Living and training OTP, or Outside The Perimeter to the non-Atlanta readers, is very much a mixed bag. Personally, I love the experience, but I know many people that think we are crazy. Why? well, the  typical suburban Atlanta road lacks amenities like bike lanes or sidewalks. More often than not, even curbs are a luxury. At the same time, any time spent on these roads is an adventure in dealing with soccer mom’s in large SUV’s, angry landscape truck drivers ( yes I am looking at YOU Bardin Landscaping ), unleashed dogs, deer and squirrels and even the occasional turtle crossing the road.

 Of course there is the other part to this, the realization that ‘flat’ is a relative term, so every route you take is going to involve rollers at best, and some big hills at worst. The scenery however, often makes it all worth it. This field is a the valley floor along a creek that eventually feeds into the Big Creek watershed area, but sits just high enough that it rarely floods.  What you cannot see is that on the other side of that tree line on the left is a golf course.

It is on training days like this however, that I truly have come to appreciate what training OTP brings for me. I may be suffering up and down some of these hills, but over each hill is a new vista to look at, and around here, there are some gorgeous ones.