600k

A few of you have asked me how the 600k went, so I thought I'd give a quick post. All in all it went pretty well. 600k is about 375 miles, and the time limit is 40 hours. I was with 1 other guys most of the time, and 1 other guy kind of cat and mouse. For the most part we finished togehter in 34 hours 32 minutes. I finished 3rd a couple of minutes behind the other 2 because I wanted to pull my own way in down the stretch. Not a bad time considering we were in Anna, Il for almost 9.5 hours not pedaling.

Nine or ten riders started in Edwardsville on Saturday at 4am and rode east for about 40 miles, then mostly south in a round about way. We made it to Anna Illinios that day at 6:30, which was 227 miles give or take. This qualifies as my second double century, and we did the 200 miles in 12 hours 15 minutes, which was about 15 minutes faster than my previous double. If you've never been there, Anna is about 15 miles South / Southeast of Carbondale. It gets pretty hilly down there too, so the last 40 miles of day one, and the first 60 miles of day two were fairly hilly. Not as hilly as west county, but hilly enough considering the miles in our legs. Saturday was a pretty good day for biking except that it did get pretty hot from about 1pm to 5pm.

On Sunday we again started at 4am. This meant me and one other guy who stuck together into Anna had gotten about 6.5 hours sleep, plus time for dinner and winding down the night before. Keeping a good pace the first day is a good thing because it allows for more sleep time before you have to get going again. We saw some of the other riders on day two. One group of three had riden about 260 miles on day one, but got to their hotel around 2am, and then only had 3 hours of sleep. One other guy who was in the back of the pack rode straight through, and we didn't see him in front of us until about the 310 miles mark. He looked like hell too, and was moving at about 11-12 mph. Day two wound up being about 152 miles for us due to a couple of small wrong turns. So in the end I rode about 379 miles, even though the ride was only supposed to be 375. Sunday was considerably cooler too. I had a wind vest on all the way until noon, which by that time we only had about 40 more miles to go. I'm not 100% sure, but I think our riding time was right around 20.5 hours, so our average speed on the bike was somewhere around 18.5 mph. The guy I was with most of the time was a real tank. We pulled 50 / 50 for the first half of both days, but by mid day it was starting to be more him than me. By the end of the second day we split up a bit because I told him I didn't feel right following him pretty much 100% of the time. I was fine to ride, and was not having any real difficulties, I just couldn't ride at his pace.

I learned quite a bit about long distance riding too. A race bike is good for speed, but not so good for comfort. It is now 3 days after and the tips of some fingers are still tingeling, but they are almost back to normal. No saddle sores, although my sit bones were pretty worn out. My neck was worn out too, but I could have riden the next day if it had been an even longer ride. I'm pretty sure another bike is in my near future. Probably something with a more upright position, and maybe a steel / carbon frame for more comfort. I also think it will be a triple, and it may even have a rear rack for gear. Too much junk in your jersey pockets really adds to fatigue. Plus starting at 4am and riding through the heat of the day is very challenging when it comes to managing your gear.

The good news is I know I'll do these again next year, and I'm pretty sure Paris-Brest-Paris is still on the radar.

Talk to you all soon,

Mike

Team Prices on Accelerade, Endurox, and Accel Gel

All,
I have the order form from PacificHealth Laboratories for the team prices on Accelerade, Enderox R4, and Accel Gel. (If you want to see a product comparison on the gel, you can look here....http://www.accelgel.com/pages/comparison.html)

I'd like to get a count of who all would interested in ordering any of these. We have to order them by the case.

Accelerade comes in a case of six. Each 56-serving container comes out to $20.50.
Endurox comes in a case of six. Each 28-serving container comes out to $27.00.
Accel gel comes in a case of four boxes. Each 24-count box comes out to $16.15.
These prices do NOT include shipping yet. Shipping is between $11-20 per case....or free shipping if we order six cases.

I'm double-checking, but I think that a case needs to be all one flavor.

Accelerade flavors: fruit punch, orange, lemon lime, blue raspberry, and lemonade (new).
Endurox flavors: fruit punch, tangy orange, lemon lime, vanilla, and chocolate.
Accel gel flavors: vanilla, strawberry kiwi, cholocate, and citrus orange (new).

I'm in for two Accelerades and two gels. I'm ok with any of the flavors (for Accerade and gel), but since I've been drinking only the fruit punch Accelerade for a while, I may be ready to switch.

Let me know within the next couple of weeks.

Cheri

Bicycle Fun Club Ride

The Bicycle Fun Club Ride this Sunday June 11 is only 40 miles, if anyone is interested we could meet in Alton and ride about 13 miles to Brighton for 66 miles or for those who want more miles meet at Lewis & Clark in Hartford for 82 miles.

Sunday June 4 Pancake Ride

Looks like I might be doing this one alone. There is a 100k and 100 mile option. The ride starts from New Baden IL City Park between 6:30 and 8:30 AM. It costs $30 and includes lunch. I am confirmed and preregistered. If anyone else is interested we can carpool or agree to a meeting time.

Brian

Greg's 100 Miles Loop Through Calhoun County via The Golden Eagle Ferry!

! CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE MAP

!CLICK ON LINK FOR CUE SHEET ON ROUTE

http://www.geocities.com/rdweil@sbcglobal.net/Gregs100MilerGoldenEagle.htm

Up for your consideration next Saturday, June 10 (not this Saturday Ron). A Century ride over in Calhoun County via the Golden Eagle Ferry. This is a ride Greg Hobson suggested, and worked with me to create. There will be lots of hills once we get to Calhoun County. How many hills, and how much climbing I can't say for sure. It will be a new ride for all of us. If you think next Saturday would be a good time to try this ride let me know.

Why Mark Needs No Excuse To Ride Ever Again!

Guys,

I hope you all read the post, cause now we know why Mark rides!

Potential Mrs. McCartneys queue up
By Ellen Futterman
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/30/2006
There are a few things you can count on in life: The sun rises in the east and sets in the west; what goes up will come down; and if there's a story about Paul McCartney in this newspaper, Linda Dana will check in.Dana, 49, of west St. Louis County, is the consummate Paul girl. She's a former president of the St. Louis Beatles Fan Club, and she once paid $475 to sit in the 14th row at one of McCartney's Chicago concerts.Dana and I first met in 1993 when the cute Beatle performed at the old Busch Stadium. We reconnected in 2002 before McCartney's concert at Savvis Center, at which time Dana made it clear that she was no fan of McCartney's then-new wife, Heather Mills. I believe Dana's exact words were, "She's a blond woman with a cause."Last week, in the wake of McCartney's separation after four years from Mills, I asked readers who would be a good match for McCartney. A day or so later, an email arrived from Dana, reiterating her "blond woman" line, pointing out that she had been right about Mills.

FULL TEXT GOTO:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/lifestyle/stories.nsf/everyday/story/A4FA406680B2FF828625717A0032026E?OpenDocument&highlight=2%2C%22Dana%22

Plans for 80 Hilly Miles Saturday June 3rd

! CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGE VIEW

!CLICK BELOW FOR ROUTES QUE SHEET
http://www.geocities.com/rdweil@sbcglobal.net/New80HillyMiles.htm

Folks,

I just looked at my calendar, only a few more weekend to train before BTC. With that in mind, I plan on doing the revised 80Mile Hilly Ride from my house on Saturday June 3rd.

We will need to leave early because my Mom is in town for Joseph's graduation (with her new boyfriend too), and I said I would not ride. That of course is before I realized that I would be out of town Memorial day weekend followed by Mom's weekend.

Assuming the bears don't get too upset by my short absence, I plan to leave my house at 7am. With just some short rest breaks (read only one coffee stop), that gets us back to my house by 2 pm.

There will be at least 5500 Ft of climbing in the 80 miles.

Roark

Memorial Day Weekend & Lake Wobegon

Folks,

I am off to ride the loop around Lake Wobegon this weekend. So ride hard, ride far, ride fast, and ride without me!

Roark

Weekend Rides 5/20-5/21 & Mike's Insanity

Folks,

Here are my weekend plans for riding.

Saturday I am doing the Old St. Charles Loop, that starts from my house at 8:30 am. I will be meeting my MS150 team at 10 am in Creve Coeur Lake Park, and riding with them to Miss Aimee B's in St. Charles. After riding back to Creve Coeur Lake Park, and dropping off the team I will be going up Hog Hollow, and out to Webster to ride Marshall Hill and W. Adams. Total miles about 65. Cheri and Bill are joining me. I think most everybody else is doing the AYH Century ride (at their own risk).

Sunday I am planning to do the shortest version of the Fun Club Strawberry Festival Ride, with Maxine and Samantha. We will be tagging along (they don't know it yet) with Cheri, Amanda, and Melina. I am thinking to start around 9:00 am. No need to get up to early for 12 or so miles.

Now for Mike's insanity part. Mike will be returning from the Attack on Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. He has requested those of you planning to do the long version of the Strawberry ride wait for him to start with you at 9:00 am. He will not be going home first, he will be fresh off his long long drive, and long long bike ride with the long long climb at the end, to the Strawberry Ride Start. Let's just hope with all that long long stuff, he took a long long shower, and had a large large cup of coffee.

Mark, if you still want to do breakfast before the ride, lets plan so we get to ride about 9:00 am. That puts breakfast about 7:30 am I guess.

There is of course the possibility the Maxine and Samantha will pull out on me, then I will be doing the long ride.

Roark

The headwind was only bad for the last 90 miles

Hello all,

I thought I'd do a quick post and respond to some other posts and give you an update on me real quick.

I hope those of you who rode Saturday had a good day. More on what I did below. I won't be in town to enjoy the AYH century this weekend. I'll be off in NC climbing Mt. Mitchell. I've got my fingers crossed for nice weather down there. So far the long range forecast looks good. I might get out Monday for the St. Charles Co. soccer field hammer fest, and maybe for the Tuesday night ride that starts at the Synagogue in U-city. Wednesday night is Lynda's b-day, so the most I'll do is a hill workout on the trainer, and then 2 days off for rest and drving to go to NC.

By the way, Ron, the photo's of 3-state look fantastic. Thanks for sending / posting these.

This past Saturday I tackled my second long distance brevet. This one was 300k (187 miles). And of course I went to the baseball game on Friday night. The brevet started at 6am, so a 4:30am wake up call after hitting the hay at 10:30 was a heck of an early start! There were about 11 or 12 of us that started that morning. It quickly broke in to 2 groups, with me in the front group with 4 other guys. It was cold, damp and windy all day. It kind of felt like March all day. We started over in Edwardsville going generally East and South. We never got caught in the rain, but it was humid, cool and overcast all day. We had some tailwind as we started, and through the first part of the day. (The whole ride was in Illinios farm land, so not many hills, but nothing to break up the wind either.) The wind built in all day too. But this was a bad thing, because when we hit about the 100 mile mark we started to head West and North, and the wind that day was coming out of the NW. So by the time we made the turn we were dealing with steady winds of around 12-15 MPH, and I know a few gusts were getting up around 20 MPH. We dealt with that for about 90 miles straight, which was the better part of 7 hours.

Thank goodness I was with 4 other guys. It was a pretty good group of experienced / stronger riders. We worked very well together and stayed as a group all day. We stumbled back into Edwardsville at 6:08 PM that evening. 12 hours 8 minutes total, which includes stops. Our riding time was a bit over 10 hours and our average speed was about 18.4 MPH. ( Do your remember that "older" rider I told you about from the 200k? Get this - he rode the 300k the weekend some of us were in Chatt. He went solo, in on and off rain, in stronger winds, and finished in 12 hours 30 minutes. If I had been solo Saturday I'd have taken at least 14 hours. If it has been raining it probably would have been 15 -16.)

If anyone wants to join me :) , (you can join me for all or part) my next brevet will be a 600k over June 3 - June 4. That ride has a 40 hour time limit. It goes from Edwardsville to south of Carbondale and back. The riders will probably stop for the night in Anna, IL around mile 225. That way on Sunday we "only" have about 150 miles to get home (by 8pm on Sunday).

Talk to you all soon,

Mike

3 State Challenge Photo's

Here are some of the shots, we'll see how well this works.
I can only load five at a time and it's very slow.
I think I'll send all of them using the web site I used for the Maine shots.

Ron

Laumier Jaunt for Saturday May 13

Click On Map For Enlarged View!

A lovely jaunt with all the major hills of the 79 mile ride, with all the coffee stops, ending at Laumeir Park for the Art Festival. If we leave my house at 9:00 am, then we should be able to get to the art festival about 3:00 pm, with an hour or so for coffee stops along the way. This assumes a 15 mph pace. The distance 74 miles.

Saturday May 13 Ride

I think Roark is busy with mothersday activities this weekend. Lets get out there anyway. There is a Lewis and Clark "Departure Days" bicycle ride and recumbent rally or we can plan our own ride. There is the hilly babler ride or the ride to six flags with the hilly loop on the other side of highway 44.

Weather Permitting Saturday's 79 Hilly Miles

79HillyMiles

Cycling Distance: 78.8 miles

Click on the map to get enlarged view!




So what makes this route so fun, well we ride into St. Albans the hardway, we ride up Allenton Hill, Basset Road, Woods Avenue, Marshall Hill, West Adams, and N Warson. That's just the highlights to name a few. The only question is will the weather cooperate.

Be at my house to start the ride at 8:00 am. First coffee will be at Kaldis, in Chesterfield Valley. Don't expect to stop till we get to the Head Store in St. Albans. Our next pause will be at the service station at the base of the Six Flags Allenton climb. If our legs hold out, we go on till we get to Kaldis in Kirkwood. Then its an easy sprint home ending with the N Warson climb.C

Final Weekend (4/29-4/30) Ride Before 3 State 3 motion

Folks,

This is it! One more weekend to train for the 3 State 3 Mountain Challenge! Mark and I think we should do a final 70 mile hill training ride. I think we should do the 70 miles on Saturday, and an easy recovery ride on Sunday. The 70 miles, should not be a hammerfest, just one last push at hilly base miles. Let me know your thoughts so I can see about putting something together. We can start at my house and ride out to St. Albans, loop back via the Marshal Rd Climb and West Adams.

Roark

Merlin Tour in Chattanooga TN

If your going to the Three State Three Mountain Bike Tour, you can join us for a Tour of the Merlin Factory. Stewart Munson, the new owner of Maplewood Bicycles has graciously offered to arrange a tour of the Merlin Factory. Let me know if your interested, so I can forward your name onto Stewart. We will have to take the tour Friday afternoon, so we might have to leave earlier Friday morning. I believe Lightspeeds are also manufactured at the same facility.

Saturday & Sunday April 22-23

Time to start thinking of the weekends ride. We are still doing hill training to get ready for 3 States 3 Mountains.

Saturday I will be riding later in the afternoon due to a Bar Mitvah commitment. Mark will be joining me. Cheri might as well. One option is to start in Chesterfield Vally, maybe out to St. Albans. Another option would be to ride from my house, and hook into some of the hills of Kirkwood including West Adams & Marshall Hill.

Sunday I am up for the regular early start. I know BFC is doing a ride. If anyone has an idea for something hillier, I am open to that as well.

Roark

Ride Wednesday, April 12

Hello all,

Do we have any kind of proposed plan for this Wednesday's ride? I'd propose we do the BFC Wednesday night ride (Paul's ride). It has the right amount of hills and distance, and I think we need to keep working as hard as we can. We can eat in the loop after if we bring our lights, which I'm sure most of us will. If nobody wants to do this, I can really go either way, it's just a proposal.

I plan on getting on my bike around 5pm so I can ride to meet you wherever. I can either make it to Roark's house, or I can meet at the Synagogue, or I can meet you in the loop if I'm running late.

Mike

Rides Saturday 4/15 & Sunday 4/16

The plans are forming for this weekend already!

Saturday looks like we start from Kaldis in Chesterfield Valley to do Babler and the 10 hills of Dan. We ride at 9:00 am, so plan on meeting for breakfast at 8:15 am. Its lots of hills.


Sunday we will be riding from my house, for those not in Easter Services. We will be repeating the out Old St. Charles and over to Kirkwood route. We will be climbing Adams as will as Hog Hollow. We might throw in an extra climb or two if everyone still has legs from Saturday. Plan to meet at my house at 9:00 am.

This Weekend Ride 4/8-4/9

Unless I can figure how to get out of it, I will be traveling to KC come this Friday, returning Sunday. So have fun, ride fast, but do it without me.


I will be riding Wednesday as usual. Wednesday night rides are now officially back to road bikes.


Roark