Team Moose Tracks

Big Ride Tomorrow

Well, our big ride is tomorrow. In the end, 13 members of Team Moose Tracks will ride in an effort to raise money for The Sparrow's Nest. Wish us luck!

Training in Suburbia

Here are some thoughts from Team member Kathy:

The very best time to ride in the suburbs is early in the mornings ~ just after sunrise ~ especially on a Sunday morning.  This particular morning, the air was crisp and clean, the sky was clear and blue, and the road was void of traffic.  Everything was in full bloom, the temperature was at a perfect 50~55 degrees, and the song of the birds was so beautiful you wouldn’t have needed to wear headphones. I did don mine as it helps me maintain focus and the Winan’s “All Out” album provided additional inspiration to start my day.

The following were some inspirational lessons I have been learning along the way…

1.  Some hills are much steeper than they seem.  I wasn’t able to make it all the way, but I will not be discouraged.  Experience reminds me that true success comes with patience, time and diligence.

2.  Although it is fun to just relax and coast on the downhill, it is much more fun and exciting at time to push to speeds you might not normally reach.

3.  God has created a beautiful world for us to enjoy and it is all given to us freely.

4.  Training in one’s own backyard offers the benefit of making pit stops at home for water, change of music, forgotten items such as gloves, etc. 

Lance's Press Conference

Saw this video of Lance Armstrong's press conference in 1996 when he announced that he had cancer.  Powerful.

Happy Fourth of July

Just wanted to say "Happy Fourth of July" to all of you.  I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are having a great day celebrating our great country.

Brian's New Bike

A week and a half ago, Brian (aka Speed Racer), bought a new bike.  Here's an email from him telling of his first ride on it with his new clip-in shoes/pedals:

"I didn't get out much by the time I was all set at the shop.

They had to refit my odometer due to the one that I picked didn't fit.

Then the second one didn't fit either, ARG!  Anyway I did get out, but only for about 5 miles before it got dark.  And, yes, I did fall over. Twice.  Once for each foot while practicing getting the shoes unclipped. 

One great thing though is that the bike is so light that it doesn't hurt when it falls on you.  I just laughed when I fell, especially the first time because I unclipped my right foot and tipped over the left side!!  HA!  Luckily there were not too many people around.  I think that it was getting easier the more times I clipped in and unclipped, kind of like they had to get broken in a bit.  There are still more things for me to get used to but the bike felt good."

Congrats, Brian.  It's always good to have a new bike.  Now that you have a road bike, we'll never see you again.

May Cycling Training Update

Here’s my status report through the end of May:

• 2,414 miles on the bike since I started on December 11 – 225 miles ahead of schedule!
• Rode 20-50 miles per ride, four times a week most of the month since I had a century on June 4.  Big rides included 68 miles on May 8 and 101 miles on May 17.
• Working out with heart rate in the 140-150 bpm range.
• Resting heart rate was 52 beats per minute last time I checked.
• Weight is 201 pounds (down slightly).  I wanted to get to 195 by my first century in June, but didn't make it.
• General health is good. I do have a right shoulder/back pain and some knee pain.  I'm treating both with some rest, ice, and medication.

Pic from the Century

Here's another picture from our century ride -- this one after it.  Our moose was enjoying some ice cream with us. :-)

Note: Recall in my post last week that I mentioned Paul (the older gentleman who rode with us)?  Scott told me he was 69.  He's there in the yellow shirt.  Pretty good shape, huh?

Century Update from Brian

Here's an update on the century we rode last Saturday from team member Brian:

Once apon a time there was a bicycle tour called the 100 Grand.  It took place in Grand Rapids Michigan, this is no longer the case.  We now have the 110 Grand!!!

It started on the way home from work on Friday night.  I stopped in at the Kentwood Village Bike Shop to take a look at some of the road bikes that I would NOT be riding in the next days race.  WOW, what a difference a road bike makes.  Anyway I found a couple that I liked but didn’t have the money, so through all of the sales pitches I just walked out of there with a spare bike tube for my Mountain bike and a bike bag to put it in, and a pair of riding gloves.

I woke up the next morning at 4:30 AM, ate a bowl of oatmeal and loaded up my Camelbak for the days ride.  Then after putting my bike on the car I left to go pick up Crash to car pool to the ride.  To his surprise I was actually early, but he was ready anyway so we left REAL early to find out where this ride started.  Once we arrived at the school I started to get excited about the tour.  This was going to be fun.  Crash and I waited around for about 30 minutes and then Squeaker arrived and we went and checked in.  After checking in we loaded up out Camelbaks, met Paul who asked to ride with us, and then hit the rode.  I think it was about 7:15 AM when we started.

The first road had a big hill that we hit and that was going to be the sign of the day.  The four of us started out together on our ride and wondering how we were going to not get lost.  Actually the route was well marked but we had to figure out how to read the symbols and not miss any.  After about 5 miles or so Paul and I broke off from the pack and averaged about 17.1 mph for the first 20 miles until the first stop.  They had quite a variety of food to eat, Gatorade, and water.  Then it was back on the bike.

John and Paul had sprung off for the lead on this leg of the trip with Crash and I taking up the rear.  The weather was absolutely perfect, sunny, about 70 degrees, just gorgeous!!  This leg took us to our old training stomping grounds of the Muesketawa Trial.  This part of the tour wasn’t as hilly as the first but the hills were on their way.  By the time I caught up with Squeaker and Paul we were at the next stop, lunch break!!  The food was again pretty good and plenty of it.  I refilled by Camelbak with PowerAid and stretched out a bit.  My legs had started to tighten up as well as my back which is an issue that I have had to deal with for a couple of years now.  Also, a reminder to stretch and drink as much fluids as I could!  We were then ready to get started again, but Paul had already left and Squeaker was riding off as well so Crash and I started out ready for the next 40 mile loop, or so I thought it was going to be 40 miles.

I wasn’t sure on this leg if all of the food that I ate was going to slow me down so I told Crash that it would probably be slow going for me for a while.  Sorry Crash, I guess I lied!  I felt better than I thought, and then the hills hit.  Each hill was coming at me like a challenge that I just had to meet, so when they came I rode as hard as I could to get to the top, and then rested once I was up there.  It seemed like there were FAR more uphills than downhills.  About 10 miles in I past Squeaker and kept going.  I was passed by many a Rapid Wheelman on this part of the ride, most made comments about how hard it must be for me.  Did I mention that I was riding a Mountain bike??  Yeah, that’s right, with the knobby tires!  Smart, probably not, but it is what I had at the time. 

At mile 55 there was a HUGE turtle, probably 18 “ across.  I was hoping that Crash would stop and get a picture of Maurice the Moose on top of the turtle, but I guess it wasn’t there by the time he came by.  I guess those turtles aren’t THAT slow. :-)  There was a HUGE hill at mile 62 that I thought I was going to have to get off my bike to get to the top of it, but I eventually got there.

Then it hit.  At mile 70 my left knee started hurting.  By mile 72.5 I was starting to wonder if I was going to be able to finish.  I still do not know what made my knee hurt, but I had to do most of the pushing on my right leg for 10 MILES!!!  During this time I was trying to drink a lot to see if that would help and also pulled out some banana chips that I brought along to in case I was low on Potassium.  Lucky for me at mile 80 it started to go away and I was able to start riding normally.  This really slowed my overall time/average for the ride down.  It seemed like this loop was NEVER going to end.   I watched the miles tick down to where we were supposed to stop and the mark came and went and still no end in site.  I met Paul again (going up a hill of course), he looked pretty tired at this point but still moving along.  This 40 mile loop ended up being 48 miles, 8 of which I was mentioning words that I can not repeat here about where the next stop was.  I was totally out of fluids, really needing a bathroom, and I was worrying about my knee still.  Finally I came over a hill and I saw the enterance to the park in the distance.  I was overjoyed!  I waited there for about 20 minutes for Squeaker to show up, and probably another 10 for Crash, but we ate, took a little longer break and plotted our way home. 

There were two routes to get back.  One was 100 miles and one 106 miles.  We took the shorter of the two.  We only signed up for 100 miles and that was what we were going to ride, or so we thought.  We started out thr four of us all together again . . . for about 2 miles and then I took over the yellow jersey!  I started thinking about that half gallon of Moose Tracks that was waiting for me at the finish!!  It was only 15 miles right so no problem.  I hit it hard for the next 13 miles and started getting the idea that 15 miles wasn’t going to be exactly correct.  I had 4 more Rapid Wheelmen pass me and thought what the heck I was going to draft off them to help me finish.  So I got in behind them and we went the last 10 miles together.  Finally 110 miles from the start I FINISHED!!  I could SMELL the Moose Tracks!!  I rode in to my wife Heiki, and Nicki taking pictures and cheering me on.  It was great!  I pulled in the parking lot and waited for Squeaker, Paul, and Crash to come in and then finally after all the waiting and dreaming. . . I got my Moose Tracks!

It took me 6 hours 47 minutes and I averaged about 17.1 miles per hour, with a Max speed of 33.5 mph!  I can’t wait for the Holland Hundred to see if I can beat that in the heat of July.  And who knows maybe there will be a road bike in my future!  Maybe even before the Holland Hundred!

This is my story, and I’m sticking to it!
Brian Cunningham

Century Comments from Scott

Here are comments from team member Scott -- his thoughts on our century last Saturday:

June 4th 2005 ---- 100 Grand = my first official century --- finished in 8 hours - 37 minutes = 110 miles (not to bad for a guy who eats ice cream for a living :-) )

I was up by 5 am to eat my power meal of the day which included two eggs and a bagel, Brian picked me up at 6am so that we could be early for registration - imagine that me early for something? I knew that this would be a great day as the sun was shining and birds were singing what more could you ask for?

MILE 1-20: After registration I double checked my tire pressure and found that it was at 70psi and I needed 120 psi so to have a nice easy trip - once completed we were on our way to our first rest stop 20 miles away. I had a sneaky suspicion that I needed to work on my hill climbing skills before this ride but never did - well my suspicions were correct the first 10+ miles were loaded with hills, thank goodness I had the eggs and bagel to start my day off. One thought was that it was great to ride with my partner John - we had a lot of banter and made the time go by faster. Also John (easy rider) almost bought the farm (an inch away from taking a spill) - need to watch the loose gravel at the intersections.

MILE 21-40: ahhh the first rest area it felt great to fill up and rest for a bit as we had a just a small portion of the tour out of the way. It seemed that the next 20 miles went really fast may be because it was pretty flat and I was running on adrenaline and Gatorade.

MILE 41-85: what a great rest area we had the same menu from the previous stop (bagels, fruit, drink, homemade cookies, and some type of turkey breast). As John mentioned in his summary he had taken off and I was riding with Speed Racer for about 1/2 mile before he decieded to take off - For the first time I was riding alone - it was windy, lonely, and I started to talk to myself but one thing that kept me entertained was that just about every group of riders that pasted me commented on the moose attached to my camel bak hydration pak - it ranged from "how come he is not pedaling?", "one of the forest critters jumped on your back", "what team are you with?" and most of them just chuckled and said nice moose. Did I learn a HUGE lesson during this segment - make sure your fluid supply is full - I ran out of Gatorade and water by mile 60 - not very fun.

Well that was the longest 45 miles in my life - and I was glad to rest and find the water tank - the guys were waiting for me and itching to complete the rest of the tour, so I did rest for about 10 minutes before proceeding.

MILE 86-110: I could have used a few more minutes but as my boss Neal has told me just gut it out - so I did and was using adrenaline for the last 10+ miles. During the last leg of the tour I was again riding alone - which was alright I was really not in the mood for company and I did not have the energy to speak but I was looking forward to the Moose Tracks Ice Cream that my wife Nicky would have for the Denali bike team at the finish line - just a few more miles.

FINISH LINE: wow did that ice cream taste great!! Cold, refreshing and the Moose Tracks Fudge was great!!! It felt great to collapse in the grass and just sit still - whew! Now I need to get ready for the Holland Hundred on July 16th.

Trip average: 14.8 mph for 110 miles 8 hours 37 minutes Max. speed: 30.xx mph - what a great hill Over all it was a great experience - the weather really was not that bad - I did not get hurt and I was happy to have finished my first century

A few things I learned during the 100 Grand:

1. Make sure you have enough fluid.

2. Don't pack a lot of food - The rest areas have you covered the next century I will just carry the power bars by Cliff and packets of Gatorade.

3. Make sure you have a lot to think about during the ride as there is no guarantee that a team member will be nearby to chat with you.

4. If you do have a team member riding with you - use them to draft of off - This did not work out for me

5. Utilize the rest stops - Fuel up and get going you can not afford to cool down.

6. Get the miles in early - The more you get in before the heat of the day the better.

7. If I had a preference between hills and wind - I would have to choose the hills - At least they go away and you can coast down the other side.

8. Use Vaseline or bag balm to prevent chafing - Need to do next time.

9. Base miles - I had ridden 320 miles prior to this 100 - in the course of 8 weeks or so - I think that this is a great start - more would have been better.

10. Speaking of base miles - make sure you have a bicycle purchased (Jennifer) - can't wait to see you at the Holland Hundred :-)

11. Know your limits - Don't go as fast as the person that just passed you - they can suck the energy right out of you.

Pic of the Century

Here's a pic of me, Scott, and Brian at the start of the century we rode on Saturday. We took an "after" pic too, but it didn't turn out.  It's probably best it didn't since we weren't looking good after 110 miles. ;-)