Bye Bye Bicycle

Our bikes left for Death Valley without us. Thanks to Gainey Transportation for donating the bike pick up and delivery for riders all over the country. We will meet back up with our bikes next Thursday when we fly into Death Valley. Actually, we fly into Las Vegas and then are bussed into DV. It's supposed to snow here in Michigan the next two days, so I probably won't miss my ride too much.

Final team ride

We are getting close to the Death Valley Ride. Our bikes leave this Wednesday and we leave next Thursday. Today was our final team ride. Ten riders took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed out for some rolling hills between Ada and Alaska. We did a little over 33 miles. That's probably our last long ride until we get out to the California desert. It's hard to believe that we are less than two weeks away. We've been training since early spring and now it's autumn. We are ready!

This week's ride totals
10/3 - 20 miles; WPT north
10/6 - 13.1 miles; WPT south
10/8 - 33.7 miles; Ada to Alaska loop
Total: 66.8 miles

Dogs for Dollars

On Monday, October 16th we will be having a fundraiser to support the West Michigan Ride Team. Come to the Corner Bar in Rockford, Michigan and have a hot dog (or whatever else you'd like to eat). 15% of all dinner checks will be donated to JDRF. Print the coupon below and bring it to the Corner next Monday. Have some good food and help the team.

Apple Cider photos

Mary, Clark, Susan, Eddie, Tom and Elvin in the back row. Bridget up front, ready to start the ride.

Mary along the Apple Cider Century route.

Mary, Tom, Elvin and Eddie at the finish line, 6 hours and 78 miles after we started.

More donors, more thanks

We are approaching our fundraising goal. We'd like to say "Thank you" to our most recent contributors.

Dave & Rebecca Behrens
Jaap & Janis Bosmeijer
Chris & Paula Briggs
Roy Dodman
Larry & Amy Hewitt
Dennis & Kim Moline
Jane Quinn
Mike Silverstein
Bryce & Margo Spencer
Digital Video Services
KVO Audio & Video

Love the Cider

What a great day for a bike ride! We participated in the Apple Cider Century Ride today. Last year we completed a Metric Century (62 miles). Today we did the 75 mile loop, which actually was almost 78 miles. There were over 4000 riders that left from the little town of Three Oaks, right down near the Indiana border. We rode with our friends from Chicago, Susan and Elvin Hayes, their children Eddie and Bridget and Clark Bushman from the Detroit area. Susan and Bridget rode 25 miles and Elvin, Eddie, Clark, Tom and Mary did 75 miles. We even have the certificates to prove it! We'll post some pictures from the ride later this week.
Three weeks until Death Valley!

This week's ride totals:
9/25 - 11 miles; hill work
9/26 - 16.8 miles; WPT south
10/1 - 77.6 miles; Apple Cider Century
Total: 105.4 miles

Getting ready for Cider

This weekend we will be riding in the Apple Cider Century in Three Oaks, Michigan. We did a metric century last year (62 miles). This year our goal is 75 miles and if the spirit moves us we'll try for the full 100. So this week has consisted of a couple of short training rides on the White Pine Trail and east of our house on the hills. We did 11 miles on Monday and 16.8 miles on Tuesday. We'll post pictures of the Apple Cider early next week.

If you haven't donated to the cause yet, it's not too late. You can click on the DONATE link to the left or mail a check made out to JDRF to Tom Scheidel, 6184 Archer ST. NE, Rockford, MI 49341.
Thanks for your help in eradicating diabetes.

An easy week

This was not a great week for riding. Rain, rain, cold, rain and a friend from out of town have severely limited our bike riding. So just two quick trips early in the week. We will have to crank up the mileage this week as we are only four weeks away from the Ride.

This week's ride totals:
9/18 - 13.1 miles; WPT south
9/20 - 21 miles; WPT north
Total: 34.1 miles

Fun Food Fundraiser

Join us for a hot dog on Monday, October 16th at the Corner Bar in Rockford, Michigan. The Corner Bar is well known for the Hot Dog Hall of Fame and on October 16th a portion of every dinner sold will go to the JDRF Ride Team. So pedal on down to the corner (just off the White Pine Trail) have a hot dog (or something else) and support the Ride to Cure Diabetes.

Sunday night update

Even with the crummy weather and being gone to a soccer tournament this weekend, we did manage to get a couple of good rides in. Thursday was north on the White Pine Trail to where the pavement currently ends. (Can't wait for the fall paving project to Sand Lake to get started.) Friday we went over to Holland and rode some of the trails on the north side of the city, out to the state park and north along Lake Michigan. It was a very pretty (and quite flat) ride. While in Holland we stopped off at Velo City Bike Shop and saw coach Mike. Thanks to Ted for the tune up on our bikes while we were there.

This week's totals:
9/14 - 22.2 miles; WPT north
9/15 - 24.3 miles; Holland loop
Total: 46.7 miles

Moab report

The weather has been nasty this week. Cold and rainy. We should be die-hards and ride anyway. We aren't and we haven't. Although it is supposed to warm up and dry out starting tomorrow.
So since we have no personal riding to report I thought I'd post a picture of head coach Mike (center) and assistant coaches Patrick and Rachel on their recent mountain biking trip to Moab. You can see more of their really cool photos by clicking here.

Cool day, cool ride

We had a great team ride today. 16 riders took off from our house south of Rockford and headed to Cannonsburg. We turned north at Townsend Park and worked our way over to Wabasis Lake. We then turned back west, picked our way up to 15 Mile, hooked up with the White Pine Trail at Russell Road and cruised home. A nice 40 mile loop in 60 degree weather. The chips and salsa tasted real good at the end. Here's a few photos from today's ride.

The team getting ready to ride.

Assistant coach Rachel

Mary and Nancy approach the half-way point

This week's ride totals:
9/5 - 14.7 miles; WPT north
9/7 - 13 miles; WPT south
9/10 - 40 miles; Wabasis Lake loop
Total: 67.7 miles

Lunch time ride

With Mary working out of the house now it has opened up other opportunities for us to go biking. Today, for example, we rode our bikes for an hour during lunch. Just a little jaunt down the WPT past the ballpark and back. 13 miles in all. Not something she could do when she was teaching school.

This week in biking

Tuesday was a quick ride down the White Pine Trail past Whitecaps Park and then back. On Friday went north on the WPT and checked out another portion of the route we'll be riding with the team next week. Today we rode from our house south on the WPT, through Riverside Park, across the West side of Grand Rapids, hooked up with Kent Trails and rode that to Douglas Walker Park in Byron Center. Over 28 miles, and most of it on converted rail trails. It is becoming easier and easier to take really long rides and not have to fight with car traffic. Looking forward to more paving of the WPT this fall.

This week's ride totals:
8/29 - 15 miles; WPT south
9/1 - 26.5 miles; WPT north, then to 15 Mile and back
9/3 - 28.3 miles; WPT and Kent Trails to Byron Center
Total: 69.8 miles

Thanks to these donors

Here's the current list of people who have donated to help find a cure for diabetes. Click on the DONATE link if you'd like to join them.

Christine Behrens
Brent & Jennifer Deuel
Jim & Susan Hayes
Mary Ellen Koziol
Donald & Linda Milanowski
Craig Moulten
Jeff & Julia Poole
Mickel & Jeanne Scheidel
Denise Sherwood
Sharon Turnquist
Bill & Ginger Young

It's Sunday night

On Saturday we rode up to Rockford to watch a little bit of the Rockford Criterium bike race. Man, do those guys ride fast. I much prefer the relatively leisurely pace of a Death Valley century ride.
Today we tried out a route we are going to do as a team ride in couple of weeks. From our house to Wabasis Lake and back. We ran in to a few dirt roads that made us reroute our route, and so we ended up doing 39 miles. The more direct route for the team will probably be a couple of miles less.

This week's ride totals:
8/23 - 17.6 miles; WPT north
8/26 - 20 miles; WPT north
8/27 - 39 miles; to Wabasis Lake and back
Total: 76.7 miles

A note from the Coach

Here's an email we got from Coach Mike Clark after last Saturday's JDRF Ride in Montana. BTW... Death Valley is 2 months away.

"Hey Team!

Wow, what a ride! Your team mates are back from Whitefish Montana, (or...as I'm gonna refer to it from now on "The Land of 10,000 Subarus") and it'd be safe to say that the First Ever JDRF Big Sky Ride was a huge success for JDRF and the West Michigan Team. The course and weather were great, the people were fantastic (especially the support crew and volunteers) and everyone had a blast! It's pretty much a done deal that we'll be goin' back there and at least one JDRF BigWig that I spoke with feels that Whitefish could well become the centerpiece of the ride Program in the near future.

Congradulations are in order for Dave, Mac, Chip and Marlene who all succeeded in tallying 100+ miles on a pretty hilly course. Our "adopted" riders Kim and Kathy had good rides as well. We enjoyed the enthusiastic support from the many JDRF staffers and volunteers all weekend, foremost of which was supplied by our own Alison Hoye and Linda Clark.

Once again I left a JDRF ride humbled and inspired. Humbled to be allowed to be a part of such a project and inspired by the passion of everyone involved. I finished my ride Saturday by keepin' an eye on Chelsea and her mom from Northern Indiana. Chelsea's 13 and has been on 3 JDRF rides. She has Type 1 and she and her mom were out there doing the miles and rasing the money and trying to matter in this world, y'know?

I've said it before and I'll say it again......................you guys ROCK !!"

THE Sunday night update

Tom was in Detroit all week on a job and Mary has been having foot trouble, so not much riding during the week. However, today we did a group ride and put in our most mileage of the year for a single ride, a little over 42 miles. We took the White Pine Trail south and hooked up with the team at Monroe and North Park in Grand Rapids. We then rode the trail north to Belmont and headed west into the apple orchards of alpine Township. We came back east on 13 Mile Road on road the WPT south to home. We had 11 people on the ride today. Which is good considering that part of the team is in Montana this weekend at another JDRF ride. We'll share an update on how they did once coach Mike gets back.

This week's totals:
8/18 - 20.4 miles; WPT north to Russell Rd. and back
8/20 - 42.8 miles; the loop described above
Total: 63.2 miles

The best week ever (at least for this year)

Got out on the bike SIX times this week. Only missed Saturday. None of the rides were especially long, ranging from 10 to 27 miles, but we were going for consistency. And it was also a good way to break up the training a little bit.
Today was a nice cruise from Lake Paw Paw to South Haven and back. We went with our friends Elvin and Susan Hayes. The weather was perfect, the ride was level and we could have done more if we had more time.
This week's ride totals:
8/7 - 10.2 miles; hill work
8/8 - 13.4 miles; to Rockford and back
8/9 - 15.3 miles; WPT south
8/10 - 16 miles; to Cannonsburg and back
8/11 - 11.7 miles; to the gym, worked out, rode back
8/ 13 - 27.6 miles; Lake PawPaw to South Haven and back
Total: 94.3 miles

Puttin' in the miles

Trying something different this week. Instead a couple short rides and a long ride on the weekend, we're trying to ride every day this week. So far so good. 10 miles Monday, 13 miles Tuesday, 15 miles Wednesday, and 16 miles yesterday. We'll see if we can maintain that for a few more days.