(Gosh, looking back at my records from then, "LT" was still "Dave-not-the-Wave".)
Anyway, at the time, Iva had never done a 100-miler; his usual rides were 30 or 35 miles long.
We soon "cured" him of that.
If I recall correctly, IvaHawk's first 50-miler was on a cold day in late February or early March of 2009, just Iva and BobH.
By Apr-04-2009, Iva was energized sufficiently from the longer rides that he decided to do an International Distance Triathlon instead of the Sprint Tri's he usually did. And on Apr-04, a group of us did a 50+ miler scouting mission (hmmn, no mention that Iva was also doing the triathlon in question -- seems strange, now) for the upcoming triathlon. (Iva and Harvey/Snapper did the Beaver Dam Triathlon on Apr-18th.) On Apr-11-2009, Iva did his first Irregular 100k ride -- I still recall the slow trudge Iva and I made up Brogden Rd from Creedmoor to Stem, while the rest of the IRs zoomed ahead -- and I mentioned that first time we climbed that sloping road to Iva on the BB(rev) we did "today" (Apr-12) -- wish I had known that we were only one day removed from the third anniversary of that moment in history.
An aside: Apr-2009 was an interesting and moments-in-time filled month. On the 19th, LT dragged me with him to Pilot Mtn to test out some roads for a future IR mountain outing; that Apr-19 ride was my first introduction to mountains -- small though they may have been. And on Apr-25th, to quote from my Excel log, "no one showed for the ride". Further, on Apr-26th, I did a ride that, looking back now, one might say was a partial scouting for the "Warrenton - Egypt Mtn" permanent; also, I set a 4-day distance record -- a record since crushed several time, and which I exceeded by 50-miles doing the Fleche last weekend. Looking back on "history", either your own or another's, is quite interesting and can be informative and/or amusing. I recall reminiscing a year ago, or a year-and-a-half ago, with my ex-wife about her first ever 50-miler (she was so excited that we went and drove the route based on her memory -- she didn't have a cue sheet), my first 50-miler (she dragged me through it), her first solo 80-miler on a day so hot that when she got back to the house, she laid the bike down in the yard near the street and walked with open arms imploring without words to be sprayed down from the hose with which I was watering newly installed plants; that visual still makes me chuckle. During our reminiscing, Lynn told me that, at that moment, she knew she would NEVER ride farther than THAT in a single ride or day, and certainly NEVER when that HOT. Local Raleigh and NC randos that may be reading this, and know who Lynn is, are probably holding their stomachs at this moment, because the previous sentence or two has made them laugh so hard that their entire body is hurting. (For the non-locals, check out the blog-roll to the right -- look for the "PacTour" mentions.)
Back to the intended story. On May-09-2009 (oh, wow! photos), Iva did an IR 75-miler, the main highlight of which was climbing up to Mt. Tirzah. And on May-23-2009, IvaHawk got his first taste of mountains. On Jun-06, IvaHawk was part of the IR crew that did Egypt Mtn Rd (also on the "Warrenton - Egypt Mtn" perm). And finally, on Jun-20-2009, Iva, at age 62, did his first ever 100-miler (on a course, the beginning of which is the beginning of the "Warrenton - Egypt Mtn" perm -- who knew THAT was a scouting mission? -- not me).
Why all the back-story on Iva? Well, after all that chronicled above, IvaHawk has done quite a few additional 100-milers, including one or two Tour de Moor's and last year he did Assault on Mt. Mitchell and another of those incredible mountain centuries (maybe Bridge-2-Bridge (?)). AND, this year, he has quite a program of intended rides and triathlons on his schedule. He's already done some triathlons and/or duathlons, made a couple mountain-training-trips, plans to do the White Lake Half-Iron Distance Tri in the next few weeks, and plans to do AoMM next month. A busy schedule. The only thing missing is some long rides to make sure he's ready to spend that much time on the bike.
So ... he figured that a hilly 100k, then an 80-miler, then a 100-miler would be good pre-AoMM training. Only problem is that with a vacation trip also in the mix, there isn't time for him to do a 100-miler and be recovered to do the Half-Iron, etc., and AoMM. We did the "Bahama Beach (reversed)" permanent-populaire "today" for the 100k. Next week, maybe the 80-mile "Allensville - Dennys Store" route. And maybe there will be time to squeeze in another 80-miler with a few more valley climbs (perhaps this or this) before AoMM.
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Today's ride:
I don't recall much, except: on Horseshoe Rd there was a pasture with goats, a mule, a donkey, and some cattle including, although this seems strange, one bull -- must be a relatively passive bull. I also recall trying to get Iva to recall our first time climbing Brogden Rd together -- but I think my words were being blown away by the wind -- and once in Stem, the topic did not come up again. The wind shifted on us during the ride, and as a result we got headwinds most of the ride, with only short sections of tailwind -- oh, well.
BB was a nice route "today", as usual. But I think I definitely prefer to do it clockwise. On the other hand, the advantage of having a route that is approved to be ridden in reverse, is that it is like two routes in one.
One last thing: "today's" ride was Iva's first official RUSA ride.
I guess he can no longer tell his former co-worker and 2011-NC-randonnuese-of-the-year Janis that he is "working on getting to P-1".
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