Three weeks and counting

It's actually 2 weeks and 5 days until we participate in the LaCrosse Ride to Cure Diabetes. This is only the second time in 11 years that we've done the ride in August. Usually it's in September or October. That's a month or two more training and fundraising. With our wet spring it feels like we've just gotten training underway and we have to do the ride in just a few weeks.

I got my longest ride of the year in on Sunday. It was a team ride from Millennium Park in Grand Rapids out to Spring Lake and back. A majority of the team put in a little over 60 miles. I had a time issue so I rode 44 miles. The first half, while I was riding with the team, was a blast. It wasn't too hot yet and we we're blasting along at 18 to 20 mph. However, then I turned around and headed back on my own. No one to draft on, wind in my face, and rising temperatures. My average on the way back was more in the 13-15 mph range.

Below is a short video of some of the team riding through Ottawa County on Sunday. Notice our very safe and legal two abreast riding.

3 in a Row

Last week we didn't get a chance to ride at all. I was in Nashville for a conference and Mary came along. Regular readers may remember that the last time we were in Nashville was for the 2013 JDRF Ride for a Cure and that I crashed at the half way point and broke four ribs. This trip caused no injuries. We had wanted to go kayaking after the conference but the river levels were too high.

Hiking trail at Mammoth Cave National Park

So we did some hiking instead. We hiked in Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky and Clifty Falls State Park in southern Indiana.

This week I've been trying to make up for lost time. I rode three days in a row. Sunday was just a short 4 mile ride on my mountain bike around the neighborhood. On Monday Mary and I rode the White Pine Trail up to Rockford and back for a little over 15 miles. Then on Tuesday I did a solo ride on one of my favorite loops. I went west out Post Drive and followed Edgerton north. This is a twisty, turny, hilly little road. A little pot holed this year, but that just hones the bike handling skills. I came back east on 13 Mile and then went south on Courtland before riding past Rockford High School on my way home. You can see the entire 22 mile route by clicking here. That route had 920 feet of elevation gain, which would work out to around 4,000 feet of climbing on a century ride.

The LaCrosse ride is three weeks from Saturday. I'm a little nervous that I don't have as many miles in as I'd like. My longest ride so far this year is only 38 miles. Although I do still have a couple more weeks to train and they tell me the LaCrosse route is "relatively flat". Of course I've learned never to believe a cyclist who tells you the route is flat.

"When cycling you never have a tailwind. It's either a headwind or a great day to ride." 
-unknown cyclist

A Big Week

We got a lot of riding in during the last week. Mary and I rode Monday, Wednesday, Friday and today. Monday was 20 miles and Wednesday was almost 15. On Friday we did separate rides. Mary rode 93 miles with team mates Linda and Cindy. They rode from Byron Center to Sand Lake and back via Kent Trails and the White Pine Trail. I did a solo ride of only 38 miles, so we can see who the stronger rider is in our family. My ride went west out 9 Mile Road and then north into Sparta before taking the WPT home. Today we did a team ride in Holland. We went north from the north side of Lake Macatawa and basically rode between US-31 and the lake shore. I could share the names of the roads, but I threw away the tip sheet. It was a fairly easy 32 miles, mostly flat, so we kept up a pretty good pace.

So when we add up the four days of riding this week I finished with 105 miles. Mary, thanks to her near century on Friday, ended up with 170 miles. Regular riding adds up to big miles. Which is good, since we are 6 weeks away from our JDRF Ride in LaCrosse.

The Return of Wine Wednesday

We had our first Wine Wednesday ride of the year last night. Traditionally we ride an easy 15 miles and then have wine on our patio afterwards. It's more of a social event than a training ride. Last night was a bit different. Since we have new team jerseys courtesy of Perrin Brewing we decided to ride up to the brewey and show off our new gear. While we were there we ran into new team mates Scott and Pam who were at the tap room after a golf outing. We had beer and snack before heading back to the house.

Top photo: Cindy, Linda, Scott, Heather and Pam. Bottom photo: Tom, Mary and Tom.

I took us on kind of a twisty route as it was eight and a half miles to get there and only six miles to get back. Once we returned home the weather had cooled noticeably, so I started a fire and we sat around the patio having our traditional wine and snacks. A great way to kick off the 4th of July weekend.

Urban Riding

Tonight I headed south on the White Pine Trail without a real plan on where or how far I was going to ride. When I got to the ball park I decided to cross the river and head through Riverside Park. Much to my surprise I found a new, paved, marked, two way bike lane trucked between the park and and North Monroe. I decided to see how far this new bike lane went. As I neared the south end of the park the bike lane split to a single lane on each side of the road. I continued following as this area has had sporadic lane markings in the past. Now I was able to get all the way to the 6th Street bridge and the bike lane continued on. But I needed to turn back for home. So I crossed the river and followed the bike lane that runs along Seward Street. The roadway lane ends, but it then becomes a paved path which takes the rider north to Ann Street. At this point there are several directional signs pointing to the White Pine Trail. I followed these and ended up back at the south end of Riverside Park. This time I traveled along the path near the river, crossed the Grand river again on North Park Street, and then hooked up with the south end of the WPT. The entire trip was 22 miles. The great part is that I can now ride from my house to downtown Grand Rapids on bike trails or marked bike lanes the entire way. All the talk about being a bike friendly city appears to be coming true.

Happy Father's Day

The best part of Father's Day was hearing from all three of my children, plus Colleen is home from D.C. for a few days, and we went out to visit my Dad in Lowell. We started the day with a 33 mile team ride. We left from team mate Mike Barnes house in Jenison. We traveled through little towns of eastern Ottawa County. I know they were towns because they had green road signs announcing their names. They was no other way to tell. The ride itself was good except for Mary getting three flats, two before we started, and having a tire almost explode. We were about 22 miles into the ride and were taking a quick break to get reassembled. Mary looked down at her front tire and said "Should my tire have a little bubble on the side like that?" She had a cut in the sidewall of her tire and the tube was starting to poke through. A quick field fix with an empty GU wrapper (thanks Coaches Mike and Derek) and she was good to go again. We finished the cycling part of the day with burgers on the grill on a beautiful Summer Solstice.

Mary and I also got out for a ride on Thursday, just 21 miles on the White Pine Trail through Rockford up to Russel Road. That's 54 miles for this weekend. After a couple weeks of very little riding because of work and weather it feels good to be getting some miles in.

A good week of riding

I got out three times this week on three very different rides. On Monday, which just happened to be Memorial Day, Mary and I went for a ride around Lake Paw Paw with Elvin and Susan Hayes. They have a cottage there and we have a tradition of getting together with them on Memorial Day weekend. 2105 marked our 30th consecutive get-together. Orignally we went camping, but for the last ten years we've mostly been to their cottage. The ride around the lake was 15 pretty flat miles at a leisurely pace. A really good holiday weekend type of ride.

On Friday morning I went out for a solo training ride. I did a sprint ride up to Rockford and back along the White Pine Trail. It was just put my head down a hammer for 15 miles.

Today we had a team ride from Sarah Andro's house in Ada. It was cold, windy, cloudy and quite hilly. We started by following the time trial route along Grand River Drive. Normally this wouldn't have been very difficult, but today there was a very stiff wind out of the east. If we were doing the time trial the wind would have been okay, because then we would have had a tailwind on the way back. But instead of turning around we turned right and climbed up to 36th Street. Heading back along that road brought us many hills. Nothing horrible, but a bit like a roller coaster, consistently up and down. We finished with 27 miles which gives me 57 for the week and 251 for the season.

Linda and Mary showing off the new West Michigan team jersey.

We also got our new team jerseys this week. Thanks to jersey sponsor Perrin Brewing Company and designer Terry VandenAkker. If you really like them (we do) you can get your own at the Perrin Brewing tap room in Comstock Park. The jerseys are made by Primal and $5 of each purchase is donated to JDRF.

Tour de Taco

Once the riding season starts we have a team ride every two weeks. Because our team is spread out all over the western half of the lower peninsula (plus parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana) we move the team ride locations around. This past Sunday we started from Coach Mike Clark's house. This ride is affectionately known as the Tour de Taco because Mike fixes up a whole mess 'o tacos when we are done. Everyone brings a dish to pass, keeping with the theme where possible. It's good eats after a good ride.

This particular Sunday we had options of 22, 28 and 39 miles to choose from. Mary and I opted for the 38 mile route, making this our longest ride of the year so far. The route started in Holland, went south through Saugatuck/Douglas, west toward Fennville and then finally north back to the start. It was a very windy day. Luckily we had a large group and by keeping to a tight pace line we were acheiving pretty decent speeds. Until we turned north to head home. Then, glory of glories, we recieved the best gift a cyclist can get at the end of a ride - a tail wind. For the last 10 miles we had a pretty steady breeze blowing up our back sides. Our average speed went from around 15 to over 20 mph. There was a one mile split that clocked in at 23 mph. I believe Mary was on the front at that point. When we rolled through the little village of Graafshap it was a slight downhill with the wind at our backs. I stopped pedaling and coasted for several blocks at 21 mph. That was fun.

The JDRF West Michigan Ride Team assembles for the annual Tour de Taco ride.

This year we are riding in LaCrosse in mid August. Two months sooner than our usual Death Valley ride. That means two months less fund raising, so if you'd like to send a donation - now would be a good time. Just click on one of the "Donate to..." links on the left side of this page. Thanks.

May the Fourth be with you

The overused Star Wars joke in the title has nothing to do with this post, it was just an opportunity to let my inner geek out for a stroll. The real reason for this post is that Mary and I got out for a little 13 mile tonight. She also rode 29 miles with the JDRF team yesterday and I got 14 miles in on Saturday evening. That gives me 110 miles for the year so far. Not a lot, but the weather is improving daily, so I see big miles in our future.

For some reason I missed posting in the entire month of April. The big news from last month is that we held Jake's Music Festival on April 11 and raised $5,000. I also rode a little bit. There will be more posts going forward. I promise.

Start of the Season

Apparently I haven't posted to this blog in 3 months. That changes today - for today I rode outside for the first time this year. The temperature topped 60 degrees and I got out for a 15 mile ride on the White Pine Trail. I have ridden the trainer a few times over the winter, but I hate it and don't do it very frequently. So it was great to get outdoors and get some real riding in. However I could tell that it has been a long winter and my cycling fitness is very low. But that will improve as the weather does. Of course we live in Michigan so we could have a blizzard in the next 24 hours.

Check out the Training Tracker over on the left. I will update this as the season goes along as I train for the JDRF ride in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. This year our West Michigan team is headed for the western edge of Wisconsin in August. The ride will be 100 miles, travel through three states and cross the mighty Mississippi River twice. Not exactly Death Valley like conditions, but anyone who has ever spent August in the Midwest knows that the humidity can be stifling.Which would you rather ride in - 100 degrees with 10% humidity or 85 degrees with 85% humidity? A new challenge for a new ride season.