Bike Riding Around Whistler

Day two at Whistler and B decided to spend the day with me while Greg tackled the slopes again.  We went bike riding around the lake and she even tried out the motocross bike course!

This kid is always up for an adventure!

Racing Goals This Year

As a family, we have officially tackled 48 states. Wow. 48 states! Our two remaining states are Idaho and Hawaii. And wouldn't you know it, they are also two of the most expensive states remaining. Hawaii will be last so that we can enjoy a nice long vacation to cap off this amazing challenge. But, Idaho? It's been tricky to plan. Therefore, I will add Idaho to this year's racing schedule and leave Hawaii for 2014...maybe late 2013.

Since Cleveland has such a fantastic running community filled with great racing opportunities, I will focus more on local races for 2013.

Right now, my wish list of races for 2013 looks something like this:

January - Not ready yet. I'll be working on getting off some of that *ahem* holiday weight!

February - local 5k snowshoe race. I have snowshoes, but if you do not, they will be renting snowshoes for $10. I might also try to join Megan for the Miami University Indoor Triathlon - 20 minute swim, 20 minute bike, 20 minute run.

March - Saturday, March 16 is the St. Malachai 5-mile run. I haven't run this race in about 7 years, so it will be nice to add it to the calendar.

April - Ragnar Race in Southern California with my sister-in-law, Kim. Three legs totalling 20 miles will be fun AND exhausting!

May - Kind of leaning toward the Capital City half marathon in Columbus the first weekend in May. I've heard so many good things about this race, plus I could talk my sister into cheering me along with my girls.

June - a small race possibly in Ireland, while on vacation, maybe? Kim, can I talk you into this?!

July - Biking in Idaho. I'm thinking Meg and I will tackle the Goldilocks 40 or 60-mile ride.

August - Lorain/Lakeview Spring Triathlon with Megan.

September - Nothing scheduled.

October - The CVNP Trail Series, which meets each Tuesday during October. Such a fun event series.

November - Cleveland Turkey Trot 5-Miler on Thanksgiving Day.

December - Holiday season break.

Happy Memorial Day!

Wonderful 18-mile bike ride with Greg through the Metroparks. About 14 miles into the ride, a police officer on a motorcycle pulled up next to Greg and me and explained we would need to pull over soon as the motorcycle brigade was coming through. I asked about how many there would be and the officer responded about a thousand. Sure enough, 15 minutes passed and we saw probably a thousand riders. Such a cool experience to see! I commented to Greg when we got home that I really smelled and needed a shower. Seriously, isn't that just the best? When you know you worked out hard enough that you know a shower is necessary?! Awesome morning.

30 Days of Biking - Week Two

Week 2 is working out nicely. Started off Monday with Bridget asking me where we'll be biking today. I love it. She asked if we'd be going around the neighborhood or in the Metroparks. I think I'm doing something right as a parent when my kid wants to have mommy time by riding with me. Swoon!

Day 9 was another chilly ride. It sure didn't feel like 52 degrees! Bridget tackled a full mile - Yay, Bridget!

Day 13 was spent riding 12 miles around Fort Collins on a fixie! So proud of Bridget for riding like a champ on her first time on a tag-a-long and kudos for Greg for towing the extra weight on a fixie!

Got home from the airport kind of late so we had to settle for one mile bike ride around the neighborhood at dusk.

Didn't bike everyday this week due to a couple long days of traveling during the week, but will be more consistent during week three!

30 Days of Biking - Week One

The first week of 30 Days of Biking ended on a good note. Between April 1-8 (Easter), I managed to get in 5 days of riding - interrupted only by working till dark one night and a meltdown by a nap-deprived 5-year-old on the other day. Not bad. And best of all, I've had so much fun becoming friends with my hybrid again. So here's my first week of this 30 Days of Biking challenge in pictures. As you can see, I co-opted the whole family into this challenge. One point to Robin!

Day 1 and it was chilly at 36 degrees. I had to bundle up with gloves and a down jacket for a quick ride down the street. Where did those summer temps go from last week?!

Day 2 didn't feel any warmer, but I managed to at least increase my mileage to a full mile. Watch out Schleck brothers, with training like this, I'm sure to win any race!

Day 3 included a trip to Starbucks with Megan for a piping hot green tea. She would never admit that she's enjoying this and voluntarily wanted to be a part of the challenge. 2 miles completed. I can feel the burn, wait...that's just me getting acclimated to the seat!

Skipped Day 4 due to work commitments, but managed to get the youngest daughter to join me on Day 5 for a nightime ride around the block.

Day 6 was the best riding day yet. I had the day off and managed to work in a 3 mile run AND a 6 mile bike ride. Very cold and windy on the ride, but just look at how blue the sky was - I just HAD to be out there!

Didn't get in a ride on Day 7, but Greg powered up the old Trek with the trailer attached and I joined on my Giant hybrid for Day 8 (Easter Sunday) and we tooled around the town, checking out houses and just enjoying the spring temps while knocking out 3 miles.

13 miles completed during week one. It's not too late to join in the challenge!

Fundraising Update and Thank You

I cannot thank everyone enough for their generous donations and support of my bike ride and for supporting the fight against cancer. I not only met my fundraising goal, but exceeded it! Now I just have to meet that dastardly physical goal - yikes!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Here's to a safe ride on Sunday. Can't wait to share the details when I return.

Until then, I will leave you with a funny (and clean) cycling joke:

A nerd was walking down the sidewalk one day when his friend, another nerd, rode up on an incredible shiny new bicycle.

The first nerd was stunned by his friend's sweet ride and asked, "WOW! Where did you get such a nice bike?"

The second nerd replied, "Well, yesterday I was walking home, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up to me on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, 'Take what you want!'"

The second nerd nodded approvingly, "Good choice. The clothes probably wouldn't have fit."

Dual Focus

The last couple of months I've been mostly focused on running, but that's a changin'! My training is in pretty good shape to handle the multitude of events coming up for October - one 5k, two 10ks, and a half marathon. As luck would have it, I am tentatively scheduled to bike my first 100k this year as well. This means a long ride on Saturday and a long run on Sunday (phew, I'm tired already!).

When we got into this whole crazy-travel-run-races thing, I wanted to make sure that we tried different types of events. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great accomplishment for someone to run a marathon in every state. But I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try races that scared me or required me to build upon a physical weakness (hello, swimming!). In the process, I have tackled triathlons, an adventure race (which included mountain biking and canoeing), several marathons, more than a dozen half marathons, and an assortment of 5k and 10k races. Even better, my daughters and husband have joined me along the way - whether it's running the races with me (including Meg completing HER first triathlon), going along in the jogging stroller, or participating in all this craziness by cheering me on to the finish line - it's been a family deal. But the one thing I've yet to complete is an all-cycling event. I am now signed up to tackle my first 100k cycling event, which has the added bonus of raising funds for a good cause.

Training for a cycling event presents interesting challenges in our rain-soaked state, which is experiencing a very wet fall. Thank goodness for spin classes and my CycleOps trainer. My Saturday morning spin class was nothing short of awesome. And it was the first time that I used my new Pearl Izumi cycling shoes. These shoes may be the ugliest fashion choice on the planet and I have appropriately named them my "Pat Boone's" because they are all white with black accents (please tell me you're old enough to know who Pat Boone is?). And yes, they were on sale. Otherwise, I would have bought something far less atrocious looking! But wow, what a difference in power. I felt like I was hardly exerting and could have cycled for hours! I have no idea what took me so long to make this purchase. Even funnier was watching me attempting to clip in and out - zero coordination on top of having no clue what I was doing made for a funny experience. So while training for the ride, I'll be blogging about both running and cycling and all the mayhem both bring to this family.

My question to you: if you could complete an event, other than in your regular sporting field, what would you complete?

Eddy's Sweet Corn Ride

For the last two years, I've had Eddy's Sweet Corn Ride on my wish list for local events. And for one reason or another (or just maybe lame excuses), I've never tackled the event. But this year, I signed up the Mister and he happily agreed (ok, maybe not happily, maybe more like he was resigned to do it). At any rate, we both had a wonderful morning cruising up and down some serious hills. And did I mention that the 25-mile ride we completed was my longest bike ride distance to date. But guess what? I had such fun doing it and found out that I was in better shape than I thought. So that means 25 is going to get crossed out and replaced with 30, 40 and hopefully a 50-mile ride. I couldn't believe how freeing it is to wisk downhill and I even rode down SEVERAL hills without gripping my brakes! And I rode up all the hills...not at a lightning fast speed, but I did it. I rode up one hill with two kids - seriously, they were like 12 and 14. We were a team. And that's what makes these kinds of rides so awesome.

Oh, and I learned to troubleshoot a bike emergency and I succeeded. My gears locked up. And since Greg had flown down the hill, he was nowhere to be found. I pulled over the the side, played around with my chain a bit until I figured out how "those parts work" and before I knew it, I was up and running. And boy did I have a lot of chain grease on my hands. Poor Violet, she looks like she got into a fight with preschool painters!

At the finish line, I asked some random stranger to take our picture. I told him where to tap on my iPhone to take the picture. He was completely insulted (but a good sport) and told me that he actually had an iPhone, too. Oh well, at least he snapped a nice pic of me and the hubs.

The finish line food was awesome - I had the veggie wrap, Greg had the pulled pork and we both had corn on the cob - Mmmmmm. Before departing, we picked up our "to go" ears of corn and sailed back to the parking lot. What a great way to spend a Sunday!

OWS and a Family Bike Ride

Sunday was a most excellent day spent with my family. The morning started off with my first open water swim in Lake Erie of the year. What drama, too! Megan, my swimmer who doesn't allow excuses, simply wouldn't let me whine my way to defeat. While I stood there ankle-deep in the water, she asked me if I needed my hand held to go further. Hell no, I can do this (a hand might be nice...just kidding). Then when I wasn't moving out there quick enough, she threatened me with her coming in. That's exactly why I brought her with me. This was also my first time in a wetsuit and it just didn't feel natural right away. I found it weird that I floated too much and couldn't get my strokes to work out. When I came back to shore to complain to Megan, she sent me back out and told me to keep trying. Smart advice because the more I went out, the farther I managed to swim and became a little more confident with each stroke. I'm not speedy, no sir, not me. But I found a little rhythm with 10 strokes, take a 2-3 second break, find myself, 10 more strokes. That seemed to work fine for this newbie. But since I do want to get better, I signed up for an open water swim clinic for beginners with Liquid Lifestyles. I'm very excited and hope that the more I get into the lake, the more comfortable I feel.

After a quick clean off, Meg headed to work and Greg, Bridget and I headed out to Peninsula to ride the Towpath. We had lunch at Szalay's Farm - mmmmm Roasted Corn on the Cob and fresh-squeezed lemonade. Picked up some yummy fruits and vegetables, finished off our ride by going out to the Boston Store, then back to Peninsula. Great afternoon logging 12 miles with the family.


Best popsicle EVER!

Riding Around Northern Ohio

On a recent library trip, I checked out Pedaling to Lunch: Bike Rides and Bites in Northeast Ohio by Stan Purdum. In his book, Purdum outlines 20 different rides for all levels of cyclists as well as lunch recommendations. No chain restaurants, just places with local flavor. I was surprised to learn that Greg and I have already tackled a couple of his recommended routes and I'm looking forward to a couple more. 

Three of the rides I'd like to tackle this summer include:

• Ride 1: Fairport Harbor to Geneva-on-the-Lake. The recommended route is 54 miles long and is “relatively flat” (right….). Purdam recommends the Sunrise Café, but I think I might want to try the Flying Burrito Cantina. Uhmm, on second thought, burritos coupled with a long ride might not be a good combination!

• Ride 2 (but his Ride 18): Strasburg to Baltic Loop in Tuscarawas and Holmes Counties. The route is 39 miles and categorized as “relatively flat to hilly.” I liked the points of interest Purdum included – Breitenbach Wine Cellars, Ragersville Cheese Factory and Broad Run Cheese House. This is a shorter ride with great Ohio scenery.

• Ride 3 (his Ride 11): Clinton to Sterling Loop covering Summit and Wayne Counties. The route is 34 miles and flat to hilly. The major point of interest is Rogues’ Hollow. According to Purdum, the Famous Seven of Rogues’ Hollow are Walsh’s Saloon, Mrs. Ducey’s Saloon, The Liebert Saloon, The Hole-in-the-Wall Saloon (also known as Devil’s Den), Murray Saloon, The Jenkins Saloon, and Smith Saloon. Best of all, this area in the 1860s and 1870s was “known and feared as a hangout for rascals and scoundrels.” The eating joint recommended is Bradley’s for the Bradley Burger and Burger Fries.

Pedaling to Lunch includes great little tidbits of Northeastern Ohio history found in the columns called "Changing Gears", historical pictures, course maps and course descriptions (turn-by-turn) as well as plenty of food offerings for even the pickiest of eaters.

So do you have a favorite route you like to ride? Do you stop off at a neat place - like an old ice cream shop or a little burger joint?