Welcome to the schlafly cycling team's blogspot page. Please post about any ride we have done, race you have been involved in, or just anything in general. We would love to hear your thoughts about each ride. Or post about enjoying your favorite Schlafly beer after your ride.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
2010 MS 150 a success!
Please click on our link at the top right hand side of the main page and see how great Lindsey did on creating a website designed specifically for our Schlafly Cycling Team. Picutres are already up and a calendar of events will shortly be added with future team rides, and charity rides.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Carbing up after a new personal best!
We left my parents house in Lake St. Louis at 6:00am and rode up through St. Paul and then continued on to the Mueller Park area in St. Charles. We stopped at the Motomart and got some more drinks. Than we went back pretty much the way we came.
When we got back to Lakes St. Louis we decided to go and get the 70 mile mark. We only had 4 more miles, so we pushed on.
Jay and I talked about our first ride together about a year and a half ago. Because I was not in the greatest shape, we went 5 miles and turned around and went back for a whooping total of 10 miles.
Its amazing to me how far I have come in such a short period of time. Thanks Jay for your motivation and help over the past year! And thanks for pulling me today! Out of the 70 miles I think I pulled for about 1 mile, and I'm not joking either!
Aaron
Friday, August 6, 2010
Training
I put in a request to move up to cat 4. I was approved and now I will be racing with a faster much more talented field. Nothing against cat 5, its a great learning experience and pretty fast also. My last race was at 23.5mph with some hills. So I cannot wait to get my ass ready for cat 4.
I have been doing a lot of Thursday Momentum team rides. Yesterday was my fastest time yet. 23.1 mph for 30 miles with a ton of rolling hills. My previous best was 22.4 so a big improvement. I also rode the monday mueller ride and kept up with the fast guys and even contended for the final sprint, coming in around 7-10th place. It was a big accomplishment for me, considering the last few times earlier in the season I was usually dropped about mile 10-12. I am happy
I am putting in some good quality miles, I hope you all are doing the same.
Shooting for 50 tomorrow through the hills of St. Paul. And Sunday morning I am going to help my good old buddy Aaron complete his first ever metric century. If I can talk him into it, we may do 75, but he doesnt know that yet!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Hot, Hilly, Windy, & Lonely
So I got up early because it was going to be one of the hottest days of the year. I had a quick bite to eat, and off I went. The ride was pretty uneventful. I was glad to see how many people were out riding even though it was insanely hot! The only down point was that it seemed like every time I was climbing a hill, the wind was blowing straight in my face. That made for a long day!! All that wind blowing in my face finally caught up to me at mile 40. Both of my legs started cramping, in the same exact spot. So I got off the bike and did some stretching and kind of just relaxed for a few minutes under a big shade tree. Once I got back on I was ok, and I finished up my ride at a pretty easy pace. It took me about 3 hrs and 20 min. I had fun, but riding is definitely better when there is a group to help drag you home!
Peach Pedal ride in Marine, IL, gravel and water...
53 miles in just under 4 hours of riding, we had a 13.5 average. I felt good, but could not imagine that being the halfway point of a century. I better log some serious miles before the MS!!!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Hot weather
The Saturday Schlafly group ride was good. It consisted of Jeff, Aaron, Doug, RJ, and myself. The goal was to take and EASY 30 mile ride. Well Doug wanted to push the pace so of course I had to. We ended up backing down a bit and enjoying a beautiful morning in St. Paul. 30 miles at 17mph was a decent day, sort of relaxing for me since most of my rides lately are 30 miles and at least 22-23 mph.
Friday i went out to Babler park by myself to put in some torture. The hills out there are sweet! I only rode two laps, had a long tough day at work and was walking up and down hills all day. HUH what a great time to ride hills after a hard day at work! Ended up hitting 49.8 mph down hill. I still want to hit 50 there!
Sunday, this morning, Aaron and I went out to Indian Camp Creek for what was supposed to be a good MTB ride followed by a good easy road ride. the roads out there are very nice and very little traffic. Well about 10 minutes left in the mtb ride the thunder and lightening started rolling in. The rain started coming pretty good but we were in the tree packed trail. Once in the open field I turned on the afterburners and sprinted to the car trying to get out of the nasty weather. That was the fastest myself and Aaron put our bikes on the rack and we said "see ya later" and got the hell out of there. Usually we sit and bullshit for a long time after a ride, but today it was a matter of seconds.
keep riding!
Jay
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
I tried to race the Missouri State MTB championship race. I was at the start line and felt great. The horn blew and up the steep ass hill we went right off the start. My Heart Rate went throught the roof very quickly. This was my first cat 2 race on the mtb and I was pumped. I was trying to mash it up the first hill and tried to recover on the flats just by the start line. We headed up Grotepeter and i turned the corner to head up the steep technical climb. I shifted down to and easier gear and started cranking on the pedals. About 5 turns of the cranks and BAM there goes my chain. Damn thing snapped and my race was over. 1.4 freakin miles into it and I was done. I had nothing to fix it with so I rode back down the hill and watched the rest of my Momentum team try and finish the race.
Next race was my first ever road bike race. It was the Tour de Grove. A 3 mile circuit race. I was nervous as hell not knowing what I was getting into. the horn went off and there we went. The pace was very very slow off the start. I told myself to let some other idiot do all the work and lead the pack. Well I didnt follow my plan. I ended up out front for a good portion of the race, doing a lot of the work and spendning all my energy. Ryan, Dogfish Racing and member of Schlafly, went out on a break at just the right time and passed me while I was trying to rest. I tried catching him but my legs were not there. I ended up finishing 8th out of 16.
My next good ride was the Thursday momentum group ride. I was up front the whole ride with the crazy fast cat 3/4 guys. My average speed was 23.4mph for 30 miles.
This past sunday I raced in the Webster Groves Crit race. The field was bigger and pretty fast. I was seriously sore from the past few days and I could not get my legs to feel good or loosen up. About half way through Brad rode up next to me and asked how I was feeling. I told him I feel like SHIT!!!! Then we passed the start finish line and they said 3 laps to go. All of a sudden I felt good again! I went out on a solo break and got caught very quickly! I just used up a ton of energy for nothing. With 2 laps to go, 3 of us Momentum guys went out together on a break and the same damn thing happened. We were spent. With about a 1/3 lap to go I passed a lot of people on the backstretch and ended up in 8th place out of 30. Not a bad result considering my legs were fried at the start line! By the way they still hurt now. I think it has to do with very poor nutrition before and after my hard rides. I used to eat and drink a lot right after the ride and everything would be fine the next day, but the past 3 rides I didnt eat or drink anything and I am paying for it.
Keep riding and updating!
Jay
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Update
I hope everyone is riding or doing something to better their fitness, not much time left before the MS 150. 100 miles two days in a row!
My goal for the ms150 is to ride the first day hard, maybe not stop unless i need to fill up water and get a quick snack. Goal is to finish day one in 5-5.5 hours. Hopefully hold a 20+mph the entire time.
Day two will be a complete group ride. I will stay with whoever wants to ride together, no time limit or goals, just to help anyone finish!
Goals may change, just tentative plans!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Rest day
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday Mueller Ride
It started off absolutely no wind at the start. It continued with very little wind until about the half way point. Then the wind kicked up to about 15-20 mph, either head wind or nasty crosswind. I had a terrible time, by myself, trying to get to 16 mph into the wind. The few stretches the wind was at my back i was cruising at 25-28mph. wow what a difference. Ended up today with a 20.2 average. My worst out of the 3 times but it was definitely the hottest and windiest conditions yet. So I will take it.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Putting in the effort
So far we have taken advantage of the good weather. I have been hitting the mtb trails pretty hard lately and even some gravel road rides to get some good long hill training in. The only problem is that I tend to overdue it. Riding about 12 out of 14 days was a bad choice. I needed rest and didnt give my body any, as a result my body shut down and became sick. So I took a much needed 6 days off and picked up right were I left. We have gotten in some really good road rides also. Not to many long distance ones yet but a lot in the 20-30 mile range. It is hard when the sun goes down so early.
Good news to report, Brad picked up a sweet new Giant road bike. Great decision for him, the old Lemond was a bit ugly in my mind, but he liked it and that is all that matters. Aaron is coming on strong as well. He believes that he is in better shape already this year then at the end of last. He has put in countless hours on the trainer while there was snow on the ground and to cold to ride outside. Whatch out for Aaron! Mary picked up a new Salsa Mamacita 29er!! I am glad to see another 29er out there, get rid of the small wheels! I hope she likes it. Doug finally got fitted for his road bike, which was way out of whack from what i understand. He should be ready to roll now. Plus with that awesome new headset and carbon handlebars on the Superfly carbon 29er, he should be ready!
No excuses for not having time to ride! Doug and I rode last saturday at 5:45am with the lights on. That was awesome. I bought a new set of lights and was itching to try them out. I am very happy with the set that I bought. Everyone should try a night or early morning ride!
Enough for now
Jay
New MS150 team!
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/MOSBikeEvents?team_id=203835&pg=team&fr_id=12981
Jay
Friday, March 12, 2010
Training Update
The past few weeks have been great! Got a few good rides in with Aaron, one was after a 1 hour spin class followed by a 4 mile run, then a 20 mile bike with A. Brad and I have had a few good quality rides on the road, Jeff went with us once I believe. I had a great ride with Chris Stitz, a bit faster than the others but what else would I expect from an Expert class rider. The only problem with this time if year is that I get to excited to ride outside and cannot turn down the opportunity to ride.
I tried to ride Lost Valley last weekend but some spots were very sloppy. Needs some more time to dry out! It is the start of themountain bike race season this weekend,the UFD series now. I raced St Joe last year in the beginner division and took third with Jason Pryor takins second and KeithWeinkein taking first. This year I have to race sport or marathon with the faster crowd which will be good for me!!! It will only make me faster! With all the rain I am a little up in the air if I wil make the 1.5 hour drive to ride a mudfest.
I have been riding a lot lately and working hard in the gym so I hope it pays off! I am feeling a little sinus infection or cold coming on, it usually only happens to me when I train to much and don't give my body enough rest, typical me.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Finally a nice day!
We did 20 miles around Lake St. Louis, it was a nice up and down ride. The temperature was never an issue, and it was actually kind of nice. The training that I have been doing has helped out somewhat, and it was good to be able to stay with him on the flats. The hills are another ball game. Until I drop some serious weight I have a feeling that I will always struggle on the hills.
But, I am just happy to finally get out on the road and enjoy riding!
Friday, January 1, 2010
New Years Day ride
Until next time
JW