The End of the Outdoor Season?

Well today may just be the end of the outdoor season for me this year. Temps have plummeted and the winds have picked up making rides outdoors difficult. The one nice thing is that the winds changed directions, so now I have a slight tailwind on the way back from a ride. With that said, I hope the weather cooperates for a few more rides; but it is almost December, so I may be breaking out the trainer. Of course this also brings me to another point... I need to find a quiet way to use a cycleops trainer on the 3rd floor of an older apartment building.

Taking a Stand for the Environment

Water is essential to life. Clean water is also important. Many of us choose to stay healthy by drinking purified water, which normally comes in easy to carry half-liter bottles. I drink about 4 of these bottles daily, and the same is true for many others too. Little do we know, while trying to stay healthy by drinking bottled water, we are actually depleting natural resources and hurting the environment. According to filterforgood.com, "Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year. However, the U.S.'s recycling rate for plastic is only 23 percent, which means 38 billion water bottles - more than $1 billion worth of plastic - are wasted each year." This is just one of the many facts about using bottled water. Even if the bottles are being recycled, plastic bottles waste the limited resources we have.

The bottom line is that you and I do not have to be part of the statistics. I am making pledge to stop (or at least limit) my consumption of bottled water as part of the Filter for Good Campaign found on www.filterforgood.com.

Here is how it works:
Buy a reusable water bottle and a filter for at home. Simply filter the tap water that comes to your house and fill up your bottle. Now you can enjoy clean, refreshing water with a lower impact on the environment. I have been doing this for a couple days, and even Milwaukee water tastes great when it is filtered. Personally, I bought a new "Filter for Good" Nalgene Bottle, dusted off the one I currently own (for a backup), and bought a Brita Filter. All I do is fill up my bottles in the morning, refill the filter, and put it back in the fridge for later.

I really think this is a great way to stay healthy and to help the environment. Who knows, maybe I'll use these filters at the races for my bottles so I don't need to bring as much water along!

If you want to know more, check out the website at: www.filterforgood.com and take the pledge.

Reason #5280 to Ride a Bike: No Parking Tickets

Well, I knew it would happen eventually. Especially with the number of "parking checkers" in the area. Everyday I watch as the little Euro Jeeps run around ticketing for anything from parking to close to a driveway to expired meters. Last night I decided to drive to campus and park on the street as usual. I plugged money into the meter and was off. I learned last night that the police check parking until 9:00 PM not 8:00 PM as I had originally thought.
As I walked back to my car at 9:20 PM, I saw it. A cute little envelope sticking out of the hood of my car. The paper said, "City of Milwaukee Parking Violation." I think the moral of the story should go something like... "Always pay until 9:00, not 8:00 PM"... More realistically it might say... "Ride a Bike to avoid $20 parking tickets."

Lesson Learned.

Wind: Good for Some...

As the afternoon came, so did some warmer temps. So I decided to get out and put in a few more miles. As usual I headed North on Lake Dr. and turned around at the lions to head back south. The weather reports I read before I left said 3 MPH Winds... Yeah Right. Nothing like a pure headwind to greet the return journey. I knew that this happens every time so I just bit the bullet, hit the drops, and hammered. It was nice to see all of the other cyclists gliding along with the wind as I pushed as hard as I could up the hills. If anything the wind has helped me with some strength training. I have been pretty surprised what regular riding can do for the legs. As I came back into town, I took a turn through Lake Park and Down to Lincoln Memorial Dr. As I took the right turn onto Lincoln Memorial, it was like someone put the blowers on full. The wind coming from the lake was intense. About a mile down the road there is a beach and out on the water were five or six sails way up in the air.
As I neared the beach, I could see wind boarders (Or whatever it is called) out on the lake. The wind may suck for me but for them it was perfect.
So I pulled into the parking lot and decided to take a quick break and a few photos. It is really amazing to look at how much air these guys get. One by one, they took turns blasting towards the shore and catching some huge air. From where I was it looked as some of these guys were getting 3-5 feet out of the water.
So after I get sick of riding (Yeah Right!) I will take up wind boarding!

A Nice Day for a Ride

Today, in an attempt to keep on the bike, I got out for a beautiful 22.2 mile ride on Lake Dr and Lincoln Memorial Dr right off of Lake Michigan. The sun was out and shining, the wind was calm, and the temp was a little cool at 61, but that is perfect riding weather in my book. The legs are feeling really good. I think the break after Sheboygan was just enough to let my body recover. I am sure not having a strong head/side wind helped too, but I think it is mostly the recovery. For the ride itself I headed down Lake Dr to the lions and then back in towards the apartment, but I felt really good, so I headed in through the Lake Park entrance and cut down onto Lincoln Memorial Dr. That was probably the best move I have made yet. There was a bit of a wind from the lake, but otherwise the sun was shining bright and the view was awesome! So, I rode around a little bit and headed back home.

Hopefully, I can get another ride in on thursday too, the forcast looks a lot like today's and the week is looking to be a lot less stressful than last week. No Midterms and only One Paper due!

2007 is in the books (Officially)

This Saturday was the WORS Banquet, the official end to the season. Heather and I headed up to Steven's Point to the fine Sentry World Golf and Conference Center for a buffet style dinner, awards galore, and of course the huge raffle! A bunch of the guys from the team showed up for a good time and good eats. We had a good number of top overall places in both the marathon series and the cross-country series as well. The team ended up second in the team points and competition this year, but now it is on for next season. Also a huge shout out to Mr. Devroy taking an overall in his first year of racing!

Busy with school but still on the bike

School has been pretty crazy since Sheboygan, but alas I had some time today for a short ride and to get around to updating the blog. I guess I should mention the last race of the WORS season...

Sheboygan went pretty well. I went in with about 100 miles of training and feeling decent other than feeling a little sick. I found out just a little bit ago that the Banquet Pot Pies were recalled for salmonella, so I am putting two and two together and linking my nausea to the little pies that I ate that weekend.















At the start line I was feeling pretty good, as usual I was surrounded by day racers and the top 3 guys in my age class decided to hang out too... At the Goooooooo! I was to the front half of the group and stayed about there to let the others battle it out for the 20, 10, and 5. As we came through more of the course my predictions were correct, most of the guys killed themselves, and I mean Killed themselves. As I passed a few more riders I caught a glimpse of what could be my chance at a podium for the first time in sport... one of the top riders, had dropped out of the race with a technical. and a little ways ahead were the other two I was worried about. So I grabbed a wheel and hung on pretty easily. I could tell right away that I was in great shape for this race, and if there was a chance of getting on the podium this year, this was it. The equilizer did its magic on the first time around. I was set to climb it, but everyone else was not, so I took the bike and ran it. I got back on the bike and caught back up with one of the guys in my class. The second lap went pretty well, caught plenty of guys and was still feeling great. Came up on the equilizer this time and got most of the way, but just could'nt find that extra push I needed so I hopped off and ran again. Going into lap three, I was still feeling great. I was still right behind one of the guys in my class, but I was starting to get the feeling that I could be doing a lot more. I held off for a little while and then up ahead was a good opprotunity to try and put him behind me. I got set and looked for just enough room in the single track and put it in high gear. I came around from the back and passed 5 guys like nothing even happened and took off as quickly as possible. I shot through the creek crossing and came around the sharp turn and then I catch a glimpse of the guy I was trying to loose. As we left the single track he was gone. I was feeling a little tired from that last attack, but I pushed hard and caught another wheel. As we neared the equilizer I knew I would have to really push it to get ahead in this last leg. I gave whatever I had and hammered up to the equilizer. I sped about halfway up the equilizer and ran. At the top I did one of my best running mounts ever and struggled to get back in the race. To my disappointment I saw that another 19-24 guy was just in front of me. The race was on. I heard the Fat Cats guy yelling 4 minutes to go and I knew it was now or never. I gave it everything I had left and held onto to the wheel in front of me all the way through the finish line.
Final race results show that I was 9th place in my age group, only 6:45 behind the winners (about 3 day racers). I am definetly happy with the result though. I think with a few better move I would have done a little better, but that is for next year.

As far as overalls I am locked in at 7th place which is pretty awesome, especially given my schedule this year.

After Sheboygan things got pretty nuts for school. Suddenly I was facing a two-day midterm, 5 papers to turn in for various classes, and a calculus exam too. Needless to say I got on the bike for the first time today since the race (about 1.5 weeks if you were counting).

The ride was a nice and needed break from studies. Yesterday was the momentary end to my stress. Today was a little rainy at first but the weather got really nice just in time for me to head out. I was aiming for a short ride so I went out on Lake Dr. and turned around at the Lions (which mark the end of Lake Dr.). Heading back I found that the wind had shifted, giving me a full on headwind. The gusts were so powerful I thought I was coming off the bike a few times. I managed to keep the rubber side down and got back to the apartment which made for about 19 miles, so not bad at all.

Now It is back to work and waiting for the drive to Stevens Point, Saturday for the WORS Banquet.