Ice Road Biking

This section of road was interesting on my road bike! about a mile down the road I came to a truck that had slid off the road and took out an electric pole, I should have taken a picture, but my fingers were hurting pretty bad. The looks I got from the spectators was priceless, I had to pop off my mouth by saying something like "some people don't know how to drive on the ice" LOL I have been riding on the slick stuff for many years, you just have to stay balanced on the bike, stay relaxed and make no sudden movements. It gives a whole new perspective to "hold your line"

And here comes more snow! Boy I will be glad when spring and summer arrive.

My parts for my trainer came in today, now I just need a window of opportunity so that I can attempt to do my trainer century for the second time, hopefully It doesn't break on me again. It's looking like the next week is gonna be good enough for me to hit the roads outside. But as soon as the mercury drops into the teens for the daily high, I will attempt it again. I'm almost obsessed with completing it, and I absolutely hate riding on trainers. I think I have lost my mind!

Meet Eddie, the master sprinter

Probably my favorite part of American Flyer's is the introduction of sprint training partner Eddie, he is a real "Son of a Bitch"! I think I have met a few of his kin around my training circuits. The whole family are Sons a Bitches! LOL

Anyway, I got 71 miles into my trainer/century when my trainer malfunctioned. The load bolt stripped out, shouldn't be a big deal except I wasn't able to finish the full 100! I was not putting in a very fast effort anyways. 4 and a half hours and still had 29 miles to go! So now I must try it again, after I get the trainer repaired. I'm gonna try to up the pace next time.

It's the weirdest thing how our mind works, when I do 2 hour training rides on the trainer they seem very long but when I knew I was gonna be on for 6 hours, the first two didn't seem that bad? Hmm, maybe some research design is in order for this one? Anyway I guess I will try it another time, but I will probably wait till the weather sucks again. It looks like it's gonna be warm enough for me for the next few days to ride outside, and with classes starting back up next week I'm not sure when I can try it again. As long as I have 20+degrees F. I refuse to ride indoors, unless something dictates me to do so.

Cya all on the trails soon! GMoney

100 miles on the trainer

I finally found a good use for my textbooks! When I want to simulate some climbing I will add English 101 and U.S. Politics. The text book industry sure has a racket going on, your looking at 200+ dollars in books under my wheel, unfortunately I couldn't sell them back because the school was changing text books for the following semester : (

Well I'm gonna try to ride a century tomorrow on my trainer, I have never ridden more than 4 hours on a trainer before so lets see If I can do it. My trainer does a good job of simulating the feel of the road so I suspect It will take me around 6 hours, I'm only riding base so I shouldn't push the pace too hard. I have three movies to watch while attempting to test my sanity; American Flyers, Breaking Away, and Race across the Sky. If that isn't enough then I can put in my favorite, Star Trek (2009). Well, I better get some sleep, tomorrow is gonna be a long one. Remember, your better than you think you are. You can do more than you think you can!

Snow rides!

I'm ready for summer, but gotta be careful wishing for it to be here, don't want to wish away life. Yesterday I opted to mtb. in the snow, It was just about perfect. Enough snow to make it fun but but not so much to make the hills impossible.

It looks like I'm gonna have to unbury the trainer for the next couple days, I hate riding inside. I have only needed to use it once this cold season, I can take the weather pretty well, but with the single digits in the forcast I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get my training in. Hmmm, maybe a trainer century? I have yet to try that, I'm thinking I would go insane. Please weatherman, give us atleast 20 degree lows!

113 miles today

Well it was a tough day in the wind, we had 30 mph head and cross winds for the first 50+ miles. It was miserable but once we had it at our back we flew home. I wanted to get more pix today but it's too hard to take pictures when the wind is trying to blow you off the road. Jon Mayfield is blocking the cross wind for me, at this point we were trying to get the clouds behind us before the possible rain.

10th annual New Years Day Century hosted by Tailwind Cyclists

13 is my lucky number and the total cyclist that started the new years day ride at 9 AM January 1st. Some of the riders opted to choose shorter routes but the main event was the 100 miler. The start was a little frosty at 20 degrees F. with 10-15 mph winds.

30 miles in and only 9 of us left, we are a little disorganized at this point Jim Simone needed to take a phone call, so we are just chillin while waiting for him. I decided to make it a photo op.

We stopped at Casey's for coffee and I wanted some motrin to relieve the killer head ache I had. I stayed up too late on New Years Eve!

And then there was five!

All in all, it was a pretty mellow ride. We never really pushed the pace very much, we had some newbies to the ride. Our goal was to get as many to the finish line as possible. Dan McNally, Jon Mayfield, and myself did 90% of the domestique work. The pace wasn't very hard so I was happy to take the front.