10 Years

Today the Mrs. and I have been married for 10 years. It really doesn't seem like that long, but time does fly. I'm one lucky dude to have her and am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her as well.


Just to give you an idea of how lucky I am here is a list of my anniversary presents from the Mrs.
- Pearl Izumi Thermal arm warmers,
- Pearl Izumi Thermal leg warmers,
- Pearl Izumi Attack bib shorts,
- Carmichael Training DVD; AND
- a Gut-Check training aid which she spent hours on, making herself.


The Gut-Check training aid is really cool, it has places to put: average speed, hours ridden, miles ridden and time spent lifting weights. Each month has a motivational message from people like, Lance Armstrong, Greg LeMond and Vince Lombardi. It should be a real help to keep me on the right track for training. Not to mentioned this last week if I haven't been on the bike she will ask me very kindly "aren't you going to ride today", which is all I need to hear to get my butt in the saddle.


Did I mention how lucky I am to be married to her.

A use for that worn out chain.

Now if I could just come up for a use for my punctured tubes and worn out tires.

TGIF and it's my birthday

and here is my cake!



Not really my cake but I kinda like the idea.

Goals: I want to ride 50 miles

So the kids are back to school, one of the things they take home from school everyday is their "agenda". This is a book where they keep a small journal of each day at school and also provides the parents and teachers way to get messages/info back and forth. I was checking out Mr. T's agenda after school today and on one of the 1st few pages it has a place for goals and things they would like to do. His one thing he would like to do is "ride my bike 50 miles". I'm a very proud and happy Dad after reading that and can't wait to take him on his first 50 mile ride in a few years.

Unfortunately another goal was getting Mom and Dad to get him a dog. That one, um, I'm not so sure or excited about.

Later

Congrats!!!

To all who road and to all those who finished the 2008 Gut-Check. You can check out the results here. Hopefully my name is on that list next year.

Later

Game On

Gut-Check 2009


I really feel like shit (sorry Mayor I don't want to mess up my G rating) but I REALLY wish I was on my way to the South Dakota/Wyoming border about now. I didn't think it would bother me this much but it consumed my thoughts most of the day.


I have decided, after a discussion with the Mrs. last night that Gut-Check 2009 is on the schedule. I feel better and am much more focused when I have a goal in sight. It beat me last year and that still bothers me. The worst part is when I stopped last year my legs felt good, my rear end felt good but it was my ARM that failed me. My left arm had went totally numb, and honestly a year later I still don't have all the feeling back in my left hand pinky.


Training for next year starts next Tues. Why next Tues you say, it's when the kids go back to school. This frees up my lunch hour for training time. Yeah I know it's only an hour but it really makes a difference. I spend 45 minutes on my (recumbent) stationary bike Mon., Wed., & Fri. and lift weights for 45 minutes on Tues. and Thurs. This is on top of my normal riding in the evenings and weekends. Hopefully it will keep/improve my legs over the off season and get my upper body strong enough to keep feeling in my left arm.


On top of that weight, at my thinnest roadie wiener weight I weighed in at 160 lbs right now I'm at 185ish or so. This will change, honestly I really had to work/starve myself to get to 160 and did not feel strong at all at that weight. My goal is 170 to 175 this is when I feel my best and strongest so that is my goal. Its only 10 to 15 lbs which shouldn't be much of a problem with a proper training regiment.


Last but not least I feel I have the support of my family to defeat this beast of a ride. The Mrs. is on board, (she's even willing to sag my sorry butt again), the kiddos are aware that Dad will be starting to ride and lift more, with that kinda support how can I not give it another go (do I have a great and supporting wife and kids or what). There will be times it will be tough and a strain, but then again is there anything that's worth achieving that's not.


366 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!

Lack of Posts and Lack of Rides

I must be going through a post MS ride funk. My bike is still in the same position as when I arrived home from Sioux Falls last Sunday. I really can't explain why but know things WILL change this week. I've been fighting some allergy type stuff which has been causing my eyes to water, itch and swell up. I'm going to try to make sure I pop a Zyrtec every morning to try to remedy this issue.

Ms K's birthday party was also a big time grabber this last week. I started getting the yard ready Thursday night and spent 3 hours mowing and trimming. Friday the whole family went to the Clay County Fair (the Vermillion, SD one) and ended up the night at the demo derby. I'm thinking all this time outside in the dirt and dust did not help my eye issues. Saturday was the big birthday party. Pretty much the whole day was spent getting ready.

The birthday party was a lot of fun, for the kids as well as the adults. We had a total of 28 people at the party and 16 of them were kids. Games were played, food was ate and beverages were consumed, all in all a fun night. Our guests departed around 10:45 or so and then it was clean up time. Neither me or the Mrs really wanted to take on that task but we figured just suck it up and get it done and that way we wouldn't have to worry about it on Sunday. We finally got the house picked up, dishes washed, fire pit put out and kids to bed around midnight.

Today was spent pretty much recovering from yesterday, in fact I think I'm ready for my 4th nap of the day. Between naps I watched the Olympics including the womans road cycling race. Hey, it's the closest thing to riding I've done all week.

Later

Pedal the Plains; Day 2

Humid, Hot and never a true tailwind were the weather conditions for day 2. We departed Vermillion and formed a Lane Hogs / FAB pace line, and what a pace line is was. The Big Blue Tandem in the lead, followed by Snakebite on the Big Dummy drafting behind those two monster bikes is like following 2 semi's down the interstate. The rest of the pace line included: The President, Bald N Surly, The Owner and myself, not to mention 4 or 5 others which do not have blogs to link to. It was a lively pace, about 20 mph +/- depending on hills. We held this group together for about the first 20 miles or so. After this the group split up into several smaller groups for the remainder of the ride. It was hot, it was humid and we really never ended up with true tailwind. I rolled into Sioux Falls about 12:20 glad to beat the worst of the heat.

So that wraps up my 4th MS ride. I had a great time and had the opportunity to ride with a lot of blogger friends. I even had the chance to ride an hour or so with the Mayor, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

As always it was fun to be out on the road, but the greater cause is much more important and hopefully by us all showing up and doing our part we can put and end to MS and then find the next cause to ride for.

Later

Pedal the Plains; Day 1

Can you say WIND. That pretty much sums it up. I rolled out of Sioux Falls shortly after 7 and covered the first 20 miles in just a tad over an hour. That would be the fastest 20 miles of the day. The rest of the day was spent battling a very stiff head wind. I rolled into Vermillion about 12:45 and considered the century route. The cold beer and shade quickly made my decision easy. Could I have rode the last 25 ? Sure I could have, did I really want to face that wind for another hour, nope. All in all day 1 was fun and it was great to visit with all the riders and bloggers. I'm looking forward to a nice tailwind tomorrow.

Later