Warped

About once a week I run.  Although running is barbaric, it's good cross-training, it lets me fit in a decent workout when my schedule is busy, and it keeps me from killing myself during the two 5Ks I like to support each year (the Athletes Helping Athletes 5K to benefit Southeastern Greyhound Adoption and the Deer Dash 5K here in my town).

Being primarily a roadie, I always feel rather slow when I ride dirt roads.  Running seems even slower.  I feel like I ought to be zipping down the road like I do on my bicycle.  I ran at lunch today.  Despite feeling fine physically, it was like I was running through molasses.  Maybe it was just a warp in the space-time continuum.

Pine Mountain Challenge

We rode to Pine Mountain and back, and it was a challenge.  Thus, the Pine Mountain Challenge was aptly named.  As always, the Pine Mountain Challenge was tough but fun - the best cycling combination.  I'm always a little sad to see the winter training season end with this annual grand finale.

Prologue
The ride started from its usual location at Gordon State College in Barnesville.  As Robert and I drove into town Saturday morning, we stopped at McDonald's for a bathroom break and for coffee for Robert.  As I waited for Robert to get his order, I noticed a group of older men hanging out and having breakfast.  They looked just like the group of older men who meet every morning in Monticello and probably every other small town in America.  One of the men was wearing a hat that had the words "FBI" and "JESUS" on it with some smaller words in between.  It was like a gothic detail from a Flannery O'Connor story; I just had to know what the other words were.  I couldn't decipher them from the few surreptitious glances I made, and so I walked a little closer.  By that time, it was pretty obvious that I was staring.  I said, "I'm sorry.  I'm just trying to read your hat."  The man wasn't offended at all.  In fact, the whole group was quite jovial and started poking fun at each other the way longtime friends do.  Here's what the entire hat read: "FBI Firm Believer in Jesus."  Kind of creepy and hilarious all at the same time.  I love the South.  Even though this man's brand of Christianity isn't the same as mine, I felt a kinship with him.  In the words of Sting, "It's a big enough umbrella..."

Peaceful Easy Feeling
Eight of us rolled out of the college parking lot, followed by Jennifer Cain, who very graciously drove the SAG vehicle for us all day.  Thank you, Jennifer!  Stony joined us several miles into the route, riding from his home in Lizella.  (Those of us who rode from Barnesville did a total of 126 miles, but Stony did somewhere around 175 miles!)  Daniel also joined us later, riding from his home in Thomaston.

The weather during the first weekend in February, when we usually have the Pine Mountain Challenge, tends to be beautiful.  Saturday the temperature was mostly in the 40s and 50s, and the sky was a brilliant blue.  Add some glorious woods and rivers, and that's winter riding in Georgia at its finest.

Knowing that it would be a challenge for me to hang with the guys, I sat in for the entire ride.  Before Daniel joined us, we had an odd number, and so I just enjoyed chilling on the back of the peloton.  The guys were chatting with each other, adding a pleasant, murmuring backdrop to my reverie.  We averaged about 21 mph for the first 50 miles, and I barely felt like I was putting out any effort.  I knew that wouldn't last forever, though.

"P" is for Power
The first hiccup in my ride was only about an hour in as we approached pee break time.  I was really starting to need it.  When Stony said, "I'll be ready to stop whenever somebody calls a pee break," I said, "I hear ya!"  Then he suggested that I call it.  So I did.  Whoa!  The peloton stopped immediately!  Riding past the others to find a secluded spot, I joked, "I have the power!"

My dominion didn't last long.  It's always a challenge to pee quickly because I have to dash into the woods while the guys just pause by the side of the road.  Wintertime can be especially challenging.  Saturday I had to take off both my jacket and my jersey to be able to pull down my bib shorts.  As I stumbled through the brush back toward my bicycle as the guys were riding by, Robert joked, "Are you lost?"  I said, "Not all who wander are lost."  Of course, my gloves had to be finicky as I tried to put them back on.  I went as fast as I could but saw the peloton getting farther and farther away.  At last I was ready to go again and took off.  Fortunately, Jennifer had hung back in the SAG vehicle and helped me motorpace back to the group.  Just what I needed - an exhausting L4 effort with more than 100 miles to go!

The Climb(s) up Pine Mountain
I was still feeling fairly strong after several hours.  We decided not to stop at the store in Shiloh around mile 57.  I was fine with that because I had plenty of food and drink to last until our lunch stop at Dowdell's Knob, about 18 miles farther.  It was no picnic getting there, though.

I knew that an attack zone was planned for the climb to the ridge along Pine Mountain.  Not surprisingly, I got dropped at the attack zone.  I just kept pedaling as strongly as I could.  Jake added a bonus to this year's route.  Once we got to the top of Pine Mt., we descended and rode through a beautiful part of FDR State Park that I had never visited before.  The bonus was that we had to climb back up to the ridge a second time.  As if once weren't enough.  Oh, well, I just put my head down and powered my way up again.

Once I got back up on the ridge, it was still six miles to Dowdell's Knob, and it wasn't flat along the ridge.  Jeff Kahley and I rode the last few miles to the lunch stop together.  The road from Highway 190 to Dowdell's Knob is only a moderate climb, but it seemed pretty hefty after the two climbs we had just made up to the ridge.  And it seemed to go on forever!  But at last we made it to the rest of the group, who had already arrived.

Dowdell's Knob
Dowdell's Knob was a favorite picnic spot of Franklin D. Roosevelt when he visited his Little White House in nearby Warm Springs.  It's easy to see why he took such solace here (photos never do justice to the view):

We ate lunch at the overlook.  I had made sure to label by lunch sack because I didn't want anyone to steal my sardines:

I can't carry crackers in my jersey because they would get smashed to crumbs, but thanks to the SAG vehicle, I got to have saltines with my sardines on Saturday.  Fancy!

This was our only real stop of the day, and so I had to soak it up:

You’re Getting Very Sleepy
The plan was to stay together the rest of the way, riding two up.  I resumed my position at the back of the peloton.  Shortly after our lunch stop, I started getting really sleepy on my bike.  Not fatigued, but sleepy – like I could lie down by the side of the road and take a nap.  This has happened another time or two on Peach Peloton after a stop.  It must be my blood redirecting to my digestive system after I eat.  I haven’t noticed this sleepiness after eating during randonneuring events, and so I suspect the intensity of Peach Peloton has something to do with it.  Fortunately, I have been able to fight my way through it and feel (relatively) normal again.

Although the sleepiness went away, fatigue from exertion started to affect me.  We approached Cove Road, where the guys slightly ramped it up.  At about mile 94, next to the big satellite dishes, I finally had to back off.  I waved Jennifer in the SAG vehicle around me and told her to stay with the front group.  Even though I would be riding the rest of the way by myself, it was worth it to be able to go at a manageable pace.  Robert later told me that if I had hung on for just five or ten more minutes, I could have stayed with the group the rest of the way because they finally sat up.  Maybe.  But I certainly wouldn’t have predicted that based on the usual Peach Peloton m.o.

Solo Riding
I plodded on, not worrying about my speed but simply trying to ride steadily.  About 108 miles in, I decided that a five-minute break would do me a lot of good.  I stopped at a church where I had tried – unsuccessfully – to get water three years ago during the Pine Mountain Challenge.  This time, I had plenty of Gatorade.  I just wanted a safe place to get off the road, and the grassy area next to the church fit the bill.  It’s amazing how much that brief break helped.  By the way, later I noticed on the Strava map of my ride that I had stopped right next to Buzzard Mountain.  If I had lingered too long, the buzzards might have mistaken me for dinner.

The remaining miles dwindled.  With about four miles to go, here came Robert in our car.  He knew better than to try to convince me to stop there, but he was very thoughtful to follow me the rest of the way back to Gordon State College.

Post-Ride
Back at the parking lot, I changed into warm clothes as quickly as my tired bones would allow.  Robert drove us to Jonah’s, a decent pizza place in Forsyth that was on the way home.  It may not be IVP (Ingleside Village Pizza in Macon, our very favorite pizza place and one of our team sponsors), but Jonah’s got the job done.

When I got home, I took a nice, warm shower and changed into flannel pajamas and my robe.  Even so, I still felt chilled.  Robert said he felt the same way.  We attributed it to our bodies starting the repair work after our hard effort.  It was a luxurious feeling to know that I would be able to rest and sleep for the next 12 hours.

I'll be ready when Peach Peloton season rolls around again next November.  Peach Peloton may be tough, but it is so worthwhile – yet another way that cycling is like life.  And I’m grateful to have such great companions along the way.

My Peach Peloton Peeps
Front (L-R): Van, Stony, Robert, me, Jake, John
Back (L-R): Cal, Daniel, Jeff K., Cody

Picky, Picky

There's an old business adage:

Good, cheap, fast - pick 2.

A friend just shared an article that postulates a similar reality for life in general:

Work, sleep, family, fitness, friends - pick 3.

http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/work-sleep-family-fitness-or-friends-pick-3.html?cid=sf01002&sr_share=facebook

Although this article was written from the perspective of an entrepreneur, it really applies to most working Americans.  I'm fascinated that someone has summarized the reality of modern life so succinctly.  People - women in particular - have deluded themselves into thinking they can have it all.  It's just not possible with the constraints of a 24-hour day.  I don't even have kids, and I never feel like I have enough time.  Ironically, being able to frame life in this pick-three structure gives me a sense of relief.  The key is to decide which three are my biggest priorities.  My life choices to date have pretty much decided that for me; now, I just need to embrace it.

Work
This is non-negotiable for me.  My career gives me a great deal of satisfaction, and Robert and I enjoy a lifestyle that requires two incomes.  After having to lay myself off from my own company at the beginning of the Great Recession in 2009, I discovered that too much of my self worth was defined by my work.  Nevertheless, I truly enjoy the problem solving and service to others that engineering affords me.  I plan to keep working for at least a couple more decades.

Sleep
Although I'd like to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night, I think I do pretty well to get at least 7 hours of sleep on weeknights and usually 8 hours or more on weekend nights.  I simply can't function well with much less than this.

Family
All of my family live more than an hour's drive away from me.  I would love to see them more, but it takes at least half a day to have any kind of decent visit.  Robert's parents live right around the corner.  I don't even get to see them as much as I'd like because I commute about 35 miles one way to work, but I'm grateful for the time we do get to spend together.  In addition, to me family also includes the tasks necessary to keep Robert's and my household running smoothly (e.g., cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping).  I do many such tasks daily.  Even so, I'll probably always feel inadequate regarding the time I spend with family.

Fitness
Yes, I prioritize this.  I average about 10 hours of riding per week, year round.  Exercise - cycling in particular - makes me healthy, relieves stress, keeps me emotionally balanced, and is just plain fun!

Interestingly, RAAM intensified the pick-three reality.  For five months before RAAM, about all I did was train and work.  It was worth it for the short term, but it definitely wasn't sustainable indefinitely.  The training time commitment - and expense - are the reasons I doubt I'll do RAAM again, even though it was a blast.  I'll reconsider if I become independently wealthy.

Friends
I am grateful for the various friends I have had throughout my life.  However, I've never been one to simply "hang out."  Usually, I'd much rather read or do some other solo activity.  These days, my closest friends tend to be my cycling buddies.  To a great degree, I combine family, fitness, and friends because Robert is an avid cyclist, too.

I've come up with a balance that suits me about as well as possible.  Marilyn vos Savant in Parade magazine once put it something like this: I love having 10 times more things to do than I can possibly accomplish.  That way I can pick and choose what I want to do.  If I had only enough things to do to fill the time that I have, I'd be stuck doing those things.

Now if we can just be gracious enough to accept that every person might prioritize any three of the five life areas.  There's no one right answer.

Georgia Neurosurgical Institute Team Training Camp

This past weekend my Georgia Neurosurgical cycling team had its annual training camp.  Epic riding, good eats, and a great time with my teammates - Bill, Cal, Cody, Jeff, Robert, Tina, Tony, Tyler, and Van (we missed you, Robyn!) - what a bright spot in the bleakness of winter!

Weather

Back in September my team started planning our training camp.  We picked the last weekend in January as the date and Chattanooga as the destination, a combination that was somewhat a roll of the dice weather-wise.  We won!  The weather was great, particularly for midwinter.  Temperatures ranged from the 40s to 60s during ride time both days.  On Saturday the sun shone in a deep blue sky.  Sunday was cloudy but still quite pleasant for riding.

The Crash Pad

Chattanooga has become a happening destination for outdoor recreation.  It draws hikers, rock climbers, and even triathletes with its inaugural hosting of an Ironman last year.  We cyclists like the challenge of the climbs surrounding town.  Chattanooga has built on these natural amenities by revitalizing its downtown with great restaurants, arts, and an overall energized vibe.  Right after my team decided to go to Chattanooga, my friend Jimmy Deane posted on Facebook about a hostel called The Crash Pad.  It turned out to be the perfect place to stay for training camp: inexpensive, basic, and hip.

The Crash Pad has mostly bunk beds plus a few private rooms.  The bunks are quite comfortable, featuring blackout curtains, a shelf with outlets, a light, a fan, and a lockable storage area underneath.  Linens are provided.

Each floor has a men’s and women’s restroom.  The restroom is very clean and has two stalls and two showers.  Towels and washcloths are provided, but you do need your own soap.  I forgot to bring some, but I was able to buy a bar of fancy, good smelling, handmade soap for $1 from the front desk.

Do-it-yourself breakfast is included in the price.  A staff member sets out locally produced eggs, artisan breads, and various spreads.  The fully stocked kitchen is also available for cooking any time of day.  The kitchen counter has these cool cycling "fossils":

Other hostel amenities include free Wi-Fi and computer access, free parking, and an outdoor pavilion area with a gas grill and fire pit.  They even have $2 bottles of (good, i.e., craft) beer available in a big refrigerator.  Conveniently, you get a bottle opener on your keyring, along with a fob to access the building and sleeping quarters and a key to your bunk storage area.

The Crash Pad is located in the Southside neighborhood.  This used to be a very run-down part of town.  You’d never know it now with all of the activity, energy, and refurbished buildings like The Flying Squirrel bar.  The Flying Squirrel is right next door to The Crash Pad and has the same owners.

We didn’t go to The Flying Squirrel this past weekend, but Robert visited it with some college fraternity brothers last summer.  He said it really gets going about 10:00 PM (when we serious cyclists are going to bed).  I suspect that some of our hostel mates spent time at The Flying Squirrel.  A young woman with blue hair talked with Ginny (Tyler’s wife) on Saturday morning after the team left for our ride.  Blue Hair had stumbled in around 4:00 AM.  We tried to be considerate of others in the hostel, but a certain amount of noise is inevitable in the common bunk areas.  Apparently, the cleats on our cycling shoes woke her up as we left the building around 10:00 AM.  Blue Hair asked Ginny if the cyclists were going tap dancing.

The Rides

Of course, the rides are the focal point of training camp.  Having spent a month in Chattanooga last summer, Jeff, a.k.a. Stony, planned our routes.  They were challenging, to say the least.  But that’s what training is for!  I had a great time.

Although Stony, Van, and Cody were able to get to Chattanooga early enough to ride on Friday, the first chance that all of us had to ride together was on Saturday.  The main route that day was 101 miles, but several people planned shorter options.

Stony, Tyler, and Robert - ready to ride!

Georgia Neuro on the road

We headed north toward the Cumberland Plateau.  The first major climb of the day was along Suck Creek.  It lasted about five miles and had about a 7% grade.  That’s too steep to suck wheel, but I definitely was sucking wind.  I hung with the front guys until about the last mile up the hill, when Stony attacked.  This guy is a mo-chine!  Everyone regrouped at the bottom of the descent.

At about 38 miles in, we had a store stop in Dunlap (store stop photos courtesy of Robert):

The Stony Grinder: the pain is real

Bill and Cal

Me, Tony, and Tina

Cody, Van, and Bill

After the store stop, Tyler took a shortcut back to The Crash Pad.  He wanted to spend some time with his family, and he also volunteered to be our chef for Saturday night.  Soon thereafter, Bill, Tina, and Tony also headed back.  Cal, Cody, Jeff, Robert, Van, and I forged on.

About 53 miles in, we had our second big climb of the day over Pitts Gap.  It was about three miles long and had grades as steep as 17%.  I climbed well and was actually the third to the top!

Riding a century is hard enough.  Riding with the big dogs like Stony is even harder.  Throw in a couple of monumental climbs like Suck Creek and Pitts Gap, and that’s about all I’ve got.  I didn’t doubt that I would make it back, but it got harder and harder for me to keep up with the group.  Stony suggested a three-mile addition to the route, an out-and-back to a hang gliding area that has a water source.  I opted out of the addition, figuring that I could find water at a fire station or church, if not another store stop.  Robert sweetly accompanied me.  Even with the significant headwind on the return trip, my ride felt much more manageable the rest of the way.  By the way, I’m very glad I didn’t do the extra mileage; later I learned that it included another steep climb to the hang gliding area.

The long descent off of the Cumberland Plateau was welcome relief!  As my elevation decreased, the words of that great 1950s classic “The Great Pretender” played over and over in my mind.  The thing is, I kept singing it to myself as “The Great Descender,” and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what the real title was.  My brain had been pretty well fried in the Stony Grinder.

I woke up at 7:30 on Sunday morning, refreshed from a nine-hour sleep and feeling ready to ride again.  My body was fatigued, however, because I was working hard even on the warm-up as we left downtown Chattanooga.  Actually, everyone but Stony seemed to be feeling the same way, but we hammered anyway.

Sunday’s route headed south into Georgia, near Cloudland Canyon State Park.  One of the guys had told me that there was one climb, but it wasn’t anything like Saturday’s two climbs.  He lied.  Sunday’s climb may have been slightly shorter (about four miles long), but parts of it were stupid steep – approaching 20%!  Looking back, I’m not quite sure how I made it up.  I just ground the pedals and focused on the moment at hand, not thinking about how much farther I had to go.

Because the route was long and skinny, it was easy to shorten it.  Cody, Robert, and I did just that, taking a shortcut after the steep climb and subsequent descent.  We rode about 50 miles instead of the full 75 miles.  That was plenty for me.  Besides, that let Robert and me get home to our dogs sooner!

Good Eats

We kicked off the festivities on Friday night at Alleia, an Italian restaurant within walking distance of The Crash Pad.  Bruschetta, Caesar salad, and gnocchi with kale and chicken sausage gave me lots of good fuel for the coming rides.  In addition, Robert and I splurged on a great bottle of wine – Montepulciano, a variety that we don’t get to have very often.  By the way, I made the restaurant reservation for our group, and I put it under the name Mario Cipollini.  Heh heh.

For Saturday night’s dinner, Tyler got us going with an appetizer of sausage he made himself from wild hog.  It was delicious!  I enjoyed it with a glass of wine as I kicked back around the fire pit with my teammates; I can’t think of a better way to wrap up a good, hard day of riding.

The main meal included pork chops that Tyler cooked on The Crash Pad grill, baked sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes, broccoli, and bread.  I made a salad, too.  We hadn’t specifically planned for dessert, but we got to have some anyway thanks to Tina and Tony, who brought a king cake.  It is Mardi Gras season after all!  Also, we go not just a cake, but a whole party in a box:

I donned the mask and distributed the beads and coins from the box.  Then we decided that Cody, our new team member, should wear the mask as initiation:

King cake season begins with Epiphany on January 6 and ends on Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), the big celebration before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the reflective season of Lent.  The king cake always has a plastic baby or other trinket to represent the baby Jesus.  I got the piece with the baby, which means I have to buy the next king cake:

Yep, there's the baby

What a great weekend – now on to racing season!

Hellhound

I love dogs.  I have two greyhounds and a beagle that exponentially increase my enjoyment of life.  However, I get angry with irresponsible people who let their dogs pose a hazard to cyclists.

Dogs that I encounter on my bike generally fall into one of three categories:

1) They are scared and retreat and/or run away.  No problem.

2) They are simply curious, perhaps wagging their tails or even running alongside my bicycle for a ways in an exuberant manner.  Also no problem.

3) They run at me aggressively, threatening to bite me and/or make me crash.  Definitely a problem.

Fortunately, the vast majority of dogs I have encountered are in Categories 1 or 2.  I had my first real encounter with a Category 3 dog last March.  It was on a road only a few miles from my house.  I generally don't ride that way because I've been chased by this dog and several others nearby too many times.  It had been a while since I had ridden that way, and I thought maybe I wouldn't see the bad dog that day.  Mistake.  Not only did I see him, he climbed a fence and chased after me!  I couldn't escape him, and he bit me on my side.  It's a wonder I didn't crash and truly get attacked.  It was a nasty wound, but I healed fine.  I do have four fang-shaped scars left on my side.  I just pretend that Dracula was drunk and missed my neck.  By the way, Animal Control quarantined the dog for a couple of weeks.  The owners promised to contain him, but I haven't ridden past that house since then.

Because that dog prevents me from going that route, I have been left with really only one other egress/ingress for my nighttime dirt road rides.  That has been fine until last week when I encountered another Category 3 - a hellhound.

A couple of miles from my house, I was riding my usual route, when all of a sudden I heard this terrible snarling about two inches from my leg.  The only light was from my bicycle headlight, and so I couldn't get a look at the dog that time.  I just rode away as quickly as I could, praying that I could out-sprint the hellhound.  I made it, but I had to go back that way at the end of my route.  Thankfully, it didn't chase me on the way back home.  I suspected, though, that wouldn't be my last encounter with it.  I was right.

Last night I did another dirt road ride, taking my usual egress/ingress.  There was just enough light left in the sky to see the hellhound this time.  It was a medium-sized, black, furry dog.  It would have seemed cute if it weren't out for blood.  I got away.

I hated that my ride was marred by the hellhound because it was a pleasant evening for January - temperature in the 50s - and I had pretty good mojo.  Maybe I wouldn't see the hellhound on my return trip.  I was wrong.

It chased me again, seeming to drip venom as it lunged toward my legs.  All I could do was sprint.  I did note the house number as I rode by, though.

I considered my options.  I could carry pepper spray or a similar deterrent next time I ride that way.  I could call the owner.  Or I could go ahead and call animal control.  I decided that I should call the owner.  It was easy enough to find him on-line, but there was no phone number listed, which didn't surprise me telephone land lines are getting pretty scarce.  Fortunately, I know who the owner is and where he works.

Today I called the owner in a very friendly manner.  I told him that I'm his neighbor and that I hoped he could help me with something.  When I described how his dog had been chasing me on my bicycle, he was very apologetic and said he would start putting his dog in a pen in the evenings.  I thanked him, and we hung up cordially.  I have high hopes that this will solve the problem and that I won't have to take any further steps.  Here's to being a good neighbor and working out our differences peaceably.

Balaclava, Baklava, and Balalaika

Tonight was balaclava riding weather:

Now if I only had some baklava and a balalaika, I'd be set!  Since I don't, I'll just reminisce.

Growing up in DeKalb County, I had the privilege of attending the Atlanta Greek Festival a number of times.  What a spectacular way to experience Greek music, food, clothing, and culture as well as the Eastern Orthodox Church.  In more recent years, they added a Greek cooking class.  I was all over that!  From there I received recipes for Greek salad, domadakia (stuffed grape leaves), spanakopita (spinach and feta filled phyllo pastry), and of course the quintessential Greek dessert - baklava!

These days I rarely eat dessert, but when I do, I want it to be something worthwhile, like baklava.  Baklava really isn't too hard to make.  You just have to have a little patience and handle the phyllo dough carefully.  Here's the recipe from the Atlanta Greek Festival:

Baklava

(recipe may be halved)

1 1/2 lb. shelled pecans and almonds
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 lb. phyllo pastry*
1 lb. butter, melted and clarified

Grind nuts coarsely.  Mix with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Line two 10" x 15" x 2" baking pans with a sheet of phyllo and brush each generously with butter.  Continue this process until you have six phyllo sheets in each pan, each generously buttered.  Sprinkle top phyllo sheet with a layer of nut mixture.

Add a pastry sheet, brush with butter, and sprinkle more nut mixture over phyllo.  Repeat, alternating buttered phyllo and nut mixture, until all nut mixture is used.  Place remaining phyllo sheets over this, each individually brushed with butter, about 8 sheets of phyllo per pan.

Cut into desired shapes (e.g., diamonds or triangles).  Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 30 minutes.  Reduce heat to 250 degrees and continue baking for one hour.

Spoon cooled syrup (see below) over hot pastry.

Syrup

4 C sugar
2 C water
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 stick cinnamon
1 jigger brandy
1/2 C honey

In medium saucepan, bring all ingredients except honey to a boil.  Reduce heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes.  Stir in honey and cool.

Yield: 30-36 servings per pan

*Phyllo dough can be found in the freezer section of the grocery store.  Thaw according to package directions.  Keep thawed pastry covered with a damp cloth while preparing the baklava, re-covering the unused phyllo sheets as you go.


The balalaika is a distinctive Russian stringed instrument with a triangular body:

I was first introduced to the balalaika as a teenager when my mother took me to a balalaika concert at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.  The concert featured not only wonderful music but also marvelous Russian dancing, the traditional kind where the men kick their legs out in all kinds of impossibly aerobic ways.  Balalaikas and Russian dancers in the Egyptian Room of the fabulous Fox Theater - such aa vividly memorable night!

Cycling out the Old, Cycling in the New

Happy New Year!  Bicycle riding - what more appropriate way to say goodbye to 2015 and hello to 2016?

Thursday, December 31, 2015
I get New Year's Day as a holiday at work, and so I took New Year's Eve as a vacation day to extend the long weekend a little more.  This allowed me to join the Gravel Grinders of Middle Georgia for a dirt road jaunt.  It was called the Fried Red Clay Ride, combining portions of two fantastic local gravel grinders, the Fried Green 50 (see 11/1/15 post) and the Red Clay Ramble (see 8/23/15 post).

The organized ride began at the edge of the Piedmont Wildlife Refuge (PWR) south of Hillsboro.  I rode my cyclocross bike to the start to make the logistics easier.  It was good to see some of my off-road cycling buddies that I don't get to see as often, including Benny, Karl, Monte, and Tom.  Monte was particularly stylin' with his handmade fenders, constructed from Hudson & Marshall signs:

About a dozen of us headed out, starting on some of the Red Clay Ramble Roads.  The group mostly stayed together, stopping every so often to regroup.  It was a nice, social ride.  I particularly enjoyed Monte regaling us with tales from Trans North Georgia, which is a 350-mile mountain bike race, and other epic off-road races.  He told us about having to pee on his frozen derailleur to be able to start a midwinter race, making an instant coffee brewer out of an empty Bush's bean can, and some fellow racers sharing their summer sausage and cheese in the middle of a race.  I thought to myself, "This is all kind of extreme."  Then, I thought, "Well, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black!"

I didn't get to ride on any of the PWR roads because after about 15 miles with the group, I turned back north to head home.  Time at home is a rare commodity, and I had plenty of stuff to do.  I still got in 36 miles, about the same length as the longest option on the Fried Red Clay.

I couldn't stay up until midnight to ring in the new year because I had to get up early for the next day's brevet, but Robert and I celebrated early.  I made us some cheese fondue, served in this groovy relic from the 1970s (I think it belonged to my my aunt):

In addition to the bread cubes, I usually serve broccoli (not pictured) with cheese fondue because greenage at meals is important.  Although Robert eats broccoli, it's not one of his favorites.  I figure that having the option of dipping it in cheese makes it more palatable.  It was no trouble, however, getting Robert to drink the sparkling wine that accompanied our meal.

Friday, January 1, 2016
A New Year's Day ride is almost obligatory for us serious cyclists.  I went for the gusto with the Athens 200K brevet.  About two dozen people rode - a great turnout!  I love how I've been riding with the Audax Atlanta chapter of Randonneurs USA (RUSA) long enough that I've gotten to know so many friends.  A couple of new riders joined us, too: Jason from West Georgia and his friend Chad, who was just visiting for a few weeks.  Chad had to fly out early the next morning to his current home: Kosovo!

Roughly half the group rode together until the third control in Madison, about half way through the ride.  As we left town, I noticed that we were veering from the course that I had uploaded to my Garmin.  Several others agreed that were were going the wrong way.  I called out to the guys that were starting to pull away, but they called back that they were on the right route.  Someone pointed out that Jim was in that group, and since he originally created the route, I decided that that was the best bet.  We figured out where the confusion came from.  The portion of the route between Madison and Buckhead was changed a few years ago.  The map that had been posted for the ride was correct, but the cue sheet was for the old route.  I had built my Garmin route from the cue sheet.  Julie, Andrew, and maybe a few others backtracked to go on the cue sheet route while about 10 of us continued on the newer route.  We thought we might see the others again shortly after our routes reconverged, but we never did.  Although the newer route is about a mile longer, I think we stayed ahead because the guys I was with just hammered it!

There were two more controls before the end.  A brief rest and some food and drink were welcome both times, but it sure was cold when we got back on the bike.  Temperatures were in the 40s and 50s all day.  That doesn't sound too bad, especially for this time of year, but it was a little bit of a shock after the crazy warm weather we had around Christmas.  Also, yesterday it actually felt cooler in the afternoon than in the morning because the air was so damp.  Ah, the joys Georgia's high humidity - it makes our summers feel hotter and our winters feel colder.

A couple of times I got dropped.  I figured that I would be riding the rest of the way by myself or possibly with someone coming up behind me, but both times the fastest guys stopped to wait for me.  That was really nice.  They said they wanted to ride like it was a brevet, not a race.  Once again, the camaraderie of randonneurs shines through!

Brandon, Chad, David, Jason, and I finished together with Dick just a few minutes behind.  On one hand I was glad we finished the 127 miles relatively quickly (8 hours, 5 minutes), but on the other hand, I knew I'd be feeling it on Peach Peloton the next day...

Saturday, January 2, 2016
Having been properly fueled the previous evening with our traditional New Year's Day feast of blackeyed peas with Rotel tomatoes, grits & greens, bacon, cornbread, and baked sweet potatoes, Robert and I headed to Macon for our regular Peach Peloton (winter training) ride.  We had a good group of 15 or so.  The route was 100 miles.  I was up for the challenge even though there was about a 99.9% chance that I would get dropped because of all the miles in my legs from the previous day.  I just didn't expect it to be only three miles into the ride!  The guys took off practically from the parking lot like it was a Pro 1/2 race.  I couldn't keep up anyway, and so I stopped briefly to address my wardrobe malfunction.  My knee warmers were falling down.  Also, my ear warmer headband was slipping down my forehead and closing my eyes so that I couldn't see.  It must have looked pretty comical.

Then I saw that Dale and Bill had also come off the back.  They are the elder statesmen of the Macon cycling community.  Even though they are about the oldest riders out there, they are super strong.  Both have had recent surgeries that kept them from riding as hard yesterday, and I was most happy to get to ride with them for a while.

Bill and Dale.  I want to be like them when I grow up.

Alas, they only wanted to ride about 40 miles total, and so we parted company about 20 miles in.  They looped back, and I continued solo.

I wasn't going terribly fast, but I settled into a comfortable rhythm.  The winter bleakness had a certain stark beauty.  I've seen hundreds of cows as I've ridden country roads, but I stopped anyway to take a picture of these simply because they made me happy.

To err is human; to moo, bovine.

As I approached Milner, I saw an old beater of a car for sale in someone's yard.  Written on a window was, "Runs grate!"  I laughed to myself, imagining that it makes all kinds of racket as the engine parts grate against each other.  Whoever buys the car will complain to the owner, who will say, "But I told you it runs grate!"

I made the wise call to stop at the store in Milner.  I bought a big bottle of Gatorade to go with my Clif Bar and stood in the warm store for a few minutes.  Although it was cold getting going on my bike again, that little bit of refueling did me a world of good.

As I continued my ride, I alternated between periods of feeling decent and having to work pretty hard, mainly mentally.  I reminded myself to simply keep going.

One time I turned the wrong way at a T intersection because my Garmin was on the main distance/speed screen, not the map screen.  Of course, it alerted me that I was off course, but before I turned around, I took another quick break at the side of the road.  I'm so glad I had had the foresight to pack an extra package of peanut butter crackers.

The miles rolled by.  The last part of the route didn't go directly back into Bolingbroke but took a jig-jag on Pea Ridge Road and Klopfer Road before going back to the church parking lot where we started.  I just couldn't face the steep climbs on Klopfer Road.  However, because I needed another mile or two to get my full century, I rode back and forth on Rivoli Road, which is flat.  I knew that Robert was waiting for me and probably watching me via the Find My Friends app on his phone.  My backtracking was probably confusing him...

It was.  But he understood when I explained later.  He had been tracking me ever since he finished the ride.  The other guys asked about me, and he told them that at that point I was on Maynard's Church Road.  They couldn't believe that I was doing the whole route by myself.  Robert wasn't surprised a bit.

After the ride Robert and I were both famished.  We headed to Ingleside Village Pizza, which we affectionately call IVP, for the best pizza in Middle Georgia.  They have an excellent beer selection, too.  I had one of my favorites, a Young's Double Chocolate Stout.

Although it wasn't easy, I knew what great training it was to do these two hard, back-to-back rides.  It was like I was getting ready for RAAM again.  In fact, Dale did ask me what I'm training for.  Life, I suppose.  Actually, these rides were good preparation for my big cycling goal this year, completing a Super Randonneur series.  This entails doing a 200K, 300K, 400K, and 600K all in the same calendar year.  Next up: the Athens 300K on February 27!