Lonnie's Blog

Muscatine County 4-H Fun Run

2010-10-20T10:03:00.004-05:00

This past Saturday I completed my last competition 5k race of the season. It was also the last race on the Muscatine Running Club's Grand Prix circuit. There are 9 races that make up this circuit and any runner interested in competing in this circuit needs to complete up to 6 of the 9 races. Points are acquired by comparing your time to the fastest runner of each race. Then your points are totaled for all the races (6 maximum). The fastest time is given 1,000 points and everyone else falls in below that number.

My time on this race was 21:57 and was good for 8th overall and 1st in the 50-59 age bracket.

For the season, the fastest time went to the 15-29 age bracket with 5,912 total points. I ended up with 4,350 points and came out on top for my age bracket of 55-59. My individual points for each of my 6 races was: 733, 659, 661, 759, 739, and 800. This accounted for 3-first place finishes, 2-2nd place finishes and 1-4th place finish.

I have one more race in November, the Turkey Trot where we predict our run time and the closest guess in each age bracket wins a turkey.

I hope to get back on my bicycle after spending most of my time running since I returned from my ride across the country. My last time out on the bike was August 28th.

2010 Watermelon Stampede 5k

2010-08-22T08:27:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I ran in my second Watermelon Stampede 5k in Muscatine. There was a huge turnout and the weather was fairly decent. Temp at race time was 72 and the humidity wasn't too bad.

I finished with a time of 22:11, which was 6 seconds faster than last year. Last year's time was good enough for first in my age bracket, but this year there was a new runner from Davenport that took that spot. I settled for 2nd place.

This race also has a 10k division that starts at the same time as the 5k, so the metal ceremony is kind of strung out and there is a lot of waiting by the earlier 5k runners for all the 10k runners to finish. Fifty watermelons were also given out by a drawing. Unfortunately, my number was never called and my grandson, Evan was very disappointed.

Du State Du Duathlon-Loud Thunder

2010-08-16T07:36:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I participated in my 3rd Du State Du. The weather was nice, but still a little on the warm side for my taste. Temp was around 72-75, but the humidity was lower than my HNI 5k run the day before.

There was a record turnout for this race, 159 entries. The race consists of a 1.94 mile run, a 14.71 mile bike ride, followed by a 1.81 mile run.

I had a time of 1:14:51, which was faster than last year's race(1:15:55), but not as fast as two years ago(1:14:35). My pace for the three legs were 7:16/mile, 19.5 mph, 7:51/mile.

I ended up with 3rd place. I was satisfied with this effort as I didn't have a rest day before this race because of my participation in the HNI 5k. Doing two races back to back is hard to do when you reach my age without proper recovery time.

HNI 5K Run

2010-08-15T19:55:00.003-05:00

The Hon Industries 5k run was held yesterday (Sat.) in downtown Muscatine along the riverfront. It was one of those hot, sticky, dog days of August. The temperature at race time (8am) was 75 degrees and the heat index was already over 80. Needless to say I do not run or ride a bike well in hot weather.

There was a good turn out with 107 runners and several walkers. Last year I posted my best time ever in a 5k at this race doing it in 21:01. This year would be disappointing. My time was 22:28. I had a rest day the day before, but the heat really got to me. I couldn't keep my pace up and had several people pass me in the last 1/2 mile. I finished 27th overall. Last year I was 22nd overall.

Even though my pace was miserably slower than last year, I was still first in my age bracket (55-59).

There may have been a subliminal message going through my brain as I was running this race, "don't expend all of your energy on this race". The reason being I had a much bigger race the next day, I was doing a duathlon.

Bike Ride Across The U.S.

2010-08-08T14:43:00.003-05:00

I recently finished my first segment of my bicycle ride across the U.S. I left on June 24th departing from Anacortes Washington and finished in Muscatine Iowa on August 1. I rode 2,743 miles during those 39 days.

It was a week ago today that I rode down the driveway of my home to a well planned welcome home party. Next year I plan to finish my cross-country route from Muscatine to Bar Harbor Maine.

It was great to be back home with family and I have integrated well back into the mainstream. I hung up my bike this past week and re-acquainted myself with running.

I have three races coming up in the next two weeks and need to prepare my running legs for the change of pace. I started out slowly and after resting two days from my bike ride have ran the last four days doing 2 to 3 miles each time.

St. Malachy's Steeplechase Run

2010-06-19T14:00:00.004-05:00

This is my second year doing this race. The distance is an in-betweener with 4.6 miles or roughly 7.5k. Most of it is on gravel and one of the roads had very large pieces of gravel and made running difficult. The weather was on the hot and sticky side even though the race started this morning at 8am.

Last year I finished 19th overall and 4th in my age group. The age groups for this race are in 10 yr. increments instead of the normal 5 yr. increments. So I was lumped together with the 50-54 younger set. This year I was 14th overall and 2nd in this age group. Due to lack of entries in the 60+ segment they just called our group 50+.

Last year my time was 37:35 and this year I improved almost two minutes with 35:37.

Since I spend most of my time on the bike, my running regimen is usually minimal and when I do get the chance to run it usually a 2 or 3 mile run. Last week in preparation for this ride I did 2 days of running at the 4-4.5 mile level. My first and only running at this long of distance for the year. Since I spent my high school track days doing sprints I have never been much into longer distances. So this race last year and again this year really strains my effort and all I can think about the last mile "is this race about over".

Cross Country Bike Ride-Northern Tier

2010-05-20T21:00:00.002-05:00

After planning this ride for the last 6 months and working through all the details I am about 5 weeks away from my departure. The plan is to fly to Seattle on June 23 and make my way by shuttle to a friend's house in Bow, WA. Then I depart on June 24 and head east following the Northern Tier bike route and arrive back in Muscatine on August 1.

If you have pulled up my blog and aren't familiar with my upcoming bike ride here is how you can get to my journal: www.iowacyclist.crazyguyonabike.com

Hayes Hustle 5k

2010-04-19T11:29:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday I ran my 2nd Hayes Hustle 5k in Muscatine. My running this year has been at a much reduced level compared to last year. I had 27 miles in since the first of the year compared to 50 miles in 2009. In late January I hurt my right knee and I reduced my cycling and running miles to let it heal.

I didn't think having half the training miles in would have a large impact on my time, but I ended up running a 22:52 compared to a 21:59 last year. It was still good enough for first place in my age group.

Most of the serious runners put in 25-35 miles per week of training, so my measly 27 miles for the first 15 months of the year seems rather insignificant. I guess the moral is; if I want to give up cycling and become a serious runner I might be a serious contender in all the area races.

Winter Is Still Here

2010-02-25T09:26:00.004-06:00

This has to be the longest, coldest, snowiest winter that I can remember since 1978-1979. Living in the country has many benefits, but running outside with ice and snow on our trails and on the road out front is impossible. So this winter Patti and I have been enjoying snow shoeing. I try to get out almost every day and do 1.0 to 1.5 miles. In January I was also wearing a 40 pound pack while snow shoeing, but late last month I hurt my right knee and have been unable to do all the exercises I was doing before this happened.

My Sports Doctor couldn't find any damage to the meniscus or tendons and thinks I have patella tendinitis. I have had this for 4 weeks and it is getting annoying. I quit the Power To The Petals program on my bike and now am doing a moderate rate for 5.0 to 10.0 miles 3-4 times per week. Some days my knee hardly bothers me, while at other times it is a constant pain. I was taking Advil to help with the inflammation, but I went off it yesterday to prevent any problems with my ulcer. Wearing a leg brace has helped and icing after exercising also has been helpful.

Will get away to San Antonio for a few days and lay off the exercise and see if this might give some improvement. The weather will be better than here, but cool for southern Texas (highs in low to mid-60's during the day and lows in the low 40's at night).

New Granddaughter

2010-01-20T08:26:00.002-06:00

There was some excitement in the Cook household this past week. We have a new granddaughter, Adaline Marie born on January 14th.

2009 In Review

2010-01-20T07:53:00.002-06:00

Here it is January 20th and my last posting was October 19th. What have I been doing for the last 3 months? Or more correctly what have I been neglecting the last 3 months?

After returning from my elk hunt in Colorado I aged one year on Oct. 20th. Now I am a size 58. In late October and November I took a break from my exercise routines.

Finally in mid-November I returned to the bike and began the Power To The Pedals training program. This is the same program that I used last winter. It is broken into a twice a week routine over a 12-week period. Since I was starting this program early enough I decided to double each week and make this a 24-week program. This week I at week 6 of the program.

I have also continued to do some running, but the snow that we have had on the ground for the past 4+ weeks has prevented me from running on our trails behind our house. So I have jogged on the treadmill some and yesterday our gravel road was melted enough for me to began running again outside.

With all the snow I have been enjoying snowshoeing in our woods. Last fall I expanded our trail system. I built upon the 1/2 mile trail that all ready existed and added another 1/2 mile of new trails. This makes for a great work-out on the snowshoes. Patti also enjoys snowshoeing. We wanted to be able to snoweshoe together so last week I purchased a 2nd set of snowshoes. When I go snowshoeing I carry a backpack with around 40 pounds of sand in it. This gives me a much better work-out and helps build-up my leg strength.

So now for a review of 2009:
Last year marked the 40th anniversary of my running career in high school. I graduated in 1969 from North Harrison High School in Eagleville Missouri. That spring I participated in my last track and field events: 100 yard high hurdles, 180 yard low hurdles, 4x100 relay and 4x220 relay. I participated 3 out of my 4 years in high school in track and field and all 4 years in basketball. One year I was unable to compete due to having my appendix out. You would think with that background that I would have included running or some form of exercise, but I entered college and then the workforce and left exercise out of my daily routine.

In 2000 Patti and I purchased a pair of mountain bikes and I biked 289 miles that year. Slowly over the next several years I began to re-sculpt my dormant muscles and get my aged body back into shape. I finally took up running again in July 2008 on a dare from a friend. Mark Lofgren and I had planned to do the team division of the Du State Du, which is a duathlon. Mark was going to do the running and I was to do the biking section. A few weeks before the event Mark informed me that he couldn't participate and said I needed to find another runner or do the running part myself. A day or two later I decided to go out and try running. I did one mile and it about killed me. I had forgotten what all of my biking friends had told me: the muscles you use for cycling are not the same muscles you use for running. Slowly over the next few weeks I built up my legs to handle a 2-3 mile run. I finished the Du State Du that year and finished 2nd and my performance on the running sections was better than the biking portions. So since then I have included running in my exercise regiment.

In 2009 I entered two duathlons and six running events. On the two duathlons I finished 2nd and 5th. Five of the running events were 5K's (3 miles) and I finished 1st twice, 2nd once and 3rd twice. The last running event was a 4.5 mile run and I finished 4th.

Elk Hunting-2009

2009-10-19T19:57:00.006-05:00

After returning from California I unpacked and began packing for my next adventure-elk hunting in Colorado.

This year I asked a friend, Ralph to join me. Ralph enjoys the Colorado mountains, but due to knee joint issues is unable to hunt anymore. This turned out to be a real benefit for us as Ralph was our cook and what a great cook he was.

Ralph and I left the Cedar Rapids airport on Thursday afternoon and touched down in Montrose later that night.

Friday was spent getting acquainted with my sister and her family and sighting in our rifles. After lunch on the ranch we headed up to our home for the next 5 days, a cabin at 8,700 feet. On this trip, my brother-in-law, Robert and his sons, Jason and Nathan would join us. Nathan would stay back in the cabin with Ralph to keep him company, while Jason, Robert and I would hunt.

The next 5 days our routine never deviated much from this template: up at 4:00-4:30 with Ralph getting up first to start breakfast. At 5:45 we made our way out to where we would sit for our hunt that day. Usually we would sit for 3 hours in one spot to watch for any elk in that park (meadow) or at a watering hole. Then we would "still hunt", walking slowly for the next few hours. Robert and Jason would return to the cabin each day for lunch and then go back out hunting in the afternoon. I packed a lunch and stayed out hunting each day except for one day. Then we hunted until dark (7:00) and returned to the cabin for a late supper. After supper it we spent time reading or playing cards for 30-60 minutes and then it was time for lights out at 9:00.

The weather was unseasonably warm for this area in early October. The 7,000+ acre ranch had several sightings of elk in the weeks leading up to the 1st season, but during our 5 days hunting we never saw any elk and didn't really see any fresh sign.

On the next to the last day of the hunt the three of us made it up to BLM ground southeast of Buckhorn Lake and found an area that looked promising. I returned to this area on the last day and saw a lot of fresh sign and sighted (1) bull elk. It was perhaps an accidental sighting as I had a sage hen burst up in front of me and land in a tree nearby. After I stopped to get over the scare and watch the sage hen in the tree, I noticed something that caught my eye off to my left perhaps 200 yards away. I used my binoculars and discovered that an elk's 'butt" was sticking out from a clump of trees. Because of the dense cover I couldn't see the rest of the elk and I waited for about 5 minutes hoping it would move a little, but it didn't. So I decided to move slowly to my right about 5 feet so I could perhaps see the rest of the elk-body. When I did that the elk took off running and I could see it had antlers, but couldn't see how many points.
I waited another 5 minutes for the elk to settle down and blew my elk-cow call. Thinking the elk had left the immediate area I then slowly started walking ahead to see if I could make contact again with the elk. After about 5 steps I saw the butt of the elk running away from me in the distance and that was the last time I would see that elk.

Later the next day (the day after the season was over), we took a drive down to Telluride and on the way back we saw one group of (5) elk and later a large herd of around (50) elk. In the larger herd there were several bulls and (1) very large herd bull in the center of the cows. It looked like this herd bull was a 7x7.

Ralph and I had a great time and on our flight back home Thursday afternoon we recalled the last 6 days of our adventure and the experiences we lived.

California Wine Country Bike Trip

2009-10-19T19:39:00.004-05:00

I am a little late in updating my blog, but I have been busy. Patti and I joined friends, Deb & Keith for an 8 day trip to California in mid September.

We signed up with Bicycle Adventures, www.bicycleadventures.com for a 6-day cycling trip through the wine country of northern California. We visited Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Anderson Valley and Dry Creek Valley regions.

We were sag supported and our luggage was carried by vans to our next destination each day. Our cycling mileage was in the 35-50 mile range each day. The terrain was rolling hills with a couple of steeper climbs later in the trip. We usually would stop at 4 or 5 wineries each day and do a tasting.

This was new country for the four of us and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We were joined by 11 other couples and 3 guides. Our tour started in Santa Rosa and we made a big loop through Napa, Sonoma, Healdsburg, Calistoga and some other towns in that area. We also biked on the last day through a redwood forest and were able to see for our first time the majestic trees.

After our tour was completed we headed down to San Francisco and spent 2 days touring Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street and other sites in the area.

This was a great vacation and we would like to do another biking tour similar to this to a different region, perhaps the Tuscan region of Italy.

California Here We Come

2009-09-17T19:04:00.004-05:00

Patti and I have been getting ready for our trip to California. Our packing is almost done. We shipped out our tandem by Fed-Ex on Monday. It should arrive at The Hotel La Rosa in Santa Rosa sometime Friday. Our flight leaves Moline at 8:30 on Saturday and arrives in Oakland around 1:30. Then we have a 2 hour shuttle ride to Santa Rosa.

We had a good training ride on our tandem this past week-end from Moline to Savanna and back. This two day ride was our second annual Muscatine Cycling Club ride. in total we logged about 107 miles. Our overnight at the Granny O'Neal's B & B turned out to be an interesting experience and we will have to stay there again next year.

I am kneeling beside Evan and Patti is to the left of Evan

We have been out 3 times on our mountain bikes since we shipped out our tandem. Monday night we took Evan on our club's ride and put in about 13 miles. Evan was on a trailer bike behind my bike. Then last night I went running with Mark Lofgren at Wildcat Den State Park and ran about 3.5 miles, while Patti bike 9 or 10 miles. Then this evening we road our bikes up to Stockton and back for another 11 miles. We are hoping to get out on the bikes one more time on Friday before we leave on our trip.

The biking portion of our California trip is 6 days and tours through the California Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Then we do some sight seeing in San Francisco for a couple of days. We are going with our good friends Deb & Keith Elliott, who are celebrating their 30'th wedding anniversary.

Wildcat Den 5k Trail Run

2009-09-14T08:48:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday I ran the 5k trail run down at Wildcat Den State Park. This was my second year for doing this race. The park is about 3 miles from our house and I often go down to run or walk the trails.

My very first 5k race was ran here last year with a time of 24:55, which was 21st overall and good enough for 1st place in the 50-59 age group. This year I improved on my time and clocked in at 24:22, which was 17th overall, but only good enough for 3rd place. Two faster runners that didn't participate last year, decided to run this year.

This was my 8th race this year and by far the hardest. The uneven terrain and the steep hills back in the park, make for a very challenging run. Out of the 8 races I have 2-1st's, 2-2nd's, 2-3rd's, 1-4th and 1-5th.

Training For Trail Run This Week-end

2009-09-07T12:52:00.003-05:00

This Saturday I will be doing the Wildcat Den 5k trail run at the park 2 1/2 miles from my house. This morning and yesterday morning I went down and ran on the trails in the park to get accustomed to the terrain and the inclines. The hill climbing training-both going up and down has given me a good workout.

This will be my 2nd year to do this run. Last year's run was my very first 5k of my racing career. My time last year was 24:55. Compare this time to my last race 3 weeks ago, the Hon 5k, of 21:01, which was my fastest time this year. Trail runs tend to be a good bit slower than runs on pavement, due to the slight amount of sinking your foot does in the ground and less rebound from your foot-step hitting dirt vs. pavement. I would like to get my time down to 24:00 this year. We'll see if I have made this much improvement in 12 months.

HNI(Hon) 5K Run

2009-08-25T15:07:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday I ran in the HNI 5k run from the waterfront in downtown Muscatine. This is a very flat course and everyone's times were fast.

There were 164 entries, some of which were walkers. I ended up finishing 22nd overall and took 2nd in my age bracket. My time was 21:01, which was a PB or PR(personal best/personal record) for this distance. I averaged 6:46 per mile. My next best time was the Hayes Hustle back in April, where my time was 21:59.

I have 3 weeks before my next race, which will be the Wildcat Den trail run.

Du State Du Duathlon-Loud Thunder Park

2009-08-17T08:26:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I competed in my second duathlon this year and this was my second year to do the Du State Du. The weather was ominous with the weather channel predicting a 70% chance of thunderstorms all day. Even with the bad weather forecast we had 131 participants.

This race comprises a 2 mile run, a 15 mile bike ride and then the 2 mile run again. The transition area is used for the changeover. During the first transition your running shoes are taken off and biking shoes put on as well as your helmet. Then you take the bike off the rack that is provided and run out to the transition starting place and get on your bike. This is reversed during the second transition. Last year my times were 0:59 and 0:49 respectively for the two transitions. This year I shaved a little off and had 0:36 and 0:40, which gave a 0:32 second improvement overall.

I also improved in my running all so slightly. Last year my times were 13:47 and 14:40 for the two running legs. This year I had 13:25 and 14:59. Adding these together my running improved by :03 seconds.

Then there was the biking leg, which I didn't really want to talk about. Last year my time was 44:21 (average 19.9 mph). This year I did a disappointing 46:13 (19.1 mph). For me the wind this year was a big factor. It was blowing out of the south at 11-13 mph. I also had a bad leg cramp (right calf) during my last hill ascent about 2 miles from the finish line. I had to slow up to work the cramp out and this cost me some precious time.

Overall my time last year was 1:14:31. This year it was 1:15:55, which was 84 seconds slower. It was still good enough to get me 2nd place (same as last year). Even if I had rode as well as last year I still couldn't have caught the first place finisher (from Sterling, IL) in my age group. He was nearly 6 minutes ahead of me and finished 10th overall. I ended up finishing 32nd overall. Another factor in my slower times was not being fully recovered from my 5k race that I did the day before.

Well the rain held off for most of the finishers and began in earnest as we were gathering for the award ceremony and lunch.

Watermelon Stampede 5k

2009-08-16T12:59:00.006-05:00

Race announcer Del Web-calling out times of finishers.

I ran my first Watermelon Stampede 5k in Muscatine on Saturday morning. This picture shows the final 100 yards making our way down to the YMCA.They also had a 10k race for those looking for a longer run. The humidity was 65-70% and the temp was in the high 60's, which made for a sticky-warm run. They had a little over 300 participants. I finished 1st in my age group, but wasn't pleased with my time. I ran the race in 22:17, which is 18 seconds above my best time on the Hayes Hustle back in April. My body doesn't perform as well in the warmer temperatures. My split times were 7:10 and 14:20 at mile 1 and 2 and I ended up with a 7:10 minute average for the 3.107 mile race. There were 9 entries in my age bracket. Recording times for participants finishing race.

I would be running/biking the Du State Du the next day and after the exertion on Saturday, would see how that effected my race times on Sunday.

Training For 5K's

2009-08-03T10:35:00.002-05:00

After returning from RAGBRAI, I have been doing less and less bike riding and more and more running. I have three races coming up in about two weeks.

I installed the aero-bars on my bike and have been doing short-very intense rides in the low-aero-dynamic position. Most of these rides are 10 miles or less. Then on the same day I have been doing a 3 mile run at a 8-minute per mile pace. I am going to try and keep this training up for the 7 to 10 days before I start to slow down and taper for the races.

RAGBRAI XXXVII Tribute

2009-07-17T09:14:00.005-05:00

It is time once again for the Des Moines "Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa". This marks the 37th year and my 6th. This year's bike ride takes a southern route and begins in Council Bluffs and ends in Burlington. This will be my first go at a southern route. I hear they are usually very hilly (especially southwest Iowa).

The other overnight towns are: Red Oak, Greenfield, Indianola, Chariton, Ottumwa and Mt. Pleasant. The total miles will be around 445 and the feet of climbing around 23,000. The amount of climbing puts it in the Top 10 for the history of RAGBRAI, while the last day also makes it in the top 10 for the least amount of climbing and easiest day.

In addition, RAGBRAI adds a number of first time towns to the family: Williamson, Macksburg, East Peru, Truro, Oakley, Honey Creek Resort, Hedrick, Martinsburg, Pekin, Pleasant Plain, Germanville, Geode State Park, and Indianola as our overnight host on Day 3!

I will be going with the Muscatine Cycling Club again this year. We have two large buses with about 50 locals and 50 out of towners going this year. We leave at 7am tomorrow and usually we stop for breakfast in West Des Moines at the Cracker Barrel, which should put us in Council Bluffs around 2pm. Sunday morning the ride begins.

And this year, if all goes as planned my wife, Patti will be joining me for the last day with our tandem. How she gets down to Mt. Pleasant is still being worked out, but my sister lives in Burlington and my mother is also coming up from Missouri to be there for the last day as the peleton makes it's way through the streets of Burlington.

I am fresh back from my Colorado ride and should be in good shape for this year's RAGBRAI. Also joining me from my Colorado ride are: Jim Bixler, Dave Humiston and Steve Geering. Jim and Dave will be accompanying the Muscatine club, while Steve will be with the Quad Cities club. And Dave Benson, Steve's friend in Colorado where we stayed the last night is also coming on RAGBRAI. He will be with a group out of Oskaloosa called BrewHaHa. Dave said to look for their big green bus.

The weather is looking great for this year's ride with temps in the 70's and 80's during the day and 50's and 60's at night. There isn't much rain chances at this time, but as we know this can change. Here it is at 3pm on Friday before RAGBRAI starts and it is only 66 degrees. I think Iowa had a long winter, extended spring, 3 weeks of summer and now we are into fall already. I guess we shouldn't complain-I would much rather ride in mild weather like this than the heat we have experienced on previous RAGBRAI's. Council Bluff's here we come-----and Burlington--you are not far behind.

Day 1 is from Council Bluffs to Red Oak. The route takes us through Mineola, Henderson, and Emerson. The day starts with about 10 miles of flat running along the Loess Hills. After this warm up, the route turns east and starts hopping hills to Red Oak. All total, the day clocks in around 54 miles and a little over 3700 feet of climb.

Day 2 is from Red Oak to Greenfield. The route takes us through Stanton, Villisca, Nodaway, Dickeville, Corning, Prescott, Williamson, and Fontanelle. This day will get your attention as I'm showing almost 73 miles of riding and over 5000 feet of climb. Fortunately, there are plenty of through towns during the day and they're spaced about every 10 miles.

Day 3 is from Greenfield to Indianola. This will be our first time overnighting in Indianola! The route takes us through Orient, Macksburg, East Peru, Truro, St. Charles, St. Marys, Martensdale, and Prole. This day will also get your attention as I'm showing almost 78 miles of riding and over 4400 feet of climb. Like Day 2, the through towns are nicely spaced.

Day 4 is a a short ride to Chariton passing through Ackworth, Sandyville, Milo, Lacona, and Oakley. It will be only 45 miles of riding and ~2100 feet of climb.

Day 5 is from Chariton to Ottumwa and we return to some long miles. The route takes us through Millerton, Bethlehem, Confidence, Iconium, Honey Creek Resort, moravia, Unionville, and Blakesburg. We'll do about 77 miles and almost 3400 feet of climb.

Day 6 is from Ottumwa to Mt. Pleasant. The route takes us through Hedrick, Martinsburg, Pekin, Packwood, Pleasant Plain, Brighton, Germanville, and Lockridge. This will be the longest day at almost 78 miles and the climb is relaxed a bit to a little over 3000 feet.

Day 7 is from Mt. Pleasant to Burlington and takes us through New London, Lowell and Geode State Park. As I mentioned in above - easy day at 44 miles and 1175 feet of climb.

West Liberty Fun Run

2009-07-13T13:07:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I got up early before Church and drove to the Muscatine County fairgrounds in West Liberty. I entered in the 5k run along with about 150 other runners. The temps were ideal at 8am and the course was pretty flat and went on streets through the town.

I set a fairly brisk pace on the 1st mile (sub-7 minutes) and heard that my 2-mile time was 14:05, but on my last mile I had to slow down a bit. I finished with 22:04, which was good enough to give me 3rd place in my age group (31st overall).

My time was about 5 seconds slower than my performance in the Hayes Hustle back in April and the race in April had a big incline at the finish. Guess I hadn't completely recovered from my difficult bike ride in Colorado last week.

Go West Young Man

2009-06-26T08:36:00.002-05:00

Isn't that quote credited to Horace Greely?

In the morning I along with 4 other bikers from the Muscatine area will be heading for Colorado to bicycle through the mountains. The biking portion will be 5 1/2 days and will be centered around Frisco for the largest share of our riding and at Estes Park for the last day of riding. Three other riders from Colorado are going to join us for part of our ride.

My writing will switch from this blog to my web-site I use for my bike trips: www.iowacyclist.crazyguyonabike.com

The weather is going to be 30-40 degrees cooler where we are heading and we may run into some hail and snow flurries at the higher elevations this time of year.

I am looking forward to this trip, but wish I didn't have all the driving out and back (28 hours).

St. Malachy Steeplechase 4.65 Mile Run

2009-06-20T19:16:00.003-05:00

After being in Vancouver all week on a business trip, I decided to run a race this morning. The race is sponsored by the St. Malachy Church. They have a country church located about 8 miles west of Muscatine. The run was essentially all on gravel with a short section on blacktop. One stretch of gravel was very difficult to navigate due to the large pieces 2"+ in the road bed.

I have never ran a race of this length and for that matter never ran any training runs of this length. Most of my runs are 1 to 2 miles long. I paced myself during the race and kept about the same speed for the full length of the race.

I ended up finishing 4th in my age group (50-59). They didn't have a separate age group for 55-59 or I would have taken 1st. Last year my time of 37:34 would have been good enough to finish 1st, but this year there were some faster runners that didn't participate last year. My legs feel pretty good this evening, but we will see how I feel tomorrow.

Only 8 days until the Colorado bike ride and I have been off my bike for about 2 weeks with an infected cyst on by bottom last week and this week I was away on business. Will spend the next few days back on the bike to get ready for my long ride in the mountains.

Julie's Restaurant-Albany, Illinois

2009-06-09T16:37:00.005-05:00

For the last several weeks I have been taking off one day a week (since our business is a little slow this year) and it gives me a chance to pick a day when the weather is decent and get in a long ride to help my training for the Colorado mountains. Today the weather was going to be excellent and I convinced Patti to go with me on the tandem.

Last week I did a breakfast ride to Gin's Bar & Grill in Lone Tree, IA to try their $1 pancakes. You can read my entry on June 4th for the details of that trip. Today I decided to head in the opposite direction to my favorite breakfast location, Julie's in Albany, IL. The ride to Albany is all on the bike path-so we didn't have to worry about highway traffic and the trail is not very busy on week-days. We were on our tandem at Sunset Marina in Rock Island at 6:30 this morning and headed east and north on the bike trail. The wind was out of the northwest 5-8 mph with the temps in the mid-50's.

We had a good ride to Albany and were ready for a hearty breakfast when we arrived. Of course we ordered their special pancakes with eggs and coffee. The cost is a little higher than Gin's, but the pancakes are bigger and tastier. (this is a 14" pancake-ok I may have coaxed Julie into pouring a little more batter on this one)Upon leaving I talked to Julie's husband about the status of this landmark restaurant in Albany. I have been coming up here 3 or 4 times a year on my bike for the last 6 years and I learned 2 years ago that they were trying to sell it. They had no viable offers and have decided to retain the restaurant and keep it open. It used to be open 7 days a week and this was detrimental to their family life, since Julie did all the cooking; so now they are only open Monday through Friday. Last September they were still open on week-ends and our Savanna ride stopped here.

After our appetites were taken care of it was back on the tandem. The wind had shifted to the north and we had a tailwind coming back until we got to Moline where the trail veers west. We ended up with 73 miles for the day, which was a new personal best for Patti.

Gin's vs. Julie's:
Gin's is cheaper and closer for the Muscatine group.
Julie's has a better view (overlooks the Mississippi River) and their pancakes are better and bigger.

I like my pancakes--so if anyone has another good place for a breakfast ride, let me know!

Gin's Bar & Grill-Lone Tree

2009-06-04T13:56:00.005-05:00

Last Saturday (see my May 30th post) our cycling club had a ride that went out to Lone Tree for breakfast. They stopped at Gin's Bar & Grill, which is noted for their large pancakes for $1 each. Patti and I didn't have the time last Saturday to make it all the way to Lone Tree, so today I decided to take half a day off and make the trip.

I parked at Wild Cat Den around 6am and went through Muscatine on the bike path and headed west on G28 past the elk/buffalo farm and then north into Lone Tree. I entered Gin's around 8:15 and there were several patrons there playing cards and some farmers at another table talking over the weather. The waitress/cook/bartender was playing cards and she got up and took my order. The pancake was big (around 10" diameter) and fairly thick. I also ordered 2 eggs and had coffee, which was self-serve. My total cost was $3 including tax, what a bargain. I have always been partial to the pancakes at Julie's in Albany, IL, which is on the bike path that runs between Rock Island and Savanna. Julie's pancakes are just a little larger, but not as thick; so probably about the same volume.

After leaving Lone Tree, I headed north for quite a ways and then east into West Liberty. I went past several turkey farms and as I came into town took this picture at the Louis Rich Turkey processing plant. There were several trailers of turkeys waiting to be processed and they had rigged up a bank of fans to help keep the birds cool. As if they are going to know the difference in a few minutes. I stopped at the Casey's in West Liberty for a sort break before heading east through Atalissa and Moscow. East of Moscow there was a train crossing the road and it had stopped to drop off some cars at Gerdau's steel plant in Wilton and had to wait about 15 minutes. Then it was east through Wilton and Durant and then south back to Wildcat Den. I had 82.5 miles for the trip.

RAMCO-Ride Across Muscatine County

2009-05-30T14:39:00.002-05:00

The Muscatine Cycling Club had it's first RAMCO ride this morning. And there was such a great turnout, around 50-60 riders. We left Discovery Park at 7:45 this morning. There had been some sprinkles just a few minutes before we left, but no more rain the rest of the day.

Our first stop was at Julie Evan's parent's house about 11 miles west of Muscatine. A nice breakfast buffet was set for us and we all dug in. The rest of the riders headed to Lone Tree where they were going to stop at Gin's to get their famous $1.00 super large pancakes. Patti and I had to get back for a graduation party and a wedding this afternoon, so we went to F70 then up to Nichols and back on Hwy 22. We ended up with 36 miles on our tandem. It will be interesting to hear how everyone else's day went that compelted the whole ride (62 miles).

Last night Patti and I went out to dinner and celebrated our wedding anniversary (38 years) and what a great time we have had looking back and will have looking forward.

Swing Into Spring Duathlon

2009-05-26T20:41:00.005-05:00

Our Muscatine Group
Sunday-May 24: I competed in the Swing Into Spring Duathlon in Davenport, IA this morning. This was a short duathlon with a 3k run/17k bike/3k run (1.8 miles/10.2 miles/1.8 miles). The weather was great but we did have a 10 mph northeast wind that impacted the biking leg.

There were 97 participants. In my age group (55-59) there were 6 and I ended up with 5th place. Not as good as I expected, but we had two very fast competitors come down from Sterling Illinois to compete and they took 1st and 2nd in my age group. I missed 4th place by 3 seconds.

I ended up with a total time of 58:22 for the complete race. My 1st running leg was at a 7:19 pace and my 2nd biking leg was at a 22.8 mph pace and my last running leg was at a 8:03 pace. There were 6 racers from the Muscatine area and my time was 2nd in that group.

This was my first biking competition of the year and should improve as the summer moves along and I enter in a couple of other duathlons.
This is Julie from our club. With her husband Mark they competed in the team division with Julie doing the running. This is before the race started and I had just placed my bike on the rack next to Marks.

Iowa Bicycle Coalition Ride

2009-05-20T16:03:00.003-05:00

Today our advocacy group-Iowa Bicycle Coalition came into Muscatine to have lunch with club members and local officials to discuss bicycling in and around Muscatine. The following paragraph describes their mission.

The Iowa Bicycle Coalition will be taking a number of trips this year to explore different areas of Iowa. We will ride the trails, roads, and streets. We'll investigate safe routes to school, work and shop. We'll be spending time talking with cyclists, bike clubs, organizations, bikes shop folks, elected officials and businesses. Let's explore Muscatine and talk bicycling.

We had lunch at the Button Factory and sit around the table for a good hour and half discussing local issues and then got on our bikes and headed down the bike path and out Hershey Ave. to the new bike path section added there and then it was back to the Button Factory. I believe we had 11 in total at the luncheon and 7 of us biked afterwards. All in all-a great day to be out on a bike (80 degrees) and some good discussion on biking issues that face us in Muscatine.

Training Ride In The Wind

2009-05-16T15:11:00.002-05:00

Today was one of those days that it would have been much better to stay home and stay out of the wind and cold weather. The Midwest is still getting cold, raw weather. This morning it was in the mid-40's and the wind was coming out of the northwest at 20+ mph, which made the windchill about 7-9 degrees cooler than the actual temp.

It was going to be the first ride where all 5 of the Colorado riders were going to be together (Jim, Dave, and Bob from Muscatine, Steve from Blue Grass and myself). We met at 8:30 at the elementary school in Blue Grass. Steve's wife, Gina called me a little before eight to tell me that Steve was not going to make it. His daughter-in-law in Kansas City had a baby and he was heading down there to be with them.

Our goal was to head north on Y-40 through Walcott and Dixon and then on Y4E northwest to Wheatland. It was a miserable ride to say the least. Bob, who has ridden for many years told me that it had to be one of the hardest rides he has been on due to the heavy wind. Since the wind was coming out of the northwest and we were mostly going north, we couldn't get any draft from the person in front so we were all exposed to the wind all morning.

After taking a short break at the Phillip's 66 station in Wheatland we began the tailwind portion of our ride and it was truly enjoyable and made up for the first half of our ride. We ended up with 49.5 miles for the day and with the wind and hills we felt like we got in some serious training for our Colorado ride which is coming up in only 6 short weeks.This picture was taken in Walcott on the return trip at Casey's. Bob is on the left, Dave in the middle and Jim on the right. Notice the donut sign. After seeing it Bob brought to our attention that he might have some donuts to snack on when he gets home.

Riding In Mid-May

2009-05-13T16:47:00.002-05:00

The weather in May has been very un-predictable with lots of rain and cooler temps. I have been getting in some training rides (short to medium) length and some running. Today it rained all day and I took a day off from the bike, but did do a 3 mile run. The weather tomorrow is suppose to improve and am hoping to join the Thursday night pace-line ride with the Muscatine club.

A Nice Day For A Century

2009-05-02T18:52:00.003-05:00

We are getting ready for the first ride of the day at 8am. Jim has his back to the camera and Dave is on the left and Greg is on the right. The others are behind Joe's van.

Since I didn't get a century in yesterday, I went out today to try again. Joe was doing a 150 mile ride today broken into 3-50 mile rides. There were 7 of us that showed up for the first ride at 8am. Two of my Colorado riders: Jim and Dave also showed up. We left the riverfront in Muscatine and headed into the wind (westerly). It was a fast paced ride and our average was 17.2 for the 49 mile ride. After a 10 minute break we headed out again, this time north and then west. About half the riders quit after this first 50, but we had 4 new ones join us. Dave and I rode out to Atalissa and then left the group and returned back to Muscatine. I ended up with 79 total miles and after a short break decided to ride around Muscatine for a while until the group returned. At 2pm I joined the group for the 3rd ride of the day and went about 7 miles with them before returning to Muscatine, which gave me exactly 100 miles when I got back to the truck.

Three-Fourths Of A Century

2009-05-01T18:33:00.003-05:00

I have been wanting to get some longer rides in before my Colorado ride and I had the opportunity today to go out and get a century in. I e-mailed those joining me on the Colorado ride and Jim and Steve were game to ride with me.

I left Wildcat Den State Park around 7:45 this morning and rode into Muscatine and stopped by Jim's house and picked him up. Then we headed north in the cold wind toward Moscow and east into Wilton, where we stopped at a convenience store for a break. I called Steve from the convenience store and he was getting off work in Bettendorf and agreed to meet us in Walcott at 11:30. The bank sign in Walcott showed a temperature of 46 degrees and with the 15-20 mph wind the wind chill had to be down in the upper 30's.This is Jim putting his rain coat back on after taking a short break at the McDonald's in Walcott.

We ran into a light rain in the Walcott area and used Jim's Blackberry to look at the weather map. It showed the rain on the north side of I-80 and we made a decision to head south to Blue Grass and Buffalo. West of Buffalo we headed west through Montpelier and then rode into Wildcat Den for a short break. The weather was getting a little warmer and the sun tried to poke through just for a minute. We then headed west to the junction of New Era Road and Sweetland Road. Jim was ready to head home to Muscatine and I decided my legs did not have enough energy to complete my century-so I headed back to Wildcat Den where my truck was parked. Steve headed north to Wilton and then would cut across on Hwy 6 back to Walcott where his vehicle was parked.

We all had a good time even though the weather was a little miserable. This was Jim's second time to be out on the bike and he did an excellent job. I ended up with 73 miles for the day. Tomorrow, there is a 150 mile ride leaving the riverfront in Muscatine. It will be divided into 3-50 mile loops. I think three of us out of our Colorado group are going to meet there at 8am and at least ride some of the route with the others that show up.

The Hayes Hustle 5K Run

2009-04-18T19:14:00.007-05:00

Today I entered my first running race of 2009, The Hayes Hustle. The 5K race is held at Hayes Elementary School (Catholic), which hosted the race in Muscatine. This is only my second 5K run since I began running in August of 2008. My first was a 5K trail run in September of last year. I wanted to do a taper so my body was ready for this run, but I went out Thursday night (2 days before) and rode my bike on the Muscatine Cycling Club's paceline ride. It is supposed to be an 18-20 mph pace, but that night we hardly fell below 20mph. So my legs were dead meat when I got home that night. I did take Friday off of running and riding, but really could of used one more day to rest up.

The race started at 9am and there were just over 200 runners. Our first mile was mostly flat and the 2nd mile was a good downhill, but the last mile was all up hill. There were timers out on the route that shouted out our times at the end of mile 1 and 2. My first split was 6:41, the second was 6:59 and my last was 8:19 for a total of 21:59 (an average of 7:05/mile). My time was 3 minutes faster than the 5K I completed last fall. The biggest difference was this was on pavement, while the run last fall was a trail run on a very hilly course.

I ended up getting first in my age group (55-59) out of 6 runners and overall was 25th out of 206 runners. Since I am primarily a cyclist I thought I did a pretty good job competing against other full-time runners. I only have about 50 running miles in for the whole year, while I have running friends that put in that many miles each week. My next running race is in mid-May.

What Is A Brevet

2009-04-11T19:07:00.006-05:00

Well today I found out. At 8am 13 of us left LeClaire heading to Bellevue and then back to LeClaire. This was a 200km (125 mile) Brevet and was sponsored by the Quad City Randonneur Club. Randonneur is a French word that means, a male long distance cyclist. And a Brevet is a sponsored ride that requires certification of your completion of a Randonne'e. And a Randonne'e is a long ramble (ride) in the country side which is a timed event and with a time constraint on how long you have to complete it.

Besides myself there were 3 other riders from Muscatine, Chad, Bill and Joe.

At the start of the race we were issued a certificate that had certain control points that we must stop and get a signature and a time posted on the card. Our first control point was Low Moor, which was 44.7 km into the ride. The control was a conveience store and the clerk signed and wrote the time on our cards. The second control point was Bellevue at 103.2 km. Then on the return we went back to Low Moor at 161.1 km an ended back at the Comfort Inn in LeClaire for the end.

After the first half hour we had broken into two groups and I was in the last group. Each group had 6 people and the 13th person was behind us all. At the first control point, the first group was just leaving the convenience store when we pulled into town. One of the riders in the first group had gotten dropped and we picked him up just before we got into Low Moor. Just before we got to Bellevue we picked up another rider. The first group was still taking a break in Bellevue when we pulled into the convenience store. When we left Bellevue there were 4 (including Chad, Bill and Joe) in the first group and 8 in our group. By the time we got to Low Moor our group had whittled down to 6. We all stayed together into LeClaire and I checked in at 3:41. My bicycle computer registered 17.4 mph average and 7 hours and 11 minutes. The additional 30 minutes reported on my check-in time is attributed to the 3 stops we made. The ride was pretty hilly and the organizers indicated that there was 4,350' of climbing.

A brevet ride is pretty structured and the organizers have to file our stamped tickets and register our ride in France, where our names get added to the "Roll Of Honor" for cyclists. Woop-ee.

The weather was pretty good today. The temps were cold for the first 2 hours with low 30's during the start and a northeast headwind at 9mph. It did warm up as the day progressed, but the winds shifted more to the east and we didn't have much of a tailwind coming back. My legs are a little sore and of course I am tired and there were times I wanted to drop off the pace and slow down, but I survived and the other riders I rode with were good to cycle with. There were a few riders from the Quad Cities, but surprising there were several from out of town. One was from Galesburg and another was from Cedar Falls. Two other riders I didn't catch where they were from, but they had stayed at the Comfort Inn the night before, so must have been from out of town.

This picture was taken on the return route of a silage silo on a farm.

Century Territory

2009-04-04T20:11:00.003-05:00

Today one of our club members, Joe made plans for a century. The plan was to start at 10 and get in 50 by 1:00 and then go out again and do the last 50. We had another windy day with a 15 mph wind out of the east and the wind chill was in the upper 30's to mid 40's throughout the day.

Seven of our club members (including 3 of the riders joining me on my Colorado ride) came out for the first 50 and two more joined us part-way through. My average for the first half of the century was 17.2 mph. I was having trouble with my speedometer and I only registered 43 miles for the first loop. I didn't get a chance to ask anyone else what they logged.

On the next loop some of our earlier riders went home and we picked up one new rider. There were five of us on this ride. My legs were starting to give out and I needed to get back home to meet some friends for dinner, so I returned to the truck with a total of 84 miles for the day. It was my longest ride of the year and was pretty tired after the ride. I know I need to do many more of these longer rides to build up some endurance for my Colorado ride.

Bike Path Riding

2009-04-01T19:21:00.002-05:00

This afternoon I was in Davenport and took my bike. I rode the Duck Creek Bike Path and did a loop that gave me 21.5 miles. Temps were in the low 50's and there were a lot of walker, joggers and bikers out enjoying the sunny day.

Yesterday I was going to ride with our club on our Tuesday night ride, but the weather cooled down to 43 and there was a 25+ mph southwest wind that discouraged me. So I spent an hour on my trainer inside the house. I was hoping by this date I would be doing all my riding outside, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I took this picture at the west end of the Duck Creek path where it runs adjacent to Emeis Golf Coarse.

Windy Spring Weather

2009-03-23T19:04:00.002-05:00

Today the weather was going to be questionable all day. Chance of rain and very windy conditions-25-35 mph. I finally got out to do a short 15 mile ride. The wind was out of the east-southeast and my ride was on a north-south road. There was a few times I had a little trouble keeping from being blown off the road.

This is a picture of my wind sock out at the end of my driveway.

Biking Club Rides

2009-03-19T11:04:00.003-05:00

The last 4 or 5 days have been nice enough to get outside and bike. Two nights ago I attended my first club ride of this year. The Melon City Bike Club simply calls this their Tuesday night ride; however, most of the riders that attend call this race night or hammer night.

There were 8 of us that showed up for the ride. The wind was blowing swiftly (20+ mph) out of the southwest. We headed into the wind and we let the fastest riders do all the pulling on the first half of the ride. Averaging 18-20 mph into this kind of head wind was amazing. Since I am the senior citizen in the bunch, I let everyone else do the work and I drafted. Hopefully, as the season progresses and I get into better shape I will be able to do some of the pulling. Coming back was real quick, averaging 28-30 mph. The wind had started to die down a little, but it still gave us a good boost. Two riders turned around before we got to the halfway point. I got dropped before we got back to the starting point, but ended up with a 20.9 average for the 34 mile ride. I found out that you don't get much of a draft from a good tailwind.

My Colorado ride this year is scheduled for June 28-July 3. So far I have several that are planning on going. Hopefully, I will make our lodging reservations in the next week or two and put the final plans together to make this ride happen. If you would like to see a preview of this year's ride, you can go to my web-page: www.crazyguyonabike.com/iowacyclist

St. Patrick Day's Ride

2009-03-16T08:15:00.003-05:00

Yesterday the Melon City Bike Club had their annual St. Patrick Day ride. Patti and I took the tandem and we counted around 25 riders in our group. We headed south of Muscatine on Stewart Road. The wind was coming out of the southeast at 5 to 7 mph. The sun was out and it was close to 60 degrees. Such a great day for a leisurely ride. We ended up with around 24 miles for the day. It was the first time getting out the tandem this year and the first time that Patti had ridden outside since last fall.

The weather is looking good for the next 2 days as it is supposed to be in the upper 60's to lower 70's. I am hoping to get out on the Tuesday night club ride this week.

The sunset picture was taken in late January during our vacation in Jamaica.

Spring Around The Corner

2009-03-06T10:53:00.002-06:00

After a very long...long winter things are looking up. Yesterday it got up to 73 degrees (a record). There is still snow in ditches and on the north slopes, but it won't last long.

I went out and did a 50 mile ride yesterday, riding into the wind (15-25 mph) for the first half of the ride. The return was very enjoyable with the wind at my back.

I started using a different training program for my cycling a couple of weeks ago. It is called "Power To The Pedals". It's structure uses 2-1 hour sessions per week that are very intense and work on different approaches to building cycling strength. It's too early to tell how this compares to my previous cycling training methods.

Will be taking a couple of days off and going to an in-door water park with our daughters and grand-kids.

Warm Weather In February

2009-02-06T19:49:00.002-06:00

It has been a long winter and it isn't over yet, but today it got up to 58 and tomorrow we are expecting much the same. I went outside for my first bike ride since late November. For the past 2 months I have been spending time on my trainer and doing a spinning class at the YMCA. I did a short 17 mile ride today and averaged a good pace of 18 mph on a fairly hilly course.

I didn't get a chance to go snow-shoeing today, but will go in the morning. I suspect that most of tghe snow will be melted by tomorrow night.

It looks like we have a 5 day recourse from old man winter before it turns cold again. It felt good to get outside and bike along a road with some scenery. I didn't get chased today by any dogs, but did have one bark at me for a while.

Winter Training

2009-01-05T12:14:00.003-06:00

It has been 6 weeks since I have updated my blog. The Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Holidays have been a busy time for me and my family. And to top it all off, December was one of the worst for the amount of snow and the cold that we have had here in a long time and for that reason it was mid-November since I have been outside on a bike.

I started riding my bike on a trainer in our rec. room on November 17th. I set a goal of doing 6 to 7 hours of riding per week on the trainer. Last year I put in more time on the trainer, but found it boring and difficult to go much more than 1 hour at a time; so this year I have decided to do some cross-training to supplement the bike riding. I began in late November and early December running 3 miles per day. When the snow hit, I switched to snow shoes and am doing 1 to 1.5 miles per day. I also wear a 35-40 pound pack to put a little more stress on my legs. Snow shoeing give you a good aerobic workout.

I also was working in 1 session per week at the YMCA on the spinner and in a Pilates class. I wasn't able to get in those routines during the Holidays, but hope to begin again this week.

Training Resumed

2008-11-18T08:14:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I got back into my exercise routine. Mid-September was the last time I was really doing some consistent training. In the last two months I have only been on the bike 3 times and put in about 50 miles.

I have decided to add running to my biking routine this time. What I plan on doing is a 3 mile run each day and bike maybe 60 minutes per day on the trainer. Longer than 60 minutes is quite boring. Last winter I put in some 120+ minute rides on the trainer and it was hard.

The weather right now is not very accommodating to bike outside as it was 18 degrees this morning and the high will be in the 30's. I am hoping that there will be more good days during this winter period than last year to get outside. This helps break the monotony of being on the trainer all the time. So yesterday I did my 3 mile run out in the woods behind our house and then later in the day got on the trainer for a 60 minute ride. Let's see how long I can keep this up. Last year I started my training program on December 31, so I am getting a head start this time.

Elk Hunting-2008

2008-11-09T12:45:00.005-06:00

Back in mid-October I drove out to the Montrose Colorado area to my sister's home. Riding with me were my mother and sister. We made a two day journey out of it with an overnight in Laramie Wyoming. On the first day I met with a customer in Louisville Nebraska and had dinner with a customer in Laramie.

Joining me for the elk hunt was my brother-in-law, Robert, and his son, Jason. Jason is only 13 years old and this was his first time to join us. This would be my 5th elk hunt. The first day was spent packing into the backcountry of the Lizard Head Wilderness area, near Telluride. Besides the three horses we rode, we also took two horses for packing our gear. After sitting up camp we rode around the area to do some scouting. The scouting didn't turn up anything and for the next three days we would hunt in this area. Unfortunately, after covering a tremendous amount of country during those three days only one elk was sighted (by Robert) and it was legal (needs to have 4 points on one side to be legal).

We packed out the afternoon of the 3rd hunting day and went back to my sister's house. The next morning we hunted on their ranch property with permission from the outfitter that has the hunting rights for this land. During one period when I was walking through an aspen forest, I had just finished taking a break and was putting my pack back. A loud noise in the timber alerted me to something moving very fast toward me. I grabbed my gun just as I saw a cow elk and a bull following her emerge near the edge of the timber. They quickly made a 90 degree turn and entered the densely wooded area again and by the time I drew my gun and brough the bull into my sights, the timber was obstructing my view. I took one shot, but the bullet was deflected by a tree and I lost my chance for this year.

After returning to the house and getting a birthday dinner, we left early the next morning back for Iowa. I normally fly when I make these trips out to Colorado, but had taken my truck this year so I could haul back my trophy from last year's hunt. Last year was my most successful hunt of the 5 years I have been making this trek. I connected with a 6x6 bull elk. My brother-in-law, Robert, had went around behind me and walked through a growth of aspens and scared up a herd of elk. The first bunch had 20-25 elk, including some small bulls that weren't legal. The next bunch followed about 10 seconds later and included a few cows and this big bull following the herd. They were moving fast across the open meadow angling away from me, but I managed to hold my cross-hairs on the elks right shoulder and connected. I wouldn't know for another 20 minutes that I had connected as the bull never slowed down and vanished across the meadow into the dense timber. Once Robert returned we got on our horses and went down to the area that I made my first shot and found a blood trail that we followed. As we got to the edge of the timber we could see the bull down just 20 feet inside. Now our work was just beginning, as it took us 3 hours to field dress the bull and skin out the hide to preserve the head mount. Then we had to load everything up on our two horses and walk and hour to get back to the truck.

This year the weather was way to warm and we believe this was the primary reason we didn't find elk at our first location. Elk move to different areas and different elvevations depending upon the prevailing weather conditions. Hopefully, next year we will not have a repeat of this year's experience.

In Memory Of Casey

2008-11-01T08:54:00.003-05:00

It's been six weeks since I posted an entry on my blog. Sometimes events intervene in life that change everything. In late September our son-in-law, Casey, lost his 5 month battle with acute leukemia. Words can't explain the loss of a close member of our family. Our daughter, Jody, has been coping remarkably well and we know this is possible only with the Lord's help and all the friends and family that have offered their support.

Casey will be missed, but not forgotten. Memories of his warm personality, sense of humor, love of the Lord, kindness to others, ability to work with his hands on all kind of projects, dedication to Jody, Sponge Bob fanatic, and a general love of life still live with us. Thanks for the short time we have known you and we look forward to that day when we are re-united in Heaven. Matthew 7:7-8

Harvest Hammer-Final Training

2008-09-18T08:15:00.002-05:00

I am beginning to taper now for the race on Saturday and will take a complete rest day today and maybe do some low impact exercise tomorrow.

The last two days, I went out and did some low mileage running and biking, but at high intensity. On Tuesday I had a personal best (PB) of 6:45 on a mile run. Then yesterday I bettered that PB and turned in a 6:23 minute time. I switched yesterday from my regular running shoes to a light-weight shoe called racing flats. They do make a difference.

We are having some beautiful weather for this time of year. Better enjoy it while we can.

Harvest Hammer Training

2008-09-11T10:12:00.004-05:00

My grandson, Evan, keeping up with grandpa on the trail.

The Harvest Hammer duathlon is nine days away and is held in Morrison, IL. It consists of a 5K run and a 20 mile bike ride.

On Tuesday I went out for a 10 mile time trial ride on a hilly coarse and averaged 21.5 mph, slightly higher than my speed on the QC Triathlon coarse back in June. I noticed afterwards when I put my aero-bars on my bike that I didn't get them adjusted at the same angle that I use. So I made a minor adjustment for my next ride. One of these days, if I continue to do these events I may need to get a tri-bike. Most people I have talked to indicate that it will increase your speed over a regular road bike.

Yesterday I went back to Wild Cat Den with family members, Lydia, Evan, Lori

and while they hiked the trails I ran the route of last Saturday's race and added some additional trails. I ended up with 4 miles of running, which is the longest run I have done at one time.

Our son-in-law, Casey, received a stem cell-bone marrow transplant on Monday of this week for his leukemia. His sister was the donor and he now has 6 to 8 weeks in the hospital as they chart his progress. There are a lot of friends and family lifting Casey up in prayer. Thank You!

Sept. 6-7: Savanna Bike Ride

2008-09-08T11:16:00.016-05:00

With much enthusiasm and a decent weather forecast we left the Farm & Fleet parking lot in Muscatine at 8am on Saturday heading for the bike path in Moline. I decided at the last minute to run my very first 5K run at Wildcat Den State Park and the race started at 8am. My wife, Patti, dropped me off for the race and went ahead to meet the group. She returned just before I crossed the finish line and helped me limp over to the registration table to turn in my ID info. It would be Monday morning before I would find out that I placed 1st in my age group.

We reached the eastern parking lot at the Ben Butterworth Parkway in Moline just a couple of minutes past 9am and the group was ready to go minus the Olson’s who had a flat tire on their car a mile back. The delay was minimal and we started on our 60 mile journey heading north into a slight headwind. Our group did a great job of staying together with a comfortable pace of 13-14 mph. Mark & Julie would leave Moline about 2 hours after we left as Julie competed in a triathlon at Scott County Park and she took 1st in her age group. Congratulation Julie!

Over the next 3 hours we passed through East Moline, Hampton, Rapid City, Port Byron, Cordova and finally Albany. Anytime I am on a bike up in this area, I make a point to stop at Julie’s Restaurant. You get more food for the money than any other place I know and the staff was very hospitable to our group. Originally we had planned on stopping in Fulton for lunch, but we couldn’t wait. The Nepple’s had taken out ahead of our group and did stop at Cousin’s Sub shop for lunch in Fulton.

In Fulton we took the trail that goes around the eastern edge of town and on the return trip the next day we will take the western trail that goes by the big windmill. Dan had a broken spoke on his bike in Albany and had taken a ride with one of our sag drivers to the town of Thomson for repairs at Arnold’s Bike Shop. He met us along the route in a nature preserve area that has a sandy/pea gravel trail. This trail has some soft spots and we had to be extra careful maneuvering the 2 miles through this area. In Thompson we took a short break at a Casey’s General Store.

North of Thomson we had to get on Hwy 84 for a short section before re-joining the trail for the last 5 miles into Savanna. The wooden bridge over the railroad tracks was the steepest climb of our trip. About half of the group elected to stay at the Super-8 and the rest headed north for a 3 mile ride to Palisades State Park, where we were camping for the night. The campground was pretty quiet as there weren’t a lot of campers. However, one little detail I forgot to tell the camping group ahead of time was the hourly train that passes by all night long. It kept Patti and me up till after midnight, then either the trains quit or I fell into a deep sleep.

That evening our group gathered at Domenics & Maria’s Restaurant for some home made pasta. I think everyone had a great meal that night. Some of our group made the rounds of a few bars before calling it a night.

The next morning we met at 8am for breakfast at Aunt Mannie’s Kitchen. We were essentially the only patrons they had, but they were ill-prepared for this large of group. About two-thirds of our group took the buffet and the rest of us ordered off the menu. The last of our group finally received their food around 9am. Not a good start to our day. We all agreed that this place will not be on our list for next year’s ride.

The weather forecast the night before had mentioned showers after midnight and into the morning. We were fortunate that the weather forecasters were wrong again. We had beautiful weather on both of our days with daytime highs in the low 70’s. Today we would have a slight headwind and crosswind all day long.

On our trip back we stopped for a short break in Fulton to see the large windmill along the Mississippi River. After a few pictures we passed through Albany and on into Cordova for lunch at the Farmer’s Table. None of us had eaten here before, but by and large it was an ok stop. There weren’t many patrons there when we arrived and we got decent service and the food was ok.

We arrived back at our vehicles a little before 3:30 and ended up with close to 123 miles for those that had also biked to the campground in Savanna. The scenery along this route is just gorgeous as it follows the Mississippi River most of the way. Our average speed for the whole route was 13.5 mph. This pace allowed us to enjoy the scenery and carry on conversation with our friends. We had 17 riders and 8 non-riders join us for this first ride. Look for this route to be an annual event.

A special thanks to our sag drivers: Joyce, Bill, & Becky.

Sept. 6-Wildcat Den 5K Run

2008-09-07T19:30:00.010-05:00

With some trepidation I decided to go ahead and run my first 5K run. The venue was at Wildcat Den State Park and the 5K (3.1 mile) run consisted of about 1/3 pavement and 2/3 trails. The trails were vertically challenging to say the least. The race started at 8am and before I decided to do this race, I had already volunteered to be the leader of a bike ride over this week-end and about 20 riders were supposed to meet me at 8am in Muscatine that morning. I sent my faithful wife, Patti, to meet the group after she dropped me off.

There were 87 runners for this race and I believe this was the second year they had offered this particular race. I did not recognize any fellow cyclists at the race, so believe that all participants were true runners. The odd thing about this race is that once I completed the run this would be the longest distance I have ever ran at one time. Since I began my running career back in mid-July the longest distance I have ever ran was 2.5 miles. Most of my training runs consisted of 1-2 mile runs.

The race starter fired his pistol and we began a 1/4 mile descent down the pavement adjacent to the covered picnic area on the top level. Running at speed downhill is harder than it looks and is very hard on your legs and especially your quads. At the bottom we turned south on the pavement and went to the end of the pavement and turned back west on a trail through the woods. This trail had a slight ascent and eventually crossed the paved road we had initially come down. Once we entered the western area of the park, the terrain became very hilly and one descent was so steep you almost had to walk it to avoid slipping. The opposite side was much the same and I was unable to run all the way up the steep grade. The first 2 miles seemed to go pretty fast, but the 3rd mile was like slow motion. I could coax my legs into moving faster, but only for a short time as my cardio-vascular system was unable to replenish my oxygen to my muscles fast enough. I didn't have anyone pass me during the first 2 mile stretch, but during the last mile I had 7 runners go by me (all much younger than me).

I finished 21st out of the group and 1st in my age group (8 runners) with a time of 24:55 (Race Results). Once you pull up this web-site, schroll down to the appropriate race and click on results.

That's not me about to pass out, I am in the blue going through the finish area.

Wildcat Den State Park 5K Run Preview

2008-09-03T18:41:00.005-05:00

This Saturday there is a 5K (3.1 miles) run at the State Park 2 miles from my home. I have been toying with the idea of running this race. This race is like a cross-country race, since it follows paths and trails in the park. I went down today and ran a 1.5 mile route over some of the trails. It is a very hilly course and difficult. My running at home is mostly on a trail that I keep mowed back in my wooded acreage. This trail is also hilly and resembles what I would encounter at the State Park.

This race doesn't include any biking and therefore all the participants are true runners. I checked the results on-line for last year's race and think I could run a pace that could place me 2nd or 3rd in my age group. The only wrinkle is that our bike club has a ride this week-end that starts very close to the same time as this race and I am the organizer or leader of this ride. So I will have to see if I can coordinate this into the schedule without causing any problems for the riders joining me on the bike ride.

Du State Du Silver Medalist

2008-08-17T14:36:00.016-05:00

Today was race day and it was up at 5am and off to the races at 5:30. Patti and I arrived at Loud Thunder Forest Preserve around 6:15 and we were one of the early birds. It was a good thing, as it gave me plenty of time to get my stuff set-up at the transition area and get a good location at the front of the bike racks. I went out and rode my bike about 5 miles to get warmed up.

The race started at 8am. There were around 120 individual athletes and another 50 or 60 that were doing this as teams. The temps and humidity were ideal this morning. The race consists of a 2.0 mile run, then you go into the transition area and change shoes if needed, put on a helmet and get your bike and run out to the road area and get on your bike and go 15.0 miles. Then it is back into the transition area to switch from riding gear back to running gear and back out on the track for another 2.0 mile run. The goal on transitions is to do them quickly so not to add to your total time. My goal was to do them in 30 to 40 seconds and I think I did pretty well at keeping it near that area.

The first leg of running went well and I didn't give it all I had-so to keep some energy for the second leg. My biking leg was my worst leg of all and I am disappointed in my time. And I call myself a cyclist. I am waiting for the Corn Belt Running Club to put the split times on their web-site, but based upon my cycling computer, I think I ended up with around 20 mph, which would be 45 minutes for this leg. My goal was to be closer to what I did at the QC Triathlon back in June, where my time was 42:14 with a speed of 21.3. By the time I brought my bike into transition and switched my shoes, I was feeling the effect of running/biking for nearly an hour at a heart rate near my maximum. Running that last 2 miles was difficult and I thought on more than one occasion about walking. But I kept going and made it to the finish line.

Overall I ended up with a time of 1:14:35, which was good enough for 2nd place in my age division (55-59) out of 7 entries. This put me 51st out of 174 entries (33rd if you take out the team competitors)(Du State Du Results) . In looking back at the numbers, if I could have biked as well as I did at the QC Triathlon I would have taken first. Something to think about for next time. The most interesting aspect of this race was my ability to run. I have to go back to my track & field days in high school back in 1967 and 1968. I was a sprinter with my speciality being the hurdles. On occasion I would do the 100 yard dash. I despised running long distances and once ran the mile for my coach when someone else didn't show up. I hated it. Fast forward 40 years: I never included jogging as part of my exercise routine, since I wasn't enthused about running.

So after competing in June at the QC Triathlon, one day I was talking to my friend and team-runner, Mark and he asked me if I had ever considered running. I don't remember giving him an answer, but that thought stayed with me and everytime the question came into my mind-my only answer was I didn't have a good reason for not giving it a try. So 4 weeks ago, I began jogging 1 and 2 mile runs. My longest run was 2.5 miles and to tell you the truth I think that is the longest distance I have ever ran in one day until race day-today. My legs have been used to cycling and I found out very quickly that I had muscles I never knew were there and after every short run I had muscle and joint soreness. So my preparation wasn't that great and I really should have started training 2 or 3 months ago. But once I sent in my registration fee, I decided to go through with it. After extrapolating some of my 2 mile runs at home, I felt I could place 3rd or 4th based upon 2007's results for this race. So I was pleasantly surprised when I placed 2nd. I received a lot of encouragement from my fellow Muscatine participants and as it turned out, we were well represented and had 13 participants that placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I feel good about my results and may try another race in September: the Morrison Harvest Hammer. As I typed this blog posting I was watching the Olympics and heard an NBC reporter interviewing Dara Torres, the 41 year old swimmer that is piling on medals at middle-age. As the interview ended she left the viewers with this statement: "don't put an age limit on your dreams". I couldn't say it better myself.

Du State Du Training

2008-08-15T20:58:00.003-05:00

This last week I have been doing more running than biking. When I do bike I am only putting in about 10 miles a day. Running is not near as much fun as biking and I have a hard time spending more than 15 minutes running, which usually means about 2 miles. This week I am taking it easier and tapering for my race on Sunday.

The Du State Du is a duathlon and it starts at 8am Sunday at the Loud Thunder Park near Illinois City. Last week I went over and rode the bike course (15 miles) and it is very hilly. The running course is flat and shouldn't be to difficult.

Earlier this week I ran on an asphalt road near my home and did 2 miles in 14 minutes 23 seconds. If I can maintain this pace for both running legs and do ok on my biking leg I may be able to place 3rd or 4th in my age group, based upon last year's results.

Dew Drop Inn

2008-08-07T07:45:00.004-05:00

Last night was Wedneday-Dinner Ride for our bike club and we went to a new location-The Dew Drop Inn located in Durant, Iowa.

For you history buffs, you may remember that another Dew Drop Inn was featured in the family show-The Waltons. In the 4th season, son Jason goes to work as a piano player at the local bar in town much to his mother and grandmother's dismay.

Patti and I rode our tandem on the ride last night. The club left Harper's Bike Shop at 6pm in Muscatine and since we live close to Durant, we parked there and started riding toward Muscatine and turned around at the half-way point. Some of the riders caught us about 5 miles out of Durant. It was a good night for riding as the humidity that has been a problem the last week tapered off and the temps were mild.

The Dew Drop Inn really wasn't prepared for our 20+ riders as they had one waitress and 1 cook, but surprisingly they put out the food at a reasonable pace. The food wasn't anything special, but hungry bikers usually aren't choosy.

Dog Days Of August

2008-08-04T20:25:00.006-05:00

Today is one of those hot sticky days that always tends to remind me of my great-aunt Peggy. She was quite the pessimist and back in the 60's I can remember that August was her favorite time of the year as it gave here a stage to talk about how bad these "dog days of summer" were.

Today was such a day. The morning news warned of a heat emergency that was impending upon our community. I was scheduled to run with other club members this evening at 6pm to practice for an upcoming duathlon race. When I heard the forecast this morning I changed my plans and went out for a morning run around 10am. It was already closing in on 80 degrees and the humidity must have not been much lower.

I tried to stay inside most of the day and at 4pm I checked "weather.com" for Muscatine and it was 99 and the heat index was 128. We are truly in the "dog days" of summer.

Post RAGBRAI

2008-08-01T13:30:00.002-05:00

Well I have been very remiss in updating my site over the last couple of weeks. I rode on RAGBRAI-July 19-26. While I was away, we had a huge storm come through the Muscatine area and we lost dozens of trees on our property. Four of these trees were in our yard and I spent this past week-end cleaning them up with help from family and friends. Thankfully, we had no damage to our house and no one was hurt.

I finally was able to do a short 10 mile ride today. This was the first time on the bike since RAGBRAI ended 5 days ago. Earlier in the week I was on a business trip down south of St. Louis. I also ran a little this morning. The weather is not very conducive to exercising outside as we are having high temps and high humidity. The heat index is running 100+ this week.

Our son-in-law is back in the hospital after finishing his 3rd chemo treatment. We will make a much needed trip to Iowa City today to visit.

Running Improvements

2008-07-18T10:11:00.003-05:00

Back on July 13th I did that 2.5 mile run on our gravel road out in front of our house. I averaged an 8 minute mile on this run. Yesterday I went out and ran on a path we keep mowed back in our woods. This course is fairly hilly and the path is not very smooth. I measured it on my mountain bike and one lap is exactly 0.5 miles. So yesterday I went out and did 2 laps. I ran a 7.5 minute mile.

So I am improving and I wasn't as sore today. If I do the Du-State-Du I will need to get my times down in the 6.5 to 7 minute mile rate to be competitive.

Run/Bike/Run

2008-07-14T20:01:00.002-05:00

I have been giving some thought to participating in the Du-State-Du, which is held at Loud Thunder State Park in Rock Island. My friend, Mark has invited me the last two years to do the biking leg and he would do the running part. My schedule the last two years hasn't allowed me to participate.

This event is a duathlon, which includes a 2.0 mile run, followed by a 15.0 mile bike ride and then finishing with a 2.0 mile run.

After returning from Colorado I began running behind my house on a path I keep mowed in our woods. This path is roughly 0.4 miles long and I have been doing two loops. This didn't seem to cause any difficulties, so yesterday I took out on the gravel road in front of our house and did 2.5 miles. My time for this run was 21 minutes, which translates into an 8.5 minute mile. If I want to be competitive in a duathlon I need to get down below 7 minutes.

I found this to be extremely difficult and I have some sore muscles and ligaments today. I haven't did any running since high school (40 years ago). Back then I was a sprinter and did the 100 and 220 yard dashes and the 120 and 180 yard hurdles. I tried to think back and can't remember ever running this length (2.5) of a run before. My cardio-vascular system is accustomed to exercising at a high heart rate. The difficult thing is that you use different muscles when running vs. biking. My feet are a little sore today, but I used an old pair of tennnis shoes that weren't designed for running. Today I went to a running store in town and purchased a pair of shoes designed specifically for running.

I plan to do some more running this week and possibly some running during RAGBRAI and will evaluate how I am progressing and decide whether to enter the DU State Du race and do the whole thing or to enter with my friend and enter the team section and just do the biking leg.

Post Colorado

2008-07-12T19:07:00.004-05:00

Well, my Colorado bike tour #4 is in the bag. This year a friend, Tony from Detroit, joined me. We rode 5 days in the San Juan Mountains. The weather was good and we had no mechanical issues with our bikes and no health issues. I did come down with a sinus infection upon my return from the dry Colorado humidity back to Iowa's oppresive heat/humidity.

I have been taking it pretty easy since I returned. I have spent 5 days off the bike and have only rode 3 times with a total of 43 miles. I have did some jogging and hiking on the days I didn't ride.

Today I went for a short 10 mile ride before we celebrated our grand-kids birthday this afternoon. Evan turned 5 and Lydia turned 8. I set a new personal best today of 21.7 mph on a hilly course that had 135' of ascent. I eclipsed my old record of 19.7 mph by two-miles per hour (a 10% improvement). Not sure if it was my Cherioos for breakfast that did it or maybe I gained some leg strength from all the mountain climbing last week in Colorado. Back in June I reached 21.3 mph on a 15-mile triathlon coarse, but usually when you are racing against competitors your adrenalin is pumping and you do much better than riding by yourself.

Our son-in-law, Casey visited with his doctor this week after completing two chemo treatments over a 2-month period. We were looking for a good report, but found out he needs to go in next week for more chemo. Please hold up Casey and Jody in your prayers.

Getting Ready For Colorado

2008-06-24T10:52:00.003-05:00

I haven't been very diligent lately about keeping my blog updated. Summer is a busy time for everyone. I have been busy packing for my 2 trips to Colorado and keeping in mind the new rules for baggage. I think I can get everything into 2 large suitcases and carry one on the plane and check one. United's site indicates that I won't have to pay any surcharge. On the other hand if I would have checked both bags then I would have to pay a fee for the 2nd bag.

I am combining my business trip to Denver this week with my biking trip in the Montrose area scheduled for next week. Only 6 more days until Tony and I get on our bikes and head into the mountains pulling 50 pounds of gear in our trailers.

With all the last minute packing and other things I need to get done, I have kept my training rides short this week (15-20 miles). I did bike the last 4 days, but took today off.

One other activity that Patti and I have been enjoying the last several months is dancing. We took up dance lessons late last year and are starting to get proficient at doing the: Foxtrot, Swing, Texas 2-Step, Cha Cha, Rumba, and Waltz. This past Saturday we had some of our friends come over (9 couples) and gave a beginner's dance class. It was a blast. When I return from Colorado we will give lesson #2 to our friends. Our friends Dave & Sylvia are also helping us give these lessons.

I probably won't get time over the next 2 weeks to update this site, but will keep my Colorado web-site up to date: www.iowacyclist.crazyguyonabike.com

Flooding In Iowa

2008-06-18T17:08:00.003-05:00

For the last week+ we have been experiencing flooding in eastern and central Iowa. All the water from the north has now made it down to our area and most of the rivers have crested and are now starting to slowly recede.

These two pictures along the Mississippi River east of Muscatine, I took tonight on a bike ride. The paper last night said that the crest of the Mississippi River in this area will be recorded as the fifth highest with the 1993 flood being the highest. Further down river the Mississippi is expected to meet or exceed the 1993 crest as the Cedar, Iowa and Des Moines Rivers dump their overflow.

Quad City Triathlon

2008-06-14T19:03:00.004-05:00

Today was the annual QC Triathlon held in Davenport, IA. The weather was great, but the flooding that the Midwest is experiencing reduced the normal number of entries. Interstate 80 has been closed about 15 miles west of Davenport for the last couple of days and it doesn't look like it will reopen anytime soon.

This is the third time I have competed in the QC Triathlon. Since I am not a swimmer or a runner, I enter in the team section. Our runner, Mark has been competing in running events since he was in high school. His goal this year was to complete the running stage (3.1 miles) under 20 minutes. Good job Mark, as his time was 19:20 (12th overall).

Our swimming member, Jimmy got sick the day before the race and we made a quick substitute (14 hours ahead of race time). We were glad that a mutual friend, Muffy agreed to help us out. This was her first time competing in a triathlon. Muffy's time was 10:40 for the 600 yard swim. Good effort on such short notice.

My goal in the biking leg (15 miles) was to reduce last year's time of 44:55 by 4 minutes. This might have been a little too optimistic. I ended up with a time of 42:15.

Our aggregate time was 1:16:44, which was good enough for first place in the coed team division and first overall (teams). This year there were only 8 teams competing, which was less than previous years.

Our bike club (Melon City) had several participants in this year's event and we placed very well in the standings. This picture captures the majority of our triathletes.

This year I dedicated the race to my son-in-law, Casey; who was diagnosed with acute leukemia 5 weeks ago. He has been in the University Hospital in Iowa City since the diagnosis, but is responding well to treatment. Patti and I tried to go up and see him this afternoon, but all the roads from Muscatine to Iowa City are closed due to the flooding. Our daughter lives in Cedar Rapids and it has been under siege from the flood waters for the last 4-5 days and she has been unable to go visit Casey. With all the water we have in Iowa I am thinking it might be time for me to take up swimming. As I log this journal entry at 5:30 this evening there is a severe thunderstorm watch for our area. The news media is talking about this event as being a 500 year flood. It may be time to build the ARK.

Why Do Cyclists Like To Climb?

2008-06-12T12:41:00.007-05:00

Only 18 more days before I start biking across the mountains of southwest Colorado and today we are getting lots of rain in eastern Iowa. The flooding up around Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids has been making the national news the last 2 evenings. Several local towns near Muscatine are bracing for record (500 year) floods in the next 3 to 4 day period. At my sister's home in Colorado, they had ice on their grass this morning. I am hoping that the weather warms up a bit before I get out there.

This will be my fourth ride in the Colorado mountains. I am always cognizant of a question that lingers in many non-cyclists' minds that read my blog entries and journals. That question is why am I doing this? Sometimes it is hard to put reasons into words and when I recently came across the following answer to that age old question I thought it was appropriate to publish it.

Here is an excerpt printed on a blog by former pro cyclist, Jonathan Vaughters, who is now the director of the U.S.-based pro-cycling team Slipstream-Chipotle. As a rider for the U.S. Postal and Credit Agricole teams, he was so good against gravity that he set the record for the ascent of France's Mont Ventoux, the extinct volcano of racing legend that appears on the venue of the Tour de France on a regular basis.

"Why do people want to climb? Climbing, at its very core, is just a simple and hearty battle against gravity. The basic law of nature that oppressively pins us to the earth seems to be the one we feel the greatest need to fight against. Perhaps, this is why we are always trying to climb? Whenever we climb, we are proving that we can take on a force greater than ourselves. We're pushing against something that holds us down. It's the fight for freedom, freedom from the oppressive laws of nature (designed by God) as laid down by that rather aristocratically named gentleman, Sir Isaac Newton. We all know humans have a long and volatile history with the pursuit of freedom. Climbing is just a facet of this same fascination with being free.

With this noble and never-ending battle between gravity and the human race permanently underway, it would only be logical that when the greatest invention known to man, the bicycle, came into existence, the first thing we would want to do with this mechanical marvel would be try to climb hills with it.

And, of course, when the greatest sport ever known, bicycle racing, came to be, the most immediate and most illogical thing to do would be to put the largest possible mountains in the race.

And if the fact that we are so very enamored by the ability of those who can pedal their way up hills swiftly and gracefully wasn't enough, this is where the irony really sets in: because of the sad fact that we don't seem to be able to power bicycles up hills as fast as we can on the flat, that 30 percent energy savings that one can derive by drafting another rider at 30 m.p.h., is useless while plodding up a hill at 10 m.p.h.

Because of this simple fact, the most important parts of bicycle races are always uphill. The tactical genius of those who stealthily hide behind the dolt plodding away into the wind up front is lost on hills. Hills put bike racing back into the realm of Darwin and the grunting cave man. The laws of nature rule on the hills, and only the strong will survive.
Of course, due to our twisted need to watch nature weed out the weak, we gather, in the millions, every year in France to watch men climb really big hills on bicycles.

God help us.

That's my amateur psychoanalysis of the human race on a bicycle.

Rule 1: Get on with it. Climbing mountains on a bike is not fun. So, to do it properly, you need to accept this fact and get on with it. I see so many people looking for that secret technique or training method that will make climbing painless and suffer-free. This will never happen. Training and techniques will make you suffer slightly faster up hills, not suffer any less. Climbing is painful, period. The sooner you just accept that and stop looking for ways around it, the better you will learn how to climb. Let the suffer-meter serve as your internal tachometer, letting you know how close to your limit you are. Accepting and really allowing yourself to feel that pain will make you a better rider. Trying to ignore it will distract you from the task at hand and make you ride slower.

Rule 2: Don't be self-conscious. Suffering isn't pretty. It isn't meant to be. If you are going about your business of climbing properly, you will be breathing like a water buffalo, sweating like you were on a chain gang, and probably have snot dribbling off your chin. If this is not the case, you aren't doing this correctly. Over the years I've ridden with so many people who are always worrying about breathing too hard in front of their buddy. You're supposed to be in pain and you're supposed to be breathing hard, I mean the harder you breath the more oxygen you'll get to your muscles, so let the image thing go, and get down and dirty with the hill. Anyway, if your buddy is two miles behind you, he can't hear you breathing anymore, can he?

Rule 3: Relax. O.K., I know this seems a bit contradictory to rules 1 and 2, but this is the real Zen of climbing right here. You have to learn to accept the pain, breath like a warthog, and keep everything else relaxed. Gripping your handlebars with white knuckles and doing brake lever pull-ups does not make your pedals go around any faster. Your hands should be so relaxed that if you had to, you could play the piano. Your shoulders, arms, and upper body should be so relaxed that you just sort of rhythmically flop along with the pedals, like Stevie Wonder in concert. Also, if you look at all the pros, notice how they look like they have a pot belly when climbing? That's because they let their diaphragm relax and drop. They breathe by expanding the soft tissue of their belly as opposed to trying to expand the bones of their ribcage. This is the opposite of what you do at the beach, where it's belly in, shoulders back, chest out. This is belly out, shoulders relaxed, and forget about your chest.

Rule 4. Pedal all the way around. Momentum is what you don't have very much of when going up a hill. So, if you just push the pedals down and let the chain go slack the other 250 degrees of the pedal stroke, you will be losing momentum with each and every dead spot. On a flat road this doesn't matter too much, but on a hill this will cost you dearly. So, keep the tension on the chain the whole way 'round, especially at the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock pedal position. Push outward with your quadriceps at the 12 and pull back, like you're scraping mud off your shoes, at the 6. This will help keep that precious little momentum from slipping away.

Rule 5: The Little Engine That Could. 'I think I can, I think I can, I think I can ' .Think I'm joking? No, I am not. The rhythm of your breathing and thoughts are crucial to grinding your way up long hills or mountains. You must synch your breathing, your pedaling, and your thoughts in one monotonous, focused, and plodding rhythm. Exhale forcefully and inhale naturally in time with every contraction of your muscles; let your body sway to the rhythm that it creates; then set the metronome in your head and be The Little Engine. Laugh all you want. It works.

If all else fails, you can just stop on the side of the road and rest, right? Maybe ask for your mommy and curl up in a fetal ball while you're at it? Which brings me to the most important rule of all when it comes to climbing: Never give up."

This last phrase in Jonathan's article reminds me of one of Winston Churchill's famous speeches. The speech was made in October 1941 at his old school, Harrow: "Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.''

And the enemy we all face as cyclists is gravity.

Rivers Rising

2008-06-11T16:30:00.002-05:00

I went out for a 90 minute training ride today during lunch hour. I headed northwest of Muscatine and crossed the Cedar River. Severe flooding is occurring throughout a good share of Iowa and all this water is making it's way down the various rivers that dump into the Mississippi. All of the houses that I could see along the bridge on F70 were un-accessible by auto. Some were already taking water in their structure. The crest is yet to come and it's not going to be easy for those that live along the rivers around here.

My training ride went well and I did some power intervals, fast pedal and a 6 minute time trial at maximum effort. During the time trial I was going 22 to 23 mph. I am hoping I can maintain that rate during Saturday's race.

TOMRV 2008

2008-06-08T15:48:00.005-05:00

I completed my 5th TOMRV (Tour Of Mississippi River Valley) ride this weekend (two day ride). This is one of the top rides in the U.S. and there are usually 1,200 to 1,500 riders that come from various Midwest States. I believe the number of riders this year is down, due to the high cost of gasoline. My friend, Bill and I started out yesterday morning at 5:45 am from Bettendorf, IA and made it to Dubuque, IA around 2:30. The route takes you through various small towns in Iowa and Illinois along the Mississippi River. It is very hilly in this bluff country and my altimeter showed 3,645 feet of climbing with 108 miles of riding for the first day. We had a good tailwind all day ranging from 10 to 20 mph. It was very humid and the heat index reached 100-102 by mid-afternoon.

The Quad City Bike Club sponsors this ride (31st this year) www.qcbc.org/tomrv. It is a well supported ride with a sag stop every 15 to 20 miles with plenty of refreshments. Our stay in Dubuque is at some of the college dormitories and the bike club has a banquet meal upon our arrival. This picture is one of the sag stops and my friends, Ira and Dave are enjoying the snacks.

Today Bill and I were on our bikes by 5:30am and headed into a 10-15 mph headwind. When we reached Bellvue around 9 am we ran into a thunder shower and got completely soaked. It continued raining for at least 30 minutes. Our next sag stop was in Preston. We both reached the city park shelter just before a major storm came through the area. I heard later that there were 60 mph winds. Several small tree branches tumbled down from the trees in this park and the wind whipped the rain sideways. As the storm subsided bikers that were caught out on the highway came into the rest area and told us how the wind swept them and their bikes completely into the ditch. We wondered if we would hear of some serious accidents later on. This picture shows Bill climbing one of the many hills.

We weren't very optimistic about heading south towards Bettendorf and several riders began to make other arrangements with local residents to drive them to the finish line. Bill and I decided to go ahead and try it. As we reached the outskirts of town we discovered that the south wind had completely reversed itself and now was coming out of the north. We enjoyed the tailwind for most of the rest of our ride. By the time we reached our truck the wind had shifted again and was coming out of the southeast. Today we rode 92 miles with 3,415 feet of climbing. The ride today was 4 miles longer than the previous year's as they have changed some of the route.

It was a good ride and I got a chance to practice using my aero-bars and get in some endurance training before my big race on Saturday. I look forward to doing this ride each year as it is the premier ride in the Midwest.

Aero-Bar

2008-06-05T20:39:00.003-05:00

Today I purchased an aero-bar attachment to fit on my bike. This device allows the rider to tuck into a low-profile position to minimize the drag coefficient. It is typically used in time trials and can shave precious minutes off your elapsed time for a 25 to 40 k course.

On June 14th I will essentially be doing a time trial at the Quad City Triathlon event held in West Lake Park. I will be doing the biking portion of the team event. It is a 15 mile (25 k) course along Locust Street and Y40. I should have done this much earlier so I could get some practice in, but will need to bike with it every day until the race to get used to it and condition my muscles. Down in this tuck position you end up using more of your hip muscles (gluteus maximus) rather than your quads and hamstrings.

Today I went out for a 90 minute ride (23 miles). It was very windy today (25-30 mph). Not a good day to experiment with the aero-bars. When you are layed down in these your arms are used to guide your wheel and it takes a little getting used to. With the wind it made me try and over-correct every time a gust of wind hit me. So I was weaving all over the pavement. I am sure if someone saw me they would have thought I was drunk. By the end of the ride I was starting to master it and found it very relaxing. I am thinking of taking my Trek Madone racing bike on TOMRV this week-end instead of my Trek 5200. This will give me 2 long days of riding to get used to the aero-bars.

Tuesday Night Group Ride

2008-06-03T21:26:00.003-05:00

Tonight I decided to ride on the Tuesday night fast pace ride with my bike club. This is the first time I have done this ride since March 25. My schedule has not allowed me to do the ride for the most part and I haven't been in good enough shape to keep up with our racing group in the past.

Our ride starts and ends at Harper's Cycling & Fitness in Muscatine (thanks to Greg & Charlie for letting riders use their shop as a staging area). Tonight we had 9 riders show up. The route we took tonight was a hilly course and 3 riders were dropped early in the ride. The rest of us stayed together through the turn around and then about half way back 1 rider was dropped on the last hill. I ended up getting dropped before we got back into Muscatine, but was surprised that I was able to stay with the group that long. My conditioning has really improved a lot since I rode with them back in March. My training has targeted the QC Triathlon race on June 14 to reach my peak fitness. I could tell last night that I was riding better than I did at the Melon City Criterium a week and a half ago.

Endurance Training

2008-05-31T19:44:00.003-05:00

Today was one of the nicest days we have had all year. It was up in the low 80's and sunny most of the day. I needed to get a long ride in to get in shape for the TOMRV ride I will be doing next week-end. TOMRV is a two day ride with the first day at 112 miles and the second day at 88 miles.

Today I parked at the south end of the bike trail that begins at Sunset Marina in Rock Island and headed to Albany. This round trip ride is normally around 72 or 73 miles, but I added some other miles on a side road and ended up with 80 miles.

This is one of my favorite rides and I like to do it 3 or 4 times each year. I was on my bike at 6am and arrived at Julie's Cafe in Albany around 8:30. This is a great restaurant that serves excellent food. Julie decided late last summer to sell the cafe. I was glad to see it was still open, but the for sale sign was still in the window. One of the young waitresses told me when I checked out that she was hoping to be able to buy the place and keep it running.

I normally get one pancake (12" diameter) and one or two eggs. Usually this is like $2.50. Can't beat these prices. Today I picked one of her huge whole made cinnamon rolls and an egg with coffee for $2.60.

The ride went well, but the wind had picked up to 20+ when I left Albany and it was oblique, but still in my face some of the time. This slowed me down a bit. My average when I turned around was 17.8, but by the time I arrived back at my truck my average had dropped to 16.9.

Melon City Criterium

2008-05-26T20:30:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was the annual Melon City Bike Club Criterium held at Weed Park in Muscatine, Iowa. This first picture is the Masters 40+. Our club had three riders enter this race: Bill Ford, Greg Harper and Bill Harper; all on the front row. Ford got 4th place and Greg got 13th place.

I decided to enter in the Masters 50+ division to get some experience. This was my first race and at 56, I guess you can say I am a later bloomer. Perhaps, you can say that I am getting so old I don't have any sense anymore.

I knew that the racers that enter this event were all seasoned veterans that have been bike racing all their life and they come from some of the surrounding States in the Midwest. I believe the guy that placed first place was on the Olympic cycling team when he was younger and most of the others are former Cat-2 and Cat-3 riders. I was the only local participant in this age group from our local club. Keep in mind that I was 52 before I purchased my first road bike and the last 4 years I have been putting in the miles to start building my fitness. I guess everyone has to start somewhere. It looks like I have some more base building to do.

The pace was fast and furious and I was in the middle of the pack after the first lap. By the end of the second lap I was dead last and hanging on (picture shows me in last spot). Then on the big hill on the north side of the course on the third lap I couldn't keep the pace and the other 15 riders vanished. Since it was still early in the race, I made a decision to give up rather than ride around for the next 11 laps by myself with a good possibility of getting lapped by the pace car. On

the 3 laps I rode our pace was running between 23 and 25 mph average per lap. My top speed was 38.1 mph on the downhill portion of the course, which has the speed bump at the bottom. I did ok going over the speedbump and going around the curves; although I lost a little position on the 90 degree corner on the south side of the course; so I need some practice going around this curve at high speeds. On the uphill portion we were running 18 to 20 mph, which is amazing for a 4 1/2 to 5 percent grade hill that runs for 1/4 mile. As I watched some of the other racers ride the rest of the day this hill is where many a racer was dropped.

Looking at next year, I know what I need to do if I want to be able to stay with the pack for all 14 laps. I need more stamina and strength so I can keep my heartrate down below my anaerobic threshhold level. I guess I will worry about that later. My next race is June 14 and is the Quad City Triathlon event. I am participating in the team event and I will be doing the cycling portion. This is a 15 mile route (out and back) that has 3 hills in it. This will be my third year and I am hoping to improve upon last year's ride.

The Dreaded Speed Bump

2008-05-21T19:26:00.005-05:00

I went out and did a short 60 min. ride this afternoon. I spent some of my time on the criterium route around Weed Park in Muscatine. This picture is of the dreaded speed bump at the bottom of the long hill on the east side of the 1-mile course. I've practiced going over this speed bump a few times at race speed (30-40 mph). There is indeed an art to this. On Tuesday morning I rode the course with Greg Harper, our Cat-2 racer. He has learned to keep pedalling while going over the bump. I haven't been able to accomplish that and need to stop pedalling and coast over.

I am looking at doing either the plus 50 race at 9:30 am or the Cat-5 race at 3:30. I am still not 100% sure of myself and will probably wait until race day to decide. Tuesday morning when I rode with Greg I couldn't seem to get my legs to cooperate and most of the laps were averaging in the 17-19 range. Today I did one lap at almost 21 mph, but I am not sure I can hold this pace for 14 laps in the 50+ race or 8 laps in the Cat-5 race.

Casey is doing pretty good today and Patti was able to spend the day at Jody's house to do some cleaning and baking.

Oldest Bridge Across Mississippi R.

2008-05-17T16:12:00.003-05:00

Today was the first Saturday in 6 weeks that we haven't either had rain or cold weather. I headed to the bike trail in the Quad Cities to try it out for the first time. The river has been above flood stage for several weeks and I was a little worried that I migtht not be able to get through on the trail. I did have to go through some mud and water was lapping at the edge of the trail in some spots, but it was good to get of the highways and ride amongst friendly people for once.

I started in Davenport and went across the Rock Island Arsenal bridge over into Rock Island. This bridge is the oldest bridge in operation across the Mississippi River. It is on a turn-style and I happened to reach it just as a barge was getting to ready to pass through the locks.

After Rock Island I went through Moline, Hampton, Rapid City, Port Byron, and Cordova before turning around and heading back. I ended up with 55 miles.

On a more serious note: our son-in-law, Casey was taken to the hospital on Thursday night in Cedar Rapids. After some prelimnary tests they moved him to Iowa City and the diagnosis is acute leukemia. We are awaiting the tests on a bone marrow biopsy to see what his treatment regimen will be. We will be going up to see Casey and our daughter, Jody tomorrow. Keep them in your prayers.

Club Ride

2008-05-15T21:14:00.005-05:00

Tonight was the paceline ride for Melon City Bike Club. We didn't have a very good turnout. Six of us left the bike shop at 6pm and a seventh rider joined us later in the ride. We had a wide range of cyclists on this ride and we were unable to find a medium pace that made everyone happy. So as it turned out the faster riders would separate from the slower riders and then we would re-group every few miles. I was able to stay in the faster group until the very end and I can tell that my fitness and dedicated training is now paying off.

Switching gears: this past week-end while I was biking down in Missouri I saw several Amish in their buggies. I actually overtook one buggy and passed it on my bike. So I know I am not the slowest thing out there on the road.

Morel Mushrooms

2008-05-13T14:29:00.004-05:00

The mighty "Morel" is one of the most hunted items in the Midwest during this time of the year. Since we haven't been having any warm weather, I really didn't think this would be a good season for them. Wow, was I wrong. This has to be one of the best years we have seen, since we moved to our farm in 1985. We have been finding them for over a week and normally their growing season is very narrow (5-10 days). But instead of tapering off they appear to be coming in greater numbers.

These pictures are from today's find. While I went out for a 2 hour bike ride Patti and our daughter Lori went out in our woods and came back with these 2 bags of big mushrooms. Some of them are 5-6 inches in length. They will make several nice yummy meals.

Just as I finished with my bike ride it started to sprinkle and then an hour later it started getting really dark and then we got hail. Some of the pieces were about 1" in diameter.

Cycling In Missouri

2008-05-13T14:01:00.003-05:00

Over the Mother Day week-end Pat & I headed to northern Missouri to visit our family. It was a busy time for both of us as we had lots of relatives to see and work to do on both of our properties we own in this area. Pat's dad had just returned from Texas after being there for 4 months and is in a rest home in Bethany. His health has not been good, but at 90 he is still doing pretty good. On my side of the family, my sister and family came back from Colorado and we were able to spend a lot of time with them. My mother's "to do list" kept all the men pretty busy while we were at her house.

I took my bicycle on the trip and was able to get in 87 miles over the 4 days we were in Missouri. The weather is still very unsettling for this time of the year and the cold temps and high winds kept me from getting in all of the biking I had planned. The temps were in the upper 30's at night and only got in the 50's and 60's during the daytime. Sustained winds of 25-35 were the norm with gusts up to 50 mph.

This picture is North Harrison High School in Eagleville, where Patti and I graduated from (a few years back).

Club Paceline Ride

2008-05-08T21:43:00.003-05:00

Tonight was our weekly paceline ride at the Melon City Bike Club in Muscatine. The wind was out of the northeast and we headed east of town with eight riders. After about 15 minutes we headed up Sweetland hill and two of the riders dropped off and went back.

The other five riders are much faster bikers than I am and so the pace was very brisk. I stayed with them until the last 2 miles and another person and myself dropped off the pace. Then a couple of minutes later two other riders dropped off. By the time we got back to Muscatine we had all re-grouped.

Before the paceline ride I made a stop at Weed Park to ride the road that circles the park. This is the site of the annual Melon City Criterium held every year at Memorial Day. This is a 1 mile course with a 1/4 mile steep hill on the backside. I am giving some thought to possibly entering the Masters-50+ race this year. My training is coming along pretty good, but know that the participants are all seasoned racers that have been at it for many years.

Biking With Grandkids

2008-05-08T21:39:00.002-05:00

This past week-end I was able to take the grandkids out for a short ride. Lydia has her own bike and Evan prefers to ride behind me on the trailer bike.

It was rather windy and we decided not to go into town for the ride. Besides with the Mississippi flooding this spring, all the trails are either covered with water or mud. So instead we bike up and down our drive-way.

Planting Time

2008-05-07T19:45:00.002-05:00

This year has been a difficult one for farmers & cyclists. The cold weather has lasted longer than normal and the moisture levels have been way above normal. This has delayed the spring planting season here in eastern Iowa. Normally most of the corn would be planted by now. As it stands right now, less than 5% of the corn has been planted to date. This means that the next couple of weeks are critical as farmers try and get the seeds in the ground. If they go much past the 3rd week of May they will have to switch to a shorter growing season corn, which will lower their yields. This picture is typical of what you see across the landscape in the Iowa farm belt. Farmers eager to get into their fields run their disc once or twice around the field and discover the soil is too wet to put in their crop.

The last couple of days I have been able to get in 32-33 miles of biking in. The weather today was a little questionable, but with storm clouds threatening I was able to beat the rain.

Tandem Time

2008-05-04T20:36:00.004-05:00

The weather is starting to improve and Patti joined me for a 2 hour ride today on our tandem. The temps were near 70 degrees, but there was still a 15+ mph wind out of the west-southwest. This is the first time Pat has been out on a bike since last October.

We made a pit stop for both of us to take a potty break. I wasn't fast enough with the camera.

The Cove

2008-05-03T20:19:00.003-05:00

I wanted to get in a long ride today (Sat.), but was dreading it because of the weather. The high today was only going to be 52 and the wind was out of the NW at 23-25 all day. This made the wind chill in the low to mid-40's when I took out at noon. I ended up with a 3 hour ride and it went pretty well. Once my body warmed up from the exertion I never felt the cold.

My turn around point was "The Cove". This was a restaurant that started in 1966 and was a great spot for the locals and people off of I-80 to go and have a good meal with friends. They were noted for their great pie and I made many a trip on my bike to this spot for that reason alone. The Cove closed in early 2008 and so far it hasn't re-opened under new management. I heard a rumor that maybe someone was going to buy it and start it back up.

After returning from my bike trip our friends, Jeff & Jackie picked us up and we headed to Iowa City to meet Ben & Cindy at Texas Roadhouse where we celebrated Ben's 50th.

Thursday Night Pace Line Ride

2008-05-01T21:05:00.003-05:00

It's May Day 2008 and the first Thursday night pace line ride for the Melon City Bike Club. We had a group of seven cyclists: Greg, Mike, Wilford, John, Ira, Jim and myself. There was a 12-18 mph wind out of the south and so we headed out of Harper's Bike Shop at 6pm into the wind. The pace into the wind was 18-21 mph and when we turned around the pace picked up to 22-26. We ended up doing a 30 mile ride.

It was good to get the experience of riding in a group going at fast speeds. The pace line works by each rider taking turns at the front for a short period of time 10-15 seconds. Then the next person goes in front and you get to rest for a minute or two while you draft. This gives you a chance to get your heart rate back down before going back out front again.

Country Church

2008-04-30T20:17:00.003-05:00

On one of my bike routes I pass by this country church. The church steeple has chime music that plays out every 30 minutes. I also use this church as my starting point on some of my rides and park my truck in their parking lot.

Today I parked at Wild Cat Den State Park and rode east and north eventually ending up at this church before turning around and heading back to my truck.

The wind was blowing out of the southeast at 23 mph today, but the sun was shining and the temps had warmed up to the mid 60's. We are starting to turn the corner on winter and warmer temps are here to stay I believe.

Wind, Wind Go Away

2008-04-26T18:46:00.005-05:00

It doesn't seem like the wind will subside anytime soon. Today the weatherman said we had gusts all day in the 30 mph range. I needed to get in a longer ride today and sure wasn't looking forward to doing that long of ride on the trainer. So it was outside into the wind. It made for an interesting ride. As long as I stayed parallel with the wind either as a headwind or a tailwind I was fine, but when I went perpendicular to the wind I had trouble keeping my bike on the road. The wind did blow me off onto the gravel shoulder twice today. I ended up with a 31 mile ride, but with the high wind it made me feel like I had been outside in it all day.

This picture was taken of the Pine Creek Grist Mill near our house. With all the rain we had yesterday Pine Creek's banks were full.

Return To The Trainer

2008-04-25T15:09:00.004-05:00

After I returned from Reno the weather has been unforgiving. It has rained yesterday and today with high winds. Unable to get outside on my bike I have resorted to getting back on the trainer for an hour of exercise yesterday and today.

Today's hour on the trainer was interrupted unexpectedly, when severe weather came to our area. Three tornadoes were sighted within 15 miles of our home and we went down to our lower floor and took cover under the stairway. Thank goodness the storms passed us by without any damage. We did get a tremendous amount of rain and the temperature dropped from 72 to 46 degrees in a matter of 2 hours. This picture was taken of our pond next to our home. It had been very shallow and thanks to the rain it filled up.

The weather tomorrow looks much better, then it goes back to rain and colder temps. They are even talking about snow and a hard freeze by Tuesday.

Reno

2008-04-22T18:43:00.003-05:00

Today was the last of my meetings and early tomorrow morning I will be heading back to Iowa. I was able to get outside the hotel this afternoon and take a walk with a couple of friends. Enjoyed the exercise and fresh air. The humdity is very low out here and the weather is still pretty chilly. The mountains that surround the Reno area are all covered in snow.

Reno is an old mining town and there are lots of smaller casinos in the downtown area. Most of these hotels are older and do not compare to the flair of Las Vegas. There is a huge Asian contingency out here and lots of the hotels and restaurants employ Asians and many of the gamblers come over from Japan and other eastern countries.

I was able to get down to the exercise room and spend 45 minutes on a recumbent exercise bike and also did some work with weights.

Business Trip

2008-04-21T12:00:00.003-05:00

I flew into Reno yesterday for a 3-day business conference. It is quite cold out here, 20 degrees below normal. Last night it got down to 20 degrees and the highs are in the upper 40's to mid 50's.

The conference is in Harrah's. Had a great dinner last night across the street at El Dorado's Roxy's restaurant. Now I am sitting in a meeting and getting bored.

Hold Off Rain

2008-04-19T15:01:00.003-05:00

The last two days have been rainy. Yesterday I was able to squeeze a 50 minute ride in before it started raining and I hurried back to the truck before I got soaked. Today my chances weren't much bettter; however, I was able to get in a 75 minute ride before it started sprinkling. As you can see from this picture is was a rather dreary day.

Cross-Training

2008-04-17T16:37:00.007-05:00

Today is such a beautiful day. We hit 70 yesterday and today, but the big difference is the wind. Yesterday was very windy, while today we only have a 5 mph wind. Today I went out for a short 45 minute ride at a moderate pace. I had another dog chase me, but I had a can of wasp spray and this made him retreat.

Yesterday, I visited a vendor in Selkirk, Manitoba. I took a customer with me and we flew into Minneapolis and then caught another plane into Winnipeg. Selkirk is only a 30 minute drive north of Winnipeg. It was up and back all in one day. The temps were 20-25 degrees cooler up there and they still had some snow standing in spots.

I wanted to include this picture of our friends Dave & Sylvia. On Tuesday nights, Patti and I have been joining them for dance lessons for the last 4-5 months (good cross-training). This picture was taken this past Tuesday night, when we had a dance for all the class participants. It was fun to dress up and practice a little of what we learned. We danced the Waltz, Fox Trot, Cha Cha, Rumba, Swing and the Texas Two Step.

Trivia Time

2008-04-13T19:35:00.003-05:00

Last night Patti and I joined six other friends and competed in a trivia match at one of our local towns. There were 68 teams of (8). We have competed in this trivia match several times before and enjoy the game and the company. Tonight we got off to a bad start on round 1 (we only got 6 out of 10 right). It was catch up the rest of the night. By round 10 we had moved up from 35th place to 15th place. I believe we ended up with 775 points (out of 1000).

Spring hasn't quite arrived yet--but the long-range weather forecast says this is the week for our temps to finally get up in the 60's. On my ride today it was in the low 40's with a 15 mph wind, which made for a chilly ride. I ended up logging 60 miles today.

Windy

2008-04-11T11:40:00.005-05:00

There were storms last night through-out the Midwest as a cold front made it's way across the plains. We had a tornado watch yesterday, but received only high winds. This morning the temps were in the upper 40's with rain chances at 30% until noon, when rain is supposed to be a reality. The winds were out of the southwest and were in the range of 25 to 35. I couldn't motivate myself to do a 90 minute ride on my trainer, so around 8:45 this morning I headed outside to ride in the wind. As you can see from the windsock that I have out at the end of my driveway--the wind was gusty.

As long as I had the wind at my back or in my face I was ok, but if I angled and got a cross-wind it was very hard to keep the bike on the road. With the wind in my face I used the granny gear quite a bit stayed in the 7 to 9 mph range. This may sound like a crazy way to get some exercise, but actually going into the wind was great strength building exercise. The course I picked was also a very hilly course--so I would be embarrassed to tell you what my average speed was today. I did get in some steady state intervals today--getting my heart rate up around 85% of my maximum. I made it back around 10:30 and didn't get rained on--lucky me.

Biking Colorado-2008

2008-04-10T07:44:00.005-05:00

I have finalized plans for this year's Colorado trip. A biking friend from Detroit, Tony will be joining me this year and we fly out on June 28th. We will start our cycling tour of southwest Colorado on June 30th and finish on July 4th. A friend from the Quad City Biking Club, Steve will be in Colorado on vacation that same week and he plans to join me for 2 days of riding and will be bringing his 2 sons along.

Our route leaves the Montrose area with overnight in Telluride on day #1. Day #2 takes us over Lizard Head Pass (photo above taken in 2005) and down into Cortez and we overnight in Mesa Verde National Park. On Day #3 we tour Mesa Verde and then bike over to Durango. On Day #4 we head to Silverton and go over Molas and Coal Bank Passes. On Day #5 we go over Red Mountain Pass and through Ouray before ending back in Montrose. We should end up with around 25,000 feet of climbing. We will be self contained and will pull BOB trailers behind our bikes with our camping gear and clothes. I did most of this same route in 2005 on my maiden cycling tour: http://www.mytour2005.crazyguyonabike.com/ . The picture above was taken at Lizard Head Pass on that trip.

It is only 2 1/2 months till I leave on this trip, but it seems like an eternity away this morning. I am looking out my office window and the winds are whipping at 30+ mph and it is raining. The forecast calls for rain most of today and tomorrow. It looks like I will be back on my trainer today for the 60 minute ride I have planned. I posted my first entry this morning on my Colorado biking web-page: www.lonstour2008.crazyguyonabike.com

Nice Day For A Ride

2008-04-09T19:51:00.002-05:00

For the first time in several weeks the wind was below 5 mph. Even though the temps were hard pressed today to get up to 50 degrees, without the wind it felt ok. Did a 90 minute ride which included 60 minutes of Tempo riding.

With the weather starting to moderate I started thinking about getting one of my muscle cars out for a ride. We live on a gravel road and the roads are atrocious this spring. They need to firm up just a little more before I pull out my 1966 Chevy Impala SS for a spin.

Back On The Trainer

2008-04-08T19:42:00.004-05:00

Well I spoke too soon. Last week the weather was great and I spent 4 days outside on my bike. I took a needed rest day yesterday and got a lot of projects done around the house.

I had planned on going on the Melon City Bike Club's Tuesday night club ride tonight, which is a fast paced ride with some of our racing members. The weather was absolutely lousy today and it was raining when I got up and here it is almost 8pm and it is still raining.

So it was back on the trainer for a 60 minute medium paced ride for some endurance training and I also went to the YMCA and did a 60 minute Pilates class to help build up my core muscles. I started with this Pilates class back in November and it has helped me strengthen some weak muscles in my abdomen and lower back muscles that are showing some improvements in my cycling abilities.

Spring Has Come

2008-04-05T19:46:00.004-05:00

I went on a rather long ride, 60 miles. It finally warmed up and got to 66 today. As part of my training ride today, I did 4 Tempo intervals of 20 minutes each with 10 minutes of recovery in between each interval. There was a rather strong wind today (15-25 mph). I chose my route by riding into the wind for the first half of the ride.

Since the Mississippi River is in my back yard, it is always exciting to see the river traffic starting to move up and down the waterway. I took this picture on the bridge in Muscatine as I began my ride just a little past noon.

Dog Trouble

2008-04-03T19:34:00.004-05:00

Yesterday and today on my bike training rides I have ran into dogs along my routes. Yesterday I was chased by a very big dog who wouldn't give up. He stayed within 2 to 4 feet of me for a good 100 yards and just when I was getting out of his domain the neighbor dogs were alerted and they joined in on the chase. So for another 50 yards I had 3 dogs after me. I couldn't outrun them and had to go very slow so as not to make them attack. For those of you that have been through this it is a tedious process. Dogs like to bite at things that go around, like wheels, pedals and your feet and legs. So I would coast a while and then when my speed had decreased to the point that I was going to tip over I would pedal just enough to get moving again. Each time I pedaled the dog would lunge toward my moving foot on his side. Luckily, he never grabbed a hold of anything. Last week I ran across the big dog on this very same route.

So today I thought I would try a different route. I had my first encounter at two separate farms where single dogs took up the chase, but I was able to easily outrun them (the wind was at my back). On the return trip, I never saw these two dogs, but as I neared the end of my ride, two dogs gave chase at another farm and with the wind in my face I had to struggle to outrun them. It was nip and tuck for a while, but as my speed increased I pulled away.

I have a plan for my next ride to prevent any dog mishaps. I will either bring some pepper spray or better yet a can of wasp spray. The pepper spray has a very short range (4 to 5 feet), while the wasp spray can easily reach 20 to 30 feet.

Sign me doggone tired of being chased by man's best friend.

Out For A Sunday Ride

2008-03-30T19:50:00.004-05:00

After 9 hours of sleep last night I am still tired. Yesterday I did a 2 hour bike ride with 3 sets of 3 intervals of fast pedal and later that evening Patti and I went dancing for 3 hours to a Rock-n-Roll dance by the group-GTO, which played 1950's and 1960's music.

After Church this morning I went on a 3 hour and 15 minute ride. The temperature was in the low 50's, but with a southeast breeze and overcast it was still chilly. Like a fool I left my windbreaker in the truck and soon found out I didn't have on enough clothes. I perservered and by keeping a demanding pace was able to keep semi-comfortable. As part of my ride this afternoon, I did 3 Tempo intervals of 20 minutes each.

It was good to get home to a warm shower and a nice dinner.

Training Ride

2008-03-28T21:19:00.004-05:00

Spring is supposed to be right around the corner. Today it got up to 48, but a strong northeasterly wind made it feel much colder. I went out on a training ride for 90 minutes. Even with 4 layers on I was still chilled. I also did 4 steady state intervals of 4 minutes in length with 4 minutes of rest inbetween.

It was good to get outside on the bike today after spending most of the day in my office on the phone or on my computer. The weather forecast for tomorrow looks much the same as today and I hope to get out for a longer ride.

My First Blog Entry

2008-03-26T13:00:00.003-05:00

I started my first blog today. Kind of a late bloomer to this new mode of commun-ication. My only previous experience with blogging has been on the Crazy Guy On A Bike web-site, where for the last three years I have been posting my daily log while biking in Colorado: http://www.iowacyclist.crazyguyonabike.com/

We'll see how this form of writing/communication works. Not sure I have the fortitude and time to keep it up-to-date on a regular basis. Time will tell.

3:00 Went out on a training ride this afternoon. The wind was light and it was near 50 degrees, a good day to be outside and not on my trainer. I ended up with 50 minutes of endurance miles and 40 minutes of tempo miles. The tempo miles were hard, since I participated last evening in our Tuesday night club ride. To my dismay only 4 other riders showed up and they were all racers. So needless to say I was riding at threshhold most of the time and red-lined a few times.