First, Last Monday night Bikes Etc. Ride of the year...

So the ride went really well. Eddie, Kenny, & I went and man did Eddie do great! It was easily his fastest ride to date. He averaged around 18 MPH, and he has only been riding about a month! We went 32 Miles!! We left Eddie's house and rode to Bikes Etc. the ride was good we went down San Jose to the Acosta Bridge, Kenny didn't know that part and didn't like that he wasn't warned ;). He was on the Mountain Bike and did awesome as well.
The new wheels are awesome! They spin up so much faster and my average speeds are higher! I am thoroughly pleased!

New setup...

This afternoon Dana and I went up to Bikes Etc. to pick up my bike. I finally got my replacement rear wheel in which was upgraded from a Race to a Race Lite!! I also upgraded the front wheel to match! I upgraded my saddle to a Race X-Lite due to bending issues, and I love the New SRAM Rival Compact crank. Dana was looking at a 48cm Cannondale but she couldn’t make up her mind. We think we need to do some more testing before we know if she is really going to like road riding. I need to take her out so we can let her get the feel of a ride not just a parking lot test. I am at 950 miles so far and I am down to 307 on the home scale!! My doctors Appt. is Friday and would love to be at 299lbs!!!!! We will see!

Just Lunch even faster...

So this afternoon Jim, Kenny, & I did the lunch loop again which was day 2 for me and day 3 for Kenny! We again tried to beat our previous day and we did. Kenny was on the mountain bike again and we made it in 28 minutes. We could have gone a tad faster but we didn’t want to drop Kenny. He is a beast on the mountain bike! It was hot again @ 100°!! I think that I will take the weekend off and relax. I am planning on riding the Monday night Bikes Etc. ride with Kenny and Eddie.

Lonely Morning & Fast Lunch...

This morning I rode to work and did the short Bartram loop and then to work solo. I went hard and fast. It was dark almost the entire time and the weather was pretty muggy. At lunch Kenny and I rode the lunch loop and tried to break the 30 minute record. We did the loop in 29 minutes and he was on his mountain bike!! It was smoking hot; the temp on my computer was 102°!! So that was about 30 miles for today. Was the first time riding since the MS and I felt great!

MS-150 2009

So we rode the MS-150 and finished it, but not without hiccups! 7 miles into the ride on day one my crank arm decided that it didn’t want to be attached to my bike anymore and stayed on my shoe. I lost out on 19 miles of the ride catching SAG vehicles to the first and second rest stop trying to find a new crank bolt; the old one was stripped completely smooth!! After that we got on the way again. Eddie rode 30 miles and then left so that was his longest ride to date (He has only been riding 1.5 weeks)!! All the rest stops were awesome! Lunch was awesome; we had Firehouse Subs, Myoplex protein shakes, vitamin water, fruit, etc. The end of day one was amazing!! The feeling is unreal! Aaron fell at the finish line that we missed :), sorry Aaron.
Day 2 was far less problematic. Kenny & Eddie didn’t ride, but Jim, Aaron, Kevin, & I all rode with Neal. We rode together for about 3/4 of the day and then Kevin got a flat (Surprise!!!) We then lost Neal. Jim fell at one of the rest stops in the middle of the road. Today was only 65 miles, and day one was 86 miles. No lunch stop today but plenty of food. The finish line was amazing in St. Augustine!!! So many people! Dana was there with Kenny's wife and Aaron's wife, taking video and pictures. Bubba burger was there serving burgers, free beer, sides, and cokes, anything you can imagine! Kenny decided that he didn’t want to be completely left out on Sunday so he rode 2 miles from the finish and met us and rode the last 2 miles with us to the end so he got in the pictures!

Here are the links to the routes.
Day 1 Google Route
Day 2 Google Route

I ended up riding:
133 Miles
17.5 MPH AVG
33 MPH Max
7 Hours & 40 Minutes

Last ride before the MS 150...

So this morning Jim and I rode to work. It was cold as crap this morning! It was 60° this morning and by the time I got to work I couldn’t feel my toes and my hands were numb. I wore my normal shorts and jersey but had an Under Armor long sleeve gear shirt on under it. I will definitely need some warm clothes for the winter. The ride was our normal 24 mile ride from the back of Jims house and we went at a really fast pace today. Averaging 19 MPH total. But we had a 1.5 mile sprint from Baymeadows and Southside to Deerwood Park. We averaged 26 MPH for that 1.5 Mile stretch!!!! It was insane! Ate pasta for lunch the carbing has begun!!!

Evening ride with Neal...

Man it was crazy!! I rode the first half alone and then the second half was with Neal. We rode down Long Leaf Pine. Half of that road is closed, so it is really nice having 4 lanes to ride on! I averaged about 19-20 mph by myself. With Neal we averaged 22.5 mph. It was crazy! So that makes 50 miles for today since I rode 24 this morning and 26 and change tonight!

Morning Ride...

This morning I met Jim at the back of his house and we rode to work. Google Route Rode a total of 24 miles this morning. We went hard and fast, averaging about 19 mph. Tonight I will do a ride with Neal and try and burn myself out doing 32 miles.
We are all registered and ready to go with the MS150. I donated some of my donations to Kenny and Kevin were pretty close to $450 and we all 3 got the MS 150 Jerseys! Total we raised over $2000 total so far and it is still growing! Tomorrow night I plan on doings the bridges with Neal, then riding to work Thursday morning and taking the rest of the week to rest until Saturday morning.

Mickler's Landing and back...

So today Kevin, Jim, & I rode to Mickler's Landing and back. I rode from home and then back home, right at 50 miles! It was a good fast ride! I had no soreness or fatigue issues, and could have gone on longer.
Eddie got a Trek 1000 and has put some money into it and it is a really nice bike now!!! It looks sharp! Aaron bought a 2010 Trek 2.1 and it is also beautiful!

Ride 3 Wilmington...

Ride was good but a little short. It was late when I got started. Rode mostly alone tonight and did some exploring. Found some nasty plants called Stinging Nettle's, they are nuts!!! The instant that you touch them it is an instant burning sensation. It isn’t crazy strong just very fast and a little irritating. Got some more beautiful pictures! Will post them up soon!!
I returned the bike today. Bike Line, in Wilmington was awesome!! Everything from repairing the defective shock to taking care of a credit card problem!! I was very pleased and will without a doubt return for future business and will send future business.

Ride 2 Wilmington & 5 new rules for riding...

1. Be out of the woods be 6:45pm, Mother Nature hates all cyclist and wants us to get lost in the woods and die... in the dark!
2. A stream / creek (or "crik" as people from up here say) that flows down a mountain, on the last day of summer, regardless of how refreshing, clean, and nice it looks is freezing, even if your foot is only in it for 2 seconds!
3. Camelbacks are a necessity not a luxury!
4. Full suspension bikes work better when both shocks hold air!
5. That brownish / black colored mass in the center of the trail, no matter how it looks, because trust me it looks like a rock, or dirt etc, is really horse crap and shouldn't be ridden through under any circumstances!!!

10 miles, fast and short. Dont know if I will ride tomorrow, tired and it might rain.


That is all for now!! Off to the shower I go!

Ride 1 Wilmington...

Well all I can say is this sure isn’t Florida!!! This place is amazing!!! The views, creeks, hills, are all insane!!! There is some wicked stuff here. I rode about 3-4 hours and about 15 miles. I ran into a fellow rider on the trails who took me around some of the easy trails, then later on the way back to the hotel I ran into 2 more riders that took me on some hard core technical stuff that was out of control! I plan on going tonight also. I rented a Gary Fisher HI-FI Deluxe 29er from Bike Line here in Wilmington. They replaced the rear shock this morning because it wasn’t holding air. So it should be good tonight. I had to pump it up about every 2o minutes last night. I took some great pictures that I will post later on, with some maps! I will say this is the first time that I have been away from home that I was thinking that I would rather live here than in Florida!

Morning ride with Jim & Kevin, minus Kevin!

So this morning Kevin, Jim, & I were supposed to ride to work. I left a 5:45am so I could get to Kevin's house before he left so I could ride with him to Jim's house so I could get a longer ride in. Well about half way there I get an email telling me that he isn’t going to make it because a server is down. So I am glad I took my phone and looked to see what the message was just in case. So I got to Jim's house about 15 minutes early but that wasn’t a big deal. I went a little further than normal.
Google Route It was a fast ride we rode about 18-19 MPH AVG, from Jim's. To Jim's house I averaged about 16 MPH, total was 26.5 Miles
Lunch time me and Kenny rode our normal lunch ride
Google Route We averaged 18 MPH and went to the bank twice, once through the drive through. That’s 9.1 Miles.
So that’s about 35.5 miles today.
The MS150 is a GO!!! Nemours donated $1000 in our name so we can ride as the "Nemours Cycling Team"!! I am stoked!
Tonight Dana & I are going to the Comedy Zone to see David Allen Grier, should be a good time. We are getting ready to celebrate 2 years!!! I love her so much!

Morning ride...Or not...

So this morning I got up, got dressed, got on the bike and off I went! I got All the way to Racetrack RD and the Cemetery and boom the rain hit with fury! So I turn around and start riding back and it stops raining. So I’m thinking that I was at the edge of the storm and would just have a short 18 mile work ride. Nope about half way home it starts raining again. So I pull into the house on my way back by to get a plastic bag and it starts raining even harder! So I figure I am going to not see Dana much next week so I will just bring he bike in and go back to bed to spend some extra time with her. I rode 7.1 miles though and went the Gym at lunch time, so all is good!

2009 Endless Summer Watermelon Ride

Google Route
This was a long hard ride. Kenny, Kevin, Jim, Aaron, & I ALL completed this ride with awesome time! We averaged 18.3 MPH and had top speeds over 30 MPH, completing the ride in around 3 Hours & 40 Minutes, including 3 rest stops. It was a great experience! It was full of rain and rain and rain!! It was a torrential down pour for 3/4 of the ride. Then the sun came out and it was nice. All the rest stops were well stocked and the people were awesome! There were over 600 people preregistered! We had some crashes, bumps and bruises but it was an exciting first major group ride!
Next up is the MS 150. I am working on getting details lined up for registration and hope we will get it going soon!
Had a great weekend with Dana and was just plum wore out Sunday after the ride but luckily she understood, she rocks :)!

PCB Part 3

This morning I rode:
38.5 Miles
16 MPH AVG
36MPH Max
2 Hours 15 Min
Here is the GPS Map and Picture
Motion X iPhone GPS Map
Ride GPS Pic
Left a little late this morning, but I would have left later except Dana kindly reminded me with a kick every time I hit the snooze button. I rode the route in reverse of what I have been riding because I wanted to hit the bridge first thing so I could destroy it. It wasn’t as big as I thought and was hoping for more actually. I then had some chain problems and stopped at a Harley and RV repair shop and bummed some chain lube to un-bind one of the links. They were awesome and didn’t charge me anything. I then rode hard and averaged 18.5 MPH until my 21 mile break where is started heading East and the wind was kicking my butt so I only averaged about 14 on the way back. The weather was great and the beach views were nice as always.
Daniel will be having his baby today!! And I am the uncle! I can’t wait to get back into town to see Baby Luke! Dana is finally better and I am looking forward to having a nice day with her.

PCB Part 2

This morning I rode:
34.5 Miles
17.2 MPH AVG
23MPH Max
2 Hours
Here is the GPS Map and Picture
Motion X iPhone GPS Map
Ride GPS Pic
It was a good ride this morning. I could have ridden much further. I was feeling great! I was strong and composed. The weather was great and it didn’t get too hot, at the end of the ride it was only ~91°.
I finished Lance's book and it was a very inspiring story and I recommend it to everyone! Yesterday Dana & I rode about 9 miles together! I loved it. It was the first time we had ridden together in a while. I hope that she sticks to it and starts riding with me. If she does I would like to buy her a road bike. So for the rest of the week I hope that I can get up to about 50-60 miles.

PCB Part 1

So went for the first ride here in PCB. It was nice out this morning and I rode 20.5 miles. It was a fast hard ride one way and a grueling head wind ride home. I plan on doing 4 more rides this week skipping tomorrow and Friday. I am going to go up 10 miles per ride so I hope to be at 60 miles on Thursday so I can be ready for 68 on Sunday in the watermelon ride.
Motion X iPhone GPS Map
Ride GPS Pic
Went by one of the local bike shops here to look at maybe getting another tire... but I think that I will wait. I got some well needed rest and started reading, Lance Armstrong’s book; It’s Not About the Bike. It is a very good read so far.

Solo fast ride! Vacation starts today!

So this morning I rode the 16.5 Mile Bartram loop.
Google Route
I went fast and hard!!
16.5 Miles
18 MPH AVG
28 MPH Max
The weather was nice and the sky was beautiful! I rode with the new pedals, and the new helmet! The pedals are awesome I think that made one of the biggest differences. I got the Shimano A520 Road Pedals!! The helmet is a Giro Saros Red/White Helmet, it is super comfortable, and matches the bike! I ordered some new black side paneled Nemours riding team shorts today and a few more jerseys. So they should be here by the MS 150.
Vacation starts today! We leave at 2pm for Panama City Beach, all we have to do is go home, pack, and don’t come back until next Friday!

Long DARK ride

Rode this morning and met Jim at the back of his sub division. It was a beautiful morning. The moon and and the stars were still bright and the sun barely came up before we got to work!! It was DARK!!!!! Its about to start changing and not be bright early :(. I hate that time of year!
Rode 24 Miles
17 MPH AVG
28.6 MPH Max
1 Hour & 25 Minutes
When we pulled up to the office, we turned around and there was Aaron on his mountain bike in his Nemours Jersey! That was awesome!



Google Route
iPhone GPS Upload via Motion X