Training schedule is now available on the blog

The training schedule link on the right hand side of the blog has been updated. If you click there it will take you to the recently revised schedule that Michael sent out. This document has schedules for each ride, page through to find the one you need.

We are still working on updating some of the other blog information, a change from Google has delayed our progress.

Alex & Sam

Fantastic Four!

Our first Team ride out of South West Way Park this morning and what a great day for it!

As promised by the weather channel the temperature was 55 as we saddled up and headed south on Mann Rd at 7 am on this foggy Mother's day morning!

The traffic was light, the company was great with Nathan, Kate E and Sam joining me (half of our riders were mothers!)

So we did something a little different this morning and may give it a go on future rides, as it got us off of Mann Rd and out of the traffic, but I am getting ahead of myself. We rode out through Booklyn, with a short stop at 44 to shed a layer as we were well warmed up by then.

A quick trip to the top of Observatory and we were headed back to SWW in short order. I commented that it seemed like the hill had gotten easier as Sam and Kate made it look that way. :) We followed Bottom Rd out of Brooklyn and were quite pleased to have another hill when we made our left off of Bottom to head back in the general dirction of home.

We zig zagged through the country, crossed Centenary Rd and then completed the ride staying north of Centenary on the roads less traveled. Nathan and I got a case of the droppsies, with me dropping the mirror off of my glasses (recovered) and Nathan loosing his glasses. (so if you find a pair of glasses laying beside the road (on Paddock Rd) they are Nathan's.

We sort of experienced some precipitation, enough to mess up our glasses, but it really felt more like condensation from the fog to me. We stopped briefly somewhere along the route and broke chomps, for our Sunday morning communion (I thought I videoed the event, but messed it up, next time).

We ended up with almost 32 miles and a 14.5 mph average, with an ending temperature of 59! All in all a great ride with great company!

A Fantastic Youth Ambassador Event!

The JDRF Ride season is officially kicked off with a stellar Youth Ambassador event!!
We rode as a team about 17 miles to just sort of shake the kinks out before heading over to Woodland Bowl, where Tony, Danny, Kevin and myself grabbed a quick bite before the start of the kickoff.
I would like to start by saying, as great as the youth ambassadors have always been and as helpful and encouraging as all these great kids have been, I think that 2011 is going to be a year by which all of the following years will be measured. What a great group!! I believe that all of the Cure Chasers (with the notable exception of the Warpools who showed up with their custom vintage bowling ball bags) biked better than they bowled.
We are hoping to have several events like this through out the summer and all of the riders are looking forward to the cards and letters that we know will be coming.
A quick word about my new Youth Ambassador Garrett Smith. He is seven years old and was diagnosed just a little over a year ago.
He is an amazing young man and has decided to take this summer off from baseball so that he can put all of his attention into fighting for a cure. Really!!! Just and example of what this young man has already accomplished, he sold over 2000 of the JDRF paper sneakers,,,,, whoa.... that's right, over 2000!! It is not hard to believe after spending a very short time with him Saturday, his persuasive powers are amazing!!! Did I say amazing twice?
Garrett is already a real champion in the battle for the cure and I am very proud to have the opportunity to fight along side of him. It was a real pleasure to spend a few short hours with Garrett, his four brothers plus Tim and Kris his parents who I am sure are very proud of all their kids a great bunch!!
So I know that I have been long winded as usual, when Kimberly said that she was going to have me come up and say a few words, Danny was quick to remind me, "Just a few words please." :)
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So I will cut this off here with the promise that we will be posting more regular with the weather finally starting to improve!
I also would like to encourage all the other Cure Chasers to post about your YA experiences this last Saturday as by all appearances a good time was had by all!!

What a great weekend to ride!!!

7:30 Saturday morning, it was foggy and maybe even a little misty, but Lisa and Kate E showed up for our first "unoffical" JDRF ride of the season. We were very happy to be riding on the Monon as the visability was sketchy at best. So we started from the parking lot at the Jordan YMCA and headed north. We got lots of practice negotiating intersections, plus runners and walkers blocking the entire path and forcing us to work on our slow speed handling skills! The temperature actually was quite nice and we had a very pleasant ride all the way to the end of the trail at 161rst street in Westfield, where it terminates into a gravel bed that we promptly dubbed "The Alex Highway" in honor of one of the routes that we did last year when Coach Alex was trying to stretch us in preparation for our DV ride :) We made it back to the Jordan just ahead of the rain, thunder and lightening at about 9:15. The next day was another YMCA start point, as we met at the Anthenaum YMCA at 1pm for a spin class and Kate W decided that a road ride would better serve us as the weather was spectacular! So with sunny skies and temperatures at least in the high 70's we once again tackled the Monon, negotiating the Cultural trail to get to the southern most point. Today's group consisted of Kate W, Scott, Gary, Mark and Myself. Mark and Gary had already ridden from the northside to the spin class, so we just pointed them back the way they came. We had a great time catching up on lost time and again negotiating the various rolling road blocks that are typical of the Monon. We stopped and grabbed a bite to eat at a DQ that was just off the trail in Fishers (at least that is where I think we were) then said good bye to Mark and Gary. Scott, Kate and I pointed our bikes back the way we came and faced the Heinous headwind that Mark and Gary had told us about on our way north. We did a modified echelon to make a little better time as Kate and Scott had places to be and I had to work a fundraiser at Conseco last night.

Kate and I also discussed team nicknames for this year with 2 great names already

Scott "The Power House" Warpool

Gary "The Machine Tool" Martindale - I am sure other great names are to come through out the season!

Scott and Kate peeled off shortly before 16th street and I finished the ride just in time to change my cloths and head to Conseco with my lovely wife Melissa (who immediately scolded me for not wearing sun screen) WEAR SUNSCREEN EVERYONE :) When we got to Conseco, Nathan, Andy and his friend Cheryl were already there and chomping at the bit to start raising funds. We had a good night working with Paul in Pacer Combo, raised some more money for JDRF and enjoyed each other's company. I really enjoyed spending some quality time with my team mates and am looking forward to many more enjoyable rides like this through out the Season!

See you on the road soon!

Michael

And So it Begins

Last night was my first Nebo Ridge training ride of the season and it did not disappoint.

There actually are 2 groups this year (an A and a B that is more Honey Bee at least right now) and I hope this great training program continues to expand like this to include less advanced/agressive riders!

I started out with the A group, but I am so fat and out of shape that they blew me out the back (along with a few others about 12 miles in) Rob from Ridley bikes (pictured right >) rode with me for a while after we got dropped and we shortcut the 30 mile route so that we could ride with the A group again after they were a little less fresh :) and we had a great relaxed middle portion of our ride, while Rob filled me in on all the cool things that Ridley is doing. He had brought a bunch of demo bikes, so a lot of the Nebo guys were riding Ridley last night.

Check them out if you are in the market. Also, Rob was already familiar with the JDRF rides as he also services Mike Clarks shop up in Holland, MI

All right so here is the shout out gang. another Nebo ride on Thursday and I will be there, no matter the weather! Come on out and join in the fun, I'm looking forward to seeing all of you on the road this summer!

Peace
Michael

A New Year and a New Look

I Love the new look of the Blog!!!

I am very happy that I am getting to see my team mates during this off season at the various fund raisers.

I also am excited to get started training with them again as the month of January has been tough with work commitments and now a case of the creeping crud keeping me from participating in spin classes.

I was thrilled to send 2010 on it's way with a great New Year's Eve ride with Sam and Lisa, leaving out of SWW park. We had a beautiful day, a wonderful ride and great time together!

I talked to Tony last week at the Conseco Fund Raiser (he is the one who clued me into the fact that NYE might be a great day for a ride) and I understand that he was able to sneak away from his hectic work schedule and squeeze in a few miles that day as well.

See you all soon comrades and comradets!

Michael

I am looking forward to spending more time in training and on the road with the team over the coming months, Great Job in 2010 everyone!

Ride Pictures from the JDRF Office

RIDE PICTURES!


Click on the link below to view pictures that were taken throughout the weekend.

http://picasaweb.google.com/JDRFRIDEPIX/2010DeathValley#