More Than 100 Miles...

More funny bikes

2012-02-12T18:03:00.000-05:00

I don't ride a lot in the winter. I do try and get on the indoor trainer (hate it) and I went out on my mountain bike on one particularly nice Saturday afternoon (48 and sunny). But generally I just wait till the weather warms up. Which means there isn't a lot to post on this blog. But to be fair to my regular readers I like to provide some interesting content during these slow, cold winter months. I found the following cartoon on imgur.com. Enjoy.

Benefits of a Bicycle

2012-01-09T19:48:00.000-05:00

This graphic has been on several different blogs but I couldn't find the original source that deserves credit. Never the less, enjoy this homage to two wheeled transportation.

The Big Thank You

2011-12-02T08:51:00.000-05:00

Now that we have entered December the end of the year is fast approaching. 2011 was a great year for riding the ol' bicycle. It was also a great year for raising money for our favorite charity. The Death Valley ride raised over 1.2 million dollars. The entire JDRF ride program brought in over five million dollars. Team Scheidel accounted for $12,000 of that total thanks to the generous support of our many donors. What follows is a list of the people and organizations that donated their time, talent and treasure to the cause this past year. Because of all of you we are closer to finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

Thank you...
Christine Behrens
James Burnett
Craig DeFeyler
Craig Geitzen
Clay Grueber
Richard Hensen
Jeffrey King
Mary Koziol
Mark and Jane Longstreet
David Lubben
Becky Machuta
Jacquelyn McCarty
Brenda Merrifield
Linda Milanowski
Dennis and Kim Moline
Nicole Nellis
Ken Oughton (Diamond Cutters Athletic Club)
Timothy Payne
Hanna Reierson
Mark Ritsema
Tom and Florence Scheidel
The Gordon Group
Michael and Nancy Walenta
WYCE
PJ's Sound and Backline
West Side Distributing
Frames Unlimited
Jim Hayes (Tru-Vue Inc.)
X-Cel Chemical Specialties Company
Michelle and Kevin Bassett
Steve and Katie Clark
Tim and Colleen Colleran
Roy Dodman
Peggy Essenberg
Michael Gordon
Troy Gundy
Pam Hanson
Peter Jacob
Karen Kleinheksel
Macatawa Cycling Club
David Pasciak
Barb Porter
Kim Summers
Third Coast Cycling
Connie's Cakes
Tom and Kim Vogel
Kathy Magnuson
Joe and Mary Powell
Glen Russell
Paul and Brenda Schab
Henry Wieten
Bill and Ginger Young
Tim Holtkamp

And additional thanks to all the performers at Jake's Music Festival, all the people that attended JMF, all the folks who bought a can of XS, and finally, to everyone who kept us in their thoughts and prayers.

"Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory." -Ghandi

Death Valley 2011 Video

2011-11-07T19:31:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot written about this year's Ride to Cure Diabetes in Death Valley. Look at Facebook and you'll see hundreds, if not thousands, of photos. I had a small video camera with me and shot a bunch of video before, during and after the ride. I put together a short video that we showed at the West Michigan team wrap up party this past Saturday night. It was fun reliving all the memories and sharing a few laughs with my team mates. The video is available right here and also on YouTube.

Death Valley Ride Recap

2011-10-18T09:49:00.000-04:00

Ride day started with an incredible sunrise and proceeded to become an incredible day all the way around. This year's JDRF ride was quite different. The weather people were forecasting record high temperatures. The ride organizers were very concerned about sending riders out in heat that might approach 120 degrees so they changed the course. Normally we ride 52 miles out to Jubilee Pass and then 52 miles back. The turn around point is a six mile climb at a 6% grade. Last year the temperature hit 111 degrees on that climb and 1/3 of all the riders needed to be sagged back to the starting line. The organizers didn't want a repeat of that carnage so they changed the course. We rode toward Badwater, the lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere, and then past it to a point 25 miles from the Furnace Creek Ranch. Here we turned around and came back. That made for a 50 mile loop. If someone wanted to do a full century ride in that heat they could ride the course twice. This kept everyone reasonably close to the Ranch and had the added benefit of allowing us to see our team mates frequently. When our group gets stretched out over a full 100 miles you often don't see people after the start until the finish line.

Tom, Mary and Ian at the finish line.

Having suffered through the heat last year, and getting sagged in, our little Team Scheidel was smarter this time around. Mary completed the whole course and ended up with 50 miles. Ian and I decided to go for the metric century and rode out to the first water stop. It was a bit farther than we remembered on the first loop so we ended up with 72 miles, 10 miles more than a metric. One of the best parts of the whole day happened on our way back. Golden Canyon is about three miles from the finish line. It became an unofficial oasis for our team members. As the group of West Michigan riders that included Ian and me approached the parking area of Golden Canyon we saw several of our team mates waiting for us. There was another group riding a few minutes behind us. We waited for them and then our group of over 15 cyclists from the West Michigan team all rode across the finish line together.

Cliff proposes to Nicole at Mile 25.

The most unique thing that happened during the ride was two of our team mates getting engaged. As the ride started a buzz began going through the team that Cliff was going to pop the question at the Mile 25 turn around point. Most of our team managed to get to that point at the same time as Nicole and Cliff. We got everyone together for a "group photo" but before we could assemble Cliff dropped to one knee and gave Nicole an engagement ring. She was surprised and the crowd went wild. Nicole even cut a hole in her cycling glove so that her new bling would show through.

The West Michigan Ride Team in our new team jerseys.

It is an honor to participate in this event each year. To do it with the team from West Michigan makes it all the more special. These are some of the coolest and most committed people I have ever met. We have riders who have Type 1 diabetes, riders who are the parents of children with Type 1, and riders who have no family connection to the disease. Yet we are all united in one purpose, to put an end to Type 1 diabetes. Thank you to my team mates for making this weekend another of the great experiences of my life.

More photos and stories about the rest of the weekend are coming in the days ahead. Keep watching this blog.

Thanks for your support

2011-10-13T05:13:00.000-04:00

In just a couple of hours we will be getting on an airplane to fly to Las Vegas on the first leg of this year's Death Valley Experience. From LV we take a shuttle bus to DV, a 2 1/2 hour ride. We'll be traveling with 34 other riders from the West Michigan team. Tomorrow we'll have a tune-up ride and enjoy some desert relaxation. Saturday will start early, we'll be out of bed by 5:00 a.m. and riding at sunrise. Nine to eleven hours later we'll be done.

The big news however is not the laundry list of events stated above. It's that we have made our family goal of raising $12,000. We went over late last night and Team Scheidel wants to thank everyone who contributed to the cause. Especially the folks who made those late night pledges. Thanks again and watch this space early next week for all the details.

If you are a Twitter user you can follow the Death Valley ride at #bikeface.

WGVU-FM interview

2011-10-11T21:30:00.000-04:00

In case you missed it I was on the WGVU-FM Morning Show with Shelley Irwin yesterday talking about the JDRF Ride for a Cure. You can find the interview at the WGVU web site or by clicking right here.

Grand Rapids Urban Adventure Race

2011-10-09T23:03:00.000-04:00

Saturday was a great warm up for the Death Valley Ride. One of our fellow JDRF team members, Linda Thompson-Poeder, competed with me in the Grand Rapids Urban Adventure Race. Blue Monkey Adventure was our official team sponsor. This event takes place on the streets of Grand Rapids and is part adventure racing and part The Amazing Race TV show. The weather was perfect and the competition was friendly, yet intense.

The competitors assemble to hear instructions before the start of the race.

The course had a biking portion and a running portion. There were check points and challenges scattered all over the city. The object was to get to as many checkpoints as possible and get back to the start/finish line in four hours. Since Linda and I have a lot more experience riding as opposed to running we decided to do the bike portion first. This turned out to be a good plan since they were more points available on the bike portion and we got all but two of them.

Tom makes his way to a checkpoint suspended over a creek.

Linda studies the map and directions while on the bike portion.

We finished the biking in two and a half hours, which only left an hour and a half to do as much of running portion as possible. The run course took us to several ArtPrize venues and included challenges related to the art.We knew we couldn't get all the points so we concentrated on getting ones that didn't take us too far from the finish line. With 20 minutes left we were on top of Belknap Hill, a mile and a half from the finish line at Founder's Brewing. We knew we could make it if we only went after easy to find check points that were on our route back. Luckily we found two more as we ran and/or fast walked back to the finish line.

The Blue Monkey Adventure team on the Blue Bridge counting monkeys.

At the end we had completed 40 of a possible 51 check points and finished in 3 hours 58 minutes and 20 seconds. We had time to spare. Best of all we finished 27th out of 192 teams in the co-ed division and 64th out of 330 teams overall. If they had a masters division we would have done even better, considering that our combined age is 100. It was a fantastic day and a great way to stay in shape for Death Valley.

Linda and Tom, happy to be done!

The Countdown Continues

2011-10-06T10:05:00.001-04:00

In one day our bikes leave for Death Valley. In seven days our bodies leave for Death Valley. (Our minds left long ago.) In nine days we will be riding our bikes through Death Valley. After an entire season of training and fund raising it's a little hard to believe that THE ride is just around the corner. There will be 37 of us from West Michigan cycling through the desert next Saturday. 350 riders from around the USA and other countries will join us. Personally I have ridden almost 1,300 miles this summer in preparation for riding 105 miles on October 15th. Those have been a combination of solo rides, small group rides and epic excursions, everything from 2 miles on my mountain bike to 68 miles in the Allegrina 100. We've ridden in the heat, the rain, and the wind to get ready. And as a team we are ready.
Yesterday we received word that the Death Valley Ride for a Cure has already topped one million dollars in donations, and we haven't even ridden yet. Again on a personal note Team Scheidel is less than $800 from our family goal of $12,000. If you have already donated this year thank you very much. If you'd still like to donate click on one of the "Donate to..." links on the left side of this page. Pick your favorite Scheidel and help them go over the top.

Final Team Ride

2011-10-03T10:27:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday was our final team ride of the season. The ride took place in Holland, leaving from Coach Mike Clark's house. There were two loops, an early morning "It's really cold out" 35 mile loop and a noon "It's sort of cold out" 41 mile loop. Many members of our team did one or both portions in anticipation of much warmer temperatures in Death Valley. We figured that the next time we all ride together it would be 50 to 60 degrees warmer.

The team assembles between loops one and two. Notice the many layers of clothing. 50 degrees at the start of loop 2 and quite windy.

John Jasker, Mike Clark and other team members at approximately the halfway point of loop 2.

The West Michigan Team rolls through West Michigan. Cliff Lewis is sporting the new team jersey.

A little publicity

2011-09-30T18:13:00.000-04:00

We received some nice publicity from one of our sponsors. XS Energy Drinks have been with us since almost the beginning of the West Michigan Ride Team. They have helped us raise tens of thousands of dollars to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes. I was interviewed by one of their writers not to long ago and the story was posted this week. It details how XS became involved with JDRF and talks about our ride in Death Valley.
Here's the link. Check it out. And if you want any of the best energy drink on the market, just let me know.

The countdown...

2011-09-26T09:52:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we had several instances where we said things like; "Three weeks from right now we'll be having breakfast in Death Valley." "Three weeks from right now we'll be riding toward Badwater." "Three weeks from right now we'll be done with climbing Jubilee Pass and on our way back." Do you get the idea that our big JDRF ride is in three weeks? Actually it's only 20 days from today. We leave from the airport in Grand Rapids on October 13th. Our flight takes us to Las Vegas where we board a bus for Death Valley. That night we have dinner under the stars and catch up with all the people we haven't seen since last year. On Friday morning, October 14th, there is a "rules of the road" meeting and then a short training ride. Friday afternoon we get acclimated to the desert climate and then have another outdoor dinner where the leading fundraisers are recognized. The West Michigan team has an after dinner get together during which we prepare our helmets for the big ride. It's also a chance for everyone to go around and talk about why they are participating in the ride. This is truly one of the highlights of the weekend.
Saturday, October 15th starts early. We are at breakfast at 5:00 a.m. and geared up and at the starting line by 6:30 a.m. The ride starts at (or just before) sunrise and then it's 105 miles of riding across the desert. With a little luck, and minimal wind, the ride takes about 10 hours. The scene at the finish line is one of overflowing emotion. Completing a century ride is an incredible feat in it's own. Completing a century in Death Valley takes it to another level. And doing it for a great cause... let's just say the tears are flowing faster than the beer.
This will be my sixth ride JDRF ride in Death Valley. It amazes me how our team has grown since 2005. It's also incredible to think about how much money we've raised to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes. Thanks to all who ride and those who support us. 20 days and counting.

A month to go

2011-09-19T21:06:00.000-04:00

We are getting down to crunch time from a training and fund raising standpoint. In just 4 weeks we will be in Death Valley participating in the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes. This will be my 7th JDRF ride, the 6th in the desert.

One mile from the finish line of the 2010 Death Valley Ride

This week was not as good mileage-wise as last week. I did get out three times; 16 miles with Ian on Tuesday, 19 miles on Wine Wednesday with a bunch of JDRF team mates, and 20 miles on my own on Saturday. A 55 mile week. Not great, but not bad. Just as importantly we are closing in on our family goal of $12,000. Mary, Ian and I are each at about $3,000. That means we each need to raise $1,000 in the next month. We have a few of our regular donors that haven't sent in their checks yet. If you're one of those people, thank you in advance for your generous donation. If you'd like to donate right now just click on the "Donate to..." links on the left side of this page. Thanks. BTW, the high temperature in Death Valley today was 108 degrees.

What a week that was

2011-09-13T19:45:00.000-04:00

We did end up doing the Pub Crawl this past Saturday and had a great time. The weather was perfect, we had good friends to ride with, and a tasty beverage or two was consumed. I think my final mileage was around 44, which put me just under 150 for the week. That may be my best week ever. I've been watching my Mileage Tracker over on the left side of this page and for most of the spring and early summer it hardly seemed to move. Now it's clicking up 100 miles a week. I was worried that I wouldn't be ready for Death Valley. Now, not so much.
This afternoon Ian and I got out for a quick 16 mile ride. The sun is setting much earlier these days compared to the middle of summer. I'm writing this shortly after 7:30 p.m. and the gloaming has definitely started. A couple of months ago we were still out riding part 9:00 p.m. without lights. The nip in the air also says that fall is fast approaching. We'll need warmer clothes to ride in, at least until we get to Death Valley. 32 days away.

And now 1100

2011-09-08T21:31:00.000-04:00

So this is a 100 mile (exactly) week. And it's only Thursday. On Monday Ian and I rode with a bunch of our JDRF team mates. We rode to Townsend Park, the team ride start point, which is about 7 miles away. The team ride was a pretty laid back affair, no maps and a small group. We rode out to the Wabasis Lake area for a round trip of about 36 miles. So that means Ian and I ended up with a shade over 50 miles.

On Wednesday Mary and I went over to Linda Thompson-Poeder's house right after work and rode 20-ish miles in the Calendonia area. We rode on Parmalee Street, which is very hilly and hard according to the locals. But apparently we rode the "opposite" direction, which made it easier. However, since we did a loop, if we went the easy way on Parmalee we had to climb on different roads. So any way you cut it we had a fair amount of climbing yesterday.

Today I rode from Mary's shop, Connie's Cakes, back to our house. A little over 28 miles along various rail trails through Grand Rapids. The ride was flat but I was heading into a 15-20 mph wind the entire way. And the week isn't done. There is a Pub Crawl JDRF fund raiser ride on Saturday. So this should be my biggest mileage week of the summer.

1000

2011-09-02T20:44:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I did a little more bicycle commuting, riding over to GRTV in Grand Rapids for an editing session. I won't talk about the pedestrian who didn't understand the concept of "on your left". (That means move to your right sweetheart.) I won't mention the pick up truck driver pulling a trailer who was making a right turn on red who looked right at me and then turned in front of me while I had the green light. I also won't say anything about the car that almost t-boned me as he blasted through a stop sign. I want to talk about the fact that I rolled over 1000 miles on the way home tonight. Last year I hit 1000 miles on August 3rd, so I'm about a month behind, which I'll blame on our crappy weather this spring. We still have six weeks until Death Valley so there's plenty of time to get in more miles.

I'll be riding my bicycle through Death Valley to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes. Please help support the cause by donating via this link.

Riding through the city - on trails

2011-09-02T09:15:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I took Mary to the cake shop and then rode my bike home. It was a 28 mile ride that was almost completely flat. It was also interesting because it took me over several Grand Rapids area bike trails. I started by going west on the M6 trail. I then turned north on Kent Trails. We've ridden Kent Tails a lot, especially when we used to live on the west side. It's been cool to watch how that trail has been improved over the years. It now connects with Millennium Park and has a nice new trailhead area off of Butterworth.
When Kent Trails ended I picked my way across the west side of Grand Rapids. Although there isn't a clear bike route through there yet, the streets aren't real busy until you get near 131. I took Seward north to Leonard to cross the Grand River. Then it was a fairly familiar route home, north through Riverside Park, back across the river on North Park Street, then north on the White Pine Trail to home.
It was great to be able to ride safely all the way from the south side of Grand Rapids to Rockford, mostly on bike trails. If I'd stayed on the White Pine I could have gone all the way to Sand Lake. Plans are also underway to link the WPT with the Musketawa Trail in Marne and to finish paving the gravel sections of the WPT. So within the next year or two you'll be able to ride a paved trail from Cadillac to Grand Rapids and then over to Muskegon. That is going to be fun.

Health and goodness

2011-08-30T13:37:00.000-04:00

Rolling with the West Michigan Ride Team

We've reached that point of the season where I'm really starting to feel good on the bike. I've got almost 1000 miles under my wheels and a month and a half to go until the ride in Death Valley. But in today's post I want to talk not about riding, but about nutrition and energy and preparing to ride.

One of things I've noticed about long distance cycling is how in tune you get with your body. You learn what aches and pains you can ignore and which ones might be serious. You learn what you need to eat to perform well on a long ride. You learn about proper hydration and nutrition. When it comes to hydration there's good old water and also sports drinks and energy drinks. Our team has been fortunate to have XS Energy Drinks as a sponsor for several years. XS, unlike so many energy drinks, tastes great and doesn't make you feel jittery. They contain no sugar and low caffeine. They are great before or after a ride. Now we are making XS Energy Drinks available for on-line purchases. Click on THIS LINK or on the side bar link to go to a page I set up for this purpose. This new site will make it easy for you to get any flavor of XS you want. Best of all, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes. You can also get what I use for hydration during the ride, Nutrilite Sports Drinks (like Gatorade, but not as sweet and no artificial colors).

Thanks for your support of the JDRF Ride for a Cure.

Racing

2011-08-26T15:11:00.001-04:00

Let's start off by saying that I am NOT a sprinter. I'm a decent long distance cyclist, but racing isn't really in my skill set. Nevertheless I rode in my first cycling race this past Wednesday at Grattan Raceway. One of the local bike clubs, the Rapid Wheelmen, organizes races there every week throughout the summer. During the month of August they've added a "C" classification to the normal "A" and "B" races. The "C" race was three laps on the 1.8 mile course. That's only 5.4 miles. How hard could that be? Plenty hard.
Wednesday was JDRF night so there a lot of our team mates were there to ride or help out. The night started with a tandem race. Possibly a first ever at Grattan. Two of the three tandems were ridden by JDRFers. Next came the "C" race. I stayed with the pack until the start on the final lap. I don't know what our average speed was, but when I got dropped I was doing 21 mph. Even though I was beaten by almost everyone (including my 16 year old son Ian) I didn't finish in last place. A small non-victory.
The "A" and "B" races got going next. Those guys and gals are really fast. We had four JDRF riders in the "B" group. Unfortunately there was a crash early on in the 16 lap race that took out three of our riders. Luckily no one was seriously injured and the bikes are all repairable.
Even with the crash and my lousy finish it was a great experience. I can now cross "Bike Race" off my bucket list.

Great sunset at the end of a great night at Grattan raceway.

Perfect day to ride

2011-08-16T21:12:00.000-04:00

We spent a lot of time in the car over the past few days so it felt great to put some miles under the skinny tires. Mary and I drove to Washington DC on Saturday to bring out a load of our daughter Colleen's stuff. She starting a teaching job there this fall. We spent Sunday seeing the sites in DC and then returned home on Monday. That's a lot of time behind the wheel. So today we went out for a ride on one of my favorite loops. We went up Post Drive to Pine Island and took that to House Road. House is like a roller coaster for bikes. It has rolling hills, lots of turns and is just a blast to ride. We did a short jog on 10 Mile to Jewell, which turns into 11 Mile, which turns into Edgerton. Again, more twists and turns and hills. We crossed US131 on 12 Mile and then went north on Summit to 12 Mile and took the White Pine Trail home. It was a 21 mile loop and we knocked it out in a little over 90 minutes. The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too windy, just right.

7 Mile Hill Training

2011-08-10T21:19:00.000-04:00

I didn't have a lot of time to ride tonight so I decided to do a couple of repeats on 7 Mile hill. Normally when we ride up 7 Mile we turn when we get to the top, south on Chauncey or north on Courtland. Tonight I decided to take 7 Mile to it's end. That's only about two more miles but it also sports two more rolling hills. Then at the end of the road I turned around and road back. I did this twice. The second time was a little easier because I was warmed up and I knew I wasn't going to do it a third time. The real interesting part came when I got home. I decided to use MapMyRide to find out just how big those hills are and how much climbing I did in my 12 mile jaunt. Anyone who's ridden up 7 Mile hill with us knows that it's pretty steep. According to MapMyRide it's a Category 5 climb. Granted, Cat 5 is the lowest grade of climbing on a professional bike race, but it is a climb worthy of having a professional bike race category. Here's a link to the elevation profile with the Category 5 explanation.

How fast I'm not

2011-08-09T22:41:00.000-04:00

I took a late and long lunch today. That was so I could ride my bike, of course. I rode north on the White Pine Trail to Indian Lakes Road and returned home the same way. 23 miles in just under an hour and a half. The wind was swirly so it seemed to be in my face no matter which way I turned. It was a nice ride and since it was the middle of the day the trail was relatively empty.
So I'm cruising north on the trail between Belmont and Rockford. It's a slight uphill grade and I was feeling good about myself as I was doing about 18-19 mph. Suddenly a voice behind me says "On your left" and a fully kitted cyclist passes me with ease. We nodded to each other and he pulled away like I was Aunt Gladys on a Sofa King. To make matters worse he was older than me. Actually that should give me hope. Maybe I can be fast like him when I get to be his age.

A week of variety

2011-08-06T10:26:00.000-04:00

It's always fun when we ride with the Hayes family, our friends from Chicago. We were at their cottage on Lake Paw Paw on Sunday and the second generation is now joining us for rides. Our son Ian and their son Ed both came along for our 30 mile "big loop" around the lake. We called it the big loop because if we stay close to the shoreline it's only 11 miles around the lake. The boys more than kept up with us. A lot of the time they were the ones setting the pace of our six person peleton. The weather was great and we had excellent food, drink and boating post ride.

Mary, Susan and Ian ride past farm field north of Lake Paw Paw.

Susan and Elvin during a quick stop at about mile 20.

On Wednesday evening Ian and I did a sprint ride on the White Pine Trail to the ballpark and back. 14 miles in about 50 minutes. Nothing really to report on that one, just getting some miles in. On Thursday morning I needed to go to the bank so I did that on my bike. Only 2 miles there and back. The mileage of each successive ride this week has gotten considerably shorter. Ian and I had planned on riding this morning, but it's raining. I'll finish a ride in the rain, but I won't start one if I don't have to. I still have lingering bad memories of Killington in 2009.

Good day, good week

2011-07-30T20:29:00.000-04:00

I got out this morning for a short 18 mile ride. Short but not easy. I started out going east on Cannonsburg Road and then turned south on Pettis. Anyone who rides in this area knows about the loop I was about to take. Pettis to Knapp to Eqypt Valley. Some of the rolly-est hills in the Grand Rapids area. This route really works on your climbing skills. You are either going up or going down, there are almost no flat stretches. Egypt Valley ends at Belding Road and I headed east to Blakley then turned south. This took me to 7 Mile and I was able to descend 7 Mile Hill, clocking in at 39.5 MPH. A great way to start the day.

Today's ride gives me 85 miles for the week. This is where I like my training to be this time of year, 80 to 100 miles a week. Now I need to start looking at serious mileage on the weekends, like metric centuries and 75 milers. Only 11 weeks until Death Valley.

Congratulations to all the JDRF folks who rode in Burlington, Vermont today at 2011's first Ride For A Cure.

Today's Team Ride

2011-07-24T22:26:00.000-04:00

We had a good training ride today. We were out on the west coast of Michigan again, riding in the Hamilton area. Our JDRF team started with a 30 mile loop at about 10:00 this morning. The weather was great, mid 70's temperatures, slightly overcast and very little wind. I hooked up with the lead group for the second half of that loop and we cruised at about 18-20 MPH. We rolled back in to Cliff and Nic's place and picked up additional people for loop 2, although some folks did leave after loop 1. The group left a bit before Mary was ready so we had to play catch up. Unfortunately we missed a couple of turns and never did catch the rest of our team. Since we had other things to do today we cut loop 2 short and ended up with 49 miles total for the day.

In other news here's a link to our friend Patti Bills blog. Talkin' Bike Face!

Steamy-ness

2011-07-21T16:00:00.000-04:00

This has been the hottest week in Michigan in a very long time. Today is our fifth consecutive day with temperatures over 90 degrees, plus we also have the high humidity Michigan summers are known for. However, I'm not complaining. After the crummy spring we had I'll take the heat. I've managed to get out for three rides so far this week. They've been short, but sweaty.
On Sunday Mary and I rode to her bother David's house south of Lowell for a family get together. It was a touch over 18 miles and pretty easy until we got to Ada. Then we climbed up Buttrick Road and the rolling hills of 36th Street. The kids also came with the car, so we got an air conditioned ride home.
I decided to do an early morning ride on Tuesday before things got too hot. Before work I took the WPT north to Rockford and back. Just 12 miles but I did it in about 40 minutes which gives me an 18 MPH average. And the temperature was only 82 degrees.
Last night was our Wine Wednesday Ride. Only Cindy from our JDRF team made it over. Everyone else must have been scared off by the thermometer reading of 97 degrees at 6:30 p.m. The three of us rode a 17 mile loop north and west of home, finishing off with a descent on 7 Mile hill. Most of the route was in the shade and that did help some.
That gives me 47 miles for the week, 637 miles for the season, and 8,465 miles on my bike. Hopefully I can get out once more before our team ride on Sunday.

Beautiful Day

2011-07-13T12:16:00.000-04:00

A beautiful summer day like this inspires me to write about cycling. The Tour De France is on TV every morning. I'm starting to get some good miles in on the bike. And Death Valley is just three months away. We had a good team ride over the weekend. There were two loops that left from Sarah Andro's house in Ada on Sunday. The early morning group did not include us, Ian and I showed up for the noon loop. Which also means we showed up for the heat. It was in the high 80's and very humid on Sunday. The route was 38 miles long and basically took us from Ada to Alto and back. It was fairly hilly and that broke our larger group into several smaller groups. Once we finished we had a cookout with wonderful food provided by our hostess. Several team mates also brought yummy treats. Despite the heat, humidity and hills we had a great time.

Happy Fourth of July!

2011-07-04T21:33:00.000-04:00

We've had a pretty good Independence Day weekend. Yesterday we went to our friend's Tim and Linda Frybler's cottage on Fine Lake. We did some swimming, the kids went tubing, we ate a lot and at night saw a great fireworks display around the lake.

Today Mary and I got on our bikes and rode north on the White Pine Trail all the way to Sand Lake and back, 36 miles in all. Sand Lake has a small town Fourth of July celebration with a carnival, demolition derby and fireworks at dusk. We didn't have lights so we decided not to ride the trail home in the dark. But now that we're home Jake has some friends over and they are setting off fireworks in the backyard.

Happy 235th birthday, America!

A Century Week

2011-07-02T21:10:00.000-04:00

Technically a century week is not a real cycling term. Riding 100 miles in a week is just a way of tracking how my training is going. This week was the first time this year I've put in 100 miles. It started on Sunday with the Allegrina 100. I rode two of the three loops for a total of 65 miles. On Thursday I did a little bicycle commuting and ended up with 31 miles. This morning I got out before the weather got real hot (although it was already very humid) and put in 15 miles. Since the first two rides were relatively flat I decide to go for some hills today. I rode south on Grand River Avenue to Knapp then north on Pettis. That's a very rolling hills kind of route. I finished with a long climb up Blakely and returned home blazing down 7 Mile hill at 39 miles per hour. When you add it all up I rode 111 miles this week. Which is good, since we only have 15 weeks until Death Valley.

Bike Commuting

2011-06-30T17:48:00.000-04:00

Last night Mary and I went to the Not Your Average Speaker Series at Wealthy Theatre. This month featured a discussion on Grand Rapids as a Cycling City. The conversation ranged from bike lanes to bike friendly employers to educating the public on bike safety. One topic that came up often was bike commuting. Today I needed to pick something up from one of my vendors. They are located about 13 miles away from my office. Inspired by last night speeches, instead of driving I rode my bike there. Luckily what I had to pick up fit easily into my jersey back pocket. Even though it was all city or suburban riding I still made it there in a little less than an hour. The trip would have taken 20 minutes by car and used half a gallon of gas. Although I've probably eaten at least $2.00 worth of food since I got home, so the cost thing is a wash.
More than once while I was riding to my vendor's place I thought "Technically, I'm working right now." So I guess that means I got paid to ride my bike. I hope this doesn't mess up my amateur status.

Viva Italia!

2011-06-28T23:02:00.000-04:00

Our friend and fellow JDRF rider Heather Allegrina-Bowe hosted a special ride this past Sunday in memory of her father. The Allegrina 100 consisted of three loops through the Saugatuck area near Lake Michigan. We arrived in time to join the group for the second and third loops. It was a mixed group of JDRF riders and friends of Heather. It was also a fairly fast group. we were averaging 18 - 20 mph for most of the day. That's a bit faster than I've been riding lately and the distance was also my maximum do far this year. I ended up with 65 miles, or the Allegrina 100 Kilometers. My first metric century of the season. Mary and Ian were along as well. They did the second loop with the main group but cut short the third loop and finished with 50 miles each. Since their goal for the day was 50 miles they felt pretty good about their accomplishment. It was almost the most miles those two have ridden this year.

A large group of cyclists on loop 2 of the Allegrina 100

Heather and Tom at the end of the ride.

More Rides

2011-06-24T09:46:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of great organized cycling events in West Michigan. I just posted an article on Examiner.com about some of them. Rather than repost everything here I'll just provide the link. So click HERE to read the story.

That's More Like It

2011-06-23T09:04:00.000-04:00

It's been a long wet Spring, but the weather has finally dried out enough for me to get some miles in. On Father's Day Mary, Ian and I rode from my parent's house in Lowell back to our house in Rockford. It was 21 miles featuring a fair number of hills. Last night our JDRF team mates Scott and Linda Poeder came over and we got in 16 miles between rain storms. Because of the sketchy weather we stayed pretty close to Rockford so we'd have cover in case it started raining hard. We not only got the whole ride in, but it also stayed nice long enough for us to enjoy some wine on the patio.

Back in the USA

2011-06-18T13:56:00.000-04:00

We haven't done a lot of bike riding in the past week because we've been out of the country. Mary and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary this past Tuesday. We like to go somewhere special for the big anniversaries, so for #25 we went to Costa Rica. We spent four days in a fantastic condo right on Jaco beach along the Pacific Ocean. We went zip-lining, hiking, surfing and swimming. We saw a lot of locals riding bikes but we didn't have a chance to get out, too many other fun activities that we can't do in Michigan.
The weather was warm and the mornings were beautiful. Because Costa Rica is just entering their rainy season there was some rain every afternoon or evening. But the rain only hampered us once. It cut short our zip-lining adventure. So we got to hike down the side of a mountain during a thunderstorm. That was exciting.
We also saw lots of jungle animals like monkeys, toucans, scarlet macaws, iguanas, lizards and even a coatimundi. It was a great trip and a place we would visit again.

High above Jaco on our way to the zip line tour. Time out for a little anniversary smooch.

1, 2, 3 rides

2011-06-06T15:00:00.000-04:00

Last week was a good early season riding week for me. I rode three times and logged a total of 65 miles.

1. Sunday 5/29 - As usual we celebrated the Memorial Day weekend with our friends the Hayes. This year may have been our 28th in a row. We started the day with a 15 mile ride around Lake Paw Paw. Because it was Memorial Day we had to dodge a few raindrops, but the 6 of us, thankfully, avoided the lightning.

2. Thursday 6/2 - I took off south on the White Pine Trail for a solo ride on Thursday night. My plan was to ride to Riverside Park in Grand Rapids and return. It turns out the park has been renamed. It's now called In-the-River Park. Lots of flooding, the kind we normally see in the early spring after the snow melt. The high water forced all the cyclists, runners and strollers onto the only dry pathway. Needless to say it was very crowded, so I crossed the Ann Street bridge and returned home via Turner Ave. and West River Drive for a 20 mile total.

3. Saturday 6/4 - This was the day of the 100 Grand which Ian and I rode in last year. We had some intentions of riding again but didn't get out of bed in time. So I ended up going solo again in the late morning. I headed west through Belmont and out 9 Mile Road. I turned north on Peach Ridge and quickly realized I was on part of the 100 Grand route, but going the wrong way. I got to wave at probably a hundred cyclists on our slightly overlapping circuits. I came back home along 13 mile riding through Sparta before picking my way south. I ended up with 30 miles against a steady west wind and some healthy climbs.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-28T11:12:00.000-04:00

I haven't been writing a lot lately because we haven't been riding a lot. The weather has just not cooperated this spring. The hard core members of our team have been riding, but they also ride when it's 10 degrees and snowing outside. Hopefully we'll be able to get some miles in this weekend.

There are two fun things to report. Last Sunday we did have a beautiful day and got in a 30 mile ride with the JDRF team. We rode in the north Muskegon area. Our route took us past Muskegon Lake, Duck Lake, Lake Michigan and several other bodies of water. The wind coming off the big lake was amazing, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. It felt like someone had opened a large refrigerator door. But that was refreshing since we were about 20 miles into the route and a 75 degree day.

The other fun thing is that on that ride I rolled over 8000 miles on my Cannondale. That bike has served me well over the last few years and I anticipate putting several more thousand miles under its tires.

Are we in Seattle?

2011-05-19T12:03:00.000-04:00

I'm not one to complain about the weather (not much anyway), but this rain is really putting a cramp in my riding. We had the rainiest April on record and May seems to be headed for a record as well. The pattern has been one sunny (but usually cold) day followed by three or four days of rain. The rivers here are still at the early spring snow melt levels, very high. And don't even get me started on the wind. Come on Mother Nature. It's May in Michigan. Give us some partly cloudy skies and 70 degrees. Please.

This week's rides

2011-05-08T19:54:00.000-04:00

Yes, rides! As in more than one. The weather has hopefully finally changed in Michigan. More seasonable temperatures and less rain. In April we had over twice the rain we normally have for the month. Admittedly, my garden looks great, but I don't ride in the cold rain if I can help it.
Friday I got out in the early evening for a little 15 miler. I rode the White Pine Trail down to Whitecaps Park, through Comstock Park and back. Today I did my hill training route. Only 11 miles but I climbed 7 hills. I told Mary about it and said it was a good work out. She replied "That's nice. I ride for fun."

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my wife and all the other mothers I've had the pleasure of knowing.

The Winds of Spring

2011-05-04T09:15:00.000-04:00

This has been a cold, wet and windy spring. The weather has really hampered our ability to get out and ride. Well, maybe not our ability to ride, but definitely our desire to ride. I was talking to Coach Mike Clark during our team ride on Sunday and mentioned that I hadn't gotten a lot of miles in. He said "I've got the miles, I just haven't enjoyed very many of them."


Mary approaching the top of a hill

Sunday was a comparatively decent day. Temperatures were in the low 60's, it was sunny, and quite windy. We had a great turn out of almost 30 riders. Our route started in Johnson Park near the flood stage Grand River. Our group rode a 15 mile semi-looped route. It was a good ride but it seemed like we had a head wind 75% of the time and a cross wind 20% of the time. I'm really looking forward to some more season appropriate conditions.


Ian on his new bike

Easter Sunday Ride

2011-04-25T07:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a pretty nice day compared to the weather we've been having for the last couple weeks. So after attending Mass and going to my mother-in-law's for Easter dinner I got out on my bike for a ride. I rode past Rockford High School and turned north on Courtland Road. I took that to 12 Mile where I turned west to connect with the White Pine Trail. I then rode south on the WPT to complete my 16 mile loop.Just a typical solo training ride, a few climbs, a few sprints, and a couple of 30 mph downhills.

Jake's Music Festival on Saturday

2011-04-14T08:03:00.000-04:00

It is upon us. The musical event of the year. Jake's Music Festival takes place this Saturday, April 16th at Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids. This 7th annual celebration of local music starts at 3:00 p.m. and runs until 11:00 p.m. Performers include A.B! and Coconut Brown, Igby Iris, Chance Jones, Poor 'Ol Jim, The Fainting Generals, Karisa Wilson, Ritsu and many more. Click here for the full lineup.
The festival is organizer by West Michigan Ride Team members Tom and Mary Scheidel along with Clay Grueber and Todd Herring. Because of the generosity of sponsors Frames Unlimited, The Gordon Group, and Magic Hat #9 this will be a free show. Donations to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation will be cheerfully accepted. There is also a silent auction with items from the GR Symphony, Art Museum, Public Museum, Whitecaps, Grand River Grocery, and over a dozen more local businesses.
So please stop by on Saturday. See one or two bands or stay all day. It's promises to be a great day of great music.

Team Scheidel's first outing

2011-04-11T16:04:00.000-04:00

We had great weather in west Michigan this weekend so Saturday was our first official road bike ride. Tom, Mary and Ian all got out for a little 12 mile ride up to Rockford and back along the White Pine Trail. It's become something of a tradition to have our first ride along the WPT. Ian also logged a couple of firsts. It was his first ride on his new (still unnamed) Cannondale bike and his first flat ever. He rode all last season without a flat and this year he got one 4 miles into the first ride. I'm sure that's some kind of bike karma.

On a separate, unrelated note. I've moved JDRF ride video to the bottom of the page. Please be sure to check it out. It's new and improved for 2011.

Mountain biking in Moab

2011-04-09T13:29:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe I haven't posted here yet about our trip to Moab, Utah. Ian and I went there as part of a Blue Monkey Adventure excursion. I've posted a story and photos there and on Facebook and I Twittered during the trip, but alas I failed to actually mention something on my blog that deals with cycling. Let's make amends.


Tom and Ian at Uranium Arch near Moab.

We went hiking in Arches National Park, found dinosaur tracks and native petroglyphs, and did some bouldering and rock scrambling. One of the highlights of the trip was the half day "intermediate" ride we did called the Blue Buffalo. Our guide was from Rim Tours and he did a great job. He gave us lots of pointers on navigating over the unfamiliar terrain. Riding in Moab is nothing like riding in Michigan. We climbed from the valley floor to the canyon rim over boulder strewn dirt, sand and slickrock. The views from on top were incredible.


The view from the canyon rim. We rode up to this point.

After some snacks we started our descent. As hard as the ride up was physically, coming down was that hard mentally. We had to pay close attention every second. Those rocks and boulders that were easy to avoid going up now came upon us very quickly as we were going down. It was an exhilarating ride down the mountain. When the ride was finished so were we. I can't imagine how tough an "advanced" ride must be. Ian and I had lunch and then went back to the Red Cliffs Lodge and watched basketball (Final Four) for the rest of the evening. We didn't even have the energy to go to dinner. Thank goodness for jerky and granola bars.


Ian and our guide heading out across the slickrock.

Thanks to Bill our guide for all the help and the really cool Cannondale bikes we got to ride. I have something new on my wish list now.

Heading to Moab

2011-03-30T22:29:00.000-04:00

Thursday morning Ian and I are heading to Moab, Utah as part of the Blue Monkey Adventure group. It's a four day adventure trip that will find us mountain biking, hiking in Arches National Park and visiting Canyonlands National Park. Blue Monkey Adventure is a new adventure travel company in which I'm a partner. We'll be posting photos and videos over on the Blue Monkey Facebook page. Check it out and see some of the other exciting trips we have planned.

Ian's New Bike

2011-03-21T21:48:00.000-04:00

Since Ian outgrew the bike he rode last year we had to go get him a new one. That meant a trip to our favorite bike shop VeloCity Cycles in Holland. Mike Clark hooked Ian up with a Cannondale Synapse. Ian selected the black and yellow color scheme. It is one sharp looking bike. It's also a 61 frame, the biggest one Cannondale makes. Ian doesn't turn 16 until June, but he's already almost 6'1" and wears a size 13 shoe. Hopefully this bike will last him a little longer than a year.

Registration Day

2011-03-07T15:56:00.000-05:00

Today is the day we have been waiting for all winter. I'd love to say it's the first warm, sunny, snowless day of the year and we rode 30 miles on our bikes. But that day is probably a few weeks away. Today is the day we got to register for the 2011 JDRF Ride! Yippee!

The national JDRF staff did a great job redesigning the web site and making it very easy to register. Mary, Ian and I are all signed up and heading back to Death Valley. This will be Ian's 2nd ride and the 7th ride for Mary and myself. A lot has changed since 2005, but diabetes is still with us, so we continue to ride.

This seems like a good time to give any new readers a once over on this web site. I'll be providing commentary over the next several months about how our training and fundraising is going. I'll post photos and videos of West Michigan team rides and other fun, cycling related stuff. The left side of the page has links for donating, links for sharing this page with friends, links to our friends pages, a mileage tracker and slide shows from previous year's rides. We also welcome your comments, so let me know what you're thinking.

This year Mary, Ian and I have each committed to raising $4,000, that's $12,000 for our family, to help find a cure for diabetes. You can help by clicking HERE to donate to Tom, HERE to donate to Mary, or HERE to donate to Ian. You can also click on the links to the left. Thanks for your support.

222 days until we ride in Death Valley.

Bike Rush Hour

2011-03-01T19:24:00.000-05:00

The Netherlands has a huge cycling culture. 33% of all traffic is bicycles. This video is of rush hour in the country's 4th largest city. The video was sped up so that 8 minutes of action goes by in 2 minutes.

Buying a new bike

2011-02-25T20:32:00.000-05:00

Well we are buying a new bike it's not for me, it's for my my son Ian. Last year he rode a bike we borrowed from the Milanowski family. Ian has grown at least 4 inches since last spring and that bike no longer fits him. So today we went over to VeloCity Cycles in Holland and talked to our coach Mike Clark. We got Ian all measured up and ended up ordering a Cannondale Synapse. (Yes, it's the Team bike.) It will probably be the middle of next week before it comes in, but once it does we'll post pictures of little Contador on his new ride.

Getting Ready

2011-02-18T09:54:00.000-05:00

On Groundhog's Day we experienced a snowstorm unlike anything in these parts for over 30 years. 12" to 24" of snow fell, depending on where you were located. It took the better part of two days to dig everyone out. But today we are having our fourth consecutive plus 40 degree day. Yesterday the high temperature soared over 50. So that means thoughts are turning toward cycling outdoors.
There are many of our team mates who ride their bikes all winter long. Some even have studded snow tires. I'm not one of those folks. But the sunny skies and relatively balmy temps have got me itching to get back in the saddle. Plus it's almost time to sign up for this year's JDRF Ride. We have a team get together at New Holland Brewing Company on February 27th to discuss where our team is going this year. The early favorite is Death Valley, but Tuscon is gaining momentum. Then on March 7th we can officially sign up.
If you've ever though about riding with a great group of people and for a great cause now would be an excellent time to join us. You can get more details on our team by clicking here.

The history of the bicycle

2011-02-17T08:21:00.000-05:00

Here's a link to a great article from Wired Magazine about the first bicycle. It was made of wood and didn't have pedals, a chain or brakes. But the basic concept was in place, all the back in 1818.

Not exactly the carbon fiber we ride around on today is it?

Latest video

2011-02-03T09:55:00.001-05:00

At the top of this page there is a video from JDRF that promotes the Ride program. At first glance it may look similar to what was there before, but this is an updated version for this year. My company, The Scheidel Group, created this video from the footage we shot for the documentary More Than 100 Miles: Riding to Cure Diabetes. This has been a fun project to work on and I really like the fact that we are a small part of helping to spread the word about finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

The Typographic Bicycle

2011-01-15T15:23:00.000-05:00

I thought this was a really cool idea.
From The Practical Cyclist's Blog.

End of the Year

2010-12-28T09:08:00.002-05:00

It's late December and the bikes are put away until spring. We may get out some time this winter, if we get a sunny day over 50 degrees. But in truth winter is for pursuing indoor sports. I'll be playing basketball and volleyball. Mary actually has a trainer so she can ride inside. Ian is the one winter outdoorsman in our family. He just bought himself a new snowboard and enjoys hitting the slopes. He may also play a little indoor soccer. We'll be staying fit over the winter months and be ready to get on the bikes again when the weather breaks.

Thanks again to everyone who made 2010 our best year ever. We raised over $12,000 for diabetes research. We also raised a lot of awareness through this blog, Jake's Music Festival, and the various radio show and YouTube appearances. It's been a great year and 2011 promises to be even better. Ride On!

More Thanks

2010-11-24T19:31:00.002-05:00

Back in August we posted a list of all the people who had donated to Team Scheidel. Since then we have had many more contributors. At this time we'd like to thank those people.

Karen Kleinheksel
Jim Rueter
Linda Milanowski (and thanks for letting Ian use Don's bike)
Christine Behrens
P Guimond
Sylvia Veal
Rip and Sonia Singh
Robin Duvall
Chuck and Rose Weiten
Tom and Florence Scheidel
Roy Dodman
Tom and Kim Vogel
Doug Gerowski
Tim Sundt
Michelle Yamazaki
Kathy Magnuson
Bruce Oman
Wendi Lewis
David Pasciak
Tim Jackson
Katie Clark
Liz Wright

Special thanks also to Third Coast Cycling, Macatawa Cycling Club, VanAndel Arena, Peggy Essenberg, and the Corner Bar. The 2010 JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes raised over $4,000,000. The West Michigan Team contributed $186,000 of that. Thanks again to everyone who helped make this year a great success.

Second November Ride

2010-11-10T07:32:00.002-05:00

One of my friends from our Ride Team, Linda Thompson-Poeder, has set a goal to do a century ride each month this year. With the nice weather we've been having she picked yesterday as her day for November. I rode along for the first half and a couple other team mates rode the second half. Linda and I met at Riverside Park on the north side of Grand Rapids at 7:30 a.m. The skies were clear, but the temperature was only 40 degrees. We headed north on the White Pine Trail to Rockford where we stopped for some much needed coffee and a warm up. We also each handled a business call and then hopped back on our bikes and continued on to Sand Lake. This was our turnaround point and we shed a layer of clothes as the temp was now over 50. On our way south we spotted a small herd of deer, about 8 or 9 animals near the Rouge River. We watched each other until the deer scattered because I made a small noise trying to unclip. Linda and I got back to our cars with 48 miles under our tires. I headed home and she headed out to the Musketawa Trail in Marne. There she met up with our team mates Melanie and Derek and they helped Linda finish her November century.

First November Ride

2010-11-07T22:06:00.002-05:00

I got out for my first post-Death Valley ride today. It was a beautiful fall day in Michigan so I pumped up the tires on my road bike and headed up to Rockford. Sunny skies and 55 degrees made for a glorious ride. It's late enough in the season that most of the crunchy leaves have blown away as well, leaving the trail dry and clear. I got in 16 miles and felt great. I'm already looking forward to next ride season.

Death Valley 2010 - Part 3

2010-10-26T10:07:00.008-04:00

The JDRF Ride is the hardest and best thing I've ever done in my life. I've now participated in five rides in Death Valley; in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010, and one in Killington, Vermont in 2009. Each ride has been unique, with it's own personality and own stories to tell.

West Michigan Ride Team - Death Valley start line - 2005

In 2005 there we just 14 of us from West Michigan who rode in Death Valley. We had 12 other teammates who rode in Asheville, North Carolina. We really didn't know what to expect. We had trained all summer so we were physically ready, but we were not prepared for the overwhelming emotions of Death Valley. For many of us it was our first century ride. For all of us it was a bonding experience unlike any other.

Part of the team at Jubilee Pass in 2006

In 2006 our team more than doubled in size. And we discovered an important team dynamic. When you are riding across a barren landscape and can see clearly for over 20 miles, it's easy to spot your fellow cyclists on the route. However, when everyone is wearing the same jersey and black shorts it's hard to tell your teammates from the other 300 riders. So that year we came up with the helmet decorations. Kitty ears for the ladies, devil horns for the men (except Rob, who had a special decoration). I'm not sure who gets the credit/blame, but the helmet baubles have really helped us find each other out on the course.

Team photo on Friday morning - Death Valley 2007

2007 was the year of the wind. Friday had been a beautiful day. Sunny skies, mid 90's temperatures and no wind. When we woke up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday to go to breakfast we knew we were in trouble. It was already quite warm and the trees were swaying in the wind. On the way out the winds were swirling so it was difficult to establish a consistent pace. After the climb up Jubilee we were dealing with a full on head wind for the 50 mile trip back. Wind speeds were a sustained 30 mph with gusts hitting 40. Several of us got into a pace line in order to struggle along at 9 mph. During that pace line we had a crash which left an imprint of my chain ring on my left, um, hip. We literally finished in a dust storm. Many riders ended up in the med tent that night. But we all survived and decided to come back to Death Valley with even more people.

Part of the team posing at the Sea Level sign in 2008. One mile to go.

We had a group of 25 riders who attended the Asheville Ride to a Cure in 2008. We also sent almost 40 people back to the Valley. 2008 was the year I produced the documentary about the Ride, "More Than 100 Miles: Riding to Cure Diabetes". The weather was great that year. Moderate temps for DV (mid 90's), very light winds and even a little cloud cover. Our team rode strong. You can see more about that ride be clicking on the documentary trailer link to the left.

Killington team photo - before the rains came - 2009

For me personally 2009 was the worst year ever. We rode in Killington, Vermont and it rained all day. Not just a light drizzle, but full on, multiple storm rain. And cold. Even though the ride was in August the high temperature never got above 53 degrees. I was cold and wet all day and I didn't like it one bit. I even said to our coach, Mike Clark, that I would rather ride in 120 degree heat than cold rain. As the old Chinese proverb says, "Be careful what you wish for". But the good news of Killington is that it was our 5th year together as a team and in that time we had raised one million dollars for diabetes research.

Mary, Ian and Tom out on the course in Death Valley in 2010.

Which brings us to this year. 2010 - back to the desert. Back to the heat. This was the biggest JDRF ride ever. We had the biggest West Michigan team here ever. This one ride raised over $1.3 million for diabetes research. It is incredible to be part of something that is so much bigger than each of us individually. We have made lifelong friendships while raising money that will help to someday cure our son Jake of diabetes. Thanks to everyone who has been part of this journey.

Jake Scheidel - the reason we do this. Diagnosed September 17, 1997.

Death Valley 2010 - Part 2

2010-10-22T16:01:00.003-04:00

This year's ride was very difficult. It was the second highest temperature ever recorded for October 16th. During the climb up Jubilee the thermometer hit 111 degrees. The near record heat sapped the strength of many a rider. As the day went on it became more and more painful to ride. But through it all we had the opportunity to ride with some great people and to meet old and new friends.

The West Michigan team before the Friday training ride.

The west Michigan team numbered 42 riders. We also had about a half dozen volunteers out on the course. These people come from a variety of backgrounds. Some are parents of diabetics, some have diabetes themselves and some have no personal connection. Although one could argue that, after all the training and riding we have done together, everyone now has a personal connection. We have people who were doing their sixth ride in Death Valley and those who were doing their first. Our entire team, in fact all 350 JDRF riders, did themselves proud on Saturday.

Ian Joyce, North Carolina Coach and 2007 West Michigan Team adoptee.

The Ride gave me the chance to see old friends like Trish Patterson and Aly Levine from the JDRF national office and Ian Joyce, the coach from one of the North Carolina teams. I also finally got to meet Andrew Shafer from Tennessee. Andrew has Type 1 diabetes and rode for the first time last year in Sonoma. He found this blog and reached out to us for fund raising ideas and support. We have been conversing on email ever since. Somewhere around mile 30 Andrew and I ended up riding next to each other for a few miles. It was great to finally talk face to face. Andrew is a strong rider and a wonderful advocate for JDRF.

Kathy and Paul McBride at Zabriske Point, on the training ride.

Paul and Kathy McBride are long time members of the West Michigan team. They ride for their son Graham who has Type 1 diabetes. Even though they live over two hours away, on the east side of the state, they have become great friends. We see them every year at the ride and it's just like old times. They are an asset to the team and we love having them represent "eastern" west Michigan.

Team Scheidel; safe, sound and smiling at the finish line.

There are many people who make incredible contributions to our team and JDRF. But there is one group I want to call special attention to. There are only a handful people who have been with the West Michigan team since we started in 2005. Mary and I want to say thanks to Mike and Teresa Howard, Sarah Andro, Derek Dykstra and Mike Clark for their dedication to the cause. Because of people like them, this year the Death Valley Ride raised over $1.3 million for diabetes research.

Death Valley 2010 - Part 1

2010-10-21T19:07:00.003-04:00

So much happened during this year's JDRF ride that this will be a multi-part post. There were more riders than ever in Death Valley; 350 riders in total, 42 of them from West Michigan. The temperatures were very hot, but the winds were much lighter than most years.

Ian, Mary and Tom Scheidel at Zabriski Point on the Friday morning training ride.

It was great to have Ian in Death Valley with Mary and I. Over the years we have told the kids a lot about our rides out there. So when Ian said he wanted to do the ride this year we were pleased but cautious. This is quite the endeavor for a trained athlete. A 15 year old soccer player who had never ridden more than 18 miles could have been trouble. But Ian trained hard all spring and summer and he absolutely rocked Death Valley. Despite the 111 degree heat, Ian (and Tom) completed 88 miles in the desert.

Ian riding between Ashford Mills and Mormon Point.

Ian led our group on many occasions. He impressed the more veteran riders with his ability and his toughness. He even made friends with a nationally ranked mountain bike rider. She rode up to him and the two of them rode together up a hill just chatting away for several miles. The rest of us were working to hard to talk. The kid can definitely ride a bike.

Mary, Ian and Tom with Don Milanowski's bike on top of Jubilee Pass.

The highlight of the ride had to be at the top of Jubilee Pass. This is a six mile climb up a 6% grade. Very similar to some of the climbs on the Tour De France, except that this one is in a desert. The three of us made it to the top, at almost the same time. We wanted to get a group picture holding the bike Ian has been riding. That bike is very special. It belonged to Don Milanowski, a good friend of ours who had ridden with the JDRF team in Whitefish, Montana in 2007 and Death Valley in 2008. Don passed away due to a heart attack in 2009. When we were looking for a bike for Ian this past spring Don's wife Linda suggested Ian use Don's bike. To say we were honored would be an understatement. Ian trained on that bike all summer and on October 16, 2010 Don Milanowski's bike was once again on top of Jubilee Pass, this time powered by the youthful legs of Ian Scheidel. Thanks Linda and Don for helping Ian reach the top.

We are back

2010-10-19T23:33:00.002-04:00

Back from the Valley, that is. It was a great ride, but it is very late and there is much to tell. There are also many photos. So check back here tomorrow for stories and pictures of the the 2010 Ride to Cure Diabetes in Death Valley.

Leavin' on a jet plane...

2010-10-14T08:12:00.002-04:00

In just about two hours we will be boarding a plane in Grand Rapids and heading to Las Vegas. From there we catch a shuttle bus out to Death Valley. The training and fund raising is done. Now is time. This is what we have worked for. My next report will have details of this amazing trip.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us financially and emotionally through our journey.

GOAL!!!!!

2010-10-12T08:33:00.003-04:00

Thank you to everyone who has contributed top our ride this year. With Ian joining us this time around we were looking at raising a minimum of $12,000. Each JDRF rider is responsible for raising $4,000. So adding Ian to Team Scheidel meant upping our fund raising numbers by a third. But thanks to some very generous friends, family members and even strangers, we have achieved our goal. We have raised over $12,000 for diabetes research! It is a great feeling knowing we can go to Death Valley this weekend and just concentrate on riding.

Team Scheidel.
Jake, our reason for doing this; Mary, 6 time rider; Ian, first time rider; Tom, 6 time rider; Colleen, big sister.

Thank you once again to all our donors. Because of you we are closer than ever to finding a cure for diabetes.

One week to go

2010-10-09T08:52:00.002-04:00

Seven days from today we will be riding in Death Valley. It's almost hard to believe that the months of training and fundraising are nearly over and we're headed for the desert. Next Saturday morning will start early. Breakfast is at 5:00 a.m. Then we get our bikes and assemble at the starting line. Roll out is at sunrise at 6:45 a.m. Our first stop is Badwater Basin, 17 miles away. Badwater is the lowest spot in the western hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level. On the way to the next break at Mormon Point the sun will finally make it over the Funeral Mountains and we'll have no more shade until nightfall. Ashford Mills is the last break before the climb up Jubilee Pass. The climb is six miles long at a 6% grade. It takes about an hour to go up, we turn around at the top and take ten minutes to come back down. Now we have 47 miles left to ride in the afternoon heat and sun. The predicted high for Saturday is 98 degrees. The afternoon is also when the wind kicks up and it's usually a head wind. But if all goes well we should finish before sun down. The finish line is a great scene as we greet our fellow riders as they finish. There's lots of smiles, lots of hugs, and more than a few tears. There's beer and ice cream, sometimes together. But most of all there's the satisfaction of knowing that you've done something difficult and important that will help the millions of people who suffer with diabetes.

We received word last week that the Death Valley ride has already raised over $1,000,000 for diabetes research. Thanks to everyone who has contributed.

Why Death Valley?

2010-10-06T16:32:00.003-04:00

Lots of people have asked me this over the years. Usually I get a big grin on my face and say it's because I'm more than a little crazy. Death Valley is unlike any other place I've ever been. And to try and ride a century there is definitely pushing the sanity envelope.

This year we have several team mates who will be making their inaugural trip to the desert. A few of us veterans put together a primer to tell the newbies what to expect. I thought it would be interesting to share it here so you can get an idea of how those of us that are riding approach this event. Click here for the full story.

If you want to hear my interview about the ride on the WGVU Morning Show click here or on the link to the left.

JDRF Ride on the Radio

2010-10-04T15:15:00.001-04:00

Tune in Tuesday morning to the WGVU-FM Morning Show with Shelly Irwin. I will be talking about the JDRF ride in Death Valley. Air time in 10:04 a.m., right after the news. 88.5 on your FM dial. If you happen to live near Lake Michigan you can pick up WGVU on 95.3 FM.

10 days until we leave for Death Valley!

Two weeks and counting

2010-09-30T09:37:00.002-04:00

The Death Valley ride is getting very close. Our bikes leave by truck this Saturday and we leave by plane in two weeks. Then, on October 16, we will pedal 105 miles across some of the most starkly beautiful landscape in the United States. Sometimes it's hard to believe that we've been doing this for six years. I personally have ridden over 8,000 miles in that time. And every step of the way has been with one goal in mind - to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years. We are close to our family goal of $12,000. We still need a little help, so if you would like to make a donation the easiest way to do it is by clicking on one of the links to the left. Thanks for helping us find a cure to this terrible disease.

Listen to the WGVU Morning Show on Tuesday, October 5. I will be interviewed about the ride sometime between 9 and 11 a.m. I'll post the exact time when we know it.

Apple Cider Century Photos

2010-09-27T10:32:00.004-04:00

The group we started with: Tom, Stewart, Cindy, Mary, Brenda, Ian and Herb.

The Fat Tire Twins. It's hard to tell us apart, isn't it.

Ian, on his way to his first century.

Brenda and Herb at the second rest stop, right before they dropped us.

Mary, looking coy about 80 miles into the ride.

Team Scheidel at the finish line.

Apple Cider Century 2010

2010-09-26T22:01:00.003-04:00

What a great day to ride. It was a cool, partly sunny, typical Michigan autumn day. The route was a little breezy, a little hilly and very different than previous years. The Apple Cider Century starts in Three Oaks near the Michigan/Indiana border. Normally we head north, skirt the shore of Lake Michigan and then do the last third of the ride through Indiana. This year we started by going south and almost 60 miles were in the Hoosier state. No big lake views at all this year. And quite a few more hills than any of us remember. This was our sixth ACC and we had a great time. We saw and/or rode with several of our JDRF team mates. Normally we ride with our friends the Hayes from Chicago, but they had other plans with their daughter so it was Team Scheidel on the road. We ended up being the last of the large JDRF group to roll in. But when we did roll in, just under 10 hours from when we started, we had completed the full 100 mile century. It was Ian's first century ride. He is now officially ready to go tackle the century in Death Valley in just under three weeks.

We'll post some pictures later on this week. Good job Ian. Great training and great ride today.

Ride Team on Fox-17

2010-09-22T12:58:00.002-04:00

Great coverage from WXMI Fox-17 last night. They did a live interview with me at about 6:15 p.m. and then ran taped interviews of Tom Miller and Katie Clark at 6:40 p.m. During the 10:00 p.m. newscast they ran another different piece that featured clips by all three of us. Plus they had footage of our team riding on the White Pine Trail and even some footage from the documentary "More Than 100 Miles". Here are the two clips from the 6:00 news.

All the News That Fits

2010-09-20T11:54:00.002-04:00

Lots to report on so let's get started.

Yesterday I rode into downtown Grand Rapids. That's a pleasant and flat ride since most of it follows the Grand River. On a Sunday evening there isn't much city car traffic so it was a good 23 mile ride. There was all kinds of activity going on downtown with people setting up for ArtPrize. It looks like the parking lot of the B.O.B. is again going to be a happening place. See the SteamPig!

Tuesday night the West Michigan Ride Team will be featured on the TV17 newscasts. We will be on LIVE during the 6:00 p.m. newscast. During the 10:00 show TV17 will feature interviews with some of our riders. Approximate times for the live shots are 6:15 p.m. and 6:40 p.m. on WXMI-TV. That's our local Fox affiliate.

Sunday, September 26 we will be riding in the Apple Cider Century down in Three Oaks. Lots of our team mates and at least some of the Hayes from Chicago will be joining us. The Apple Cider is always a great ride. Our plan is to get Ian his first century!

Monday, September 27 is Dogs for Dollars night at the Corner Bar in Rockford. 15% of the proceeds of all food served between 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. next Monday will be donated to the Ride to Cure Diabetes. So come on up to Rockford, have a hot dog and help cure diabetes.

And finally, we leave for Death Valley in 24 days.

7500

2010-09-13T14:33:00.002-04:00

Seven thousand five hundred miles. That's how many miles I've put on my Cannondale road bike since I purchased it shortly before the Death Valley ride in 2005. That works out to about 1,500 miles a year. The most recent 40 took place yesterday when we rode out to my parent's house north of Lowell. It was a great day to ride. Mild temperatures, sunny skies and not enough wind to talk about. We turned the route into a loop instead of a straight out and back. We basically headed east on Cannonsburg Road to Lincoln Lake Road (with a couple of unintentional detours to add extra mileage). After a visit with my parents (Happy Birthday Mom) we continued south on Lincoln Lake to Bailey Road. We rode that to Pettis and then headed north-ish to Knapp. We crossed the river on Knapp and then turned north on Grand River Avenue. Turning right, which was north (twisty roads), on Northland Drive brought us back into our neighborhood. I noticed that I was 4 tenths of a mile short of 7,500, so I did one lap around our block to roll over to that magic number.

To put 7,500 miles in perspective that like riding from New York to California and back and then riding to St. Louis. 7,500 is also the approximate number of times Jake has poked his finger to test his blood sugar in the last five years. So with every mile I pedal I can think "That's one more finger poke". I long for the day when I'll be able to ride my bike just to ride my bike. But for now every mile is a reminder of what my son has gone through for the past 13 years. I'm not even counting the insulin pump site changes, injections, doctor's visits and other things he's had to endure, just to stay alive.

7,500 is a great milestone. But it's also a great reminder of why we started on this journey in the first place. And why we'll continue to work until a cure is found.

Dogs For Dollars

2010-09-09T08:54:00.002-04:00

You can help our cause and have a great dinner all at the same time. On September 27th from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. we will be hosting Dogs For Dollars at the Corner Bar in Rockford, Michigan. The good folks at the Corner will donate 15% of all food sales that night to our ride team. All you have to do is come up to Rockford and eat some hot dogs (or other tasty treats). It would help if you printed this flyer and brought it along. No worries if you can't print it, we'll have extras there.

So come on up for a great time. Meet members of the West Michigan Ride Team. Have some fantastic food. And help us beat Type 1 diabetes.

Death Valley Training

2010-08-30T09:24:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we had the most Death Valley-like team ride ever. The temperature was in the mid-90s. The route was very hilly, with lots of long extended climbs, like DV. We actually had over 4,000 feet of climbing on the 75 mile route, which is very similar to the Death Valley ride. We also had a large portion of the team participating, between 25 and 30 people. All in all it was great training for what we'll be doing in 6 weeks.
Thanks to Paul and Kami Weninger for the use of their cottage as our base of operations. And thanks to Scott and Linda Poeder for designing the route.

Putting in the miles

2010-08-24T21:11:00.002-04:00

Late this afternoon I got out for a ride and turned a conventional route into something a little more interesting. I started by heading north on the White Pine Trail. Nothing new there. My original plan was to just head up to Russell Road and then turn around and head home. But I was feeling good and I had time so I continued up to Indian Lakes Road...and turned left. Oooh, off the trail. Can you feel the excitement? I rode across the US-131 overpass and turned back south on Edgerton. This is a fun road. It flanks the highway but it twists and turns and has quite a few fun little hills. I got back to 12 Mile where I turned left again and then hooked up with the WPT for a very fast ride home. 25.5 miles in all, giving me 1,199 miles for this year. I probably should have added another half mile so I could have rolled over 1,200. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

An average week

2010-08-22T21:26:00.002-04:00

Not a big mileage week, only a shade over 50 miles. I rode to the Whitecaps ballpark and back on Thursday afternoon. Today Mary, Ian and I rode out to my sister's house in Nunica for a family get together. Just a little 37 mile, fairly flat ride.
The impressive thing that happened over the weekend was my 17 year old nephew Michael completing the ODRAM (One Day ride Across Michigan) yesterday. He just got a road bike from VeloCity this summer and had a total of 300 miles on it before Saturday. Yesterday he rode 150 miles! Wow. Congratulations Michael and welcome to the ranks of the crazies.

Team Scheidel

2010-08-16T11:27:00.003-04:00

Ian, Mary and Tom Scheidel just after Sunday's ride.

It was a great weekend for cycling. On Saturday Ian and I went out to Luton Park with the extended Williamson family. It was Ian's first trip out there. We had a lot of fun doing the Blue (2X), Green, Orange and Black loops. On Sunday Mary joined us and five other JDRF team members in Montague for a 31 mile, fairly hilly road bike ride. The weather both days was close to perfect; clear skies and warm temperatures.
Next Saturday, October 21 is the One Day Ride Across Michigan. The ODRAM is a benefit this year for JDRF. I'll be manning registration at Meinert Park in Montague at 6:00 a.m. Stop by and say "hi" on your way across the state.

Thank You!

2010-08-11T11:40:00.002-04:00

Even though we still have two months until we head out to Death Valley for the JDRF Ride for a Cure I wanted to take a moment and thank all those who have donated so far. Every donation is very important to us. Every dollar raised puts us a little bit closer to finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes. So if you name is on this non-alphabetical list we thank you for your support.

Kim Summers
Peggy Essenberg
JD Stone
Joe and Mary Powell
Peter Orlick
David Darling
Pam Hanson
Barb Porter
June Hennip
Bill and Ginger Young
Chris and Julie Radford
Brent and Jennifer Deuel
Paul and Brenda Schab
Brian Shane
Doug VanderJagt
Tim Holtkamp
Bill Cole
Joel Penny
Kim and Joan Mulder
Jacquelyn McCarty
Steve and Stacey Farr
Steve and Karen Salyer
Mark and Jane Longstreet
Lynn Gallagher
Don and Janet Rutgers
Dennis and Kim Moline
Tim and Colleen Colleran
Chris and Paula Briggs
Michelle and Kevin Bassett
Mary Ellen Koziol
Mike and Jean Oele
Henry and Mary Jane Wieten
Connie and Jim Hennip
Janet and John Chambers
Leo Isaguirre
James and Shirley Musial
Lori Caldwell
Paul and Kristin Buth
John and Liz Sinkevics
James Osborne
Joshua and Amy Duggan
Priscilla Hansma
Subterranean Sound
X-Cel Chemical Specialties Company
Smiley Family Dentistry
Stonecrest Productions
TruVue Inc.
Natural Landscape Services
West Side Distributing

Thanks to these generous donors we have raised over $9,000. We still have $3,000 to go to meet our family goal. Thank you once again.

Wine Wednesday

2010-08-05T22:14:00.002-04:00

Wednesday night was one of the best nights of the summer. What started out as a few people going out for a short ride and then sharing a glass of wine afterward ballooned into one of our better team rides of the year. We ended up with 15 people from the JDRF West Michigan Ride Team at our house at 7:00 last night. We proceeded to do a really nice 18 mile loop. Some hills, but nothing too drastic. We finished with a great descent down 7 Mile hill. Several people hit over 40 mph. The top speed demon was Coach Derek with just a shade over 45 mph. I believe he exceeded the posted speed limit!
After the ride we retired to the patio where there were many wonderful snacks and a plethora of wine. We finished 5 bottles and all the food. No surprise there. We also swapped stories about the Death Valley ride. We've got a few "Death Valley virgins" on the team this year. Some are a bit apprehensive, but we know they'll do fine.
It was a great night and one we will have to repeat soon.

1000

2010-08-03T21:58:00.002-04:00

Tonight Mary and I rode the White Pine Trail through Rockford up to Russell Road and back. 20 miles of a nice, but uneventful ride. Except that I rolled over a milestone tonight. I have now ridden over 1000 miles this season. Compared to the people on our team who have ridden a century ride every month or ride 200-300 miles a week this doesn't seem like a great accomplishment. But 1000 miles is a lot of miles any way you look at it. And we still have 10 weeks until the Death Valley ride, so I'll have the opportunity to add hundreds of miles to that total.

Team Ride Goodness

2010-08-02T08:39:00.002-04:00

Sunday was a beautiful, if warm and muggy, day. We did a team ride starting in Wayland heading out past the Yankee Springs area and then looping back to the start. Sounds easy enough, except several of the roads we're poorly marked and we ended up getting off route quite a bit. Who's kidding who here, we were almost never "on" route except for the first 10 miles and the last 10 miles. In all we rode 52 miles in the rolling hills and chip sealed pavement. This was the first ride in a while that Mary, Ian and I all participated in. It was actually Ian's first ride since the Holland Hundred. He's been busy with Band Camp and Soccer Camp since then. For me the first 10 miles were a little rough, still feeling the effects of my crash earlier in the week. But once I got warmed up everything was fine. That ride gave me just over 100 miles total for this week.

10 weeks until we saddle up in Death Valley.

On the lighter side

2010-07-30T13:11:00.000-04:00

From the comic "In the Bleachers" by Steve Moore.

A Cautionary Tale

2010-07-27T18:52:00.002-04:00

Today, Jeff Hill and I went out for a lunch time ride. We decided to ride Kent Trails, leaving from the new trail head off Butterworth and heading toward Millennium Park. Now we understood that Kent Trails is a multi-use trail. We saw walkers, cyclists, mountain bikers and dog walkers. About two miles down the trail is where the story becomes "interesting". There was a family, mom and two kids about 8 or 10 years old, walking toward us on their left side of the trail. Since we were riding on our right side we were coming face to face with them. So as we approached Jeff and I moved to our left so we could pass by safely. Just as we were side by side with them the little boy turned and ran across the trail. Right in front of me! I had literally no time to stop or even swerve. The right side of my handlebars hit him in the back and knocked him to the ground. I went flying off my bike to the left, landing mostly on my left hip judging from the road rash there.
If our coach Mike Clark was telling this story this is where the cautionary part would come in. "That's why I don't ride on bike trails. You never know what people are going to do." Mike has a point, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here. When I fell I could feel my knee hit the pavement, then my hip, then my shoulder and then my head. Except it wasn't my head that hit the trail - it was my helmet! It was my first experience in a fall where my helmet actually made contact with the ground. I'm here to say that my red Bike helmet kept my noggin safe today and I am grateful. It was a bizarre experience to feel the pavement digging in to my skin as I skidded to a stop, but to have my head beautifully cushioned. I like my head. I'm really glad it's okay.
So the moral of this little tale? Always wear your helmet. Whether you're on the road, riding through the neighborhood, or on a "safe" multi-use trail. I can't say that the helmet saved my life today, but I do know I wouldn't be writing this right now if I hadn't been wearing a helmet.
Ride On. Ride Safe.

P.S. The little boy was fine. Shook up by the experience, but walked away under his own power.

Good news

2010-07-26T13:38:00.003-04:00

This past week wasn't a great one for riding, but it was great for fundraising.
First the bike news. I only got 25 miles in. 16 on Tuesday night with Mary. We rode up to Rockford via the White Pine Trail. Then on Sunday morning I put in 9 miles on the mountain bike. Along with 7 other JDRF team members we attacked Luton Park. But from the bumps, bruises, cuts and falls I'd say Luton fought back pretty well. Nothing serious and it was an absolutely fabulous morning to ride.
In fundraising news we passed a major threshold. We have now raised over $8,500. That means two of the three Scheidels are paid up to go to Death Valley. We just need $3,500 more to send the last one. We have until we leave in October to raise the money so we aren't worried. Still, if you haven't donated yet, don't delay. Just click on one of the "Donate to..." links on the left.
And thanks for your support.

Best Week Ever (at least this year)

2010-07-19T21:17:00.004-04:00

I put in 142 miles on the bike this week. Starting on Tuesday with a ride into downtown Grand Rapids and then 20 miles in GR and then home. That was 43 miles. Thursday brought 8 miles on the mountain bike out at Luton Park. Saturday was the Holland Hundred which was the Holland 69 for me. Capped off the week with a team ride of 22 miles in the Muskegon area.

Tom and Ian halfway thru their second metric century of the summer.

The Holland Hundred was a great ride this year. The weather was warm and windy, but not as warm and windy as Death Valley, so we felt good. There were a lot of our JDRF team mates out on the route. There was a group that did the full hundred that left at 7:00 a.m. Our group doing the metric century left about 8:30. A few people split off at the halfway point and ended up riding a 52 mile route. Even with the different distances we kept seeing each other at rest stops, along the route and at the finish line.

The Pink Peloton rolls south of Muskegon.

We were not expecting a great turnout for the Sunday team ride because of all the miles ridden on Saturday. But as the above photo shows a good chunk of the team made it up to Muskegon to do a short, flat, stretch out the legs ride. The short route was 22 miles with an option to do 40. But a large storm blew in off Lake Michigan, so the long option was discarded as we hauled back to the starting point before the rain hit. We would have made it if not for the flat I suffered about 3 miles before the end. Right after I got it changed the skies opened up and I started having flashbacks to Killington. Very similar weather, except it was about 20 degrees warmer.

We head back to Death Valley in just a shade under 3 months.

There's Something About Thursday

2010-07-15T21:22:00.002-04:00

Tonight was another great Thursday night ride. It seems like all summer long, every Thursday evening ride has been excellent and memorable. Tonight was no exception. Tom Miller and I left the road bikes in the garage and headed to Luton Park near Rockford for some trail riding. Today was a hot, humid and cloudy day in west Michigan. But at about 5:00 a breeze came up, blew away the clouds and dropped the humidity. This provided for excellent riding conditions. Apparently several other people thought so as well. The parking area at Luton was packed. Tom and I did the main Blue loop twice, the easy Green loop once, the significantly harder Orange loop once and the crazy Black loop once. In total we road about 8 fun filled miles.
I've ridden my road bike past Luton Park several times, always thinking that I should come back on my ancient mountain bike and give the trails a try. Seriously, I have a Raliegh M50. It's the biggest mountain bike Raliegh made, it has no suspension and it's at least 20 years old. And I had a blast riding it. Although I have to admit, every time I ride the Raliegh I really appreciate how smooth my Cannondale is.

Team Ride Video

2010-07-07T15:35:00.002-04:00

We had a great ride last Saturday and here's the proof.

Saturday team ride

2010-07-06T10:00:00.002-04:00

We had an excellent team ride on Saturday. 21 of us got away from the holiday weekend barbecue long enough to get in a ride around the Holland area. Depending on time constraints (which there were understandably a lot of) people did somewhere between 38 and 46 miles. Ian and I ended up with a shade over 39 miles. We finished in time to get to New Holland and watch the World Cup match. With Ian, bike riding is a definite second place to soccer.
I also shot some video on the ride. Watch for edited version coming soon.

Thursday's the night

2010-07-01T20:22:00.003-04:00

This is the third Thursday evening in a row that I've been out for a ride. And the third Thursday in a row that it's been glorious. Maybe there is just something about Thursday evening. Tonight I rode toward the JDRF office as Mary was riding her bike home from there. We met up on Grand River Avenue. Rather than just turning around (for me, Mary could have kept going straight) we decided to tool around the new little park on Grand River. There is an extensive paved nature trail that we zipped along on. We also climbed to the top of an old silo that has been converted into a lookout tower. We then headed home via the curvy, relatively quiet street. We eventually merged onto Northland Drive, right near Plainfield. That last mile before we turned into our neighborhood was a bit harrowing. Cars going too fast and getting too close. But we survived and I logged just over 20 miles.
One small technical issue. At one point as I was riding down Pettis my bike computer suddenly said I was doing 0.0 miles per hour. I was pretty sure I was going quite a bit faster than that. A quick check of the hardware revealed that the sensor on my front wheel had come loose and slid out of position. A quick re-tightening and I was once again blazing along.

Riding around the lake

2010-06-27T22:11:00.002-04:00

So apparently it was a pretty stormy day in southwest Michigan today. We were at our friend's Susan and Elvin's cottage on Lake Paw Paw. We got a little rain around noon and a great light show, but it was all over in about an hour. It seems that the big mass of the storm went north and south of us. Which meant we went out for two rides. 13 miles in a counterclockwise direction around the lake before the storm. Then 11 miles in a clockwise direction after the rain. We're still not sure why it was shorter in one direction than the other. It probably has something to do with Daylight Savings Time.

Happy Father's Day Ride

2010-06-20T23:01:00.005-04:00

Today the JDRF team had a beautiful ride. We started at Townsend Park and rode into Rockford. We then went up Summit hill and took 13 mile out to Wabasis Lake before heading down Ramsdell and past Pickeral Lake before returning to the park.

Coach Mike and Kathy in downtown Rockford

The ride was 35 miles. Ian and I completed the full loop. Mary did a shorter route of 22 miles as she needed to go to the Detroit Airport to pick up Colleen. Colleen was returned from three weeks in Mexico. So now the family is all back in Rockford.

Ian and Mary about 12 miles into today's ride.

It's great riding with our team and getting ready for the big JDRF ride this October in Death Valley. All the funds raised help to find a cure for diabetes. Thank you for your support.

The JDRF West Michigan Team on the road

Great night for a ride

2010-06-18T14:40:00.002-04:00

Yesterday evening I had to go to Muskegon for business. We have several team mates who live on the lakeshore. So I got a hold of Amy and Melanie and after my meeting got done we went for a ride. We left Norton Shores and headed south toward Grand Haven. We rode by Hoffmaster State Park and along Lake Michigan. It was an absolutely gorgeous night. The temperature had cooled off, there was no wind and the sun setting over the lake was beautiful. We rode a shade over 25 miles and we had a great time trying to keep pace with Melanie.

After the ride we had an impromptu beer tasting on Amy's deck. We picked up an assorted 6 pack at a little party store near her house and had great fun rating the different beers. Winner's were Anchor Summer Ale (my favorite) and a Belgium Blond Ale (Amy and Mel's fav),

White Pine Trail Update 2

2010-06-10T14:44:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I went out for a short afternoon ride and started by heading north on the White Pine Trail to see how badly the Memorial Day storms had damaged it. The trail is closed by barricades from about one mile north of Belmont to House St. The damage is in three sections about a half mile south of House. The trail has been undercut and washed away on the downhill side. Snow fence and hay bales have been erected to move trail users who ignore the barricades (that would be me) off the trail and into the dirt on the uphill side of the trail.

This is not going to be a quick fix. The DNR cannot just resurface the trail, the actual hillside must be rebuilt. And it's washed out, as in the above photo, in three separate locations. The Powers That be know about it but so far there is no timetable for the repair. This section of the trail will probably be closed most of the summer.
In other news I completed 18 miles yesterday on a beautiful, if slightly windy day. That gives me 468 miles for the season so far. Kind of paltry when compared to some of my team mates who have been doing a century every month. But I still consider it early, since we don't do the Death Valley Ride until October.

100 Grand

2010-06-05T17:01:00.002-04:00

Our friends from Chicago, Elvin and his son Eddie, joined Ian and I for the Rapid Wheelman's 100 Grand Ride today. The ride leaves from the west side of Grand Rapids and travels in a big loop out into Ottawa County. We all did the 65 mile loop, which was actually closer to 67, but who's counting. The route was wonderful, taking us through the little hamlets of Lamont and Conklin. [Unfortunately Fenien's Irish Pub doesn't open until noon and we went by there at about 10:30.] At the 45 mile rest stop they were serving pulled pork sandwiches along with the usual ride goodies like bananas, chips and gorp. There was also a bluegrass trio playing live music for us. That was very nice. Ian did great, this was his longest ride ever. Up until today the most he'd ever done was 29 miles at our first team ride. He did hit a little bit of a wall at 50 miles, but he pushed through and finished the ride. So three months after starting training he's completed his first metric century. The kid is tough and he doesn't turn 15 until Tuesday.

White Pine Trail Update

2010-06-01T21:18:00.002-04:00

Up here in the Rockford area we had a lot of rain yesterday. A LOT of rain. There was a small lake in our backyard. There are several dirt road wash outs and a couple of parking lot driveways that had asphalt stripped away. I was going to ride yesterday, but decided to wait out the storms and ended up going out late this afternoon. My intended route was to head north on the White Pine Trail through Rockford and up to 15 mile. I was then going to do a country road loop and head home with a 20 miler under my wheels. Things didn't turn out that way.

About one mile north of the Belmont trail head there was a large washout that sent part of a hillside and several trees over the trail. A member of the Friends of the WPT was there taking pictures. He said there were two more washouts farther north, one of which had actually cut away part of the trail. He was concerned that there was too much work for the volunteer group to handle and that fixing the trail may be a state job. However considering the lack of money the state has right now he wasn't optimistic about the trail being repaired. I didn't see the other damaged areas. The first one makes road bike travel difficult. You have to slog across 30 feet of mud and water with several downed trees mixed in. The trail volunteer made the other problem areas sound worse. I'll take a ride around the damaged areas later in the week and make a report.

I did get my 20 miler in. I just went south on the WPT instead. I rode all the way to Riverside Park and back. A pretty interesting afternoon on the bike.

Three days, three very different rides

2010-05-24T15:44:00.002-04:00

Let's begin with Thursday. It was a beautiful warm spring day. I had an evening event to attend so I jumped on my bike after lunch and knocked out a quick 13 miles up to Rockford and back. Then on Friday Ian and I planned on attending our teammate Sarah Andro's JDRF fundraiser at Grand River Grocery. We were going to ride to Ada, do the fund raising ride and then ride home. It would have been 35 miles. However it rained most of the day, so we got a car ride down to Ada when the rain stopped. Then we started the fund raising ride and the rain returned. It was quite reminiscent of last year's Killington ride. Very hard rain, but luckily about 10 degrees warmer. We ended up only doing 10 miles. After the ride we had some good food (and I had a tasty Magic Hat Wacko) as we tried to get dry in the event tent. Best of all our teammate Chris Radford gave us a ride home.
On Sunday we had an official JDRF team ride that left from our house. We did a large loop the crossed the Rouge River 3 times, went around Meyers Lake and past Pickeral Lake, and through Townsend Park. There were 20 folks in attendance and we did the 40 mile route in 85 degree heat. Well, actually only 7 of us did the full route. Mary and about half the group took the 26 mile short cut down the White Pine Trail. A few more cut off the last loop that took us down Egypt Valley and Pettis to avoid the last few really big hills. The entire route was quite hilly with almost 1000 feet of climbing. Just getting us ready for Death Valley in October. And that makes over 60 miles in the saddle this week for me.

Separate but equal

2010-05-16T20:17:00.002-04:00

Mary and I ended up at separate rides today. She went on the team ride in Grand Haven and I took Ian to his soccer game and then went on a solo ride.
Mary's ride was 37 miles in very windy conditions out near Lake Michigan. She rode with about 25 members of the West Michigan Ride Team. It was her first ride in a couple of weeks because she's been so busy at the cake shop. (www.iloveConniesCakes.com)
After we got back from Ian's game I went out to check out the second half of the route for the team ride we'll be hosting next week. I put in 27 very hilly miles. Some of the hills were caused by backtracking when my original route turned into a dirt road. Still our team is in for quite a bit of climbing next week.
Oh, and Ian won his soccer game 2-1.

Connie's Cakes

2010-05-13T08:18:00.004-04:00

A little over a month ago Mary purchased her aunt's cake shop Connie's Cakes -n- Crafts. The shop has been around for 15 years. Mary's aunt wanted to retire and Mary wanted to own a business, soooo...
Mary has has dropped the "-n- Crafts" part of the name and has developed a whole new image for the shop. She's been busy getting to know the business and I've been helping her develop a web site. Today the web site has gone live. Here's the link. Check it out and then pop over to FaceBook and let us know what you think.

A perfect ride day

2010-05-03T20:04:00.002-04:00

Another great day for riding in West Michigan. This has been a fantastic spring. Warm. Sunny. Just down right pleasant. Ian and I took a little jaunt today when he got home from school. We went north on Post Road to Pine Island and then back east on House. This is a great twisty, rolling hills kind of road. We jogged back west at 10 Mile to Jewell which turns into 11 Mile which turns into Edgerton before it crosses 12 Mile. More twisty turny hilly fun. Then the easy part, 12 Mile east to the White Pine Trail to home. A 20 mile round trip. It will also the first half of our team ride route on May 23rd. I now have to get out and figure out the second half of the route.

Friday Ride

2010-05-01T17:58:00.002-04:00

Several of my JDRF ride buddies decided to take yesterday off from work and do a century ride. Cindy, Linda TP, Brenda and Trike Mike (on a two wheel bike) started on the Musketawa Trail at 7:00 a.m. New rider Kisten joined them for that leg of the ride. Kirsten turned around when the group headed down 6 Mile bound for the White Pine Trail. I joined the group near Belmont, when they already had over 35 miles under the tires. We rode the WPT almost all the way to Sand Lake before turning around. There was a bit of a head wind to fight and since I wasn't going the full 100 with them I was elected to ride the lead as a wind block. I was only too happy to oblige.
We stopped at the Corner Bar in Rockford for lunch. After a lovely, quick meal it was back on the bikes for just a few more miles for me. The Fearsome Foursome however had to ride all the back to Marne. They did end up completing their century and I finished with 40 miles. This is the only group I know of that would call me a slacker for riding only 40 miles. :)

A nice afternoon ride

2010-04-20T22:46:00.003-04:00

I got out on the bike for a solo training ride this afternoon. I started by heading up 7 Mile hill. It's a pretty tough climb and only one mile from the start, so you're not really warmed up yet when you hit it. But you are certainly warm by the top of the hill. I then rode north on Blakely to Kies. East on Kies to Meyers Lake Rd and then south to 9 Mile. That took me back to Blakely and then back down 7 Mile hill. It's a whole lot more fun going down and about 30 MPH faster. In all it was a 15 mile loop in about an hour. Lots of hill climbing which is really good at this point in the season.

In other news, Jake's Music Festival this past Saturday was a big success. We had more people in attendance, more sponsorship money and more donations than ever before. If you'd like to see some photos from the event click here.