Long Day

Met up with my CPZ teammates, Bo and James, for a little training day up in North Georgia. As usual, I planned an overly ambitious day which involved a big ride to get to a trekking section. I thought it would take us under 3 hours to reach the trekking area, but it ended up taking over four. Since I forgot my lights at home, we were trying to avoid losing daylight, so we had to shorten the trek dramatically. We hiked/ran for two hours, of which the first hour and ten minutes was 2400' of climbing that just went up and up and up. It was along a steep, bouldery mountain creek and was probably one of the prettiest hiking trails I've been on in a while. I think we covered only 7 miles in that two hours, so had we attempted my originally planned hike, we would have been on our feet for 6-8 hours! After the trek, we hopped back on our bikes for about an hour ride back to the car which involved one longish climb up and over a gap. The descent down the backside of the gap is on a steep and loose gravel road, so I wanted to get down it before dark. We made it down just in the nick of time. Unfortunately, the temperature dropped what felt like 15-20 degrees once the sun set, so we all froze for the final 3-4 mile road ride back to the car. We hit the local Mexican restaurant for some grub afterwards, but it was bland at best. I think we're ready for CPZ, so well see how it goes. Somehow I need to summon some energy so I can teach the Duathlon Clinic this afternoon!