First I want to thank all our donors to Bianca and my MS150 2009! We really appreciate everyone’s generosity for getting us to our goals! There was some crazy weather this year for the Houston to Austin ride, and then SWINE FLU pandemonium (and bad more weather!) struck for the Sam’s MS ride up in Dallas. Hats off to all who braved both rides and to the NMSS for all the work they do.

I did the Red Poppy Ride two weeks ago and got poppy seeds in my packet! WOOT! The people at The Natural Gardener were all out of seeds when we went in early April so now i have some to plant next year. sweeet.  This weekend I am doing the Armadillo Hill Country Classic up in Leander. I am going to be riding the 60 mile route and praying for no wind like the last several rides Ihave done. What is it with Texas and wind, Ithought Iwas done with this now that I am not riding out in Abliene with 100+ degree furnace like winds in the summer. At least it isnt 100 degrees yet…  So if anyone is riding this weekend in the AHCC let me know and I will look out for ya!

Oh and Bianca is doing well with her shoulder rehab with the new PT she is going to. They arent very punctual but the electro-shocky thing is helping more than lasers. go figure…

A (not infected)

Welp this weekend was the MS150, one of the biggest bike rides in… well Texas at least. Our church team met on Tuesday to get last minute details ironed out and exchange cell phone numbers for the rider connect. We went and bought beer and bagels and a bunch of travel items for staying over night in la grange and spent Friday packing up. Then about 4pm we got a text saying they had stopped the busses to Houston and Day 1 was cancelled! ~devestation~ La Grange had gotten 12-18 inches of rain over night and during the day on Friday and Saturday was expecting more thunder storms, the fairgrounds were flooded and it was generally unsafe, let alone unsafe for biking.  We spent the day and Saturday waiting to find out about the day 2 plans to see if we were going to ride. The MS150 organizers went ahead with day 2 but starting in downtown La Grange and going to Austin, but no parking was available and people were encouraged to car pool due to there only being 2 routes in really. Given that and my sister having an in-line skate marathon on Sunday we decided to not ride in Sunday’s 75 mile ride and hope for better weather next year… (Congrats to Amy for winning her division as well!!)

We did get the jersey’s in, and there was a contigent of St. David’s Church Cyclers sporting out custom jersey’s from Mt. Borah on Sunday. Congratulations to those that rode it wasnt an easy ride with stiff headwinds the whole way.

Next weekend I am doing the Red Poppy ride, then will be riding in the Armadillo Hill Country Classic on May 9th and of course the LIVESTRONG Challenge in October! I will be doing the 90 mile route then so I still need to keep training!

-A

We met last night with the St. David’s Cyclists team to go over our plan for this weekend. We are set up to share a tent with another church at the Fairgrounds. Now that we’re getting closer to the ride, everyone’s getting excited and a little nervous about the distance.

We’ll be starting from the Waller start line just outside of Houston. The MS 150 route joins up in Bellville for lunch then La Grange for overnight. There are breaks every 10-15 miles on the course. We’ll be taking the Express Route at Bastrop and hope for an early afternoon finish in Austin on Sunday.

They are offering a service called Rider Connect which will automatically text you when the bike crosses a checkpoint. If we haven’t added you yet, let us know if you want to get the updates!

I’ve been benched by my physical therapist for my shoulder. It hasn’t been improving for the past few months and I got the “no” yesterday. I’m disappointed that I’m not riding this year but I’m glad that the funds I raised are going to a well-deserved organization. My role is now to support Aaron (and my team) by driving as a support vehicle.

I wish that meant I could be the domestique but since I’m not riding, Brewer said I’m the soigneur:

A non-riding member of a team whose role is to provide support for the riders, possibly including transportation and organization of supplies, preparation of the team’s food, post-ride massages and personal encouragement.

I’m kinda excited to have a role that’s an actual cycling term so it’s not that bad. I’m not sure about the massages, though.

- BT

This weekend was the Pedal thru the Pines in Bastrop, a recommended ride in preparation for the MS150. Now we havent been doing that much in preparation for the MS150 as you can see from lack of activity weekly on this blog. So we went out to do the best we could only registering for the 16 mile course since it was really hilly. Tru-nuff it was hilly! Very pretty couse too thru what was left of the pines in the state park, Bastrop has had a huge wildfire the past week and even on the day of the ride it was 80% contained. We started off taking it easy thru the hills but they eventually got the better of Bianca and she had to SAG out. I went on to find more hills and  a little light drizzle. What I didnt find were a lot of signs on where to go, so I ended up passing the finishline twice and did 18.5 miles on a 16 mile course. I saw Bianca waiting for me at the High School next to some people starting to put up a sign that says “FINISH” on it… bout time. Still have to give props to all the people at the LAF and volunteers that make the Challenge such a huge success as it is still by far the most organized ride I have taken part in.

Also… 3D proof of the jerseys is in! Check it out!

-A

I’ve been working on riding my bike with the new pedals and shoes, and it’s been both frustrating and helpful at the same time.

We decided to go out for a ride with the Austin Cycling Association, and picked a harder route that we should have, which made me turn back in frustration. When we got back to the parking lot after the ride, I was distracted and forgot I was clipped in and fell on my right side. Aaron said it was like slow motion. It seemed like a fitting end to a bad ride.

A few days later, Chris very kindly offered to help me out at the Veloway. He’s been riding a long time and offered some great advice in the way I was sitting in the saddle, not moving my hands, and working on standing climbing.

There’s a steep hill at the Veloway which Chris encouraged me to go all out. I was so determined to get up that hill I pushed and pushed and ran out of juice and fell on my left side. This was a harder fall and I got road rash and nice hip bruise.

We were going to go riding again a few days later but I didn’t want to risk the 50/50 chance of falling on my left side again so soon, so we put it off. I know that I need to work on my leg strength but more than anything else I need to log hours on my bike to get a real feel for it. And to stop falling off.

BT

Hey Folks not much happening, we went to a spin class yesterday. It hurt. Those bikes just arent as comfortable as a real bike. I dont know how this is possible since they dont actually have to move, Lay-Z-boy needs to make spin class bikes…

-A

Last night we had a team meeting for our St. David’s Church Cyclers MS 150 team. Four brave souls came out in the bizzard of 2009 to Mangia Pizza to discuss things like “how the heck are we going to get to Houston?” etc. We also had some really good pizza.  Alice, Tony myself and our team captian Walt met and went over some of the basic stuff and he has several rooms held for us at a hotel in Houston for Friday night.  Some people are cool with riding the buses, others want to drive, so we decided to leave the getting there part up to individuals. We also talkedd about training rides, and the jerseys for the team.

This is the pdf of the jersey so you have to mantally piece it together to make a jersey out of it. I will update later with a better mock up. We may not be the fastest team out there, or raise the most money, but we will look good!  btw if any people out there want a jersey let me know since the more we order the cheaper they are. If you dont go to St. David’s thats ok, you can pretend. Just dont go holding up a bank wearing it, ok?

-Aaron

We took some pictures today for our fundraising (I plan on making some postcards) and the updated banner up above. We look like we know what we’re doing when we’re all dressed up:

I had only really planned on getting those photos done today so I can work on the postcards later, but we decided it was a good time for me to try out my clipless shoes and pedals.

I was very nervous to try them out. Aaron held the bike in the yard (for a softer landing) and I tried several times to clip in. I’m left-side dominant so snapping in my left cleat wasn’t hard, but the right one was confounding. I finally figured out to start with the right snapped in so I only have to worry about clipping in the left. You can see I’m still pretty worried.

I almost did the 0 mph crash a la Antonia (I can see how easy that would be) but once I kicked off, and got my left foot in, it was a game changing moment.

The shoes and pedals take out so much of the work! It didn’t make riding easier, but I finally felt like I had control of the bike. With the cleat holding my feet into position, I knew my knees were aligned and I could pull up more than forcing down when pedaling.

We rode for a little bit and I actually had fun. I think this will make a big difference. If you’re considering clipless shoes and pedals, I can’t say enough how much I recommend them!

- BT

Well today was a beautiful day outside and we definitely could have gone for a long bike ride. Instead we gorged ourselves at Fonda San Miguel! It was awesome! Then we actually did some yard work, which could count as a work out, if you really try. We also breathed in lots of dust and leaves and dirt and junk raking up all the leaves from the back yard. Our new neighbors have been landscaping and their yard looked a ton better so we had to get with the program. There is still more to do tomorrow, but I plan to sneak a ride in there somewhere after we get back from stocking up on cold weather gear at the Nike outlet while its on sale. This whole week looks like it is going to be great for riding, so we will have to get Bianca out on her new clipless pedals, of course she got hers at Mellow Johnnys!

On the advice of the new cyclist book I’m reading, we decided to find our max heart rates. The method described by the book is to basically run until you think you’re gonna die. We went to a field behind the house where they recently made a running path. It has a good hill which the book said would increase heart rate faster (obviously). We only have one heart rate monitor right now – mine – so we took turns testing.

My max heart rate was 184 bpm.

He looks fast, right? Aaron’s max heart rate was 183 bpm.

Our resting heart rate is both 72 bpm so once we do some math we can set our performance benchmarks while we are training. I have to admit though, those feel like crap heart rates, especially if you compare to someone like, oh, Lance. (He has a resting heart rate of 32-34 bpm with a maximum heart rate of 201 bpm.)

- BT