WEEKLY RUNDOWN

Tuesday was another Tuesday ride. Hard efforts where thrown in on Winifred and Tallahassee. The group dwindled and by the end of Eight Mile road my lights went out. I watched the remaining four ride off into the sunset. I had Steve to ride with for a while, but he eventually hitched a ride behind Weaver's truck. Not enough air back there for me. Great day for a ride, pretty good legs, not enough energy. Hats off to Dustin who, after some early ride tips from Steve, made it down Winifred with the group. A couple of more weeks and he'll probably have it figured out and make it all the way around with us.


Thursday was time for something different, unfortunately in some regards, it was more of the same. We'd put together a loop that included ten miles of dirt road, just to add a wrinkle to the ride. Several notable people were absent, others didn't like the idea, so that left Steve, Chip, and me. Chip won the "professional dress" award; outfitted in a retro jersey, sew-up tire wrapped around his shoulders, and riding his vintage steel Colnago. All that was missing were the leather goggles. We headed out, passed within ten feet of a turkey on Flowing Well, then hit the first section of dirt. Within minutes we were out and onto Mud Creek. Just a few pedal strokes and we turned onto Old Thompson and more smooth dirt. Towards the end I had several deer run across in front of me and took time to watch them run off into the overgrowth. We hit Gillionville and rolled in at a comfortable pace and only several minutes off our normal time.

Hopefully we'll be able to convince more to join us next time.

SHAKEDOWN RIDE #1

JUST ADD DIRT!

When: Thursday, May 20th
Where: From Cycleworld
What: 35 miles with 10 miles of dirt road
Why: Because it's there to be ridden
Time: 6:00pm
From: Cycleworld

View Route: CLICK HERE

There are two sections of dirt road. The first section off of Flowing Well is approximately 2 miles long and runs into Mud Creek road. For anyone not "feeling" it, a right on Mud Creek takes you back to Gillionville. From there you can either ride back into town or turn left onto Tallahassee Road and complete the Old Dawson-Byron Plantation loop for extra mileage.

For those wanting to continue on, the second section of dirt is Old Thompson rd. Old Thompson is approximately 7 miles and runs into Gillionville 2 miles above Mud Creek rd.

The dirt road surface on both of these roads is perfect for riding. The tree canopy makes for a cool ride and the change in surface stimulates the senses. VMac will ride at the back to make sure everyone who enters, exits.

DIRT - Give it a try. You may like it.

SGC's Highs and Lows @ the PCB 1/2 Ironman

Amy, John Palmer and a good friend of the Palmer's, Sunni Florida, recently took on the PCB Half Ironman 70.3 down at the Redneck Riviera. The weather was outstanding on race day with partially cloudy skies. It wasn't until about half way through the half marathon that the sun finally broke through the clouds and heating things up quite a bit.

John and Rhonda Palmer had a good friend from ATL come down for the weekend adventure, some of the SGC folks might remember him, John Leonard. Unfortunately, John had just recently been a victim of a bike path accident that left him dazed and confused and left his carbon frame broken, so he had alternate plans for the weekend to provide mental support to the TRIathletes.



I came to the conclusion about half way to PCB that even though the SGC mountain bike team was not well represented on this trip that the TRI folks and their friends would represent. J. Lo (John Leonard) as his crew refers to him, busted out a bottle of liquor to spice up his coke from Hardees. We arrived in PCB about the same time as Sunni and Nikki who came over from Jacksonville. Check in went smoothly and before we knew it we where in our 9th floor penthouse. At least it seemed like a penthouse for a guy that is use to peeing behind the tree and showering in a stream after the race.

Friday afternoon/night events consisted of registration, expo with some awesome and expensive TRI equipment, and trying to find our way to an Italian restaurant in the Redneck Riviera. Many laughs were had by the group as we following Google maps apps to a restaurant in Panama City that was located in the middle of a street festival. No big deal we just pulled a U-turn and drove to a small Italian restaurant at the west end of the PCB beach. So even though at this point we had spent about 45 minutes in the car, the food was great and the bottles of wine were even better. After dinner J. Lo's plan for mental support came together when Dr. Leroy Bynum arrived to surprise the TRI group. As it turns out not only did J. Lo invite Dr. Bynum but he also brought along Yalda, Shane and their family. All those folks = tons of laughs and good times. I believe that J. Lo and support staff went out after dinner. I will leave the details out but just say that I am pretty sure that I heard that Waffle House was visited in the wee hours of the night.

Saturday AM came quickly. We were up by 5 AM with Amy, John, and Sunni heading down to check in by 6 AM. Luckily for the whole group we were staying at the condos right next door to the start/finish which made coming and going quite easy through out the day.

Amy was the first into the water 35-39 women(yellow wave) @ 6:25 AM, Sunni (30-34) was next into the water at 6:27 AM, and Palmer's age group came somewhere around 6:40 (purple wave). The water conditions were less than ideal with swells around 3-5 feet and a Northeasterly wind that was blowing folks off course if you did not start up the beach and drift as you swim. The TRIathletes said that there was also a minor current throughout the swim and that one of the hardest parts was the fact that if you looked at the floor of the gulf that you would get motion sick because of the rising and falling from the swells. Amy mentioned throwing up in her mouth at least once or twice. YUCK!!!!! Swim times were a bit slower than most in the group had planned because of the rough water. (see results list)

Next to the bike, all 3 had great bike legs. The wind was not to bad out on course with the exception of Front Beach Road where the wind was whipping around the high rise condos. Unfortunately the bike leg is where John's day started to go down hill. I think it was around mile 40ish that John felt his first cramp come on and by the time he got to the bike/run transition, he we in full cramp mode. (John ended up being the grunt of many jokes throughout the rest of the weekend)

Amy and Sunni came through the bike/run transition about the same time. Amy ran a super solid half marathon with very consistent splits throughout. She finished the in 5:49:59 about 10 minutes faster than last year. Sunni who had recently been hiking in Peru on the Inca Trail had picked up Machu Picchu revenge started off strong but Machu Picchu had left her weakened and even though she finished very strong it was not the time that she was looking for but very respectable, 6:12:21. Way to go girls!!!!

I am not going to be as hard on Palmer as some of the folks in the group were but before I explain what he went through I must take a moment to highlight some of the better comments. First was the t-shirt that was purchased for him that said "out of beer", my next favorite were the comments to many other participants "how did you do today? Oh, great! No! Did you see the ambulance? That was our friend, he cramped up and had to go to the hospital. Oh, all he needed to do was drink Gatorade? =-), and lastly... well heck my favorite is the Gatorade comment!!!!

Unfortunately for Palmer, he ended up getting so depleted that around mile 6 in the run, they made the decision to pull the plug and go to the medical tent. This year the folks that put on the Gulf Coast TRI decided that they were not allowing IV's to be administered on site and participants that needed an IV would have to be transported to the hospital. So after arriving in the medical tent the staff realized that he was going to need some almighty IV juice and before he knew it John was on his way to the hospital. He is doing well know and he believes that he has found the magic mixture that will fix the problem, he will have to tell you on the next ride.

Saturday night was capped off with some yummy oysters, dinner, and spirits at J. Michaels in PCB. Some of the support staff went out again and partied through the wee hours again. These folks definitely fit in with the SGC crew, actually I am a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to hang.

Sunday AM everyone awoke casually to see that the gulf didn't have a single ripple in it, it was as clear as glass. After packing up and loading all the gear, everyone meet up at Another Broken Egg which I highly recommend on your next visit to the Redneck Riviera.

That wraps up this race report. Good luck to Amy, John, and Sunni on your preparation for the Louisville, Kentucky Ironman on August 29th.

*Sunni Florida aka April Childs

WEEKLY RUNDOWN

We're going to borrow a column from our friend David Muse, and incorporate a recap of the Tuesday/Thursday rides.

Tuesday was the traditional loop. Good weather and 15+ made for a good ride. The pace was relatively conservative for a Tuesday. Steve threw fuel to the fire on Tallahassee road, which set the tone for the remainder of the ride. Attacks on Eight-Mile road fractured the group and a final attack at the end of Eight-Mile left three to fly. Props to Michelle for surviving the rigmarole and Mitchell S. for riding on the rivot.

Thursday we upped the anty and rode the Sasser-Tallahassee loop. After a few miles of inconsistency, the group as a whole settled in to a steady (fast) pace. We hit Tallahassee road at 7:05 and rode through the roughest section at 25+mph. Fun and games aside, Gillionville was reserved for "dumping the tank". Eight good miles of attacks and heavy effort got the goods out of everyone. Damn that red light!

Jello-legs + salt rings = good week

Next Thursday will hopefully bring the first of several Shake-Down rides, which will include roughly 9miles of dirt road. The route will be reconed this weekend. If the conditions and mileage are good . . . it's on.

WEEKLY ENLIGHTENMENT

After some intensive research and calculations, the following has been concluded:

It costs approximately $100 to lose 1gram from your bike.

A paperclip weighs approximately 1 gram.

453.6 grams is the equivalent of 1lb.

It costs approximately $453 to lose 1lb from your bike.

The average poop weighs 123.6 grams.

In order to lose 1lb you must burn 3500 more calories than you consume.

Ultimately, the most cost effective weight loss system is to spend 6 hours riding (approx. 5100 calories) and take a natural supplement to maintain a regular system (2 poops per day = 250 grams) and you could easily lose 2 lbs per week without spending a dime.

In review, riding and pooping is FREE. Lighter doesn’t necessarily mean FASTER.

Consider yourself enlightened.

What We're Serving


Podium God


Here is our own Josh Fix shaking road pro Nathan O'Neill's hand on the podium. Josh placed 1st, Nathan placed 3rd...

Image courtesy of Jane Ullah Photography - www.janeullah.com