After riding 109 miles today, I really didn't want to work on a treehouse, but it was the perfect brick workout.

I'm training for GFT. Last week's long ride got shortened because I had to take my mother-in-law to New Orleans for day of inspection and triage. Today's constraint: my seven year old son's soccer game was at 10:15 am.

I woke up at 2:40 for planned departure between 3 and 3:30. Got out with lights on at 3:20. Not great but ok. Turned out to be epic ride for me (but it was no Paul Thomas burrito, bear attack escapade):

• Light goes out at 5:00 am, 1:10 before riding light, fiddle in dark with crappy c-cell backup light mount for 10 minutes before I can get it on the handlebars (should have tried that at home first)
• panic attack sends heartrate zooming ten minutes later when I see dog/monster running five feet away from me at my speed. I determine that dog/monster is silly little sidelight emitted by crappy c-cell backup light. Only scares me two more times.
• sun comes out, ride going well (no more monster dogs now), feel bad at mile 50 but back down and start to feel better, hit 60 mile mark, decision time, smart voice says, "Turn right on Kelly Creek Road, that makes a 90 mile ride on course you know, add ten miles somewhere by doubling back and repeating a portion." Smart voice loses to Record10C, whom, I hear whispering from hundreds of miles away, "No go straight, try something new. You studied the map. You know the way. Adventure."
• I go straight. Three miles ahead there's a sign: "Road construction. Single lane traffic ahead." There's a line of cars stopped. Asphalt is being laid on one lane of the two lane road. Fortunately the wait is only five minutes, and traffic starts going.
• I made my way up near the front of the line of cars so I could see what was going on. Decide to hold my position and act like a car. Lead car with blinking lights and "follow me" sign goes pretty slow so I am able to stay close to car in front of me, but have to go into zones I didn't want reach. We're riding in the left lane (wrong direction) as they are laying asphalt in right lane. Even though I'm right behind car in front of me, lady behind me in Cherokee decides she can't be behind a bike, so she's going to pass me. She swerves onto fresh asphalt and passes me.
• Big hill. No shoulder. Can't keep up with the cars. Everyone behind me is going to be pissed if I hold up the lane. They are all in cars. We passed the fresh asphalt. To the right appears to be old road surface with some little lines in it. I bail to right lane to get out of the cars' way.
• The road is sticky. The lines in the road are asphalt glue that have been laid down by the asphalt gluing truck up the hill in front of me. I see globs of black stuff start flying through the air off my wheels. (At this point the guys who wash and clean their bikes must be horrified.) I find six inches on edge of road where there is no glue. I approach stopped glue truck. I can go around to left, but will have to drive through the glue again, or try the grass on right. I go for the grass. Ground is soft. Come to stop. Steep hill to right. Truck to left. Can't unclip. Falling. Grab truck. Fortunately, truck is not moving.
• Once around truck. Clear sailing. Just look for Cook Springs Road.
• Something is wrong with my tires. Ride is bumpy and I see grass stuck to them. Stop for ten minute and use rock to scrape asphalt off tires.
• Ride. Funny, haven't hit Cook Springs Road yet. Ask road crews, "how far to Cook Spring's Road?" No one knows. Ride. Lots of hills. Wasn't counting on the hills. Ride. Much further than I thought and no Cook Springs Road. Keep going. Come to US 231. Oh no. I've gone to far. I'm lost. Should have copied the map. There's a crude convenience store. Sign says, open. CNN with scenes of Hurricane Rita is playing on TV, but door is locked. I wait. No operator ever shows. Two hours to soccer game. After ten minutes, customer pulls up. She give me directions. I'm starting to worry. Is my triathlon obsession going to make me miss my son's game?
• Five miles later. Lost again. Two convenience store customers can't help me. Helpful and nice Indian guy (guessing from accent, and I don't mean native american) behind counter in store gives me directions. "Go three miles up the road to stop sign, make left. . . ." He doesn't name any street names, but the directions seem good. Why wouldn't he know his way around rural Alabama?
• Three miles up the road, there is a stop sign. Hurray, the Indian guy gives good directions. But I can't make a left because there is a guy holding a stop sign and in front of him there is a line of cars. It's the road where they are laying asphalt. I've been give directions to go back over the hilly asphalt glue hell road. (R10C must have known this was going to happen.)
• Guy with stop sign says, "Hey, did you ever find that road you were looking for?" A response forms in my mind. But I shut up R10C, and, instead I'm nice and just smile and say, "no." I strike up conversation with a guy waiting in line. He give me directions that avoid hilly asphalt glue hell.
• Five miles later, I know where I am. Twenty-five miles to go. But it is now 9:30. The game is at 10:15 and it's a half hour drive in the other direction from my house. It's mostly downhill. Maybe I can be home in an hour. 25 mph? No way. Ok, maybe 20. I try to hammer. I'm home at 10:45. Quick shower. Grab stuff so I can coach other son's game at 1:00. Maybe if youngest son's game started late, I can catch last few minutes. Drive fast.
• Drive ten minutes. Cell phone rings. My wife. Game's over. I meet family for lunch.
• Kristian runs to me and hugs me. I'm amazed he's not mad at me. Smiling he says, "Dad, we're still undefeatable."
• I missed his game. What can I do. Well there's the project he's been asking about for months, but has been on the back burner for many reasons. I say, "Kristian, when we get home, we're going to work on your tree house."

Two hours on the tree house was tough. My legs and arms didn't want to cooperate. But we got most of the platform nailed down, with Kristian doing much of the hammering. Lots of smiles. It's cool being up in a tree. As for me, I don't know if the day counts as a brick, but just as satisfying.

HH, just like everyone else, trying to be undefeatable.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev