Spinnin' in the country, instead of sloggin' at CMM

Met G at LBC for a easy ride in the country on Saturday morning. This was my first "real" ride this year. Never took it out of the small ring until the last mile from home. G must have decided he wanted to see how fast he could crank it up, so I clicked into the big ring and chased after him. Didn't catch him, but it was leg burning fun. We only averaged around 17 mph for the 26.6 miles. Lots of little hills, but really no big climbs.

Guess the rest of Nashville was busy in the giant parade they call Country Music Marathon. Sheryl Crow was there, and even a dragon. Of course it was hot and sunny, probably pretty humid as well. It's a nice spectacle to watch, great weather for the spectators. Just to warm to be running a marathon. It even warmed up to quickly to run a decent half marathon. My days of running that race are long over. Late spring in Tennessee is just to unpredictable for weather, either 85 degrees or maybe even low 30's. Crazy.

Couple of interesting things along the ride in the country. Usually we see very little traffic. This time for some reason it was almost like rush hour. One spot on a hill we had  5 cars, a pickup and a cement truck, all blocking the top of the hill. That just nuts for 7:00 am on a Saturday out in the middle of BFE.

Worst was the lady yakking on her cell phone. I'm bombing down one of the little hills with several curves, riding the imaginary middle line. I see cell phone lady coming up the hill, so I move over to the inside of my lane and sure enough she comes by over the middle line. Damn. Good thing G saw her as well.

Dogs, though are usually no big deal. The little yappers usually aren't fast enough to catch a bike or they get run over by a car, so they just aren't that prevalent out in the country. Most farm dogs just couldn't be bothered by a couple of guys on bikes. What you do have on every farm is the giant Pyrenees. They don't take any crap from anyone. We saw one who was just lying in the MIDDLE of the road about halfway up or down a little hill that we thankfully didn't ride. We did pass two Pyrenees, that G for some reason thought he'd make a snarky remark to the dog. The dog didn't care for it and chased him far enough to get a  nice little sprint workout going. I don't think those dogs would bite, but they do make you nervous when they are barking right by your calf.

Saw the usual turkeys, everywhere. Few deer, gold finches, tons of wild flowers and another triangular purple box hanging in a tree. Finally went to the web to see their purpose. Catch emerald-green ash borer beetle—(EAB).

Oh, yeah and I haven't run in a week. Another stress fracture in my 3rd metatarsal. BLEH.