Tuesday, September 14, 2010

2010 MS 150 a success!

Well the weekend is over and what a great one at that! We had a lot of fun sporting the new official yellow Schlafly MS150 jerseys. There were comments to us that we were the best looking team there, what a compliment. Stay tuned for more details and GPS data from the weekend!

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!

This morning Jay and I set out for what we planned to be a 65 mile ride. That alone was going to be a new personal best for me.

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

It has been a great few weeks for me on the bike. I finally placed 3rd at the MO State Crit Championship with 1st place just out of my reach by a few feet. It was a tough sprint at the end but I managed to pull off a 3rd place finish. I went on a breakaway for about 4 laps and blew up. If I would have had the energy to sprint I would have won, no doubt.

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!

Happy Friday!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Hot, Hilly, Windy, & Lonely

This past Saturday I decided that I was going to go out and spend sometime in the saddle. Since we only have 7 weeks to the MS150, I planned a route from my house in Wentzville, to my Mom & Dads house in Lake St. Louis. The route came out to be 50 miles, and had 935 ft of climbing. Which is just a few hundred feet short of the amount of climbing that we will do over 100 miles when we ride the MS150.

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...

I decided to do the Peach Pedal Trailnet ride in Marine, IL on Sunday. It was a good way to get in 53 miles and the day did not look to be too hot. Unfortunately for some people, the heavy rains on Saturday night put a bit of a challenge into the ride. There was gravel on a lot of the turns, that had people a bit upset. I figure if you slow down and are aware of the situation there is nothing to worry about. No issues here! The bigger obstacle was water across the road in two spots. The first was a low water bridge crossing that looked to rarely get wet. The water was 6" to 8" deep and moving fast. Plus there was mud on the road on both sides of the bridge. Most people turned back to look for an alternate route, we picked up the bikes and walked across. It was a good way to cool off. We came to the second one at about 40 miles. The water was across the road between two corn fields, again about 6" deep. I did not get off the bike for this one, just pedal across, like I was a kid again riding after a good rain. I got just as wet as walking since me feet would go into the water at each downstroke of the pedal.

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 past few weeks have been tough to get out. Since Makenzie is here I have to maximize my ride time. I have been hitting the Thursday Momentum group ride almost every week. The past few days I have gotten in some good ride time. Thursday momentum, Friday Babler hill training, Saturday Schlafly group ride, Sunday MTB ride with Aaron.

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

Well Makenzie is here! She was born Tuesday June 15 at 5:53am. She has taken up quite a bit of my time and I wouldnt change it for the world! I have managed to get in some quality bike rides. I have raced 3 times since and had a few good Momentum training rides.

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

Well the baby has not arrived yet so I have been trying to get in as much riding as possible. My training level stepped up quite a bit lately. I have been able to push harder and hold that for longer distances. I reached my max mph average last thursday at 22.6 mph for 30+ miles!!!!! Hopefully I can continue some sort of training when I can, i wont have the unlimited amout of time anymore.

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

Today was a rest day for me. I had been riding pretty hard for the past 10 days. I rode 7 out of 9 days, and yesterday was a recovery ride for 30 minutes on the rollers trying to get some fresh blood into the leg muscles without getting tired. Ever since I bought the new bike, I have been riding the hell out of it! We finished a 66 mile ride on monday with just shy of 19mph average. Not to bad this early in the season, with some big hills also! Not to sure of my riding schedule for the next few weeks, any day we will be welcoming in our daughter to this world. We cant wait!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Monday Mueller Ride

Today was my 3rd monday mueller ride. My goal is to one day keep up with the very fast race pack, the cat 1-3's. Once you hit about 5 miles it is hammer down. I made it today till mile 8.5 and slowly fell off. It was hot as hell and I had been working out in the sun all day. Not an excuse, but I was tired. I tried talking myself out of riding today but figured dont be a pussy and get my ass off the couch and go ride. I feel much better now.

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

Brad racing at the O'fallon Gold Cup!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Friday, March 26, 2010

Putting in the effort

Well its that time of the year that we get all excited to get out and ride our bikes in the nice semi warm weather, except for Nathan and Lindsey. Everyone else on the team has been on a ride with me sometime this year I believe. I have been trying to put in as many miles as possible. Especially since the MTB race season has already begun and the next race is two days away, hence the reason I am sitting at my computer resting and not out riding.

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!

We have setup an official "Schlafly Cycling" MS150 team this year. Please follow the link and sign up. We are hoping for 20 plus members this year. Lets do all we can to reach our goal!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/MOSBikeEvents?team_id=203835&pg=team&fr_id=12981

Jay

Friday, March 12, 2010

Training Update

Well the weather is getting warmer and it has been great to get outside and ride! I am pretty tired of riding the training rollers in the basement, getting up early every Saturday morning to run and go to spin class, and to spend countless hours in the gym on the treadmill, stair climber, or bike.

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!

Today Jay and I decided to take advantage of a rare nice day so far this year. With temps in the 50's we would have been stupid to pass it up. Jay was tired from the last couple of days of spinning class and other workouts. So I figured it would be a good opportunity to be able to ride with him instead of far behind him. I had been riding on my indoor trainer for the past month, and was getting very tired of looking at my basement walls while I peddled to nowhere.

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

Happy new years to everyone!! Brad and I rode Lost Valley today. We begun the ride at 2pm with a temp of 18 and a wind chill at about 5-8. It was very chilly but once you get past the first few minutes and start climbing a hill the body heat quickly warms you up. This is the 2nd year that Brad and I broke the new year in with a ride. Only one lap today at a steady pace, both of our feet started to get cold with about 2 miles to go. The trail was frozen solid and Brad started off the ride by sliding on a sheet of ice and falling directly on his knee. Not bad for 100 yards into the ride. I hit a rough spot about half way through. Started getting very hot and cold, with tunnel visio, and started shaking. I had to stop to grab a powerbar. I didn't eat lunch and wasn't feeling well at all. Once the food kicked in I felt a little better, but was still struggling to keep up. We finished the doubletrack section with a sudden burst of snow shooting right into our faces. Pretty cool to ride in snow. We may ride tomorrow but not sure.
Until next time
JW