Sunday, August 26, 2007

Michigan, Montana and points in-between

A crazy busy week. Mary took Colleen back to Central Michigan University on Thursday and then was supposed to fly to Montana to support the 20 West Michigan riders participating in the Whitefish Ride to Cure Diabetes. Because of the storms that rolled thru the midwest that day she ended up driving to Chicago early Friday morning and catching a flight to Missoula, Montana. The ride out there went great and the West Michigan folks had a fantastic time. We'll be posting photos here and at the team blog site later.
Tom stayed in Michigan, putting in many work hours but also setting up the JDRF goodie tent at the Rockford Criterium on Saturday. Today he got out for a ride and actually made it up to Sand Lake and rode on 3 miles of newly paved WPT. Yeah! At long last the paving project is underway. When finished in September we will be able to do a 36 mile round trip on the trail from our front door. Because the trail isn't completely paved yet Tom had to do some regular roads and the ride ended up being 41 miles.

This week's ride totals:
8/21 - 16.4 miles; Post, 9 Mile, Division, WPT loop
8/26 - 41 miles; WPT paved sections north (Tom)
Total: 16.4 miles -Mary
Total: 57.4 miles -Tom

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Riding between raindrops

We are making up for our dry summer this week. Lots of rain every day. We did get out right after work yesterday for a quick ride. Took Post Road out to Pine Island and then west on 9 Mile. We turned south at Division and rode that all the way to Comstock Park. Hopped on the WPT and headed home. An easy 16.4 miles before dinner.
Tomorrow Mary leaves with half our team for the ride in Whitefish, Montana. She won't be riding, she's there to help with logistics. We have 20 riders in Whitefish this month, another five there in September and about 37 of us in Death Valley in October. Altogether we'll raise nearly a quarter of a million dollars for diabetes research. Woo hoo!

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Busy week

This week was crazy busy. Tom had a big event that went all week long so he was only able to get out Monday morning and Friday afternoon. On Friday he rode down to the JDRF offices via Grand River Drive and rode home with Mary. Today was supposed to be the annual West Michigan Ride Team ride and pool party. But it got cancelled because of rain. We haven't had any rain in a month and so on the day we plan a pool party the state gets dumped on. Oh well, at least the lawn is a better shade of brown.

This week's ride totals:
8/13 - 21 miles; Courtland, Meyers Lake, 13 miles, WPT (Tom)
8/17 - 22 miles; Grand River Dr. (Tom)
8/17 - 11 miles; Grand River Dr. (Mary)
Total: 43 miles (Tom)
Total: 11 miles (Mary)

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Fundraising week

We didn't get a lot of miles in this week because we were getting ready for Jake's Music Festival. This is a major fundraiser for us and it took place last night. We're still counting money, but it looks like we made over $2,000. Since we each have to raise $4,000 in order to ride in Death Valley, last night's concert took us a long way toward our goal.

This week's ride totals:
8/8 - 23 miles; WPT north (Tom)
8/10 - 21 miles; WPT south (Tom)
Total: 44 miles (Tom)

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Jake's Music Festival THIS Saturday

Head on down to the Wealthy Street Theatre in Grand Rapids this Saturday night for the best concert of the summer. The show starts at 6:00 p.m. and features local acts FLEDfive, Craic Wisely, Common Shiner, Creolization, Los Cobras and Bad Dolly. Tickets are only $10 and all proceeds go to support the West Michigan Ride Team. See you there.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Is that a hill?

We had a great team ride today. 15 riders in all, evenly mixed between Whitefish and Death Valley participants. We left from Joe Schmeider's house and headed east from Knapp from Grand River. We then did several north and south streets as we went through Parnell, Murray Lake, and Fallasburg Park. Then it was back via Bailey and the hills of Honey Creek. A couple more north/south jogs and we climbed Joe's long driveway to finish the 48 mile ride. Our total climbing was 1,221 feet. Thankfully Mike Clark did not call this a "rolling hills" route. These were big hills but good training. The Whitefish folks do their JDRF ride in 3 weeks.

This week's ride totals:
8/2 - 14 miles; WPT Coit loop (Tom)
8/3 - 14.5 miles; WPT north (Tom)
8/5 - 48.5 miles; Schmeider's hill route (see above)

Total: 48.5 miles - Mary
Total: 77 miles - Tom

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Death Valley style heat

It has been very hot this week. Temperatures in the 90's all week with Tuesday topping out at 97. Unlike Death Valley this is not a dry heat. It's humid and very uncomfortable. So today Tom took off early in the morning to get a ride in. South on the WPT, east on North Park, North on Coit, over the Grand River on the Jupiter bridge and then home. A 14 mile loop. Not a big ride, but there was work to do today.