Toto Lake Swim and Seven Gaps

05:05:45 AM: Awake. Getting ready. Heading to the gaps. Looks like some rain from tropical storm Barry may hit Dahlonega later this afternoon.

05:30:15 AM: Late last night (as in after I went to sleep) I got a text message from my sister asking me if I know Nate Pramik. Huh? I'm riding with him today but have never met him in real life. Interested to see what the connection is.

05:31:11 AM: Katrina, Rod Bolls and Nate are in. As is Marc who scored a day pass from the always-generous and kind Leslie.

05:41:52 AM: On the road.

06:09:47 AM: ga400 is four lanes up past windward pkwy. wow. getting lighter out but no sunrise yet.

06:36:54 AM: Here at Toto Creek Park, a little early. Trying to figure out where we swim. And which bush I can pee on.

07:40:19 AM: Excellent 45 min swim alone in a north georgia lake.

03:39:26 PM: Done. Seven gaps, 5hr35min. Ouch. Heading to Moe's.

Summary: Thanks to Katrina for inviting me out on this ride. Rod Bolls was there. Marc was there. Michael was there. Dana was not there because she was busy winning the state cat 4 women's road championship. Go Dana!

It's nice to have a 4/1 triathlete-to-roadie ratio. For once Marc was odd-man out (although I was still the only assclown with aerobars).

Woke up early and made it to Toto Creek by 6:30am. Quiet north Georgia lake. Water was warm, mud was cold. Had some extra time before the planned 7am meeting so I headed out into a cove. I loved this swim. Being alone in the lake was just too cool. Every now and then I'd swim back to the cove that we planned on meeting at to see if anybody was there. Turns out Katrina and Rod swam at another area but we met up afterwards. No big deal... I enjoyed my solitary swim a lot. I'll definitely be doing this more.

Then it was off to R-Ranch/The Rockpile for the ride. We met Michael. Marc showed up. Then we were off.

Immediately Katrina and Rod dropped the pace bomb and I blew my base plan. Kinda caught me off guard. Before I could get my codpiece adjusted I saw 160bpm. Doh. This did not bode well and I promised myself I'd slow down.

The route was Woody's, Wolfpen, Jack's, Unicoi, Neel's, Wolfpen, Woody's.

By the top of Woody's I felt fine but the writing was on the wall. On Wolfpen and Jack's Marc and Rod shot out front and I settled down a bit. Just a bit.

By Unicoi I finally backed off a good bit and sat at 140bpm. But the early over-AT efforts had done their evil work.

Rest stop and Pop Tart fest. Sugar buzz had me doing a nice little pull on the rollers between Unicoi and Neel's. I'm horrible at pacing when I get to the front. I know that with the wind my heart rate should rise but I never know how much. So I go too hard. Exhibit: Airport Rides.

Neels. Oh, Neels. The Pop Tart sugar buzz quickly passed. Luckily the sun came out to bake the crap out of us. It got hot. Marc and Rod shot to the front, the established pattern by this point in the ride. This was one of my worst climbs up Neel's. Normally I love Neel's. But today I was in no-man's land. Unwilling to go super high heart rate and unable to stay low heart rate because of low leg strength, I was just kind of there suffering. Normally I love climbing, not so today.

Up Wolfpen the second time we got a nice rain shower that refreshed and humidified.

Marc's amazing. He kicked arse on all of the climbs. Amazing to see his progress in one short year. And Rod was just off the front all the time. He's been riding bikes for about a year now. Scary fast. Katrina ran 17 miles the day prior but worked through the entire workout in style. She had a hard time getting her heart rate up, but that's to be expected at the end of a long training cycle for an IM race. This was her last before IMCDA.

Average heart rate was 140bpm. This was front-loaded with some 150bpm and some 160/170bpm spikes. Last few climbs I settled into some nice 130bpm work. We did the ride in 5:35 which was a big surprise to me and Marc. We estimated a much longer day.

Two big lessons for me today:

1) If you plan on doing a base workout, do a base workout. 'Nuff said. I'm rtarded.

2) Time to kick up the plyos again. I have no leg strength. Plyos with the weight vest are in order. Maybe I can add a back yard session in once a week to start.

Afterwards we hit Moe's and Marc's glacial eating pace blew Rodney's 30 min time budget out of the water.

Marc's summary, including a shiny graph!

Enjoyed the ride everybody! Sorry for all the whining!

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