Training Log: PG

North up the river, with Gail. Low 30s, some sun, not much wind. A little faster today (back on home turf?), and no falls. :-)

Scale says I survived the trip just fine, but it only shows the gross amount, not the distribution. Feels like the latter is changing.

Back home mid-afternoon, just enough time for a Valerie (10 miles, certainly no less, preferably very little more), finished right at sunset. A little ways north along the west side of the river but stopping just before the hills. Upper 20s, sunny, very little wind.

Really nice trip south. Three days to drive to Atlanta to visit Gail's relatives with enough time each day for a ride. About 5 days there, very enjoyable. Then about a week over towards the coast, a rainy start but then fabulous weather, 60s and sunny. Then back north with visits to a lifelong friend of Gail's, and orienteering friends Kissy, Valerie, Boris and Alli (and Inara and Barney), and Sandy. All a great pleasure.

Interesting group, the O' friends. All are getting on a bit (well, nowhere close to me, but still...), even Boris, first remember him at WOC93, helping me peddle as many copies of the relay maps as possible and he was real good at it. Though of course Alli gets a pass, so I guess it's was only 4 semi-geezers.

But think about their contributions to the sport.

Kissy's latest is a couple of years as president of the federation. Valerie has been taking care of meet administration and timing and results forever. Boris and Alli do the monthly OUSA newsletter. And Sandy stepped up to handle all the federation's administrative stuff a while back, plus had directed a zillion events including the 2014 North Americans.

I've heard it said that there are too many "old" people in the sport. Seems like there aren't enough.

Of course, there aren't enough young people either.

Wonderful visit chez Valerie (and Roger and Pepper and DD). Hadn't seen her for quite a while since I haven't been going to O' meets, though I've noticed that she's been injured and keeps going to lots of O' meets. Maybe I need to rethink the situation.

Anyway, the beagles were great, Valerie was delightful as always, and then Roger appeared and wanted to know if I was satisfied with the OUSA financial info that was being presented, and I'm thinking, Roger is a serious AP lurker? But nope, Valerie just occasionally sends him things he might be interested in.

So we're talking about OUSA stuff, and Roger's got his opinions, and he's pretty outspoken about them. Understand that my experience with him in the past had me thinking he was very reserved. So this was a new Roger, well, new to me, and of course the key thing -- he was making good sense.

So give us a day and we'd straighten things out, except both of us are well into our 70s, actually he got a 6-month head start on me, and neither of us needs to be dealing with OUSA problems at this point of our lives. But that doesn't mean we can't bitch... :-)

So a couple of hours went by in no time at all, such a pleasure.

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And then, since we were not far away, visited the neighborhood in Arlington where Gail grew up -- the house her dad built, where different friends lived, the walk to elementary school, and the busy road where she was a crossing guard in the 6th grade. Still trying to imagine the latter.

And then back to Kissy's in Reston, where we are spending a couple of nights. Enough time to get a ride in. By the time I had changed it had started to snow, but I figured I might as well start out.

Headed over to the W&OD bike path, real close to her place, and headed west. After a couple of miles the snow eased up, just a few flurries (and so far it wasn't sticking). And the sky looked a little lighter. So I just kept going. Reached Mona's Lebanese Cafe at about 8 miles, as far west as I'd made it a year ago. Thought making 10 miles, or 20 for the round trip, was a reasonable goal.

Got out to 10, and there was a sign right there. I thought it should say "10 miles from Kissy's" but instead it said "Old Ox Brewery" -- not a bad second choice. Turned around, heading back to Reston, contemplating the options involving Kissy, biking, the Old Ox Brewery, and probably the need for Uber.

Eventually back at Kissy's, having put out a pretty hard effort again. Snowing lightly again. A couple of guys were standing outside the garage of her neighbor's house. We exchanged a few comments about what a fine day it was for a bike ride, and then I did the usual disassembly of the bike, off with the front wheel and the seat, so it would fit in the car better. Meanwhile they'd wandered over. Each was drinking a beer, and the next thing I knew a third beer appeared and was offered to me. How could I refuse?

And we chat some more. One's her next-door neighbor, one lives across the street. Do they know her? Nope. Oh, she's wonderful.

And then, because why not, I suggest they need to get acquainted.

Which happens.

And old anti-social me has introduced Kissy to two of her neighbors. And I'm laughing, and she's actually not ready to kill me. Even if her next-door neighbor is a neat freak when it comes to leaves, and she, well, the leaves look real nice just where they fall.

Did I say we're having a fine time here? :-)

Colder today (low 30s) but less wind. Had full winter gear on except for hand-warmers and was plenty warm enough. Thought it would take some time to readjust to cold weather, but maybe that's not the case, at least for bike rides. My early morning walks the last couple of days have been pretty nippy.

To Vienna and back.

A few miles of the bike path that runs from Richmond to Williamsburg, starting not quite at the Richmond end-point. On my own today. About 40, NW wind maybe 15-20. Headed towards Williamsburg, which is SE of Richmond, so had a nice tail wind for the first half, and while that certainly was pleasant, it was clear the second half was going to be quite different.

And so it was. On the way out I'd only worked hard on the bits where the trail climbs up from the James River. On the way back it felt all really hard, except for the down bits towards the end.

Legs are certainly feeling the first hard effort in a while. Or maybe it's the heavier load they were having to push. Probably both.

C • Bike Path 1