From the Mountains to Morganton

I went on a great ride today in Boone with a small group of people. We went around Grandfather Mountain, to Banner Elk, then Old Beech Mountain, to Bethel and over George's Gap. It was a lot of climbing, as usual... just what I wanted to do to train for Toona! ;o)

Afterwards I went to Mellow Mushroom with Deb and Bryan. Mellow Mushroom has to have the best pizza on the planet. If you've never been to one, you HAVE to go if you are ever near by. Here's their locations.

After a yummy pizza meal and watching the Tour on the TV (yeah Lance!!!), we went over to Espresso News for a coffee and chatted for a while, enjoying the nice, mountain summer afternoon. It was very refreshing, and it's always nice to hang out with Deb and catch up. We don't get to see each other that much since we live on different ends of the state, but anytime we can we get together.

Charged up by my coffee, I drove home to Drexel, and tonight my dad is running the Streetlight 5k in Morganton. This is a great event put on by my old high school cross country coach, Robert Murray. They start at 9:30pm, a great time to run during the hot, humid summer and run out and back on this flat road, so there's always fast times. I've run a low 18:00 on that course without any speedwork, it's easy to get into a tempo.

I love watching my dad run. My mom and I are going to go with the dogs and cheer him on from the sidelines. Of course, my dad would love for me to race (and he did ask me to run it) but that'd tear my legs up too bad for Altoona, so no can do. I'm too competitive to run it easy!

Welp, time to take a shower and get ready to leave for the race! I can't wait to see the Tour tomorrow... Lance is going to really tear it up.

Tour Dayz in Drexel

It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd write a much needed update.

I haven't really been doing all that much except for training for Altoona. My husband, Joe, left for Munich, Germany last Friday so I have been staying with my parents in Drexel. I didn't want to stay in Holly Springs... I'd be too lonely!

It's been fun staying with my parents though. I have been riding in the mountains a lot with my friend Deb. It's only an hour drive up to Boone, so I've been driving up and back to train three days a week. Last weekend I did some good epic riding with Jim Harmon and company on Saturday, and then with the Boone Bike crew on Sunday.

My parents are all into the Tour just like I am. We've had our TV tuned into OLN pretty much 24 hours a day... even when I go ride my mom will watch the re-airing of the Tour in the afternoons. Then when my dad gets home we watch the expanded coverage. I just hope that there's more interviews and clips of Lance in the evening show!!! ;o) I have to admit I'm a huge Lance fan... *sigh* oh well, hopefully Kristin will be able to get me an autograph someday.

One ride that I've made my favorite and frequent ride is the climb up highway 181 into the mountains. I ride from my house in Drexel up the mountain ridge and then turn around and come back down. It's a long climb (over 11 miles) but I like it a lot. The people at the store in Johnas Ridge think I'm crazy when I tell them I've ridden my bike from Drexel there. All you people in North Carolina know what 181's like... it's the epic climb in the Bridge to Bridge century every year.

I'm headed up to the mountains to ride again this weekend, so I better get some sleep. Here's wishing Lance a good day in the mountains tomorrow!!!