Fall in Georgia

Ah, Fall...it's so nice to finally see you again

Cohutta Mountains near Ellijay, GA
photo by Eddie O'Dea

Our 5-day training trip was kind of a bust after I did something stupid..really stupid. I had some issues with my saddle this past summer while I was doing a lot of racing and training and I haven't really been on my mountain bike much since then. We had a big trip planned up at Mulberry Gap Mountain Bike Getaway starting out with an 80-mile/13,000 feet of climbing day. I hardly ever use a pack but I had to carry one on this day. Between the saddle and not being used to carrying additional weight on my back I thought I would do something smart by adding lidocaine to my Chamois Butt'r. I will spare everyone the gory details and just say I felt great during the ride but I did some serious damage....I lost some skin. A lot of skin. Major FAIL. What was I thinking????!

We had lots of friends up at Mulberry Gap for the weekend and it was so hard to not ride on Saturday. I decided to go out and singlespeed..err..just ride some singletrack without sitting down. Even that hurt. Meh. I was kind of down in the dumps the rest of the day...Eddie went out for a long ride and when he got back we went to the Ellijay Apple Festival to take my mind off of the fact that I couldn't ride while I was in one of the BEST places for riding. On Sunday we stayed completely off the bikes and hiked the Emery Creek trail. It was fun and rocky, and the dogs had a great time. I'm glad we stayed...even though I couldn't ride much the food and the campfires were worth the trip. Plus, as usual, it was a good chance to see friends we don't get to see often during the race season and make new ones as well.

So now I'm laying low and just getting some work done on my Fall break. There's always plenty of that to do. I'm also taking my glutamine and arginine and eating well...hoping to be recovered for the cyclocross races this weekend :/

This is my favorite photo from the weekend, also taken by Eddie. I can't wait to go back up there...we are planning on a Thanksgiving trip but hopefully we can go again sooner. Singletrack + leaves = heaven!