Panama City Rocked!

Had good trip over to the course in PCB. I had the best run I have had to date and a great ride on the rollers. I had forgotten just how many there were over in that area. Here is a map of where I was in relation to the course:
Got in a little latter than planned - imagine that! Met a friend for a late lunch across form the hotel and had a good time chatting and catching up with her. Let lunch settle and then went out for a run. I have got to get some mace and was pretty dumb for not thinking of this beforehand. I got chased by 1 dog on my run and after fending him off, got picked up by 3 little wiener dogs shortly after. I will have my mace on the next trip.

I found a dirt road that was perfect for doing some repeats on - 3 of the 4 lengths were dirt. As took my first lap on it (located in the North-East section off of HWY 231) each of the 2 blocks had loose dogs on it. So, that changed the plan up. I actually saw a 9:xx pace on my watch for several of the repeats I ran. Was very encouraging to see that. Just had a great run and the area I ran in was flat - so not running on the actual course was not that big of a deal. I actually have more undulating roads to run on here at my house. I ran around 6:30pm and it had to be in the 90's still with the humidity. Gotta love FL!

The next morning, I loaded up the bike and headed for the corner of Hwy 77 and Hwy 20. I drove in on Hwy 20 and then took Hwy 77 to my hotel, so I got a good look at where I wanted to ride. I haven't been back on the course since 2003, so it was good to get a little preview. Hwy 20 to the West of Hwy 77 was pretty flat and seemed to have a good bit of traffic on it. Hwy 20 to the East of Hwy 77 is where the nice rollers are and has virtually no traffic on it. So that was my choice ride for the trip.

Really have some improvements to make on my power and cadence distribution. I am looking forward to seeing these improvemnets on future files and rides back on the course. This file should be much much cleaner. Always room for improvement!

So, coming off a great run, I was pretty excited to hit the rollers and see where I was at. About 15 minutes into my ride, I hear barking and think "Oh SH*&!". Now, there are only a few houses on this stretch of road and not many cars. Surely there was a fence holding these hounds in. And, it sure didn't sound like the wiener dogs from the night before.

Already having sweat on my glasses, it was hard to focus into the tree line and see what was coming my way. All of the sudden I see 2 chows coming after me just a bark'n. My threshold power is 210 watts. I looked back at my file and held 796 watts on my fight or flight - I chose flight :) Peaked out with 908 watts during the chase. So, thanks to those stupid dogs, I now have a new peak 5seconds, 10 seconds, and 20 seconds wattage. Man, it seemed like they were on me for 5 minutes - not 20 seconds.

So, I ride about 32 minutes out and turned around to head back. Only was riding for an hour today and was feeling the run and the rollers and figured it was a good point to turn back. I hit the rollers coming back and get to the last 'hill' to climb before the flat the dogs were on. I stop at this point, hit my HammerGel drinks and flip the coin on what to do about the dogs. Stopping and thinking about it meant the decision was already made. I am in the South, and knew someone would pull over and let me hitch a ride back to my car that was just up the road. About 5 minutes of contemplating was all I needed and a lady pulled over to see if I was okay. I told her I was fine, but there were a couple of chows between me and my car. She told me to throw my bike in the back and hop in. All i could think about was the time lost in training from the broken toe and the 3 weeks down from the staff infection. All I needed was to get eaten on by a couple of dogs at this point.

Note: get some mace before heading back to Panama City.

Met Veronica for some lunch and then headed back home. Good weekend of training and looking forward to heading back when I can. Big thanks to Rick, a buddy from TNO that lives there, for giving me some ride info and helping me out with the logistics!