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.

Keep on rollin'

Monday was a hill work day. Only 10 miles but it took about 45 minutes because of all the long extended hills we rode. Near where we live there are a lot of hills if we aren't riding the White Pine Trail. That's the nice thing about the converted railway lines, the hills are very gradual. But that doesn't help get us ready for the nasty hills in Death Valley. So we submitted to a little self inflicted pain.
Yesterday was a leisurely ride up the WPT to Rockford. Listened to some live music (a local group called Organissimo) and had ice cream. An easy 13 miles.
And finally here's a photo from last Thursday's Jake's Music Festival. See more photos at the JMF web site.

Whew... what a week

This has been a very busy week. Between work, Jake's Music Festival and Mary's garage sale we didn't get a lot of riding in. But what we did was fairly long. We had a great ride yesterday. We went west out Post Road to Pine Island Drive then over to 9 mile and continued to Division. We followed that north to 14 Mile Road and picked our way around some lakes before we hooked back up with the White Pine Trail and headed south to home. 28 miles in all. With the weather predicted to be cooler this week and a lot of our busy stuff out of the way, this coming week should see lots of miles.

This weeks ride totals:
8/4 - 20.2 miles: WPT north and then south
8/5 - 28.2 miles: loop west and north of home
Total: 48.4 miles

Links and things

First the things...

A banner week of riding, the best week so far as far as total mileage, over 80 miles. Yesterday was the big ride, 32 miles. Started north on the White Pine Trail until the pavement ended at Russell Road. Then headed north on the street all the way to 20 mile and took that east to Northland Drive. Rode down thru Cedar Springs, hooked back up with the WPT and was home is just a shade over 2 hours. Today, we took a leisurely ride with the boys up to Rockford for hot dogs and ice cream. This Thursday night is Jake's Music Festival, a benefit concert to support our ride team. Check out info on the concert at the link below. Only $10 to see four great bands.

Now the links...

For more information about Jake's Music Festival, click here.

Derek Dykstra took some great photos of the ride team in action last Sunday. See his photos here.

To donate to Mary click here.

To donate to Tom click here.

And to see some photos from our Europe trip click here.

And finally, the Sunday night roundup...

7/25 - 16.2 miles; Myers lake to 11 miles to WPT south
7/27 - 22 miles; WPT south to Riverside Park and downtown GR and back
7/29 - 32 miles; WPT north to 20 Mile, loop thru Cedar Springs
7/30 - 11.9 miles; Rockford and back for ice cream
Total: 82.1 miles

More photos

First off the ride report. We rode 16.2 miles today, north on Myers Lake Road to 11 Mile, across to the WPT and south to home. Nothing eventful, except for the truck that almost ran over Tom, just a training ride. Now to the pictures...












The West Michigan Ride Team getting ready to head out from Ann O'Conner's.




















Rachel and Nicole somewhere near Fennville.



















"Rookie marks" on someone's leg. Someone with a brand new bike. Hmm...

What a great ride

Today was a perfect day for a bike ride. It was also our big team ride in Pullman at Ann O'Conner's house. We had over 20 riders there and about 40 people for the pool party afterwards. The weather couldn't have been better. Sunny, warm, a light breeze and great people to ride with. After the 40 miles we had a cookout around Ann's pool. Lot's of people brought their kids and we all had a great time. We'll post pictures later on. For Mary and Tom, today was our longest ride of the year. This was also the most miles we've done in a week so far this year.

This week's ride totals:
7/18 - 18 miles: WPT north
7/20 - 16.2 miles: Holland loop
7/23 - 40.5 miles: Pullman to Douglas and back
Total: 74.7 miles

Bike Lust "parte due"

Tom got a new Cannondale bike last year so this year it was Mary's turn for a new ride. She purchased a pearly white Bianchi. Mary selected the Italian bike either because she loved Italy when we were there last month, or because Mike Clark was having a great sale at Velo City. Either way it's a great bike. We broke it in with a 16 mile loop around Holland. The big test will come this Sunday when we do our major team ride in Pullman. Mary loves the new bike, especially the granny gear. "The better to get up a 6 mile hill at a 6 percent grade, my dear." And it's much lighter than her antique Schwinn. So if you know anyone who wants an old bike (with $150 of new parts from last year) please let us know.