Boom Boom Boom

That's the sound of Tom's rear tire this past week. Last Sunday he had a very loud blowout while riding with Ted and Sara. Saturday the tube blew while the bike was sitting in the garage. After changing the tire yet again (I'm starting to get good at this, darn it) Tom had another blowout 5 miles down the road. Obviously there is an issue to deal with. So while our favorite bike mechanic, Ted Bently of VeloCity, is giving the black beast the once over, Tom will be "strength training" on his mountain bike.
Mary had a much better week. On Saturday she drove to her Mom's house in Grandville. She then biked home following Kent trails, cutting across the west side of Grand Rapids to Riverside Park and then hooking up with the south end of the White Pine Trail. Almost 20 miles in all. On Sunday she reversed the trip and drove home. So we have different mileage totals again this week.

This weeks ride totals:
4/28 - 19.7 miles; Grandville to Rockford (Mary)
4/28 - 10 miles; WPT and Rouge River nature trail (Tom)
4/29 - 19.7 miles; Rockford to Grandville (Mary)
4/29 - 5 miles; around the neighborhood with son Ian (Tom)

Total: 39.4 miles (Mary)
Total: 15 miles (Tom)

It's Sunday night, you know what that means

The weather in Michigan finally warmed up. After a down right frigid spring the sun returned this week, with temperatures climbing into the high 70's this weekend. On Thursday we took a quick pre-dinner jaunt up the White Pine Trail through Rockford. It was a mostly wonderful ride except for the teenage stunt riders and skate boarders who seem to have issues with sharing the trail. Note to self, avoid the WPT through Rockford after school hours on weekdays.

Today we hooked up with Sara Andro and Ted Bently, fellow Death Valley riders, and rode from the Ada/Cascade area out to Lowell and back, almost 30 miles round trip. It was a great ride, even with the massive blowout on Tom's rear tire while descending the first of several hills. Thanks for the help in changing that tire, Ted! This was our longest ride of the season so far. We are putting in more mileage earlier this year than last. Seems like I wrote that same thing in this blog about a year ago.

Finally, if you'd like to donate to the cause it's super easy this year. We have set a family goal of $8,000. To donate to Tom's ride click on the "Donate to Tom" link on the left. To donate to Mary's ride click the "Donate to Mary" link. Then just follow the simple instructions. As much as we enjoy riding our bikes on a beautiful day like today, our primary reason for being out there is to raise money for diabetes research. Thanks to those of you who have supported us in the past. Ride On!

This week's ride totals:
4/19 - 13.4 miles; WPT north
4/22 - 28.7 miles; Cascade to Lowell and back
Total: 42.1 miles

Sunday night of a crummy week

So not much riding weather this week, but today was the first JDRF team ride. Nine hardy souls got out in the sunshine and 50 degree weather to travel the White Pine Trail from Whitecaps Park up to where the pavement ends (that's still Russell Road) and back again. Mary was one of those nine, but Tom was not. He was busy building a room in our basement. It looks like we may have to keep separate weekly ride totals this year. So far Mary is kicking Tom's butt. However, it is a long season.
Also, this Wednesday night is the Ride Team Kick-Off party at New Holland Brewery in Holland. That will be big fun. Stop by and have a beer with the team.

This week's totals:
4/15 - 24 miles; WPT (Mary only)
Total: 24 miles

Yuck!

It's been awhile since the last post because shortly after the previous Sunday Night Update our lovely Michigan spring weather turned to crap. Cold, cloudy and windy. We even had 5 inches of snow on Wednesday. Not ideal bike riding weather. Not any kind of bike riding weather as far as I'm concerned. The warm-up is predicted for this week so if the temps can peek above 50 we'll be back on the road again. Why do we live in this state again?

Sunday night update

Today Tom did the reverse of Mary's Thursday ride. I started south on the White Pine Trail and rode to Riverside Park. Fighting 20 to 30 MPH winds the whole way to Ann Street. It's a lot more fun riding with a 20 MPH tail wind.

This weeks ride totals:
3/26 - 14.7 miles; WPT north
3/29 - 20.0 miles; Riverside Park north to WPT (Mary only)
4/1 - 19.1 miles; W PT south to Riverside Park (Tom only)
This weeks total: 33.8 miles
plus 1 extra mile for Mary

A new blog

Katie Clark and Nicole Nellis from the West Michigan Ride Team have put together a new blog that several team members are contributing to. This will be a great way to keep up with what the whole team is doing, not just yours truly.
The blog is http://www.jdrfwestmichigan.com/rideblog/index.html.
We have also put up a link to it. While you are at it check out all the Ride links. There's some cool stuff over there.

Out like a lamb

The end of March has been muy bueno. The nice weather has allowed us to get out on the bikes several times this month. On Monday, Mary and Tom rode the White Pine Trail north for a trip of about 14 and a half miles. Then today Mary and Death Valley team mates Sara Andro and Tracey Graves went out for 20 miles. They started at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids and then hooked up with the WPT. We are getting longer rides in earlier this year than last. Part of that is the weather and part is being in better condition. It is amazing to think about what kind of shape we were in before the first Death Valley ride 2 1/2 years ago. Back then a 10 mile ride meant we were done for the day, now 10 miles is a warm-up.

The Season's First Sunday Night Update

The weather was fairly mild this past week and we did manage to get outside riding once, so that means we need an Update. We do not update based on indoor training rides. We don't like riding indoors. We do it to stay in shape. We ride outdoors because we enjoy it, and we stay in shape. But that is a extra benefit.

This week's ride totals:

3/13 - 10.5 miles, White Pine Trail south

Total: 10.5 miles

Let the season begin

March 13 is still officially winter but we were out on our bikes yesterday. The temperature was pushing 70 degrees and it was sunny, sooo... we pulled down the road bikes and zipped off to the White Pine Trail for a quick 10 mile ride. There was even a slight head wind on the way out, which is nice, because we love the wind. Now I know there are hard core riders out there who bike all winter long in the ice and snow. Let me just say, we are not that type of biker. Although we have great respect for those who are. We are really looking forward to the bike season getting underway in full in the next few weeks. It felt really good to be out on the trail yesterday. The snow is melting and the gears are turning.

UCC Challenge

Last Saturday Mary rode in the UCC Challenge in Holland along with several other members of the West Michigan Ride Team. The Challenge is a 12 or 24 hour indoor team ride done on spinners. Coach Mike Clark, Rob Andro, Sarah Andro, Joe Schmeider, Dave
Berkiner and Ted Bentley joined Mary on the JDRF team for 12 hours of fun. The team wore their very stylish JDRF jerseys to help build awareness for the cause.

Death Valley Ride 2006 Video

For when we ride outside again

I found this on the web. Some of it's funny, but all is good advice. Thanks to the Bicycle Diaries blog.

Donations just got easier

While we really enjoy riding our bikes, the real reason we put ourselves through the "torture" of Death Valley is to raise funds for a cure to Type 1 diabetes. The folks at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation have just made donating to the cause a whole lot easier Click HERE or on the DONATE link to the left. This will take you directly to a new page that will allow you to make your donation on-line and also show you how close we are to our goal.
Thanks in advance for your support of this worthwhile cause.

sNOw

It's snowing again. Or should I say "still". One of the lovely things about living on the west side of Michigan is this thing called lake effect snow. The weather could be beautiful throughout the Midwest and we'll get dumped on. It's hard to ride bikes in 2 feet of white stuff.

We have made the commitment to ride Death Valley again this year. The ride is on October 20, 2007 so we have several months to train and fund raise. Right now the training is indoors, yuck. But soon (not soon enough) we'll be outside, on the trail, on the road and having fun.

Ride on!

This Just In...

From this evening issue of the Grand Rapids Press.

Which is why I am tickled to announce that another eight-mile section of the Fred Meijer White Pine Trail will be paved this spring from Russell Road to Sand Lake, the Kent County line -- at long last."The engineering is done," said Dave Heyboer, chairman of the Friends of the White Pine Trail. "The paving will be done by the end of May."

Great news for those of us who train on the trail. With the paving to Sand Lake we will now have a 36 mile out and back route from our house up the White Pine Trail. It's going to be a great summer.

Also, here's a link to a video I put on YouTube of the 2006 Death Valley Ride. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wly043lxHJw
Enjoy.

Happy New Year

Saturday was one of those wonderful days we seldom get in Michigan in December, sunny and 50 degrees. So we hopped on our bikes for one last ride in the 2006 season. We rode up to Rockford along the White Pine Trail. Great news on the trail, the local governments are now saying that the White Pine will be paved all the way to Sand Lake this summer. I know we've been hearing that for awhile, but it looks like it's really going to happen now.

The final Sunday Night Update for 2006
12/30 - 11.5 miles; WPT north
2006 total mileage: 1,469 miles

Merry Christmas

I hope Santa was good to everyone this year. Tom got an "Italia" cycling jersey. Very cool. Mary got a fluffy robe and warm hat, scarf and gloves. Not real practical for bike riding, but necessary for Michigan winters. We also have assembled all the photos taken in Death Valley by all the different West Michigan riders. It's almost 2 gigabytes of material. It's a little post Christmas gift to our fellow riders. We'll be giving those out at our 2007 Ride Kick-off Party on January 9th. Thanks to Digital Video Services of Grand Rapids, Michigan for donating the disc duplication.
Have a happy holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day. It's time to put on that winter layer of fat that we will all work so hard to get rid of come Spring. It was a great weekend weather-wise for this time of year in the Mid-West. So after finishing raking leaves and putting up Christmas lights today I went on a bike ride. It was actually my first time on a bike since our return from Death Valley and it felt really good. Just a quick trip up the White Pine Trail to Rockford and back. We are hoping for some more nice days this Fall/Winter but realize that we may be on exercise cycles at the gym for the next four months. Yuck.

This week's ride totals:
11/27 - 12 miles; WPT north

Winter in Michigan

Okay, technically it's not winter yet, but November is probably the most depressing month in this state. Everything is gray. The sky is gray. The trees are gray. When there is snow (which could be any day now) it's gray. Oh how I long for the warm temperatures and blue skies of Death Valley. Check out this photo. This has not been filtered or Photoshopped. The sky was really that blue.
And finally for the people out there who are into stats, it's amazing where people have been logging into this blog from. We've had visitors from 38 states including the District of Columbia and 18 countries other than the U.S. And over 1,300 hits. Now if each of those hits would just donate $10 we'd be well on our way to making next year's goal. Yeah, we're going to do this again next year. More on that later.

Greetings from Detroit

On the road again, but this time for work, not to ride. We had a great post ride get together at Sarah and Rob Andro's parents house on Sunday. Most of the Ride Team was there. We ate, drank, swapped stories and started making plans for next year. Almost everyone committed to coming back to Death Valley and bringing along more riders. We want to take the title of Largest Ride Team away from Wisconsin. Keep watching this blog for more updates and news as we wrap up the 2006 ride and get ready for 2007.
Oh, and speaking of stories, the mojito shower that Nicole provided in Las Vegas was very refreshing. True to her word, she didn't have a repeat performance at the Andro's, but there is always next year.