liberty of jettisoning a couple of tennis balls and they have distracted him for the moment.  I believe this crisis is over."

"Very well, Mr. Spock.  All hands, secure from battle stations.  Return to normal operations.  Mr. Sulu, plot a course for Claire's Casita; we're heading home."

OK, well a dog was chasing me.  I also had to dodge a deer and outrun a skunk (successfully).  Perhaps my imagination gets a little carried away sometimes out in the dark all alone.  Maybe I should just do these night rides by myself after all.

Memories from LA

We saw the movie "42" tonight; I've got to say it's one of the best movies I've seen.  Not only is it a great story about Jackie Robinson and his leading the way for black athletes into major league baseball, but it was a reminder to me of so many memories from my early life in Louisiana.

My earliest memories come from second grade when I lived with my grandparents in Coushatta, LA.  I don't exactly recall the circumstances of my parents' situation, but for nearly two years I lived with my daddy's parents who I called Pappaw and Josie.

It's odd the things a young mind remembers.  I remember Josie made us breakfast every morning: eggs over easy, bacon, toast with five spots of butter (just  like I had this morning) and a Coke.  Having a Coke for breakfast isn't that unusual now, but back in 1969, a Coke was a rare treat and I had it every morning!

I don't remember a lot about Pappaw other than him smoking unfiltered Camels and taking a nap on the couch every day after lunch.

Pappaw and Josie were both good people; Josie, in particular, had a big influence on my life.  She was an angel to me, and she went to church at the Baptist Church.  I remember another family used to pick me up to take me to the Church of Christ.  I didn't understand then why I couldn't go to church with Josie.  At the Church of Christ, even as a 2nd grader, I went to the adult Sunday school classes.  I remember them saying if you weren't a member of the Church of Christ, you were going to hell.  Even to my young mind, I secretly doubted what they were telling me ... there was no one better than Josie, and I couldn't believe God would send her to hell just because she went to church in a different building that had a piano in it!

Living with Pappaw and Josie made me think of other things, too.  In the sixties, there was a lot of racial turmoil in Louisiana.  I remember living in Baton Rouge and hiding in another family's home because the Black Panthers were marching and everyone was afraid.

I remember when they integrated the schools in Coushatta.  I didn't know what to think, but I remember a bunch of white men with guns hanging around in front of the school.

My grandparents were poor and didn't have much.  We always had plenty of food to eat for supper though -- purple hull peas and corn bread from a round pan.  I remember after supper, it was my job to take all the table scraps up and separate them into two bowls.  One bowl, I took out to feed to our dogs; the other bowl I took behind the house to an old tar-paper shack where PeeWee and his wife, Shirley lived.  PeeWee and Shirley were elderly black people, and I don't know why I brought them food every night, but they were sure happy to have it.

A few years later, my parents resolved their situation and my two brothers and I lived with them in Shreveport.  I finished 4th and 5th grade at Alexander Elementary which was half a block from my house.  I didn't think about it at the time, but there weren't many black kids at my school.  In 6th grade, they made me go to another elementary school where there was a lot more black kids.  It wasn't a problem for me although my youngest brother didn't enjoy starting kindergarten there (that's another story).

In seventh grade, they decided to bus me to a school a long way from home.  I remember there were seven of us on the bus -- all  white -- and they sent us to J.S. Clark Junior High School.  We were the only white kids in school.  As I walked to my second period class, about 6 black boys cornered me in the stairwell.  One of them put a knife to my throat and told me I better not come back to school the next day.  I didn't go back.

I refused to go back to school.  I even had to visit the Parish School Superintendent to explain to him why I wasn't going back to school.  It took a few months before my parents found a house in another part of town with a better school situation.

I attended Midway Junior High and the mix of black and white kids was about even.  It was a happy time for me and I had a lot of friends both black and white.  When it came time to go to high school, I went to Fair Park.  Although Fair Park was a predominantly black school, I never had any problems there.  Some of my life's fondest memories were at Fair Park -- I think I was somewhat insulated from some of the other problems because I was an athlete.  We tended to stick together and the black guys I played sports with made sure I didn't have any trouble.

Looking back, I realize now I grew up in a racially-charged environment.  I'm not sure why I did not notice it more at the time.  I guess I didn't look at people in terms of black or white; my friends were my friends and it didn't matter to me what color they were.  

But after watching 42, I was reminded of that time and I do remember the ugliness of it.  Even as a young child, I knew racism and I knew it was wrong.  I am thankful I did not inherit the disease of hate even though I grew up with it all around me. 

Enough for now .... can you guess which one's me in this photo from my high school days?

Tough Day Today

Can you see the problem in the weather depiction to the right?  Riding out to TLU and back is basically a north-south operation.  Now, do you see the problem?

It was only a 31-mile round trip.  I got to TLU (southbound) in 45 minutes.  Coming back (northbound) was a different story: it took me 1 hour 22 minutes.

The problem was not that it was 97 degrees.  The problem was the north wind at 17 knots gusting up to 24 knots!

I have not had many miserable days on the bike, but the return trip today was one of them.  I was maxed out heading into the crushing wind doing a whopping 11-12 mph!

At times, I wish I could've just quit, but I knew quitting wasn't an option.  So, I just put my head down (literally) and gutted it out.

Claire tried to paint a happy face on my suffering by saying, "Well, at least it was good training."  It was.  But I'm not fond of suffering and suffering was what was going on.  I hate headwinds!

Training Going Well

My goal is to get 1,500 miles in my legs before the race in October.  I got 500 in July, August's a little thin so far.  I'll be doing a big ride next week in order to hit my target for the month.  September will be harder to hit the mileage target because I'm going to start doing more intensity than time/distance -- can you say "hill repeats?"

My partner, Carol, is doing IronMan Canada this weekend!  She's a great athlete and I'll be a giant anchor for her during this race.  But, it'll still be fun, I think.

Dex Tooke, from Del Rio, is putting on the race.  He is one of a handful of over-60 individuals to successfully complete the Race Across America solo!  I highly recommend his book titled "Unfinished Business."  You can find it at the Kindle store or check out his website.

Another excellent book you might want to read is Rich Roll's "Finding Ultra."  His story is inspiring and has caused me to attempt to change my diet.  For those of you who know me, you probably realize my "if it's green, I don't eat it" strategy is probably not the best idea.  I'm trying to change.  I just made a delicious smoothie ... and yes, that green stuff is called "kale."

On Track

Training going well.  My goal for July was 500 miles and I made it.  Need to do 500/month minimum for Aug and Sep as well.

Full Century for a Half-Century Guy

Yep, you heard right -- it's my birthday today and I made it to the big 5-0!  Well, what should I do to celebrate?  Buy a mid-life crisis car?  Have a big party?  Do nothing?  I decided I would celebrate my good fortune by riding a century today.  For those who may not know, a "century" is a 100-mile bike ride.

I rolled out of bed today at 3:00 am hoping to get a jump on the heat knowing it was gonna take me about 6 hours on the bike to finish 100 miles.  The weather man was also forecasting strong and gusty southerly winds as the day got warmer, so I wanted to get to the most southern point of my route early.

I parked in the Gruene Hall parking lot and was rolling by 4:20 am.  It was mostly quiet as I paralleled I-35 heading south towards Randolph Air Force Base.  Nearing Randolph, the traffic began to swell in volume, so I was happy to turn onto FM 1518 and start heading towards La Vernia.

The country roads were much quieter although it was more than a little disconcerting to HEAR the dogs chasing me, but not to SEE them.  Fortunately, none of them completed a successful intercept and I rode to La Vernia without stopping.  By sunrise, I had completed 40 miles and breakfast at Whataburger sounded great to me!

After breakfast, I headed to New Berlin and then on to Seguin.  I stopped in Seguin (at another Whataburger) with 63 miles on the road realizing I was gonna have to find a way to add some distance in order to make 100 miles by the time I returned to Gruene.  Leaving Seguin, I headed towards New Braunfels flying on a strong tailwind.  Instead of going straight to Gruene, I turned right and headed towards San Marcos High School.  After the high school, I headed towards the -- you guessed it -- Whataburger across from the Outlet Mall.  After my 3rd and final rest stop, I turned south into a brutal headwind for the last ten miles to my car at Gruene.

As I rode, I contemplated a lot of things.  The one thought which kept coming to me is how fortunate I am to have the lived the life I have lived.  God has blessed me with good health and a wonderful wife who supports my cycling habit.  My own father had his first heart attack at age 50, yet today I rode my bike for 6 hours and 16 minutes with only 3 stops.  (100 miles in 6 hours 16 minutes, burned 4,571 calories, average speed 16 mph, average heart rate 136 beats per minute)

It was a good day for me and one full of hope for more grand adventures to come.  Many of my peers are on the downward slope of life, but I know I still have a lot more life to live.

And, who knows?  This may become a tradition.  We'll see about that.

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Whataburger for making this ride possible.  As they used to say on "Hee Haw,"  SA-LUTE!!!

Midnight Rider

Well, a few weeks ago, I bought a really awesome bike light.  It produces 750 lumens.  I've been wanting to try it out, so Saturday night, I decided to do a little night riding.  My light is BRIGHT!

I actually felt like I should be dimming it when riding towards on-coming traffic!  Night riding is great, and I was feeling the RAAM deja vu big time!  I'll have to do it again soon.