TNGA: Calm before the storm

TNGA: T-Minus 3 Days and…

I’m a few days out of my first ever multi-day ride on my bike. I’ve been training over 20 hours a week on a bike and have been dropping weight to compensate for the 350 miles and 56,000 feet of climbing I’m about to do (and the fact that my bike is super heavy). Basically, I think I’m ready for the Trans North Georgia Adventure ride (the TNGA)

TNGA: Good Looks and Great Frights

If you’re a regular reader here on my site, you’ll know I squawk a bunch about how my fitness is, how awesome and good looking I am as well as what I did on a bike on some given day. I know this gets lost on some people, but I’m going to let you in on a little hint – I’m a pretty sarcastic fellow and most stuff flowing from my fingertips onto the keyboard is heavily embellished.

Although I am very good looking.

Embellishing aside, I do feel more confident about what I’m up against but make no mistake I am pretty anxious about this too. The past few nights have been sleepless because I’ve had dreams about “what if this, that or the other happens to break down on my bike and I’m stranded while on the TNGA?” Or “I cramped up and can’t move and have to take a day to recover!”

So I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t terrified of doing this however the thought of quitting before the TNGA or not doing it has never entered into my brain. Thanks to the support of friends, Cahaba Cycles and especially (and most importantly) my wife Kate.

“You’re going to kill it!”

My very awesome lady friend

Kate and I have gone through some tense times together with all this training. It puts a strain on our relationship and can be a bummer however I always believe there is a silver lining to everything. Not long ago things between us got a little tense and in a fit of anger I said to Kate “you know, this isn’t worth all this mess. I’m going to just quit and not do the TNGA.” Kate fired back with “I’m not letting you quit and you’re going to ride the TNGA and you’re going to kill it!”

I’m not sure if Kate realized how much of an impact that had on me but I’ve had that sentence continuously go through my head for the past few weeks and have used it as a source of motivation.

Pedal Dammit

Alright, enough of me pining away about “feelings” and other icky things about the ride. I’m going to get some good solid rest and on August 25th I’ll be taking on the TNGA one pedal stroke at a time hoping to finish it in 3 days (my coach says 2.5) finishing strong!