What? No Race this weekend?

My wife, Lisa, asked me on Saturday morning when I was still there at 8:00am and had no plan for riding or racing, "What ever will you blog about?" It's true that I try to find something to do on my bike almost every weekend. It's also true that most of the time my adventures in cycling occur on Saturday mornings. It's about the best time to ride for many reasons. Lisa isn't a morning person like me. My girls are not morning people either. So if I get up with the trees and ride for a few hours it works out well because usually by the time I've returned they're just getting ready to do...whatever. I even get leftover breakfast...sometimes.
This weekend I had no plan to ride. I hadn't even tried to organize a ride. I planned to work in a couple of trainer rides and do whatever my family wanted to do. We had a blast.
Saturday morning I slept late (8:00am!) and then got up to make cinnamon rolls. While we ate them and I drank some of Lisa's delicious coffee I found a Classic to watch "Live" on CyclingFans.com  . How fortunate! My girls and I sat and watched Spartacus power out a victory in the first Classic race of the year in Europe, the Strade Bianche.

Cinnamon Rolls and a Classic. Breakfast for roadies.

And Paris-Nice started Sunday with a Time Trial almost won by Levi and TJ Van Garderen only 5 seconds behind him. I really enjoyed watching them battle to end the season at the Tour of Colorado. I can't wait to see all the action this season. With NBC Sports Network covering so many races this year I'll be able to record and watch all the action while Lisa watches Dancing With The Stars in the living room. Yeah baby!

So after a hearty breakfast and two cups of coffee...and some cantaloupe...I headed downstairs to push through 2 hours of endurance on my Cyclops Power Cycle. I assembled my bottles, food and a towel and began pedaling. The tough thing about doing a long ride on the indoor cycle is that it's a fixed gear with no free wheel. In other words there's no coasting. Once I start, I don't stop pedaling until I'm finished. I have no idea if pedaling for 2 hours straight helps me at all but I think it does. Yes. It does. Sure.

My oldest daughter (12) Molly came down to run on the tread mill while I was there. She's been training hard for the Dirty Spokes Duathlon we're doing together on March 10th. She will be running 3.8 miles and then handing off to me for a 10 mile mountain bike. Lisa will run with her.
I rode...she talked. She gets that from her mother.

We horsed around the house for a while and then headed to Red Lobster at the Mall of Georgia to meet my parents and my brother Jeremy and his family for an early dinner at 4:30pm. We debated on whether it's called Dunch or Linner. And we had plenty of time to debate because we were supposed to go to Red Lobster in Gainesville! Blah! My Dad and brother, we call him Germ, both have birthday's in March so it was a Birthday Seafood Extravaganza! All good until Germ started telling stories from our high school days. I did some pretty stupid stuff in those days and unfortunately he was a witness to most of it. My Mom just shook her head the whole time.

Watching TV with my girls.

Once we filled ourselves with cheese biscuits it was time to be lazy. There's only one way to declare your lazy intentions in my house...PJ's. So we all watched some TV and went to bed. A very good day.

Thomas Pattillo...exercising?

Sunday was another day for some extended endurance. 2 more hours on the iron beast. This time I had the Pattillo's to keep me company. They came over for the afternoon and exercised while I pedaled. They also took turns taking pictures, playing "office" and "gym" and riding the elliptical like a Six Flags ride. Chaos was the order of the day.

Ellie and Erin "riding" the elliptical.

Once all our "workouts" were done I learned of a plan that was formulated in which I would take the older children to see Star Wars 3D and my wife and Jessica would take the littles to see The Lorax. I quickly placed my seal of approval on the plan and off we went. Some Raisinettes and a medium popcorn later we found out that The Lorax was not that great and Star Wars 3D ROCKS! I could have told them that. But my role on the weekends is to do whatever the ladies want. I turn my brain off on the weekends. It's a practice that runs along the same line as the "Straight A Rule" and the principle of "Romance = Hide & Seek". I may share these little tid bits of wisdom in another post.

My Fitness Pal

This is the "app" my wife Lisa uses to monitor her fitness and healthy eating habits. She was introduced to it by her friend Nikki Grizzle who lost around 25 pounds and her husband Randy who lost at least 40 pounds. It's spread like wild fire among the ladies in our circle of friends. And I don't mind telling you I'm a very happy camper because of it. Lisa looks GREAT! Jessica Pattillo is having to buy new clothes. And our friend Julie Pritchard is now classified as skinny because of her dedication to using My Fitness Pal.
I suppose this is my endorsement of the app but more than that it's my plea to each of you who struggles with your weight. This tool can give you a game to play on your phone that will help you get control. The benefits are so liberating. You will love it!

This weekend I'll be competing with my daughter Molly in a Dirty Spokes Duathlon at Fort Yargo in Winder, Georgia. Then I'll be joining friends on March 17th at the Chainbuster 6/9 Hr MTB Race at the Georgia International Horse Park. David Shabat and I need a third team mate if anyone is interested. We simply want to do the "Just Having Fun" category. It's going to be great!

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!

Chad Hayes