Jay H.

I rode with Jay this morning. I have been riding on my mountain bike this summer to increase resistance. I have been riding my mountain bike with Jay for years. Never has this been a problem. I have always been able to ride comfortably... not today. Jay is another one of those stories where you watch someone find fitness on the bike. Incredible. When Jay got his new bike and started riding there was a little part of me that wondered how long it would last. Last? He has fallen in love with the bike and it shows. All summer long people have commented on his steady improvement. It is really neat to see someone come this far and to discover the bike. Way to go Jay!

Owen is in Kindergarten

I went to Owen's open house tonight. He is very excited. We will all be in school at the same campus. I had the opportunity to talk about cycling analogies with Fred Moore Middle School today. That is always fun and the people really tune in. I am pumped for this year.

I rode with Jake C. and Andy tonight. It was a nice ride in on the 144. I had not seen Jake all summer and it was nice to chat with him. He is teaming up with a bunch of his buddies in St. Cloud to make their own Category 3 team. It only makes sense, they ride together all the time and rode for St. Cloud State. They even have the St. Cloud colors. It was a nice looking kit.

School's Started

Belinda had her open house tonight so I went to a Girl Scout meeting. WOW or should I say wow?

I ended up going out to the 2 mile time trial course on my mountain bike after dark. I went three times for 5:26, 5:27, and 5:24. That is the first time I have gotten faster on one of the later attempts, what ever that means?

I have my open house tomorrow. I am excited for a new year!

What a Ride!

I was joined by four other Team Strong Heart members today for one of the best rides of the season. There was plenty of climbing and the day was perfect for riding. We even finished with beers and bowling with our families. COOL!

Paul, Holly, Carol and Madonna rode great. Belinda started with us but went and got in a good ride on the trail. We really worked as a team and had fun taking one minute pulls. I like one minute pulls better than a rotating pace line. Each rider can set the pace where they want it and it keeps the group together. When your pull is done you go to the end, the very end. It doesn't pay to cook it, you really want to keep it together.

The last 25 had a series of climbs in it. You could really feel it coming back to Preston. When we got back to town we did one last very step pitch on the south side of town. It gave us 100. What a great ride.

What made this ride completely unique? It became a duathalon as we went bowling after the ride. Great day. Thanks for coming down you guys... that was a lot of fun! It wouldn't take much to talk me into touring Headwaters. That was way too much fun today!

Here is the route.

Inspirational

I rode 100 miles yesterday with 2 eighth graders and an eleventh grader. The fifth grade girl rode 60 miles. Dylan, Joe, Garrett and Mikayla should be very proud of themselves. You should have seen the bikes they were riding, simply incredible. Joe was riding a 24 inch mountain bike with about 160 crank arms, amazing. He was holding the wheel of the junior in high school on a 3% railroad grade, we were moving and he looked fine.

He is a commuter... Commuters are always strong. His family rides everywhere in town, even on the hottest days. He finished 100 looking like he could go another 50.

Dylan was on a old Schwinn 50 pound bike and he did great too. Two more names to add to my century list. I love seeing people complete 100 for the first time. You can see the pride and satisfaction in the ride. Good job you guys! Thanks for a great ride!

Oh, and I love centuries. I love being there for when people get their first century. It changes the way a person relates to riding. I have been there for Garrett, Jake, Blake, Brett, Adam, Jake C., John, Jeff, Larry, Dave, Belinda, Scott A., Bob, Bill, Mike, Scott C., Scott S., Jason M., Craig, and now Joe and Dylan.

Newsworthy

So yesterday I get a call from Bernie asking me if I want to be part of the first human powered news cast in the history of the world. WOW! Do I! I said. So John R., Bernie and I go to the Fairgrounds at 4:30 AM and power up the news for an hour. The room was pretty cool, you should stop and see it at the fair. 8 bikes all electronically monitored show watts and all that good stuff on a big screen. Bernie took off like a shot and try as I might I couldn't reel him in. He broke the machine twice by storing 499.9 watts of energy. The system would shut down when he hit that number. Thank goodness John was there to remind me that Bernie has to use more watts to carry his weight around. HA!

If we had this technology for our winter spins we would end up killing each other. It was very fun riding with the Medtronic people. I highly recommend checking it out at the fair!

MTB Time Trial

I did the Fletcher DIY TT today on my mountain bike. It was exponentially hard. The resistance started to add up to the point that I had to sit up to recover during the time trial. Not a good sign. But now I have a time on that bike too so I can ride it out there on crappy days like this morning and not really think about the road conditions so much.

Time trialing is amazing. I have got to do it on a more consistent basis. What a cleansing!

My time was 26.29.

Grand Marais

While the rest of Minnesota got wet we were enjoying perfect weather in Grand Marais. We went on a series of wonderful hikes and Belinda and I each went for rides up the Gunflint and throughout the area. It was another ride, like Estes, where I had thoughts of a good workout and within a half of a mile I wasn't thinking about anything but how beautiful the ride was and how lucky I was to be on it. Incredible beauty and perfect weather. The climb out of Grand Marais is at least 3 miles and the view is so great!

I am heading down to Preston this week to ride with my students on Thursday and some friends on Saturday. It will be interesting to see what we can do on Thursday, much of that ride was on the Root River Trial. The Root River Trail got flooded last night and the damage is extensive. Saturday's ride should be ok, but we will be riding through a few of the heaviest hit communities. We will have to see how this shakes out.

The floods are probably an answered prayer to the Loon State hierarchy. I was under the gun as I was attracting a slew of racers away from the State Road Race this weekend. Now the dozens of racers that were going to ride along the Root will end up back at the race. Wow! That was a real close one guys. Anything I can do to help. I feel a little guilty just by getting on my bike now.

20 on a Tuesday!

WOW! I have had the goal of 20 on a Saturday but never 20 on a Tuesday! Awesome! Brought the mountain bike so I would hurt a little and I did. It got hot enough, I just couldn't do it anymore. There were a lot of flats tonight too. I rode back to town with Dave Hoglund and Bob D. Good ride! We got in a 3 up pace line, had another flat and still got back to town in time to see my students' soccer game. Great evening and great group!

Nameless

First of all, I love our group! I never thought I would have this many close friends at 39. Thanks everyone for making this group so good.

Sorry about the flats on the first part of the ride, it sort of set the tone for later in the ride.

One of my favorite riders in the group threatened to shoot me in the butt with a shot gun if I mentioned him on this blog again, so I will call him Nameless. Man, is Nameless strong. Good lord, he crashed got up, fixed his bike and only got faster. Nameless is the toughest human being I have ever met bar none. Sorry Nameless.

Steve D. continues to impress, when Nameless wasn’t on the front he was. Favorite quote, “Man, I am a better rider with a tailwind.” Tammy and Kami rode very strong and they should do great at the Madison Ironman which is coming up soon. Cindy is doing it too and they all look like they are ready! I don’t know about Scott, he had to leave for work... just kidding, he looks great too!

It is great to have Mark C. back with us... I was getting uptight about the group not staying together and he said, “Let them go, it is just as lonely off the front as it is off the back, they will figure it out.” It was something like that. How true, that is really cool. Again it is great to have him back.

15 for the coffee ride, that is a topper for sure. There is more and more talk of an official bike club at Trailhead. That will be great. Thanks again to everyone for making this such a wonderful group!

One last thing... for a guy who works an 80 hour week, Mike B. is still strong!

Hemi in Polka Dots

We did hill repeats in Elk River tonight. Dave H. has discovered the fountain of youth. Man, is he strong right now. I rode the 3 speed and it about killed me. I am hungry and tired. Good tired, I think. Yes, it is good tired. We had 8 in the group and had a delightful time. I like these rides where we go out to a spot and work it and then ride home together. It is very nice.

Amy Xu

The more I learn about this person the more amazed I am. Amy has already signed in for next years RAAM as a four person mixed team. I met Amy about four years ago and I raced with her three years ago. She won the women's Headwaters 100 that year. She fought through rain and cold and stayed with the group and gave it her all. It was awesome. But that is nothing, she is one of the kindest people I have ever met and if you Google her you will be blown away. She has done it all, literally, and now she is going to do RAAM as the next Team Strong Heart. She is going to do great and she will appreciate the experience from beginning to end. It is her nature. She gets it. Another exciting thing is that one of my best buddies might be on the team too. WOW! Talk about a cool deal. She is all signed up so let's get behind her and the team! Way to go Amy!

The Ride

I went on the single greatest ride of my life this past week. I was in Rocky Mountain National Park with my family and I had a new goal, to ride up Fall River Road. I have done the main pass, Trail Ridge Road, about 10 times so I thought it was time for something new. Fall River Road is the original pass and is still gravel and has minimal up keep.

I started out Thursday morning from Estes and the sun was just touching the tops of the mountains. If you start from Downtown Estes you quickly realize that you are going to climb a bunch before you even get to the park entrance. I got to the entrance at 6:30 AM and there was no park attendant so I got in for free. Then I rode up to Horse Shoe Park. It is a beautiful valley that is known for big horn sheep and elk. I took a right and went past the alluvial fan from the 1982 flood and was soon in the picnic grounds. I knew the road was near.

I had the typical bike rube thoughts go through my head as I approached the road. I was not going to use my granny gear even though the sign boasted 9 miles of gravel. Well, I went to my granny within a city block and I never left it. I suppose I could have but all the macho riding stuff quickly faded away. The ride was surreal. There were views that I simply could not take in. I was climbing up the side of a canyon, literally. It was awesome!!

Some things I remember are the incredible switch backs while looking across at the other canyon wall. I remember riding next to a stream and then getting above the stream and looking down the canyon at the falls that dropped about 200 feet. I remember the sun light reaching around the valley and finally coming through the trees. One of the switch backs brought you out to an edge where you felt like you were looking all the way back to Estes and the starting point of the ride. I shouted out “Holy S***!” about three times on that corner I just couldn’t believe it.

I got to the top and thought of John as I pounded my Starbucks Double Shot and ate a couple of granola bars. No one was in the lot yet so I headed to the top of Trail Ridge Road and through Rock cut. More incredible scenery. I sailed down, riding the brake of course. The clouds started rolling in and I descended out of the sunlight into the cloud and back into the sun below. Wild. I was back to the hotel by 10. I thought Bear Tooth Pass would be my greatest ride ever... not so. I don’t know if I can beat this one.

The rest of the trip was great. We hiked as a family and Belinda and I rode up to Bear Lake on our anniversary. Thanks to my sister we were able to enjoy some riding together and were able to go out to eat at the Dunraven. What a great trip!