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	The theme for today was to crank out as many miles as we could cram into 4 hours while maintaining base pace. I was joined by my friends Brandon, Patrick, and Oliver. Brandon is a photographer I met at a pro cycling race, Patrick is an ex coworker at the bike shop I use to work at and Oliver is Patrick's son. Oliver is well on his way to becoming a big shot in the cycling world with plans of racing in Belgium in the coming year. Our route today was on the Silver Comet bike trail. As I mentioned before, the Silver Comet is a Rails to Trails trail that cuts through the middle of North Georgia. The trail is mostly flat. Even though there was not any hills to contend with, the flats call for constant pedaling with very few breaks. After 20 miles on our first venture out on the trail we began to find many patches of ice with warning from others that the ice only got worse the further out. With that warning we turned around, making our way back to the start. This turned out to be a good thing because Brandon needed to make his way home to bring lunch to his wife who was still recovering from being sick. After that we turned around, with just the three of us, to turn over 26 more miles. As the miles ticked away I could feel myself becoming more and more fatigued. I found myself sucking Pat's wheel for much of the return of the second venture out. I think the week of miles is finally taking it's tole. But nothing has taken a beating more than my butt, which has saddle sores the size of Texas. Such is life early in the season. See the route »