Getting riding plans finalized for what promises to be a great weekend of fun-filled riding. Pictures soon to follow!
Update - Until I get my pic's uploaded, pics are available here
Friday, August 31, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Westlake 8/28/2007 - the quick and dirty
There were 40 riders out, and all the teams were well represented including me, Rick, John, Dave S., and Chris B. from SBR. There were no breaks. I haven't downloaded my Polar data yet, but the average speed was a touch over 26mph (including the warm-up lap).
Everyone from SBR mixed it up at the front during the parts of the race; there was a ton of jockeying for position the whole night. I was not ready for them to ring the bell. I heard it ringing, looked up to see what the prime would be, and there was a '1' showing on the lap card. I was sitting about 30th at this time - NOT GOOD. I managed to find my way into the top 15-20, but I was more worried about getting in a crash than trying to be in position for the sprint.
Friday, August 24, 2007
HELP!!
Even though this year's MS-150 ride is over, there is still time for YOU to support a truely worthy cause. People are most frequently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in the prime of life (ages 20 - 50).
Click HERE right now to help win the fight against MS, because you can never know what tomorrow might bring for you or for someone you love.
Thanks,
-Gary
Click HERE right now to help win the fight against MS, because you can never know what tomorrow might bring for you or for someone you love.
Thanks,
-Gary
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Daddy Like...
So, I got to take the ride of my life (thus far) on this sexy mama tonight. Pics to follow - I know you can hardly wait!
UPDATE: Get your PEEPS HERE!!
I also hit the Spin ride for the first time in over a month. Kept toying with the idea of trying to hang with the A's, but it was probably better that I rode with the B group. As it is today, I'm a little sore. Didn't affect me too much tonight, though.
UPDATE: Get your PEEPS HERE!!
I also hit the Spin ride for the first time in over a month. Kept toying with the idea of trying to hang with the A's, but it was probably better that I rode with the B group. As it is today, I'm a little sore. Didn't affect me too much tonight, though.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
MS150 / 2 = MS75 day two
Woke up early to the cold morning and RAIN. I had been thoroughly impressed with the awesome weather on Saturday; remarking continually that it had rained during day one of the MS150 for the past 2 years.
My grandpa kindly offered to drive us back to Berea, and we quickly accepted, although I continued to keep my hopes up and threw my kit on under my street clothes. At the high school we ran into Murray as he was leaving. He laughingly called us 'wussies' for not riding, and we smiled and shrugged it off. Having brought no rain gear or stuff for the colder temp, we might have been pussies for not riding, but at least we wouldn't be 'wet wussies'.
It's a REALLY GOOD thing that we wimped out. It rained HARD on the way back on the turn pike, and there was even what would have been a significant head wind to boot. We about froze just for the brief time when we unloaded the bikes from the HHR and put the wheels back on so that Rick's hitch rack could hold them. The temp in Berea was a whopping 56 degrees, and we were VERY thankful for not having to ride in it.
My grandpa kindly offered to drive us back to Berea, and we quickly accepted, although I continued to keep my hopes up and threw my kit on under my street clothes. At the high school we ran into Murray as he was leaving. He laughingly called us 'wussies' for not riding, and we smiled and shrugged it off. Having brought no rain gear or stuff for the colder temp, we might have been pussies for not riding, but at least we wouldn't be 'wet wussies'.
It's a REALLY GOOD thing that we wimped out. It rained HARD on the way back on the turn pike, and there was even what would have been a significant head wind to boot. We about froze just for the brief time when we unloaded the bikes from the HHR and put the wheels back on so that Rick's hitch rack could hold them. The temp in Berea was a whopping 56 degrees, and we were VERY thankful for not having to ride in it.
MS150 day one
Having been much lighter on the mileage (and suprisingly enough on the scale too??) for most of the past month, I was looking forward to the MS150 and getting to Cedar Point early so that we would be able to head out in time to see my mom and her new 'puppy' at my grandpa's (where we would be spending the night).
Got up at the butt-crack of dawn and got to the Berea fairgrounds JUST in time to make the 6:30am picture, which was fortunately at like 6:45am... Doned the new Cleveland Clinic Team Mellen jersey, which looks GREAT. It's made by Voler (www.voler.com) who also makes our racing kit. The new jerseys look a little like the Discovery Team's.
Still running behind, we missed the sendoff when Team Mellen got to leave early. When we rode out at 7:30am sharp there were 3 other guys from our team who missed the initial wave. It was a little congested as we were leaving Berea - one of the reasons for wanting to take off early. We had to be very cautious working our way past slower riders who were sometimes riding 4-5 abreast... Turns out that the 3 guys from Team Mellen were very good riders, even though they were new. (It was the first organized ride for one of them).
We were starting to make good time when we came across an injured rider. We stopped briefly as many other people did, but aid had already been called for and was en route. Not wanting to be part of a 1,000+ rider bottleneck, we continued on and signaled to approaching motorists to slow down & proceed with caution.
Soon after catching back up to Zack, Greg, and Jason, yours truly had a flat tire. Trying to squeeze 150mi out of a badly worn 175gr race tire ended up costing Rick and I 8minutes while I put on a new tube and a less worn tire. We didn't see the other 3 from our original pace line until we were in the cafeteria for our lunch rest stop.
Once we got past the congestion and were warmed up after lunch, it was back to our quick pace. My HR strap wasn't working at the start of the ride, so data from the beginning is a little sketchy (in addition to the 2 stops). For the 22.8mi leading up to lunch, Rick and I averaged 20.6mph. For the remaining 41.5mi we stayed consistent and would end up averaging 20.5mph. HR data was consistent as well with 177bpm leading in and 178bpm average after lunch.
We would have really arrived early except that Rick had a spoke break a few miles before the last rest stop. He had to fully release his rear brake to keep it from rubbing. At the stop the mech from Eddy's was great. He just wrapped the end of the broken spoke around another spoke and tightened the neighboring spokes and the wheel was almost perfectly true. Pics can be found on Rick's blog here: http://inquintessence1.blogspot.com/
Professional photos can be found and purchased here: http://kmorris.exposuremanager.com/p/85/p2p_035837
Once in Sandusky, we parked the bikes, cleaned up, ate until we could eat no more, and headed to Cedar Point. We made good use of our limited time by riding some of the 'classic' rides like the Demon Drop which had 15min or shorter waits.
Caught a bus back to Sandusky High School where my grandpa graciously picked us up. Made it to his place just in time to meet Kayla for the first time.
Too bad they don't make a 'green eye' reduction feature for dogs...
Got up at the butt-crack of dawn and got to the Berea fairgrounds JUST in time to make the 6:30am picture, which was fortunately at like 6:45am... Doned the new Cleveland Clinic Team Mellen jersey, which looks GREAT. It's made by Voler (www.voler.com) who also makes our racing kit. The new jerseys look a little like the Discovery Team's.
Still running behind, we missed the sendoff when Team Mellen got to leave early. When we rode out at 7:30am sharp there were 3 other guys from our team who missed the initial wave. It was a little congested as we were leaving Berea - one of the reasons for wanting to take off early. We had to be very cautious working our way past slower riders who were sometimes riding 4-5 abreast... Turns out that the 3 guys from Team Mellen were very good riders, even though they were new. (It was the first organized ride for one of them).
We were starting to make good time when we came across an injured rider. We stopped briefly as many other people did, but aid had already been called for and was en route. Not wanting to be part of a 1,000+ rider bottleneck, we continued on and signaled to approaching motorists to slow down & proceed with caution.
Soon after catching back up to Zack, Greg, and Jason, yours truly had a flat tire. Trying to squeeze 150mi out of a badly worn 175gr race tire ended up costing Rick and I 8minutes while I put on a new tube and a less worn tire. We didn't see the other 3 from our original pace line until we were in the cafeteria for our lunch rest stop.Once we got past the congestion and were warmed up after lunch, it was back to our quick pace. My HR strap wasn't working at the start of the ride, so data from the beginning is a little sketchy (in addition to the 2 stops). For the 22.8mi leading up to lunch, Rick and I averaged 20.6mph. For the remaining 41.5mi we stayed consistent and would end up averaging 20.5mph. HR data was consistent as well with 177bpm leading in and 178bpm average after lunch.
We would have really arrived early except that Rick had a spoke break a few miles before the last rest stop. He had to fully release his rear brake to keep it from rubbing. At the stop the mech from Eddy's was great. He just wrapped the end of the broken spoke around another spoke and tightened the neighboring spokes and the wheel was almost perfectly true. Pics can be found on Rick's blog here: http://inquintessence1.blogspot.com/
Professional photos can be found and purchased here: http://kmorris.exposuremanager.com/p/85/p2p_035837
Once in Sandusky, we parked the bikes, cleaned up, ate until we could eat no more, and headed to Cedar Point. We made good use of our limited time by riding some of the 'classic' rides like the Demon Drop which had 15min or shorter waits.
Caught a bus back to Sandusky High School where my grandpa graciously picked us up. Made it to his place just in time to meet Kayla for the first time.
Too bad they don't make a 'green eye' reduction feature for dogs...
Getting back in the saddle...
Lots has happened since my last update, so I'll give just the quick and dirty:
- Rode over 200mi from 7/12 - 7/15
- Didn't ride at all from 7/16/ - 7/20
- Felt like crap warming up for the Troy Crit with Jason and Rick on 7/21
- Wrecked HARD (27mph), was KO'ed, and got a trip to the ER. This happened 13.2mi into the 20mi Troy Crit.
- Didn't ride at all from 7/22 - 7/27
- Did 30mi 7/28 for a night ride on the towpath
- Did 57mi 7/29 during the 50mi Sweet Corn ride (with the 3 optional hills)
- Felt the sore ribs again and didn't ride from 7/30 - 8/3
- Rode 21mi on 8/4 and led a 54mi MS150 training ride on 8/5
- Having been in the 'habit' now of not riding during the week, took 8/6 - 8/10 off
- 33mi on 8/11 (took the pace up a notch) and 31mi 8/14 (felt like crap but kept a 19mph+ pace).
- Took the remainder of the week off (again new 'habit').
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