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
Showing posts with label MS150. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MS150. Show all posts
Friday, August 24, 2007
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').
Sunday, July 1, 2007
40mi MS150 training ride
Got up on time and fiddled around getting ready. I roll out at 8:40am; needing to be at the Canal Visitor Center at 9am sharp. I take it easy warming up until I get on Rockside, and then I hit the jets and get serious about making the start time.
Fortunately it's pretty much all down hill from Parma to Valley View. I have no problems keeping it above 20mph for an average speed. The CX bike rolls down the road a lot better on Conti Gator Skins then on Ritchie Speedmax Pro CX tires (imagine that). I see Christine at the corner of Rockside and Rt21 with 2 bikes on her car - hmmm. Right after turning onto Canal, I pass 3-4 guys going the other way on the Sunday Spin ride (I think).
Rolling into the parking lot, I'm there in under 20 mins and have plenty of time since Murray had to go home for his helmet. I hadn't gotten time to send out the reminder email, so there were only 6 of us: Murray, Christine, Allan, Linda, Khantie(sp) and me.
The ride goes well. No mechanicals, although Murray and Christine had some shifting problems. The eatery we went to last year wasn't open either on the way out or back, so ended up going to Starbucks instead.
We ran across a young couple who were 2 weeks into a bike tour from Chicago to Upper Maine. They were well loaded and with the head wind had to work pretty hard. The guy had just graduated college and the gal was DEFINATELY hard core as she was pulling up until the last time we saw them.
We passed Shaker Cycles on the way back and I met Mitch who gave my Cannondale CX a not so nice critique. I didn't talk to him long enough to explain that the bike was full Ultegra before yesterday, since we had to get going.
On the way back we rode behind Steel Yard Commons. Really nice to have a bike path back there, and Jennings road was repaved almost all the way back to Harvard.
I had another Ernesto sighting on the tow path just north of the rail road bridge. By the time I decided to try turning around to catch him and chat for a bit, he was long gone. Or had it been only a dream???
Once back to the parking lot, I debate riding the towpath and checking out the 'scenery', but it's been a long ride and I decide to head home instead. There will be plenty of riding later this week.
Fortunately it's pretty much all down hill from Parma to Valley View. I have no problems keeping it above 20mph for an average speed. The CX bike rolls down the road a lot better on Conti Gator Skins then on Ritchie Speedmax Pro CX tires (imagine that). I see Christine at the corner of Rockside and Rt21 with 2 bikes on her car - hmmm. Right after turning onto Canal, I pass 3-4 guys going the other way on the Sunday Spin ride (I think).
Rolling into the parking lot, I'm there in under 20 mins and have plenty of time since Murray had to go home for his helmet. I hadn't gotten time to send out the reminder email, so there were only 6 of us: Murray, Christine, Allan, Linda, Khantie(sp) and me.
The ride goes well. No mechanicals, although Murray and Christine had some shifting problems. The eatery we went to last year wasn't open either on the way out or back, so ended up going to Starbucks instead.
We ran across a young couple who were 2 weeks into a bike tour from Chicago to Upper Maine. They were well loaded and with the head wind had to work pretty hard. The guy had just graduated college and the gal was DEFINATELY hard core as she was pulling up until the last time we saw them.
We passed Shaker Cycles on the way back and I met Mitch who gave my Cannondale CX a not so nice critique. I didn't talk to him long enough to explain that the bike was full Ultegra before yesterday, since we had to get going.
On the way back we rode behind Steel Yard Commons. Really nice to have a bike path back there, and Jennings road was repaved almost all the way back to Harvard.
I had another Ernesto sighting on the tow path just north of the rail road bridge. By the time I decided to try turning around to catch him and chat for a bit, he was long gone. Or had it been only a dream???
Once back to the parking lot, I debate riding the towpath and checking out the 'scenery', but it's been a long ride and I decide to head home instead. There will be plenty of riding later this week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
