3/30/06

ZZZZZOOOOOOOOOM! What was that flash of white and blue?! Oh...it must've been Dave on his bike. At least that's what people were thinking on the way to the turn today. I had the wind at my back, and it was my first ride using my clipless pedals and shoes. Averaged 18.3 mph to the turn. Then...ah - the headwind. What made me fly on the way there, was making me crawl along on the way back. I averaged 15.3 for the whole ride, decently respectable, but that return trip was a killer. Speaking of shoes, mine make my feet hurt, but I've heard that's to be expected until you get used to riding in them. I did notice a BIG difference in the muscle output: My quads didn't hurt as much, but the muscles in the back of my legs (rear-quads? back-leg-quads? Am I making the term quads up?!) were feeling the burn more than ever. It was from the ability to pull up on the pedal stroke, and what a difference that makes in efficiency. So, yeah - a good ride overall.

Oh, and apparently my max speed on the trip was 134.8 mph. Freaked me out, too. I think that when I put my bike on the rack, the magnet on the wheel spoke was positioned near the sensor on the fork, and I stabilized the wheel that way. Then, as I drove home, the movement of the car/bike caused the magnet to activate/deactivate rapidly, which it then transmitted to my computer (which was in my car...what's the range on that thing, anyways?!) and thus I got a reading of max speed = 134.8. I must've really been cruising...

M: 12
MTD: 80
ML: 920

The MS 150

Part of the reason I've decided to ride 1000 miles before July 1 is to train for the Kroger MS 150 Bike Ride held in Southwest Ohio on July 8-9. It is a two day, 150 mile bike ride from Wilmington to the campus of UDayton. I've read that if you log between 400-500 miles in the few months leading up to the race that you should be good to go. I've also heard that some kids do this ride on their Huffy mountain bikes. Dave, Jim, and Steve all did the ride last year, but Steve ended up having surgery (I think he logged 50-ish miles before the ride?) and Dave had butt problems (due to clothing, not conditioning).

The point here is that I want to ENJOY the 150 miles. I've ridden that far in two days once before, and was probably in the best shape of my life when I did it. That was also approx. 10 years ago. Hence the 1000 miles. I figure if I can log 1000 miles before the ride, it should be smooth sailing for me. My hope is to log a number of 25-35 mile rides, at least five 50-60 mile rides (with two coming on successive days), and one ride of 75+ miles in the two or three weeks prior to the race.

I've also bought a very nice bike (it was on sale, which allowed me to purchase some nice accessories!). A nice by-product of all this riding is that, hopefully I'll get into much better shape than I am currently in.

So - want to help me? Since they don't allow human mush teams, nor do they allow me to hitch a ride on your car, you can help by donating to the MS Society. I'm riding to help raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. My goal is to raise $250.00 for the MS Society. This is my lowest possible goal, though. I would LOVE to raise more. If you want to help me out you can click here (or you can click the link to your right). You can find out more about MS by clicking here.

3/19/06

So very hard to tear myself away from the television when March Madness is in full swing. I went 1 for 2 on attempting to break away and ride. Today, Tom and I rode 8.4 miles on the bike path into a decent headwind for the first half. He was on my mountain bike and was huffin to keep up. We swapped when we turned around and I just couldn't keep up. I'm so glad I bought my poprad! Anyways, I'm looking to do some more this week, but alas the weather looks nasty. Snow tomorrow possibly?!

M: 8
MTD: 68
ML: 932

3/15/06

Dave, Jim, and I rode the path. The way there we started at a decent clip, probably averaged 17mph, until we hit a steady headwind. My average for the first half was a respectable 15.6mph. On the return trip I felt good for about a mile, but then fatigue started in. I was by myself for about 3 miles, then Dave let me catch up to him and let me draft for the rest of the way. I ended up averaging 15.2mph. So I'm happy with that. I think the headwind got to me mentally. I hate wind in general, and it's just a pain in the butt on a bike. I think had I been more focused mentally, I could have kept up with Dave (but not with Slim Jim).

M: 12
MTD: 60
ML: 940

My first 5 rides

I'm catching up on the rides I can't post as current since this blog didn't exist when I rode them.

2/20/06

I test rode the bike I've been eyeing. It was basically amazing. Cold, but amazing. I'm used to mountain bikes, and this, while technically being a cyclocross, is for all bought the most serious enthusiast, a road bike. So fast and light. Needless to say, I bought the bike, a 2005 Lemond Poprad.

Total Miles: ~4ish (I'm not counting these though...it wasn't my bike at the time)

2/22/06

A quick ride tonight, for a few reasons. One, dinner was cooking. Two, it was getting dark. Three, it was cold. Four, being as I'm out of shape and the only way from my apartment is UP, well, you can do the math.

Miles (M): 2
Miles to Date (MTD): 2
Miles Left (ML): 998


2/25/06

My first decent ride. The weather was decent enough, or so I thought. Dave, Jim, and I rode the bike path by the river. It's about 6 miles there, so roughly 12 miles roundtrip. Add the distance from Dave's house and its about 13 miles. I was told to be wary of a headwind that often hits you on the return trip. Today, though it came on the way to the turnaround point. I could not accelerate on a downhill. I averaged 9 mph once I hit the headwind. I wanted to quit. On the return trip, I averaged 16 mph. I felt like Lance Armstrong (maybe Greg LeMond...I am on a poprad, after all). So, ok...a good first real ride.

M: 13
MTD: 15
ML: 985

2/28/06


Again, Dave, Jim, and I rode the path. This time there was no wind either direction. Averaged around 15 mph. Legs felt like noodles afterwards, though. I went to pull off my shoe the "normal" way (ie one foot pushing the shoe off the other foot) and pulled my calf muscle. PAIN BEYOND PAIN. I won't make that mistake again. Lindsay cooked stuffed manicotti though, so I felt a little better.

M: 13
MTD: 28
ML: 972


3/07/06

Dave and I rode the path. Averaged 15 mph (ok, so I actually averaged 14.9, but I TRIED to get that up to 15 like there was no tomorrow on the last mile. I think my computer hates me).

M: 13
MTD: 41
ML: 959

3/12/06

I will never get to 1000 miles if the friggin weather does not start cooperating. I don't mind chilly. I don't mind a little rain. But cold, rainy and/or snowy does NOT cut it. Today, luckily, it stopped storming long enough for Dave and I to attempt the path. I say attempt because about 1.5 miles into it it was flooded. We decided rather than play frogger with our bikes on our shoulders we'd ride around his neighborhood. We climbed our first hill. (HA! You call that a hill sissy man?! Just wait till you take on John Grey! Wussy boy) That must be my inner beefcake calling me out.

M: 7
MTD: 48
ML: 952