This week's rides

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

 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.