Thanksgiving!
After a successful book hunt on Thursday night, I cleaned up the house Friday morning and then headed down to Carrboro after brewing class on Friday. It was great to see Laura and Raleigh again, and on Saturday we went on an amazing bike ride into the cackalacky countryside.
Yayyy BnB!
post bike and build legs!
We couldn't ride without 20 seconds of 80's dancing!
Doin Jesse's dance of course
And off we went
We rode around campus and Chapel Hill which was cool to see. It's another beautiful campus. In NC, they are about two weeks behind Blacksburg, with many of the leaves still on the trees. We stopped and laid in the arboretum, it was great.
Then we headed out to the countryside, and rode to the country store at a dairy farm for fresh homemade ice cream and milk!! It was soooo good. I had a scoop of maple and of vanilla, in a homemade waffle cone, YUM. And I couldn't pass up the half gallon of chocolate milk, so I got it in a grocery bag, and put my arms through the sleeves to ride home with it!
We went out further for some more miles, and I saw a familiar jersey heading the other direction, a Bike and Build jersey! Adam had done a trip before, and knew Ral and Laura, and turns out he's going to be living next to them next year. He rode with us, and I pushed on the pedals a little bit on a few rollers with him, those are the bigger efforts below.
A wonderful ride!
For dinner that night, we made a grocery store run and made pizza from scratch.
Yum yum!
I had to leave early Sunday, and headed up to Roanoke to pick up my Mom from the airport! It's a nice drive, with some winding country climbs and descents that made me want to get the bike outta the back seat. The timing worked out perfect, and I got to the airport just after she got her baggage, and I could only hope Dave and James had left the house clean.
They did, and my Mom approved of our house this year. It was really warm out, and to take advantage of the weather we hopped right on bikes and set out to ride around campus and to Christiansburg on the Huckleberry trail.
my Mom was amazed how light a nice road bike is!
And I took out the fixed gear
After ~16 miles of riding, we were back in town and Mom treated me to Cabo Fish Taco for dinner, and a seasonal stout from Highlands Brewery to top it off. We decided that night to go on a hike the next day, the two I knew of being Dragon's Tooth and McAfee's knob. After poking around online, we read that McAfee's was the single most photographed spot on the whole AT and it was an easy choice.
I decided to bike out, and it was such a gorgeous day...
Ready to bike out! Nov 22 and jersey/shorts weather...so awesome
The ride out, I got there so quick that I decided to keep climbing Catawba Mtn until my Mom got there with the car, got three!
The hike was great, and the view INCREDIBLE. SW VA is gorgeous. From the top you can see all the way around, even into Roanoke Valley and see the city nestled in the valley. Pictures do little justice, but here are a handful:
:)
A little more nervous posture...it was indeed a good fall
We came back and went to Bull and Bones for dinner, which turned out to be a perfect choice. Head basketball coach Seth Greenberg was on the radio live when we got there, and after we finished eating went over to see Frank Beamer talk. Everything was great: the brewhaus chili, cheesy mac n cheese, bbq beans, pulled pork with all four sauces, the IPA and the stout.
That night Kati came over and we all watched Breaking Away streamed via netflix through the xbox, and it was a really good movie. Thanks to Brett Sherfy for the tip that it was on netflix streaming.
Tuesday we took the opportunity to sleep in, and I went for a ride with Bill while Mom went for a run around campus. We headed out to the river, but the rain hit earlier than predicted and we got soaked. Luckily, Bill was prepared enough for the both of us and let me borrow his rain jacket, it was a huge life saver because I was comfy with just a jersey to start, but once I got wet the wind made it so cold. We rode real hard, here's a lookski:
For dinner, we ate some of the many pounds of cooked pasta in the fridge, and it was good after sitting in sauce for a few days. Then Kati came over with some of the pumpkin brew and we all hung out for awhile.
Wednesday, Mom and I again took advantage of our vacation, and slept in. It was still rainy, and I didn't feel like riding because I was a little sore still, and so we went for a 5 mile run together. My calves were real tight, and we stopped at one point so I could stretch. The run was also hillier than my Mom is used to, it's impossible to run without going up or downhill nearly the whole time in Blacksburg. From the top of Clay St, we took a right into some development, and there were so awesome views of Ellett valley.
After our run, we didn't waste much time and I loaded up my bike to bring to WV. The drive to Jean's house went well, without any stops. Not long after, Kyle and Dad got here and we were all back together for the Thanksgiving holiday.
And a true geeky Reagan Thanksgiving! Laptops for all
But really:
Owen Cup and more
Last weekend I participated in the Owen Cup, a local unofficial bike race. It was a lot of fun, and I felt great. After three hours of hard riding, and a poorly executed attack, I finished THIRD in the Men's B race. I was riding with just a jersey and shorts, and by the end had the jersey all the way unzipped, the weather was AWESOME. Both the day before and day after the race I was riding in just a jersey and shorts too, love it.
Will and I were leading most of the way out on hills Mt Tabor road, on the first hill we went off and splintered the race pretty well. After we turned back onto Harding, some of the Rogues guys who had been sitting on the back attacked, and their teammates were blocking but I wasn't going to bother going after them anyway. Jason D and Tyler G took off and bridged up to them, but I never feared that the four were going to stay away. The way back on Blacksburg Rd we took it super easy, and then started rotating toward the end before the climb up Harding, and the climb up Happy Hollow. Still feeling awesome, Will and I went hard up Harding and even harder up Happy Hollow before getting caught by the A's on Tabor. We all stuck with them, and I was pulling through most of the time. Chris and Will were right up in the action too. They weren't going particularly hard, (looking at the power below, see how the second time on Tabor was easier), and we caught the group that had attacked. Keeping a strong pace onto Blacksburg Rd for most of the way back, it was coming to a finish. Since Will and I were the only ones pulling, I decided I might as well go a little harder and attack about a mile from the climb. I asked Will how his legs felt, and he said he was feeling a little tired, but I went ahead and attacked anyway. If he just stuck on, the move should have helped him out by getting others to chase. John Delong had been sitting on the back to let the B's race it out, but nobody chased me so he did, and then others joined in (including Chris B and Andy W). It didn't take too long of me hammering out front before I was caught, and then the VT B squad was dropped by the A's right at the base of climb. I didn't realize that a B, Yarik, was still with the A group. All of legs were tired, and we climbed Harding with all we had. It was painful after 60 hard miles, and to my surprise I actually beat Chris to the top, but couldn't keep up with Andy W who went on to take second. At the top, I about collapsed, sprinting in for third. Chris was right behind me, and Tyler came up after a bit. Then we saw Will and Jason and everybody, and I didn't hang around for the A's to do another lap.
POWER! WATTS! Pretty sweet that you can see everything that I described above in this.
Andy W and I went on an important mission to recover the Owen Cup trophy from the display case, and a volleyball tournament that crowded War Memorial created just enough diversion for us to sneak it out. It's a really awesome trophy, and to see Ben King's name on it, with his recent national championship, being signed by Team Radioshack and racing in the TdF next year, was inspiring.
The trophy!! On my nightstand, yeahhh
It's an awesome trophy. I remember seeing it before I even liked bikes, visiting Va Tech in high school... Metal work was done by John Frink
Once he wins the tour next year, this thing is gonna be worth some $$!
The elevation profile is on the back. Check out Harding on the second lap!
The after race party at Lefty's!
After the race, I headed over the Homebrew Club's cookout with Andy and Jeff B met us, for some good beer and chili! Beer = excellent recovery drink.
Then we went over to Lefty's for the post race get together with people, but this year's winner Owen Nielson wasn't there to sign the trophy...
Then after the sweet SAYG ride on Sunday, I went MTB'ing with Ritchie for three hours on Monday at 8AM. It was a ton of fun, and I think I might even be fast if I had a bike that fit me! Beat up my legs pretty good too:
No blood means I wouldn't have gone hard enough!
Check out the size of that knot on my shin...it hurt.
That's about all I got, just finished up a stat test that I studied really hard for, and was worried about, but I was the first one done! That felt good. And tonight...goin to hunt some books, then tomorrow heading to Carrboro to visit Ral, Laura and Mark!! Stayin there for the weekend, then my Mom is coming down for the first half of Thanksgiving, and we're going to WV to spend Turkey day with Jean, which should be really good.
Only 1.5 weeks of classes left, craziness!!
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