MS 150 . . .

. . . day 2.

Ahhhhh! It feels so good to be done.

In total we biked 9 hrs and 36 minutes for a total of 147 miles. While day 1 is relatively flat with hills only popping up in the last 20 miles, the second day has hills, hills and more hills. It feels like every time you turn a corner there is another hill. Besides the hilly route, you are tired after Saturdays ride and sleeping in a dorm room.

On the way back into Madison we stopped at Christy's a great bar on Lake Waubesa to celebrate. At that point we had less than 5 miles to bike. We hung out there waiting for others from our team. I enjoyed a few vodka lemonades -

This was my 5th year of participating in the MS 150 bike ride and very likely my last. But we will see once next year comes around!

Enjoy the moments!

 

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Sleep . . .

. . . glorious sleep. It woke up so rested this morning. Sometimes your body just needs sleep and last night was the night devoted to allowing myself to sleep and wake when I wanted, which occurred at 8:10. Although I woke up a little earlier I fell back to sleep and eventually awoke to the cats crawling on me and the dog announcing that she needed to go out. 91/2 hours of sleep!

Relaxing morning coffee on the porch and then dead heading some flowers.

In preparation of tomorrow's MS 150 bike ride I washed my bike and cleaned the chain. I also washed my commuter bike so that it is ready for biking to work next week. Since we biked to New Glarus last Monday the chain was really dusty and goopy.

After running a few errands this afternoon I put my bike on the car rack and headed over to load my bike for he MS ride. The coordination of this event is awesome. Those of us in the Madison area load our bikes on semi's on Friday evening. They are then transported to Waukesha for the start of the ride. A couple of us decided to get to the drop off site a little before 5 and we were near the front of the line. This was great timing, since not long after we loaded our bikes and heading home the wind, thunder, lightning and rain started. I am sure there were quite a few people waiting in line when the storm came through.

Early evening since we have to be back to the same location to load ourselves onto buses to make the trip to Waukesha at 5:00 AM.

Enjoy the moments!

 

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Day 2

This years MS 150 bike ride is done! I biked 75 miles on Saturday and got up and biked 62 miles on Sunday! I know that is a little short of 150. Those 13 miles were cut off after lunch! It was such a beautiful day and although I felt great and could have completed Sundays 75 mile course - I just felt like taking a quicker route to the finish.

The program Saturday evening is always awesome. It is so wonderful to see the number of volunteers and riders that have done this ride for years and years and it is especially humbling to see the number of riders that have MS.



Yup - that is a beer cup tower! Just fueling up for Sundays ride!


The test is huge!

Saturdays ride has a couple of good hills - but much of the course is flat or just rolling hills - but Sundays ride has little if any flat sections and if it first appears flat, it is usually a long gradual uphill assent. There seems to be one hill after another, with some substantial climbs!

This is such a great ride with so much support. The rest stops are filled with peanut butter bagels, oranges, bananas, gatorade and water and in addition medical and bike help. They are usually located approximately every 12-15 miles. Lunch yesterday was pasta and today's lunch was sub sandwiches and a homemade brownie!

We were up early and got on our bikes around 7:10 and headed out. The weather was again perfect! You could not ask for better conditions! This morning as we left Whitewater, there were a couple of families that had brought there morning coffee and lawn chairs out to the road and enjoyed the view of beautiful farm fields and 1000's of bikers biking by! What a great way to start the day, for both the participates and spectators.

I and one of my teammates, Jerry pulled into Madison a little after 1:00 this afternoon. It felt great to be done so early in the day.

Great weekend of biking.

Enjoy the day!




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Day 1

I am participating in my 4th MS Best Dam Bike Ride to raise money for MS.  Two days of biking 75 miles each day.  

Here is a pic of our team the Power Peddlars at the start in Pewaukee WI.   Although we are a small team - we raised over $10,000.  

The weather was perfect for day 1.  70's and sunshine.  Hardly any breeze in the morning with about 9 mph in the afternoon.  The past 3 years were much more "normal" weather.  90's - so this is beautiful biking weather!

A tradition is to stop at Squidy's bar in Palmyra for a beer.  

I can honestly say this was my best and fastest 75 miles ever!  

Relaxing and looking forward to food and this evening program - oh and the beer!

Tomorrow will be tough - it is a lot more hilly.  We will see - I might opt to ride 50 instead of the 75!  It just depends on how I feel.

A B day!

Weird Day or What?
I got stung by a bee this morning. I was running down the street and all of a sudden, something flew in my nose. I immediately got it out - but not before it stung me. . . In the nose! Who has that happen to them?
With my huge work project winding down I am able to start using some of my vacation and decided that I would take this afternoon off. It was beautiful and I wanted to get a 40 mile bike ride in on my road bike prior to the MS 150 bike ride this week end. Back to back days of biking 75 miles a day is a daunting task.
A chance meeting - I was biking on the Southwest path, heading out to the Capital City loop and passed a man and women biking. As soon as I said "on your left" and passed them I knew who they were. In addition to running blogs, I also follow a couple of other blogs regularly.
One of those blogs is Althouse, http://althouse.blogspot.com/ - Ann Althouse blogs about the law, politics, happenings on a local and national level, and many other eclectic topics. I have followed her for years and really enjoy her writing. Ann is a professor at the UW and lives in Madison. Her blog is addictive. Anyway, I recognized Ann and her husband, Meade. I biked ahead and stopped at an intersection, waited for them and then introduced myself. I was giddy! We chatted for about 10 minutes. It was great.
I left them with a story about how on my morning run a bee had stung me in my nose. Seriously, who talks to people that you just met . . . about your nose!
Two Bee - as I biked away, I felt the sudden burning of a bee sting. Sure enough, a bee had flown down my shirt and stung my chest!
What a day! But the view of the Downtown and the Capitol was breathtaking . . .




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Bonk - Bonked - Bonking!

I don't usually like to admit that something kicked my butt.  But today's Boys and Girls Club 50 mile bike ride clearly kicked me right where it hurts from riding for 50 miles!!

I know the route - this is my 4th year participating so I am should be ready for it . . .

I take responsibility for it.  I was going to type "I take responsibility for part of it" . . . but really there is only the bike and me involved!

There were eight of us doing the bike ride - 4 doing the 25 mile route and 4 doing the 50 mile route.  When we got to the first rest stop at mile 12, my friend decided to wait for the others in our group and ride the shorter route with them.  No big deal - so I road with a male co-worker and my son.  Well I tried to keep up with a male co-worker and my son.  And there in lies the problem.  I simply ran out of gas - my legs were fried.

I realized I had bonked when I came out of the last rest stop, around mile 40.  And knowing the course - I knew there were plenty of hills to come - not big hills, but long gradual hills right smack into the wind.

In the end I made it in 3:23 for an avg pace of 14.9.

I am feeling a little bit dejected - wondering how much is age related, after all I am 57 years old - and how much was just the day.
For now I will be thinking that it was just the day - some days you have it and some days you don't.

In two weeks I get to try again - I am participating in the MS 150 Best Dam Bike Ride.  Two days of biking 75 miles per day!

MS 150 bike ride

It was an awesome two days.  Riding through sun, humidity, wind, more wind, rain, more rain and finishing in the sunshine.

On Saturday I started the day at 4:00 - up, grabbed a granola bar and coffee and headed to the Alliant energy center to hop on the bus and depart at 5:30 for Pewaukee (the start of the race).

Here are a couple of photo's of team mates at the start.

There are approximately 2000 bikers and volunteers - so it was crowded at the start.  They send out the riders in approximately 200 biker waves.  It was pretty intense for the first 10 -15 miles because there were so many bikers on the road.  We saw one accident - all it took, was for someone to be following a little too close and a slight shift and . . . . crash.  

Once we hit the first rest stop the bikers spread out - but there were always people near by - chatting and offering support.  The ride is fully supported - there are rest stops every ~15 miles with food and drink, medical support and bike repair people.  There are also SAG trucks covering the course - so if you do get a flat or have bike problems . . . or simply have reached your limit - you can wave them down and get a ride to the next rest stop.  The temperatures were pretty nice on Saturday - but it was windy - 15-17 miles per hour.  I was salty when I got done.  I left Pewaukee at 7:50 and got to Whitewater . . . 75 miles later right around 3:00.  Checked into the dorm - showered and then gathered at our tent . . . ate, drank some beer, played some cards and chatted.  Headed to bed at 9:00 - back up at 5:45.

Here are the girls - right after lunch.  

This morning we got up and packed up - ate breakfast and got on the road by 7:30.  It was raining / REALLY raining!!!! And although I thought it was windy on Saturday - after experiencing the wind today - Saturday was just a little breezy.  Today the wind was up to 29 miles per hour with wind gusts of 33!!!!.  Since the ride travels East to West - you are almost always biking with the wind in your face.  Oh and did I mention it was pouring.  .  .  .  POURING and BLOWING!!!!

We stopped for lunch at 11:30 and decided that we would do the shortened route.  We did a slightly shorter route - due to the weather they actually were discouraging people from the 75 mile course - instead we did 68.  Once we got back on the road after lunch and about 10 miles - the rain stopped and the sun started to come out.  Hallelujah!!!  We cruised into Madison at 1:30.

Two days - 143 miles - overall the ride raised $1,500,000 for MS research.  Amazing.  Our team raised over $20,000.  Being diagnosed with breast cancer 6 years ago - I realize that there are a lot of diseases - cancer isn't the only thing that changes your life when you hear those awful words - You have MS.  

I am planning on doing it next year.

Now on to the Mini marathon - August 21st - 13 days away.  I need to get two more long runs in.  But I think tomorrow is a rest day.

Peace

1st 75 miles done!

Don't ever let someone tell you that 75 miles on a bike isn't a long way.  Oh my gosh!

Yesterday went ok.  The winds were around 15 and directly in our face for most of the day - so that took a lot out of you.  The bike ride goes east to west - so you have a really good chance of heading into the wind!  At points it felt like you were standing still.

Everyone you meet is very nice and offers encouragement. 

This shot is at the starting line yesterday morning.  Some of my team mates.

It looks like we might have rain today - yikes.  Hot, humid & thunderstorms.

I will see - just how my legs and bottom feel today!

Peace

MS 150 bike drop off

Well this is it!  We dropped off our bikes this afternoon.  They will be transported to Pewaukee in this semi - and waiting for us tomorrow morning.  My team the Power Peddlers decided to tail gate while we loaded our bikes.  So a couple people brought a grill and cooked hot dogs and brats.  There was also beer involved.  ;-)    

I have my bag packed and am getting ready to go to sleep.  I have to leave the house around 4:30 and it is almost 9 so i need to try to get to sleep. 

Peace - I am very excited to get riding.