Ready for the Ride

A Quick Update

thomas — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:15:35 +0000

OK, I know I said that I was concentrating on running this summer, but as many of you know I had a small sports injury that kept me limping for about a month. The doctor said that I had to bike before I run to ease my joints back into the strain. So, I am going to go ride the Tornado Alley in Joplin next month. It’s 110 miles of heat, hills, and wind. I’ve been training for that ride lately and have developed my own recipe for a ‘poor mans power bar’ that I will share with you sometime. After this ride is over though, I must get back to running if I want to do the half marathon this fall.

Cheers,

Thomas

Where Thomas Went

thomas — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:15:37 +0000

I’m taking this year off of the MS Ride for a variety of reasons. I’ll probably ride next year, but this year I am focusing on running. In the mean time, I can still be reached by all the usual means. Plus, Team Different Spokes is still around this year (even though I am not the captain this time). Feel free to join the team.

Yes, the MS Ride is Over

thomas — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 01:12:00 +0000

This year was great. We had good weather and good times. Now it is time to start looking toward winter training…

My usual winter training is to ride my trainer once in December and then sit and watch TV until April. This year will have to be different though. I have decided to set a goal to run a half marathon next fall so I need to keep my endurance up and lose some weight starting about….now.

I’ll keep you all updated on how it is going.

Three Wasp Stings, 2 Flat Tires, and a Truck

thomas — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:28:59 +0000

This Labor day, my MS Ride team, along with several other riders, did a final training ride in the Independence, MO area. We have Rich to thank for mapping out the route for us. It was a very eventful day as the title suggests. Seeing how the MS Ride is this weekend, I will not scare you with all the problems we had but I will try to focus some posts on tips for new riders so when problems come up you feel prepared to handle them.

A Tale of Two Tail…Lights

thomas — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:06:26 +0000

I lost my tail light while riding on a rough road. The common wisdom when this happens is to go drive the same route at night and look for the blinking ditch to find it. Of course, the common wisdom does not hold when you aren’t sure what your route was. The good folk at the Bicycle Shack sold me the Mars 3.0 by Blackburn as a replacement:

This is a great light if you want to be seen. It’s got 7 super bright LEDs (5 on the back and 1 on each side.) It’s very bright, but the brightness is diffused a little from an angle, which means you won’t blind the rider behind you. However, it will be seen even in bright sunlight.

The guys at the shop had a tail light that was even brighter, but it looked like it would annoy other cyclists so I went with this one instead. The sage advice offered by Bert was to zip tie your tail light to your under-seat bag to keep it from falling off.

Yearly Update

thomas — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:26:19 +0000

I know I am a little later than usual for the yearly update e-mail, but it should reach you shortly (if it hasn’t already.) If you have not received the update e-mails before, and would like to, e-mail me and I’d be glad to put you on the list.

Memorial Ride

thomas — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:02:31 +0000

For those of you who don’t live in the KC area, there was an accident last week that claimed the life of two cyclists in the Longview Lake area. Larry and Sierra Gaunt were riding around the lake on a very popular route that I have ridden probably over a hundred times myself. My thoughts go out to there family. There was a memorial ride at the lake last night at the lake. I was unable to attend, but I have heard that over 600 cyclists showed up in the upper 90’s degree weather. The news reports that the victims were training for the MS Ride when the accident occurred. Please remember to watch out for cyclists when you are driving. There will be donations taken for the surviving family members at the upcoming cycling events in KC.

Hot Summer Riding

thomas — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 23:18:13 +0000

Today was hot, but the MS Ride is so close I had to get out in it for some training. I rode with the Bicycle Shack group this morning. There ride is always full of friendly people, if not a little faster than I prefer to go. I ended up with about 35 miles this morning.

Making the Website Pretty

thomas — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 03:37:27 +0000

Ann says that I should put a picture up for everyone to see. So, here I am riding into the MO State Fairgrounds at the 2006 MS Ride. It was a good day for riding. Unlike this week. It’s too hot to get outside much. I’m looking forward to some cooler weather.
I’ll send out my yearly updates soon, but I should let you all know that I reached my end of July goal for fund raising. Thank you to all that helped!

Welcome to the New Website!

thomas — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 23:18:15 +0000

I have decided to keep a training blog to keep myself motivated. You can still donate by clicking here.