Monday 03 30 09

Out riding around 5:40 until a little about 7:30. Good riding. Did some hill work. Legs feeling strong!

Newest sponsor coming in! Wyndham Riverfront Hotel. They will be providing a room and showers for the riders who need to take a break. Thank you Robin and Wyndham Hotels!

This is getting really exciting now! A huge batch of letters will be dropping in the next few days.

Thanks everyone!

Life is soooo good!

Sorry!

Sorry folks! Didn't do well at all on the blog this week huh? I'll do much better this week even if they are short.

I went to church today then headed to the house while Terri went over to Memphis to pick up Em at the airport. Air tickets are soooo much cheaper out of Memphis than Little Rock!

I went out and rod a tempo ride this afternoon but had to be back at church for a video run during the evening service. I bust ed out the door and came home, changed clothes and hit it again on the bike. This time it was 2 blocks away on Oakridge hill. It's a great hill for repeats. That last repeat about blew me.... but it was the only way to get home. So up the hill I went. I even had a couple of neighbors cheer me on! What a little love can do! HA!

I got a buzz haircut Friday evening and I forgot how good that double sided tape sticks the cochlear implant to my head. I'm going to look like I have mange (sp?) from pulling what little hair I have left out.

It's coming down to the wire. One month from Wednesday will be the 24 hour ride. Am I ready? Almost. The funnies thing is that I'm worried that no one will really want to ride with me because I have to keep it slow to last 24 hours. But as hard as the ride itself? I'm more relaxed going into this ride than any ride I've done. I have a good feeling and something about it being local just makes it icing on the cake.

This Saturday is make it -- break it Saturday. Pray for good weather. I will be on the bike from sun up to sun down in training. 12 hours. I then have to turn around Sunday and get more hours in. The goal is set at 18 hours on the bike in 2 days. I'm really cool with it. As long as everything on the homefront it good then I'm at ease and can ride all day.

Life is good!

Now that was a fun weekend!

Woke up Saturday to cloudy skies. I'm supposed to ride! Flipped on the weather to see rain heading this way but they are saying it's not making it to the ground. So where's it making it too? I went ahead and got ready and just as I start to go what happens? Yep, you guessed it, it starts to rain. It was just light but enough to get everything wet. I'm bummed then I look out of the front door and it's light that way. Yes! I go ahead and drive to the ride instead of riding to the ride just in case. No one wants to ride home in the rain.

Got to the rid and no rain! It was the Carti training ride. Always a fun group. I went with the B Group this time after the 16-18 mph crowd went nuts last time. The whole ride seems to have busted apart so I rode with different folks.

Got lucky and the Trek demo truck was at Burn's Park so I stopped to say howdy to the guys. Richard who owns Arkansas Cycle and Fitness was there and the guys talked me into riding a very nice Trek road bike (Madone (sp?)). Oh wow! That was a nice bike. New shifting set up!

So I rode back towards the car and there was a peace rally going on. Well you know me, gotta stop and check it out. The rain was just starting but not bad. Listened to a couple quick speeches and then a musician got up and I bid farewell to Mike who i had been riding with and the rain came down! I got to the car and yep, it was great timing.

Today was church, then a cook out for a homeless shelter then 3 hours of riding. Fun stuff! Seriously nice ride.

Ok, the IPhone! I love it! i haven't even gone to the app store yet and I'm just amazed what this phone does. I can hear fine with the CI but I can plug it in direct to the hearing aid and whoa! Super crisp and clear.

Life is good!

IPhone ... IRide ... IHear

Yes, I broke down and bought an IPhone tonight! Oh this is deadly! I've only had it a few hours and I'm afraid if you took it away I would fall on the floor, curl into the fetal position and sweat and shake! 15,000 applications to add on!

Plugged the bad boy straight into my hearing aid. As crisp and clear as the IPod music.

I'm in love!

I know I said I was moving everything to the other blog but nah...

Crazy Train

Training is going well! Out there every day now.

Finished up Sunday afternoon with a great ride!

Monday afternoon I cranked it out with an old pal. Both of us had batteries go out on our computers so we had no idea how fast (or slow) we were going but the legs were tired by the end of the ride so we had to be doing something.

Tuesday afternoon I barreled out of the office and headed down to the sub (as in submarine) and hit the trail. Met up with all my pals at Cook’s Landing for the 6pm Fast Girls Slow Guys ride. I was a complete blast! I missed riding with them. I had sort of lost my legs for awhile for their speed. Still lost the A Group when we hit the open road. They are about 20 years younger than me and skinny as a rail. It is a beautiful thing to watch about 20-30 bike rolling out for a fun ride.

I spotted a group of guys coming over a hill and they were smoking fast. No kidding! FAST! I asked one of the guys in our group who that was and it’s a local racing club called Nitro. I think it’s the Competitive Cyclist club. This is one of those “Ride with the big dogs or sit on the porch”. Loved watching them ride.

Plotting out which way the loop will be for the Gears 4 Ears (G4E) ride Both directions have it’s pros and cons.

I’ll be on KKPT Point 94.1 at 8am on Thursday April 23rd. That’s a week before the ride! Their morning show is a riot! Can’t wait!

The registration forms will be on the ACH (www.archildrens.org) very soon. This is the first time I’ve ever had a registration form for a ride that I coordinated so making sure everything is correct.

Here are some more details of what’s going on with the ride:

There will be a phone number posted in several places that you can call/text on the day of the ride to find out where on the trail we are so you can jump in. We will be at the Murray Park Pavilion 1 & 2 around 6pm for 15-30 minutes. There is a great picnic and maybe a band playing that is part of the ride. Yes, you can come down and eat and/or ride.

Remember you can ride as much or as little as you want. You do not have to ride 24 hours.

To donate visit: www.archildrens.org/GearsforEarsDonation

Hey friends and family... I need to ask a favor. I'm going to be blogging on the Gears 4 Ears blog from here until after the ride. So go to this address...

www.gears4ears.wordpress.com

There are about to be a lot of updates plus you can subscribe to it and when I update it will send an email to you.

Saturday stuff

Rode a little this morning then over to Little Rockers Marathon... yes, dressed as a rabbit. While waiting to the start a guy who is the head of another race in town called the Dino Dash asked me if I would help them and ride in front as the rabbit. What do you think I said? "Sure, whatever you need!" Crazy stuff.

So the gates open and off go the kids. I look back and there is a girl right on my tail. I speed up and I look back again... there is a girl, the same one, right on my tail. We are going 13mph! She slowly falls back and a young man is now the front. We never drop below 10mph. He never turns that "runners red face" and he never seemed to be winded. At the home stretch I sped up and went through the line so it would just be him coming through the finish! He desired the big win!

Well lunch is settled... think I'll ride out to the country for the afternoon.

Pulling ya boots back on!

What a week! The weather went from beautiful to sour and then stayed that way all week. We should all come back to life after this afternoons cold rain. They say it's over then. Good thin too because there will be 8,000 runners here in town for this weekends Little Rock Marathon plus all the folks on the sides cheering them on and all the volunteers.

Shout out to by pals and pal-ettes who are running and reading this. Rock the Marathon!

Shout out to CI pal way up north -- Sam -- Rock your run this weekend man!!!

I got to met with a family about getting a CI. Super nice folks. The son who is getting the CI asked good questions. Jordan said it seems to calm folks down when they see someone who actually has one on and goes about their daily lives with it.

By the way, THANK YOU ADVANCED BIONICS!!!!!! They became the newest sponsor of the Gears 4 Ears ride. When they called my office I was giddy. Yes, one of those, the door is closed so it's OK to dance around because no one can see you!

The plan for the weekend is to dress up like the rabbit and led the Little Rockers Marathon on my bike. Yes, I really do this. 1,500 screaming kids running their last mile for the 26.2 miles. They work on this at school and in their clubs then come out to the Marathon course and run/walk the very last mile and get huge medals like the real marathoners. The hospital is a major sponsor and the course goes right in front of the hospital.

After that fun I'll take off the rabbit suit and ride my training for Saturday. The Sunday will be church then out to ride all afternoon. I have to make up some time and miles that's for sure! Sunny and 62 for Sunday then next week is back to clear and upper 60's and mid 70's.

So there you have it...

Life is good ... because it's Friday!

Busted

Plan was to ride with the gang after work but as I got to my car I was opening the door and two cars skidded on the other side of the fence and I jumped and pulled the door at the same time not looking and I popped myself right in the face and busted my nose. Stupid thing would not stop bleeding...and bleeding and bleeding... Looked in the mirror and it looked like I had been between the cars with my head. I never have bloody noses but I'm not usually a dork to do this either.

I'll have to get out and ride tomorrow after... today it was 76 and tomorrow it will be about 4 after work. Oh joy! Got to do it though... it's on the plan.

Life is good... even as a dork!

Rest day

Just a rest day. Be back out there on it tomorrow. First group ride for after work at 6.

I guess it blew off...

I know I wrote post yesterday about the wind. It's out there flying around the matrix somewhere ... or I just got careless and hit delete or something, who knows. I think it was the trauma of the wind. You think I'm joking huh? It was that 20-30 mph stuff. Hey, at least it was warm.

Aww right, so I headed out to ride at 6:45 and thought it was really nice until I started riding. Ok, it was a bit chilly but what a beautiful morning! I circled back real quick and added a wind vest and leg warmers (why do I always think of Flashdance movie when I say that? HA!). Much better! So I head out and loop the north side once. Spotted Marrianne running... looking like a pro! We yelled howdy's to each other. I rode on out to Alltel Arena where the first Carti Tour De Rock training ride was going to be held. Whoa! Lots of folks and I mean a lot! Awesome! Meant up with a pal I used to work with back in my graphics days. I was great to ride with Mike. Also met up with a friend of mine from church, David, was in the crowd. I didn't even know he rode!

Todd split everyone up into the A group and the B group. Oh yeah, Mike and I had to think we could hang with the big boys and took off with the A's. It really was not supposed to be that fast but hey... A means A. The ride out was great and I was in the mix but then we got over to the North Park industrial area and turned on a drive that was straight into the wind and the group blew apart! I don't mean like 2 groups. I mean like 10 groups of 2 and 3 riders. It was brutal. The B group seemed to have done the same thing from what I hear.

Now my plan was that I was going to be on the bike ALL day just riding for long periods of time, not speed. Well dork here blew a wad of energy on that A group and suffered for the next 2 hours. I finally ended with 4 hours. Lesson learned.

Today I got Terri off to catch her plane. Everyone was a zombie at the airport at 6:30 this morning. Terri and I hardly said 5 words to each other on the ride over. Just too tired and the daylight savings moving the clock forward and hour ... well today was the wrong day to get up that early but hey, it's daylight until almost 8pm now!

Went to church then Em and I were trying to figure out what to eat. Taco Bell or as I lovingly call it Taco Hell. I know, I should not eat that while training but I did and have lived to tell about it.

On the bike for almost 4 hours today and it was a great ride. Yes, strong wind but it was going straight with the river route so 7 miles was into the wind then 7 miles back was tailwind that pushed you along! It was screaming fast going with the tailwind today. I would have gone screaming fast the whole way back but with the weather as warm as it was, there were massive amounts of folks out enjoying it.

Oh, here are some answers to questions from the comments of the last post...
CI..very little wind noise. Serious! The hearing aid roars and I use it for my IPod side. The CI is great for riding just be sure to get some double sided tape and put a little piece on the processor and battery area then a small piece on the magnet.

Helmet and CI: Yes, when you put the helmet on it usually bumps the mag a little and might disconnect but just stick your finger up under your helmet and nudge it back and usually it stays in place for hours.

Sweat and CI: I use what is called a Dry & Store. When I get finished riding I always take the hearing aid (HA) and CI off. Sweat evaporates some while I ride but when I stop it's a rainy season. I just lay them on the console and drive home (if I drove to the ride) in silence. When I get home I put them in the Dry & Store while I shower and get cleaned up. It cost about a hundred dollars but extends the life of your equipment by leaps and bounds. No they're not a sponsor but I wish they were.

So all in all I was on the bike 5.5 hours Friday, 4 on Saturday and 4 today. Not bad! Would have been a lot more without the blasting wind but, it was great training.

Well, that's it for me tonight!

Life is good ... Life was blowing in the wind..

Friends go riding

What can I say? It was a perfect day to be off! I stopped by and had a donuts with my pal Kevin at the radio station. That was part of the deal in order to get him to help me with the church media system. Trust me, I rode it off! The system installed a lot easier than I expected. One small glitch but no one will know it Sunday.

Finished up and stopped at the house for a light lunch and checked email to be sure Chris was going to be able to ride. Yep, we're on! I meet up with the boy (see photo below) and he then tells me David, Jo and Marianne are coming along.

First thought was a happy one! I couldn't wait to see them. Been too long and I've never gotten to actually met Marianne but I read her blog and her name is always used in nice ways so I knew she had to be as nice in person as she was cyber. (HA) Sure enough, as friendly and down to earth as it gets.

Jo (Tri-momma)

David and Marianne praying for non-sharp straws.
It was a funny story about their tri-bike straws.

Dwonn, the master himself

Dwonn and myself.

So we head out down the river trail toward downtown. Plan was that I was going to ride all afternoon until the sunset (I did) but we would keep it slow. I was thinking to myself, Ok, I am riding with an all Ironman crowd. Slow to them is what??? 25mph? We really did keep it around 15mph. Thanks guys, I really appreciate that!

I got to ask a lot of questions and they were a huge help. Today my confidence went through the roof for the ride! It was because I rode with friends!

After Jo dropped to go get her daughters at school, David soon dropped to head home and Chris, Marianne and I headed over the BDB and rode the Little Rock side a while.

Chris rode from home so when we got back to BDB he was heading home. There are several good climbs he has to make to get to his house. Marianne and I rode back to Cooks Landing where her car was. I got to ask a few more questions then farewell.

I rode by to my car and dropped off the camera and hooked the Ipod for company to carry me the rest of the afternoon. North side a couple times then back over to the LR side the the north side a couple more times. The trail was packed from about 3:30 to 5:30 then everyone disappeared. I watched the sun going down behind the hills and called it a day with 5.5 hours under my belt.

It was a great ride. Just a couple of little things I need to make some adjustments here and there. My right wrist began to be a pest toward the end. I'm sort of wondering if it was from holding the handle bar too tight due to the wind? The other small issue was my right bad toe was being a pest. Neither issue were painful but just pesty stuff that takes some of your fun away. The toe I think was a toenail that just needed a little trim. We'll see tomorrow.

All in all it was just a great spring day!

Life is good.... when you have great riding friends!

My weekend has started!

I took tomorrow off just to do one errand then ride... all afternoon! It was 77 degrees this afternoon and funny watching folks leaving the hospital for the day... they were all smiling!

Here's the plans for the weekend:
Tomorrow start riding about 1pm ad ride until it's really dark and maybe even keep riding with lights. The temps will be just a few degrees off what they should be for the 24 hour ride.

Saturday: up and out the door to ride. Plan to jump on the Carti training ride at 9 just for some group therapy then keep riding the rest of the day until sunset. Should be close to 8-10 hours.
This will be excellent checkup to see how I will feel.

The next big checkup will be the all night ride in the next few weeks.

I'm excited abut how everything is coming together!

**Note to Wes... send me an email with how you are listed on Facebook to cobbgeo@gmail.com.

Awesome afternoon!

I ran out of the office like Fred Flintstone singing Yabba-dabba-do! I was that excited to get out and go ride and really happy that I passed on yesterday for today as far as riding goes. I was able to ride in tights and just one base layer under the jersey! Sure sign of spring right there!

A coworker wrote on her Facebook that she has a bad run and ate way too many bugs! Ahhh yes, the bug eating days have returned to central Arkansas! HA! After I eat a few myself then it's only a matter of time before a bee pops me. Usually the upper leg and once was very dangerously close to a real danger zone! HA!

I'm taking Friday off just to ride so good distance riding. Not sure where I'll ride to yet but it will be some good miles.

Life is good... and bugs are yummy!

Catching up

Last post was Friday so...
Saturday I was in a leadership conference and it started raining, then it quit. Then it starting snowing. Yes, serious.
Sunday was church then Texas Roadhouse with the family. We eat out every Sunday for lunch. Then it was the bike for the afternoon a.f.t.e.r I finished my chores. Headed down to the river and jeepers creepers!!! It was windy. There were a couple of times the side wind gave me a jolt and one hill, I kid you not, I had to pedal to go down because it was straight into the wind. The 7 miles heading north was straight on wind coming down the river. It was like climbing the whole time. Great training .
Tonight was watching TV on the trainer.
Tomorrow after work is hill repeats.

I put the Gears 4 Ears event out on the Facebook and got a lot of hits already plus a TON of emails asking me about it.

Saw the printed sample of the jersey and it's off the hook! Very cool looking!

Life is good!