Le Tour de Effingham County

I've been thinking for a few months now how cool it would be to do a big ride and hit every town in Effingham County, IL. I did it this morning for a total of 104 miles.  It was pretty neat! Tried to get a picture of a water tower or other town landmark in each town. 

(Just a cool train bridge)

(A cool graphic on the side of a very old brick building)

Fun vs. Training

One of my favorite things about biking is getting new people involved with the sport. I enjoy it so much, and know that others will too, so always want to help them get a new bike, learn to train better, go on group rides, etc.... So it's always tough when someone says to me, "Hey, if you ever wanna just ride slow, let me know, I'd love to join you."

You see, I would love to say, ya that sounds great, let's do it (and sometimes I do.) But it's tough because of the time that I put into it and what my goals are (win races.) Especially on my training plan. I only train 6-8 hours per week, and the value is placed on quality over quantity, so there are not really any "wasted" go slow workouts. I am either going hard/all out, or resting. The system works for me to have a successful season, and works the best with my growing family, so I am not going to change that. The one day a week that there are no structured intervals is Sunday. 2 hours at a decent pace. Too bad, Sunday's don't work for a lot of people.

So there is often this dilemma: ride slow and get people more involved in the sport OR seem like a bike snob and shoot for my personal goals...

I'm sure a lot of amateur/elite level athletes face this dilemma all the time, and probably just want to say, "How about you just train a little bit more, then I don't have to ride so slow..." But that's actually pretty jerkish and insensitive. (and not like me...) :)

For now I will try my best to incorporate rides with people that want to get involved. That is after all, what I want in the big picture... you know since my chances of being a PRO cyclist are most likely past.... :-)

Tomorrow is the day.... hopefully...

I have had several posts about the new bike parts that I have aquired, but here is a brief look back at how it all began... Decided I no longer needed my road bike wheels (despite how much I liked them!!!)
Bought them for about $600 at about half price from a buddy several years ago. Sold them for just under $600 on Ebay. Pretty good deal there.
Used that money to buy all new mountain bike parts, since that is where most/all of my racing now occurs. Needed some lighter/better parts.
New/lighter wheels were next on the agenda, along with new/lighter tubeless tires.
The above pic is most of the new parts on my mountain bike along with the wheels, but no rubber. Tomorrow I plan on picking up the bike completed, and can hopefully get out for some good rides. The weather has been pretty great for riding around here lately, and I should be able to take advantage of that! Started with all this bike stuff in the beginning of December, it will be nice to finally have it all done!

The Cycling House

Not sure what it is about getting new water bottles that is so exciting... considering that I have around 20 of them or so in the cabinet. But I got 4 of them in today from The Cycling House and it was pretty exciting! The Cycling House is a destination cycling place in Tucson, AZ that offers a completely supported training experience. All you do is go ride your bike in nice warm Arizona weather, and they take care of everything else, food, ride support, and everything else you could ever think of! So I've heard anyway... You see, I've never actually been there. I live The Cycling House lifestyle vicariously through my pops who happens to frequent the place regularly. It's actually a pretty good motivator for me to get out and ride when it's 30 degrees outside, and I think about the big miles he is getting in while having everything taken care of. Oh well, I am sure I will eventually make it out for a week sometime.

Back to the bottles.... I was reading The Cycling House blog by Andy Schultz about nutrition, and I noticed a wall of bottles in the background. I contacted the Owener of the house and he said he would get me a few straight away. I was expecting maybe one or two bottles, but today when I picked up the mail, there were 4 bottles! And to top it off, the mailing label had a nice personal touch on it as you can see in the pic below... Thanks for the bottles guys! Let me know when you get to Vail, CO and I'll take you out for a ride!

1st Bike Ride

Of the year tonight on my road bike after school to Eagle and back! Low 40's and sunny was nice, but got cold quick when the sun dropped! Cayle chose not to join me and stayed with mommy instead :-( But after I got home he insisted on putting my bike shoes on. I sent a pic to my mom and she thought they were new skis that we had gotten him....

Competitiveness

My competitiveness came out to play a bit today. Cayle and I were out for a bike ride on the bike path about 10 minutes from the house. I was pushing the pace pretty good, and this guy on his bike, on the road comes by me at a pretty high rate of speed. I had no idea he was there, but he passed me so quickly, it was like he was issuing a challenge... (that's what it seemed like to me..) So what did I do you ask? Why, I chased him down. Even though I was on the bike path, with a much less direct route, and also pulling Cayle in the chariot, I caught him about 10 minutes later, just outside of Eagle. As I pull even with him, he turns to me and says, "you must have been really movin, because there was no way I thought you would catch me pulling that kiddie trailer!" Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside in a sick sort of way! Then he tells me that he had to work his butt off just to catch and pass me in the first place (which is why he came by me so fast.) I rode with and talked to him a bit, bid him a good day, and headed home, extremely pleased with myself! :-)