Well I wrote a long reply to your question and it didn't take.

However, the short story is, not much. If we could positively identify the dogs to find the owner.
At this point my biggest agrevation is with animal control's inability to respond to an obvious animal cruelty case. Two days later U talked to the woman in charge who snai mailed me animal complant forms to fill out and mail back. This is the second time I've done so, possibly on one or both of the suspected dogs. I was also told that they would be out monday am and told tuesdan am that they would be coming out to make sure the kids at the bus stop will be safe. No signs of dogs or animal control.

Thanks for asking.

Plan to get back on the bike in the morning.

Linda, yikes! Here's to hoping for a swift recovery for him.

It's another installment of operation burn up vacation time. Today, I headed back to Stone Mountain, but this time I went all the way into the park, and then did the big loop inside. So my ride ended up being 42.8 miles. Holy crap! After I came out of the park I took a good 20 minute rest break, rehydrated, and ate the Luna bar I remembered to bring this time. My shoulders were sore a lot of the ride home. My knees were a little cranky. That loop in the park is no joke. Some pretty good hills. Got home and ate leftover Mexican quinoa, took an ibuprofen, then a 2 hour nap. :-)

The colors are a little better now. It's still not going to be a dazzling season, sadly.

More on the ground than on the tree.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1117/...cb77aa92af.jpg

Another pretty tree.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/...19df813184.jpg

It's really just a big rock.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/...051e56afee.jpg

My favorite.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1250/...6791123b3b.jpg

Lake, big rock.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1087/...39e4c7f1d4.jpg

Luna bar break.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4053/...6a0b427e1a.jpg

abracapocus, great pixs as always, good distance as well

10/30/2010
21.8 miles today
180 ride days LY vs. 184 ride days TY
1833 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 75.5% of my goal. 82.7% of the year has passed, this is not looking good
94 miles ahead of last year at this date
25.7 miles average ride this month
30.85 miles average ride this yr.

Motivation meter today 10.5 on a scale of 1-10

Fantastic weather today temp in the low 80s and low humidity. Would have road longer but had to take care of some banking business. Perhaps I will get out later this evening.

Yep.... Got out for a short ride on the mountain bike. Started out with a ride to the post office because I was too dirty to take the van (working outside all day). Rode about 11 miles... 4 miles back into a wicked headwind. Felt worse than it was im sure because I was on the heavy mountain bike as apposed to my road bike.... Anyway a short ride is better than no ride :)

Great set of pics. I used to love just going out for a ride and rambling on, beig amazed later at ho far I'd gone. Good work.
I'd think that your soreness is from all that up and down. Have you been properly fit to your bike? How was your pacing on the hills? Did you sit while spining a low gear?

Much the same here, felt better than I thought but needed to save some energy for work. All the same 15 mph avg felt SSSOOooooooooo SSLLOooww.

Distance: 22.22 mi
Time: 01:28:15 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 15.1 mph
Avg HR: 107 bpm
Avg Bike Cadence: 70 rpm
Avg Power: 108
Elevation Gain: 292 ft
Calories: 420 C
Max Speed: 28.6 mph
Max HR: 149 bpm
Max Bike Cadence: 192 rpm
Avg Temp: 65.8

Nice pics abracapocus I see most of those places each time I ride out to SM. Somehow the sights never looked that nice. Maybe its the lighting or lack of. Not sure I recognize this spot. Where is this? I recognize the green rail fence. Its around the park.

Did 3 laps around the lake in Avondale and headed out to Stn Mtn today. Only did 30 miles. I'll have to remember to take my camera next time. Some of the trees in Avondale have nice color in spite of the drought.

Forgot to say COOOL pictures by everybody... I took my camera today but didn't really see anything worth taking a picture of. Went to the G.ville Hawthorne trail rode the whole trail starting in Hawthorne. LOTS of people out enjoying the trail today. I know little kids on bike can be kind of scary on the trail, but I still love seeing them riding... I met one family on the hills near the G.vill end, a real little guy on a bike (no training wheels) he could not make it up the hill so the dad was riding along side kind of pulling him up the hill. I yelled good luck.... On the way back met them almost in the same place again..... again with the dad pulling the lil guy up the hill....

Ended up riding 30.64 miles... at a good pace for me.... A bit faster on the back trip to the car.... Slight tail wind on the way back i guess :D

droobieinop, When I went to look at my road bike, I took an old friend that worked in & ran bike shops for many years. He checked it out for me and seemed to think the fit was good except that it might be close to being too small. None of the aches were lasting. All were gone the next day. It's probably partly fit and partly my body complaining that it's not happily sitting on the couch doing nothing. :-) Usually I sit & spin up hills. Occasionally I'll start off one standing, especially from a light. Usually I try and keep as little pressure on my knees as possible. Got caught off guard a few times on these hills since I hadn't ridden this route before.

RonH, Looking at some other pics I took, it looks like that one was between the golf club and the family camp ground on the big loop, Stonewall Jackson I guess it's called.

Sounds like you're doing fine then.

I put Mr. Tuffys on my commuter bike tires Friday, and wound up doing 30 miles on them Saturday morning. The group I rode with was pretty diverse, from a retired guy with knee replacement, to a cancer patient, to a guy fresh out of the Coast Guard... needless to say, I wasn't flying (I was the only one not on a road bike) but I did several long pulls in front of the slower guys, as it was pretty windy. It was a nice day, and was great for developing friendships.

I seriously need a road bike...

Saturday 10/30/2010, no ride, no excuse.

Sunday 10/31/2010 Inter Coastal Waterway Century

SolSpoke Tina and I got up at 5:00 am. After a quick breakfast we loaded the bikes on to her car and did the 1 hour and 30 minute drive to Cocoa Beach for The Space Coast Freewheelers 22nd annual Inter Costal Waterway Century. We arrived their about 7 and did a couple of trips around the area to find a parking space. We managed to get a spot right in front of the Civic Center where the registration and breakfast was taking place and was also the start finish line for the ride. We picked up our packets and had a second breakfast then headed out to unload the bikes and wait for the start. Shortly before the gun went off for the start Tina looked back and saw about 500 cyclists that were chomping at the bit to get started. I think this was a bit of a surprise for her as she decided to move over to the side of the road and let the race horses go first. It was a mass start and very congested for about 3 to 4 blocks before things started to sort themselves out. We fell in towards the end of the mass and it still took some time to get up to speed. We road north along the Inter Coastal Waterway for about 14 miles before turning east across the causeway. We got caught with the draw bridge up allowing a sail boat to pass which was a welcome rest for me as we were averaging speeds that I haven’t done in 30 years. We could see the NASA VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) off in the distance from the bridge. I had hopes of getting close enough to the launch pad where Discovery SST 133 is ready to launch on Wednesday but the 64 mile route didn’t go that far out.

The first SAG stop was at the Astronauts and Police Officers Hall Of Fame at about the 17.5 mile mark. Our plan was to spend as little time at the SAGs as possible in order to keep up with the group. I tried to get some photos of the space shuttle and some of the rockets that were on static display but the camera malfunctioned for some reason. I did run into the lobby of the Police hall of Fame and take a few quick photos of some displays in the lobby. We were back on the bikes pretty quick and there were still riders arriving at the SAG. I informed my daughter that if she expected me to finish the ride I needed to slow the pace a little bit. Well we did slow down a little (about 1 mile per hr.). Now I don’t normally ride this fast going downhill.

The second SAG was about a mile south of the 520 bridge at mile marker 39.5. At about mile 35 I started to get a cluster headache which I am prone to get quite frequently. Cluster headaches are like migraine headaches for men. Often times I can take 2-3 Goody’s Powders and things clear up in a few minutes. Some time I can take 6 Goody’s and nothing helps, this was one of those times. We sat there at the SAG stop for about 20 minutes and the pain was so intense that I decided to pull the plug on the ride. It was about a 2 mile ride across the 520 bridge and back to where the car was parked. I really felt bad that I could not finish the ride and especially since Tina was on her way to set a great average speed, but I was at a point where it was not enjoyable for me..

This is a great ride and I would recommend it to everyone. It was well marked and laid out very well to minimize traffic. At each SAG stop the volunteers were dressed in Halloween costumes and would ring cowbells and blow horns and cheer the arrival of each group of riders. This is a very flat ride and the only climbs are the bridge approaches. The wind was not a factor like I had thought it would be. We will do this ride again next year but first I will need to work on building up my speed before that happens. There were a lot of century riders that were back between the 4 and 5 hour mark, so they had to be averaging 20 to 25 mph. Even as fast as I/we were traveling I was still pretty slow.

Photo 1 & 2 Slospoke Tina looking dazed and bewildered at the start line
Photo 3 Draw bridge in the up position. The VAB is in the distance but not visible in photo
Phot 4, 5, and 8 my photos from inside the Police Haal Of Fame
Photo 6 & 7 From the NASA web site to give you some flavor. The picturess I took were messed up

11/02/2010

Tina and I road to my voting location so I could cast my ballot, then we stopped by the LBS and I got anothe spoke replaced. #3 for me... New wheel is on order...

We managed to get in 24 miles before the rain caught us.

Also rode to the polls today. Felt compelled to document the commute with some new helmet decor. http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kxxy0kAj7Ls/TN...576/voter2.JPG
Aaaaand I hurriedly snapped this as well. In hindsight, probably should have spun the bike around. Oh well
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_kxxy0kAj7Ls/TN...s640/voter.JPG

Distance: 22.53 mi
Time: 01:40:16 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 13.5 mph
Avg HR: 115 bpm
Avg Bike Cadence: 65
Avg Power: 98
Elevation Gain: 456 ft
Calories: 645 C
Max Speed: 27.2 mph
Max HR: 169 bpm
Max Bike Cadence: --


Second day on the repurposed hybrid single speed cyclocross bike (pictures to come later).
Rode to vote today. Then again, I ride most places, everyday. But anyway.
Numbers are low becuase the boss and I went riding through all the little off road spots we could find. It's surprising what you can find when you look hard enough. Tomorrow is going to be a long one, early morning long ride, then training CX races after work.

The current weds am long ride. In to work, then down to Green Cove for a coffee stop and back again. I don't buy the avg cadence though, Garmin Connect shows 40 while Training Center has 88.

Oh, then we did a 40 minute CX training race this evening. We had around 20 or more racers all at once. The boss did 12 laps and won. I did 10 laps and finished like 10th. Yes, I was laped twice by the lead 2 or so riders and I even got chicked by a champion level endurance mtb racer.

Distance: 37.50 mi
Time: 02:15:07 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 16.6 mph
Avg HR: 119 bpm
Avg Bike Cadence: 40 rpm
Avg Power: 134
Elevation Gain: 358 ft
Calories: 1,181 C
Max Speed: 27.6 mph
Max HR: 164 bpm
Max Bike Cadence: 129 rpm

Is there anybody out there?

Distance: 26.77 mi
Time: 01:37:23 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 16.5 mph
Avg HR: --
Avg Bike Cadence: 79 rpm
Avg Power: --
Elevation Gain: 377 ft
Calories: 1,632 C
Max Speed: 30.6 mph
Max HR: --
Max Bike Cadence: 120 rpm

I'm here....... but a bum..... last ride was Sunday....... I really really honestly was going to ride yesterday, but that bit of rain when it was falling was really cold...... The other days.... I was/am a bum <sigh>

Distance: 26.83 mi
Time: 01:34:53 h:m:s
Avg Speed: 17.0 mph
Avg HR: 126 bpm
Avg Bike Cadence: 84 rpm
Avg Power: 149
Elevation Gain: 268 ft
Calories: 909 C
Max Speed: 29.9 mph
Max HR: 170 bpm
Max Bike Cadence: 122 rpm
Avg Temp: 52.2

Because of several thing, I hadn't ridden since last Saturday.. but today I rode to work and back, was 16.5 miles total with loaded bags and a killer headwind.

I'm debating on whether I want to get up early to ride tomorrow... I think I might, but it won't be before dawn.

I'm glad to see it wasn't just me that just couldn't get riding this past week. Finally got out yesterday. It's my telework day, but I rode over somewhere else two work. About 10 miles round trip. A garbage truck pulled a bonehead maneuver on the way over. Pulled over into the other lane to pass me. So he saw me. Then saw some cans and fully cut me off to get next to them. The passenger was a little surprised to see me right below the door. My stink eye probably froze a portion of his brain.

The ride home was in the dark, after it had been raining and sleeting, and it was about 40 degrees. Is it weird that I loved it? Now I have this mighty need to roll over empty city streets in the wee hours of the night all bundled up against the cold. If only the streets around here were in better condition. I'm also loving my new headlight, a cygolite expilion 250. It's awesome for lighting up those space between the street lights.

Guess tomorrow I'm going to ride 47 miles. Wee!

No ride this morning - too chilly. Spent the morning up a ladder cleaning muddy gunk out of the gutters. Then it was time to watch the Gators take on (and, as it turned out, take apart) Vanderbilt with the usual crowd from church. Once the game ended it was time to layer up and head out. Got in 32.5 at 16.2 with a constantly-decreasing temperature and lots of wind. I can't feel my feet at present. :) Need to get some booties and a wind shell before I head to Bartow next Saturday or I'll flippin' freeze to death. :)

It was 30F this morning so I waited until 11:15 to go riding. The temp was a balmy 43F. :) Did my usual ride but a little slower. My average speed was ~0.6 mph less than usual. I guess the cold temps affect my riding. :o It sure affect my hands (cold). Ended up doing 31 miles.

11/07/2010
24.2 miles today
185 ride days LY vs. 187 ride days TY
1743 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 77% of my goal. 85.2% of the year has passed, this is not looking good
22 miles ahead of last year at this date
24.1 miles average ride this month
30.80 miles average ride this yr.

Motivation meter today 7.0 on a scale of 1-10

It was cold and windy, hope tomorrow is warmer...

great ride today on the Sun Coast trail 80.13 miles 4:22:40 rolling time 18.3 mph rolling avg. 34.5 mph max 5685 calories burned 146 bpm avg. HR 188 bpm max 1600 ft ascent

This morning it was 31 F when I left the house for the OTP/ITP Ramble. My feet were a little cold, but otherwise I dressed just right. Shorts under thick tights, knee high sock liners and socks, long sleeve base layer, short sleeve jersey, jacket, scarf, polar fleece hat and winter gloves.

I lucked out and found myself on the starting line next to a pair of guys together and another guy all doing the 47. They'd also all done lots of rides like this before so they knew what they were doing, unlike me. Bonus: one had a garmin with the route on it just in case we missed markers. So we all stuck together the entire ride. The 2nd half of the ride I was getting really slow on the hills, and then would catch up on the flats and down hills and thanks to some lights. The cars were really respectful and gave us lots of room except one, a cop. Really?

Last night I installed a little bike computer so I can share how slow I am. ;-) I was sad the average turned out so low when I saw those 21 mph speeds on the flats. I also saw the 8-9 mph on the hills so it makes sense.

miles: 47.66
ave mph: 12.6
max mph: 32.1

Sorry, only a couple of pics. Too busy keeping up with those guys. Also, not very picturesque. You don't really need to see pictures of pawn shops on Jonesboro Road, do you? There were some pretty trail shots I missed though.

A little Fall color at the main rest stop at Welcome All Park.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1182/...c32cb319f7.jpg

Waiting for the train to pass with 2 of the 3 dudes. My view for most of the ride: their backsides.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/...9108fa8289.jpg