It's Been Great Riding Weather....... For March

 

 

We did our first scheduled ride out of Performance Bike in Greenwood last Thursday and it was really a fun ride in spite of heavy rain. Six of us left the shop at 6pm and headed south through Johnson and Morgan counties to inaugurate our new Thursday south side route, with cloudy almost threatening skies, warm weather and most of us with rain jackets on,,,, just in case.

We made it almost a half mile down the road before the clouds dumped  on us and inaugurated some of us in rule #9 The Rules because we got wet!

 

A good place to point out Sam's reminder on this week's email to make sure that you have at least a working tail light on your bikes every time we go out as Spring weather is unpredictable and at this point in the season a delay could put us home after dark.

 

Saturday Morning, we left SWW Park at 7am for a 50 mile odyssey into Morgan county, AKA our way past Wilbur route, this time in search of a hill called "The Wall".
It was a brisk morning with the start temperatures hovering in the low 30s but we threw some chemical toe warmers in our shoes and headed out.  I soon discovered that I had overdressed and had to tie my jacket around my waist to keep from sweating up a storm and being as wet as I had been on Thursday.  Everyone else seemed to be ok, I could have been so hot because I had the most fat :)

We crossed State Road 144 and made our first discovery that the flooding we had been hearing so much about was going to affect our ride.
So we altered our route and headed west up Kitchen hill, which I think all of us agree is the equivalent of Centenary without the traffic.

An hour in we were at the base of Observatory hill and made our first Category 5 climb of the day.
 (a note for those of you on the team who are riding Nashville and Death Valley, even though there is not anything quite as steep as these hills on those routes, anyone who has spent a summer doing these climbs and completed for example, the Jubilee pass climb will agree that this is great preparation both in fitness and mentally for a long Cat 2 climb like that)

We had 4 Catagorized climbs in total and numerous difficult climbs besides.
On the way back we decided to ride up SR67 on the shoulder to the base of Observatory as our planned route back was flooded and closed.  We won't be doing that again, simply because the shoulder is littered with trash and we respect our tires to much to put them through that again.

When we got to the top, Sam and I could not resist taking one more trip to the top of Observatory before heading back to SWW.  It was a fun albeit cold day!!

We had planned to come straight back on Mann all the way, but when we got to Fox Hill, the group decided that we had not yet climbed enough so we took a little detour to the top of Fox Hill and came on home that way.  By this time the temp had climbed to a balmy 49 (still felt like the 30s :)) but we were all still relatively comfortable.

All in all a great ride and we are planning on doing it again this next Saturday as one of our team members from Kentucky (Steve Lewis) will be visiting for the JDRF Gala that is this Saturday also!

Come out and join us, you can find the route from last week HERE !!

I hope to see you on Saturday!
Michael

Good afternoon Indiana Cure Chasers,  We had a great turnout to all of the rides last week as we were 50/50 with 2 rides on the road and 2 indoor training sessions.  Looking ahead for this week, the weather does not look promising so please be on the look out for a last minute change to an indoor training session if necessary.

Below are our opportunities to ride this week:
Tuesday, 4/16/13  - Blue Tuesday, 30 - 36 miles with challenging hills.  Bikes mounted and rolling out at 6:00 PM from Southwestway park 8400 Mann Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46221.  We will be leaving out of the parking lot located on the west side of Mann Rd. near the soccer fields.

Thursday, 4/18/13 - 32 - 40 flat miles at a faster pace.  Bikes mounted and rolling out at 6:00 PM from Performance South Bike shop parking lot. 8830 US 31 South, Across from the Greenwood Shopping Center, Greenwood, IN 46227

6:00 PM 27 - 30+ flat miles. CIBA sponsored ride from Nebo Ridge Bicycles 4355 W 106th St, Carmel, IN.  A, B, and C groups leave together according to estimated pace.  Wear your blue jerseys, meet and ride with Gary Martindale and other Indiana Cure Chasers.

Saturday, 4/20/13 - 45 - 50+ miles - hilly, moderate pace, endurance ride. Location: Southwestway park 8400 Mann Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46221.  We will be leaving out of the parking lot located on the west side of Mann Rd. near the soccer fields.  This will be an extended version of our Blue Tuesday ride and will include several challenging hills in addition to the ones we see on Tuesdays.  Departure time TBD based on the weather.  Will send more details towards the end of the week.

Sunday, 4/21/13 - 40 - 45 miles - flat, fast, endurance ride.  Afternoon departure from the north side.  Bikes mounted and rolling out at 12:00 PM from Coxhall Gardens, 2000 W 116th St  Carmel, IN 46032.

Make sure you have the following items:

• bike
• helmet
• 2 water bottles with your favorite sports drink
• nutrition (Gu or energy bars)
• tire change kit
• Bike Face!

Have a good week!

Hello All,  Just wanted to send a quick update about our rides planned for this weekend:

Saturday - Sam will lead an indoor training ride 10 - 11:30 AM at Performance South bike store, 8830 US 31 South, Across from the Greenwood Shopping Center, Greenwood, IN 46227.  Just a reminder that Performance does have some limited trainers available to use but please bring your own if you have one and don't forget your bike ;o).

Sunday - Michael will lead a 40 - 45 miles - endurance ride on the road.  Bikes mounted and rolling out at 12:00 PM from Coxhall Gardens, 2000 W 116th St  Carmel, IN 46032.

That's all for now!  Have a good weekend!

A Great Saturday for Biking

So this last Saturday, Nathan Saxe and I made plans to mark our Blue Tuesday route and sweep off Observatory hill for some fun early season activities!

My night leading up to this was challenging to say the least. I had successfully eaten Bazbeaux on Thursday and thought I would give it a go again on Friday.  For those of you who are not aware, Pizza is one of the bains of T1 Diabetics.  Friday I apparently went one slice to far and spent the entire night correcting for high BG (blood glucose).

By 5:30am when it was time to get ready to go and pick up Nathan, my BG was once again somewhat reasonable at 146.




I stopped and bought Starbucks, stocked up on paint and made it to Nathan's house only 20 minutes late.  Nathan turned out to be an old pro at managing traffic and with the 2 of us working together we had the route to Observatory Hill marked in not time.  The only hitch being when my Ominpod decided to quit on me right around 8am.

We sallied forth and completed our mission anyway & I just kept a close eye on my BG to make sure that I didn't go high again.  By the time I dropped Nathan off at 9:30 I was still only clocking an 88.

Once we finished the marking, we took a little extra time to make the hill safe for cyclists by sweeping off the nearly complete covering of sand that made climbing the hill the hill a bit sketchy to say the least.

When I got to Performance for our last scheduled indoor ride of the season, Sam already had everything set up and we had a great 1 1/2 hour ride with our youngest rider ever, Moses Weaver on the training wheel trainer!

After the class, we took a couple of minutes to make a really hip video, that we will be debuting here in just a few weeks.  It was a lot of fun, the camaraderie was great and 4 of us committed to do the Observatory ride immediately following.... which we did!

We had a pretty serious headwind/crosswind on the way out (20 mph sustained or so - very noisy) so Sam suggested that we work a rotating pace line and we really pulled off  a pretty nice one for a bit.

We kept a pretty leisurely pace out and back, the weather was great and we made it up OH pretty much without incident.  However, Melissa's prediction that if was going to take 4 hours rather than the 2 1/2 I predicted proved to be true.  Good job wife! :) you were right!

This Tuesday kicks off our beginning of the season Blue Tuesday, with this same route every Tuesday until the government takes our daylight away again.

Looking forward to seeing you guys and gals out there!

Good afternoon Indiana Cure Chasers,  We hope you were able to get out on your bike this past weekend as the weather was almost perfect!  Perfect would have been no head wind!  We ended our indoor training sessions this past Saturday at Performance South Bike shop with a Harlem Shake video on the bike.  It was a lot of fun!  Performance South is allowing us to continue to use their space for indoor training as needed.  We may have some bad weather to avoid in the future so we will consider indoor training on rare occasions!  If there is a change in plans, we will communicate that at least 24 hours in advance when possible so please check for an email if you are unsure.  Or feel free to contact Michael or Sam directly.

Below are our opportunities to ride this week:
Tuesday, 4/9/13  - 1st official Blue Tuesday ride outside this season.  30 - 36 miles with challenging hills.  Bikes mounted and rolling out at 6:00 PM from Southwestway park 8400 Mann Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46221.  We will be leaving out of the parking lot located on the west side of Mann Rd. near the soccer fields.  Thanks to Michael and Nathan for going out early this past Saturday to mark this route for us!!

Thursday, 4/11/13 - 32 - 40 flat miles at a faster pace.  Bikes mounted and rolling out at 6:00 PM from Performance South Bike shop parking lot. 8830 US 31 South, Across from the Greenwood Shopping Center, Greenwood, IN 46227

Saturday, 4/13/13 - 40 - 45 miles - endurance ride. Bikes mounted and rolling out at 8:00 AM from Southwestway park 8400 Mann Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46221.  We will be leaving out of the parking lot located on the west side of Mann Rd. near the soccer fields.  This will be an extended version of our Blue Tuesday ride.

Sunday, 4/14/13 - 40 - 45 miles - endurance ride.  Afternoon departure from the north side. Will send more details later this week.

Make sure you have the following items:

• bike (preferably a road bike or any bike that will allow you to keep the same general pace as others on a road bike ;o)
• helmet
• 2 water bottles with your favorite sports drink
• nutrition (Gu or energy bars)
• tire change kit
• Bike Face!

We hope you are able to join one, some or all of these rides!

Tailwinds!