It’s been a busy past few days for sure. As I explained in my previous post, I stayed home from Syllamo in order to train in a hard but less brutal environment. It wasn’t a bad choice, because with a several-hour deluge immediately preceding the race start, the course conditions were characteristically treacherous. After having a hard time with the wet rocks and a wheel-swallowing rut, Ryan ended up with a DNF at the first aid station, and Matt gutted it out for 4th in his age category, finally getting his “rock” (the large, engraved stone awards) after 6 years of competing. Luckily, all Ryan took home was a few scratches and a flat spot in his rear rim.

Since Ryan and Matt were gone Friday evening, I decided to go over to my parents’ house and make dinner for them since my mom was still just mostly recovered from surgery (and I owed her home-made ice cream since I’d told her that my black eye came from a crowded yoga class). I started the day by dropping by Jack’s Farm to pick up some duck eggs in order to make the ice cream extra-rich. While I was there, he gave me a quick tour…

I can already tell I’ll be really sad in the winter when there’s no delicious fresh vegetables from the farm.

Dinner was pretty boss. I roasted some chicken thighs to go with turnip greens and baked sweet potatoes.

Mom, Dad, and Penny:

Saturday morning was chilly and damp. It was a perfect morning for going to a yoga class to stretch out and pass the time before everything dried out a little. Afterward, I came home for lunch and intervals before going down to Southaven to meet John and the other guys from the gym to watch the Bellator MMA fights. The fights were fun to watch, though the best part may have been when the lady in front of Trey suddenly turned around and threatened to beat him up if he touched her hair again (I’m somewhat certain that it was getting caught in the seam of the seat cushion and that Trey wasn’t actually touching it).

That may be the latest I’ve stayed up in more than a year.

Sunday morning was another wet/rainy one. Luckily, it cleared quickly, and I started on my long ride (6 hours) around 9. I’ve got a nice route that hits several short pieces of gravel. All of them are road bike-able, but I figured I’d go out on the new Cysco and get some more time on it before Kanza. A quick report for anyone in the area that likes gravel roads- Braden Road, despite what the signs say about the bridge being out, is clear, and the bridge is fixed:

Lambert Road is OK, though as you get further east, there are a couple of wet low spots and a couple of chunky spots. It warmed my heart to see road bike tracks out there ahead of my own:

There is also a fence that’s partially down near the east end. I navigated cautiously around a pregnant cow who was wandering around, doing cow stuff:

The other gravel I hit (Wilson, Fowler, and Mockingbird) were in good shape and mostly hardpack. Despite stopping for a few photos as well as two water refill breaks, I rode pretty hard for the duration. The last couple of hours were pretty painful, though I found myself tapping in to the power still left in my muscles despite the hurt. I spent the remainder of the evening either eating or sitting on the couch using the Elevated Legs.

Now, it’s on to tapering. I’ll have a little intensity sprinkled throughout the next couple of weeks, but the training for Kanza is now fully loaded into my legs. If all goes as planned, I’ll feel like bending cranks by about Wednesday next week.