The word of the weekend is: WIND - My Ride Recap

Ask anybody who rode this year about the ride. They'll gripe about the epic headwinds that tried to blow us back to Houston all weekend. I've decided that cycling is a love hate relationship with wind and gravity, and over the MS150 weekend, wind and I were going through a rough patch. I think I can clearly recall 5 out of 175 miles of tailwind. Drafting behind other riders became important, and when all the nearby riders got tired, at one point we started drafting an 18-wheeler. Now that's a good wind blocker!

On the positive side, the weather was awesome. Nice and sunny but not too hot. A little cool on day 2, but a little cold in the morning helps you to forget about the saddle soreness from 100 miles on day 1 and to pedal a little harder to stay warm.

Other highlights included getting a brutal yet soothing deep tissue massage at the end of Day 1 in La Grange, the BBQ chicken and deliciously soggy MS150 pasta, and breaking the Brian Land Speed record by hitting 47.1 miles per hour on the biggest hill of the ride. I even passed a motorcycle marshall on the way down! This year I again opted for the toughest route possible, going the long way on day 2 and taking on the 'Hill Challenge' through the state parks for the challenge of some steep climbs but with the reward of some quick, winding downhill coasts. Gravity was much more friendly than wind this year!

All in all, it was a great ride. Check out the pics by clicking on the slideshow on the right to see what life on the MS150 weekend was like for my riding buddy Vanessa and myself. Not so glamorous all the time, but like one of my favorite motivational signs along the route says "Only 2 days of pain - we're the lucky ones in the fight against MS".

Thank you all so much for your support and donations!

Until next year....

Ride on,
Brian

One Big Post on Training

So my routine for training for the MS150 goes something like this:

1) Grudgingly turn down plans for Friday night social activities to stay home and carb load/hydrate
2) Groggily stop the incessant drone of the 5:30 alarm clock on Saturday and wonder "Why am I doing this?!"
3) Cram down breakfast, double check the gear checklist, and mount up the bike
4) Drive up to an hour and a half out to the ride location and ride, ride, ride
5) Drink water and Powerade, munch on Cheez-its and trail mix and ride, ride, ride some more
6) Pack up and head back into town for lunch - arguably the tastiest lunches ever consumed
7) Post ride nap - arbuably the most satisfying naps ever napped
8) Check email for more of those donation notices that remind me that steps 1-7 are not an act of insanity!

Sure, I gripe, but it's been fun. This year has been a great riding season. We've had some of the most ideal riding weather possible, without rain or cold (some of you may remember last year's hypothermia ride story), and I'm lucky to have an awesome riding partner in the form of my friend Vanessa (in case you're wondering who's in all those slideshow pics.) Vanessa's also on the Shell team and we're both 2nd year MS150 veterans after riding together last year.

The two most memorable rides of the season for me have been New Ulm and the Tour de Houston.

New Ulm was 50.5 miles of hills and sunshine. And yes, the last .5 miles are important enough to mention! The ride had many grades, but the key thing about this ride was that there were 3 hills that the training series captain describes as 'memorable'. I've learned that memorable means steep - as in barely keeping enough speed to not lose your balance steep. In recompense for getting my legs completely destroyed, the New Ulm ride was capped off with a big plate of BBQ provided by the local volunteer fire department. That was more kind of memorable - the tasty kind.

The Tour de Houston was (relatively speaking) a quick and easy 47 miles and also memorable in a better way. The novel part was that since the ride is a City of Houston event, we got to ride on a closed-off Hardy Toll road. Riding up the feeder and merging into 4 open lanes of bike traffic on the highway was definitely a new experience! The ride was fast and flat, especially on the way back with a bit of a tailwind. I got to cruise at 25-30 miles an hour for at least 15 miles, which is about double speed for me normally. Those of you who know how I drive know I'm a bit of a speed demon. It was cool to feel like a Tour de France caliber cyclist for at least a little while, humming down the road and yelling "on your left!" as I whizzed by cyclist after cyclist. Awesome stuff.

Afer several hundred miles trained, there's just one more official training ride this weekend and then my only training will be to keep my legs ready with a few miles at home on my stationary trainer. You'll see it in the slideshow as the only random picture taken in my living room! Then it will be time to packup the bike, the airmat, and the sleeping bag to get ready for the big ride and the campout in La Grange. More stories to come soon after the ride!

Please support my ride in the 2008 BP MS150!

Dear Friends, Family, and Colleagues,

In just a few weeks on April 12-13th, I'll be riding in the BP MS150; a 2-day, 175-mile cycling adventure from Houston to Austin that raises funds to help people living with multiple sclerosis. This is my second year to ride and I'm excited to step up to the physical challenge and to help the National MS Society reach their fundraising goal of $14 million.

Last year I was overwhelmed at the fact that through my riding and your donations that together we were able to raise over $1,300! I hope that this year I can raise even more funds and really feel proud to have made a difference when I cross the finish line in Austin.

If you would to like to support my ride this year, you can donate online at: http://www.ms150.org/edon.cfm?id=216333

This year my goal is to surpass last year's total of $1,300 and double the Team Shell goal of $700 by raising $1,400.

Thanks for your support!

Brian

Dollars Raised:



Training Miles Ridden