Has it really been that long?

Apparently when life gets busy some things get forgotten. Sadly in my world the blog was forgotten. So an update- First and foremost it is officially Mr. and Mr. Francis, or maybe we could call us Mr. and Mrs. Viper. The day was amazing and I wish that m

ore people could have shared in the day, but budget. We had a great time with all the friends and family that came out to bless our day. It really was perfect and filled with love and tears.

I  haven’t forgotten or quit riding my bike. There have been short rides with Chris and Vince (even a ride

 together the day before the wedding) and recently we have started using the trainers indoors. Which isn’t nearly as close to torture as I thought it might be.

 The fall is an amazing time to ride with the colors of the leaves, and with all that crappy weather with grey skies it really makes the colors pop.  Throw on some extra clothing and it really isn’t that bad.

I also had some fun with the pumpkin this year and put a biker with peace wheels! I thought it looked pretty cool and Vince got a smile from it when he got home that night and it was all lit up. 

The quarter is almost completed so hopefully the return of the blog will come about and more than just short blogs and pictures will be added to our sight. Until next time

And $125 ticket!

LOOK a new post!

Wish I had more time to write on this, but I don't.  I just wanted to say..... pacelines make me pedal harder.

No Spare time!

Yesterday..... high winds no power........Today Anicent Mediterranean world, chain saw, chain saw, still no power.  I just want to let Big Tim, Craig, Willis, and Dobo know the travels were a great time!  

Flat Fiasco- Highlander

So the trip itself began on Friday. We started in Troy, picked Willis up in Columbus and drove to NY. 

There were three of us in the Subaru, Vince Chris and I. And four more in Tim's Van, Tim, Craig, Dobo and John

. While th

ey chose to let Tim do all of the driving (it was his van and he does like to do the driving-so I was told) we split ours so we could each get some homework done. We ate an amazing dinner at some restaurant that Craig and Dobo remembered by a tree. Then we drank a bottle of wine and watch 

a few minutes of “bike porn” as they call it and headed to bed.

Saturday started early 3:30am. We went to breakfast at McDonalds- where they couldn’t handle the order from the Ohioans, but Craig assured them we wouldn’t be back. We got back to the hotel packed up the car and started the journey to the Highlander event. There was a line of cars going up the mountain .It was still dark out at 6 am when we left the parking lot and the mountains were covered in fog. It really made for a beautiful picture. 

 We all went inside and registrered for the event and prepared ourselves for the ride. Food, water, tubes, air, all that you would need on a tour. The MadCow Ramble team left bright and early. 7am. While Chris and I finished gearing up. Our recomended start time was 8am, but since no one seemed to care when anyone left we just went at 7:30.

Over the past couple of weeks we had been hearing stories about the ride. Craig even suggested an alternative route if we didn't enjoy pain. But of course we do. We ride bikes don't we. So Chris and I planned on doing the entire Midlander ride, Bopple and all. 

We rolled up the road at a pace of about 15 mph at first. However, we encountered our first hill. It wasn't that tough, but half way up, while trying to get my bike to go into the granny gear, I crashed. Not too hard, and not going at a very fast rate of speed. 

But it was enough to shack my confedence. I sat for a few minute honesty considering turning back, but as cyclest rode by saying encouraging things, or joking with me I decided to go on. I spent a quarter of what remained of the hill just trying to get back on my bik

e. It is not an easy feat to do when you haven't practiced mounting your bike or a steep grade. But I made it to the top. And broke dow

n.

"Timarie and Chris Pre-ride"

We were only 5 miles into the race and I honestly thought there was no way in hell that I could do it. For christ sakes I just fell down on the first hill- which was NOTHING compared to what was to come. Chris talked me out of turning around and told me that I had to make it to the first stop before I could make any kind of desicion like turning back. 

So I climbed back on my bike, pulled back in my bottom lip and started peddling again.  Between the fall and the first stop there were many climbs. All of which were somewhat of a struggle, but on the third of forth I was beside these two gentlemen and I commented on how I didn't know how they were carrying on a conversation while cl

imbing these hills. They just said it was so they could forget what they were doing. They all commented on how I wasn't in my granny gear, and how it would help me out. I knew this alrea

dy, and I had been struggling with getting the stupid thing to shift all day. (if you have read my blogs before this isn't the first time the gears have given me trouble) But with the guidance of the two men I got it into my granny gear. What a difference. Doesn't help the hill get any smaller but it did make it easier to turn the peddles. 

All of the ride wasn't just uphill. There were downhills too! I didn't know I could go so fast. 44.5 mph was the fastest I went during the tour but that was plenty fast enough. The wind is blowing by your ears so fast. The air was brisk, an

d all that sweat you just created by climbing up the hill was quickly lowering your body temperature as the wind met it on the way down. But it was worth it. The more momentum you got on the way dow

n meant the further you got up the hill before you had to start peddling again.  We made it to the first stop and I was feeling significantly better about the ride to come. My legs were finally warmed up, and although the hills were a struggle after the first one, they didn't feel impossible again. And bopple was another rest stop away so I had a feeling I could do it. We got water, bananas, and went to the bath room and started to head o

ut again when a women near us say "I think your tire is flat" and the man next to her says "I know your tire is flat". Sure enough my front tire was flat. Damn. At least we were at a stop, but they didn't have any tubes. The problem was EVERYONE was have flats. Ever curve you cam

e around there was some one next to the road fixing their flats. And here I was at a stop with my own flat. With some helpful instructions by a fellow rider, and Chris my tube was replaced and we were on the road again. 

I hadn’t really been feeling well for the first part of the ride, and I don’t mean the pain and struggle, I mean my stomach was making crazy sounds that Chris could hear from his bike. Shortly after leaving the stop I knew what was coming. I pulled over told chris to wait, and left my banana in the bushes. A couple of guys who were riding by a

ssured me that if I was vomiting that I was doing the right thing on the ride J. It did make me feel a little better and what else was I going to do but finish the ride. 

3 miles later my tire is flat AGAIN! We change the tube, use our only air, and go again. 1 mile later flat. We have no more air left, and we are between the two rest stops. So we decided that Chris will take off to the next rest stop and send sag. I decide to get off my bike and start walking it. The closer I am to support the fast we get it fixed. I end up stopping by a group of women, all of whom know very little about fixing their bikes, and changing their tubes, because like me, their husband do most if not all the bike maintenance. So I sit down next to them because Vince has at least made me watch him do it a few times in case I was every in a moment like this. While helping them SAG arrives and I get a fresh t

ube. Sag help the women finish fixing their bike, and I change my tube all by myself for the very first time. I even remember to check the little bead line- or whatever it is called- and I am off on my bike again. 

I climb the hill that we were in the middle of when I got my flat, and got my picture taken by the highlander crew at the top. All smiles. That hill was actu

ally feeling good, and I was so much happier about myself and the ride. I turned left and started what was mostly a decent to the rest stop. Chris was the

re waiting on me. I was really pumping so I could catch up with him and we could tackle bopple together. The road curved and twisted as it has the first twenty so miles and then you were right next to the lake. The view was absolutely spectacular! I even saw a deer cross the road in from on me while dropping a hill. Then my phone rings. Right when I am approaching a hill. I assume that it is Chris and since I feel like I might be lost or at least passed the stop I pull over into a driveway and answer. "where are you?" chris asks "trying to get to you. I was just about to climb a hill" I answer "you didn't stop t the golf course" he asks "no, I flew by that trying to catch up" I answer "well that was the stop, and you are about to climb bopple" he says. and my 

response is "well shit- glad you called- I'll wait for you here" and 

I did.  Chris caught up to me within a few minute and we started our climb up bopple together. Man was it hard. I just had to keep telling myself to turn over the peddles, just keep turning over the peddles. There is a section in Bopple which levels out, and I won’t lie we got off our bikes and stretched and caught our breath before heading up the second half. I am pretty sure that the second half was worst than the first, and I thought my legs might just stop working, but we made it. We rode Bopple! At the top again we dismounted to catch our breath and stretch. I was feeling really tight. From there the view was again so beautiful. You could look back and see the lake FAR below, where you just were and could really realize how far you climbed up the damn thing. We also cheered for all the people who were there finishing bopple themselves.

 Then the real torture happened. Gannett. Looking

 back, a

nd being reminded I can say that I was warned about this hill as well. But I do not believe that it was given the attention that it really deserves. 2+ mile of around 15% right after you fought your way up bopple. Man it was incredibly painful. We did this hill very slowly. I had to dismount a couple of times to stretch and get some water. And we you were about three quarters of the way up you heard music. The music was the only thing that kept me going for the rest of the climb. There was this really nice guitarist who come out and plays on the side of the road for the tour. We made it to the rest stop after Gannett and looked

 at the map. It was getting later in the day, and I really wanted to be back to maybe get some shots of Vince and the Moo Moo’s so we decide to cut off part of the second loop. 

"Chris & Timarie Post Ride"

There were some down hills and climbs on the second part of the ride, but nothing compared to what we had just done. We finished the rides without anymore flats (but we saw plenty of others who were still having them) and made out way back to our car. Yeah we cut some off. But we still did around 50 miles, and still did 2 out of 3 of the harass climbs that Highlander did. So while I am sitting here body hurting I feel proud. Plus I had a really great time! I may have cried one more time after the ride, but some one has to cry and I didn’t want Willis or Vince to have to be the ones to do it so I did. 

Last night Barry and Abbey were nice enough to let us stay and their place and gave us food. Thank you so much for that. And thanks to all the cyclist on the ride who asked if I was ok or needed help. Most of all thanks to Vince for having the confidence that I could do it! Until Next time

Night Ride

Vince was off with some other guys last night (read below for more) so Chris and I decided to go for a ride. Both of us had things to do that day so we decided that we wouldn’t be able to go on a ride until 7... Turns out that we didn’t leave until 7:30. The ride felt really good in the beginning we rode just a few miles before stopping at our friend Andrew’s home to encourage him to fix up a bike he just bought so he could come and join us. The stop was a success because before we left he was saying that he would have his bike working by the end of the week,or at least he was going to be buying parts to fix it by the end of the week, we'll see.

By the time we left the day is ending and the night is starting. We made sure that both the blinking tail lights and headlights were on and headed out. We decided a long loop around to the bike path and duke park would be a good choice. It is really starting to get brisk in the evening and I put my arm warmers and then it feels great. We rode out of the houses, up past Monkey's, behind the Troy high school, and turned right to meet up with the bike path rightat duke park.  I always love when we go to duke park because the sharp turns and curving path feel like your are on a race track, too bad it’s so short. This time we even decided to do the track in the opposite direction than we normally do, adding some spark to the ride. We follow the path down by the river, and the city lights are on and the crickets are out. The music of the night is completely different than the day and is a beautiful sound. We pop out on 55 and decide to cut through the houses to Troy Urbana. We take the roads that look the steepest to help prepare us for highlander (3 days). 

I was nervous about taking Troy Urbana thinking that there would be cars and they wouldn’t notice us, but honestly night seems safer than the day because the cars DO notice you and DO slow down. I think the lights must confuse them into doing it.. Haha.. We turn right and head back to the house. The rest of the ride went smoothly and easly. It was a short ride, only 15 miles, but at the end on the second half of Sayers there was this scene with the moon out and bight, and you could see the fields glowing all around us, and the stars out the cricket, louder than ever. The whole picture was really amazing, I think that I will have to go and enjoy this style of riding again shortly. Until next time. 

LOOK!

Monday loop!  With a new bike!  The new bike is like a magic carpet ride.  Unlike the old aluminum frame I had: I can hardly feel the road.  On the old Giant I would have to lift off the saddle a little over large bumps, but now with my lovely new tubes it rides over the rough as smooth as the dirt cycle.  When I stood up to spirit up a little hill it felt like the power was only going to the real wheel instead of everywhere else.  I even think my tire makes a differnt gripping nosie.  The music my not be in the guitar, but some guitars sound like shit.  As Egg always says, it is a wet noodle. 

Had a get time cursing around at 19mph with Big Tim and Craig the "egg."  Hope to see more of ya next time.  I would like to do the pace line with more folks.

Ride with Vinny Bear

After a morning of sleeping in, followed by a cleaning sesson with Mr. Francis we decided to go on a ride. Great day for Vince, he just got the bike together yesterday and he was really excited about getting it on the road. So around 3 we hit the road. Weather wasn't horrible, partly cloudy, but there was this wind thing that just wouldn't go away the entire ride. 

We were planning on heading over to a friends house, and yet again I found myself riding up Walnut. It is a little harder keeping Vince's 20 mph pace, but I think a did a pretty good job. I really do not have the power of him and so when he would pull away a little going up the small slopes it was hard for me to recover, but I managed. I also got to enjoy some of the routes that the Moo Moo's take today. Walnut is on a route, along with Jay's Hill, the Cow hill, we talked about doing the rollers but honestly they scare me to death. Has nothing to do with the climbing, pain like that I can handle, but the cars that come flying down that road isn't often thinking about the bikers they will encounter. Safer just to take those few other hills where there is a whole lot less traffic.

Nothing too outstanding from the ride today, expect for the quality time that I get to spend with Vince :). I only yelled at him one time too! :) 17 miles 16 mph average Feeling Great.... Can't wait until this weekend!! Until next time. 

Duck Day!

What can I say I love to eat wildlife!  I woke up this morning to the phone ringing. It was my uncle Mike calling to say that he will be at my house to pick me up in a half hour.  He showed up with the new duck boat and all the nescceaites to build a duck blind.  My brother was also along for the ride.  Hunting has been a famliy traditon way before my time.  There is nothing better than sitting around until I'm about go crazy and then, wham an anmial comes out of the middle of nowhere.  Shoot, kill, clean!  Then it is time to eat mmmmmm. Off we went to installed the blind at the beatiful Lake Larmoie.  Everything went as planed, but the highliht of the day was on the way back from the lake when I got a phone call for Timaire saying, "Guess what is on the the front porch!"  Right then I knew it, my bike had showed up a few days early.   

So at three thrity this afternoon I got the wrenches out and put this lovely machine together. I am showing signs of fatique so I will let the pictures do some talking.  Willis thanks for showing me how to do this a million times.  I think I might have done it right the first time, but we will have to see tomorrow. 

.  

Rain drops keep falling on my head

Training by yourself is completely different than getting to go on a ride with a group of guys that feels like your big brothers- because that is what Chris, Willis, and Vince have acted like over the summer. I got to suck wheel whenever I wanted, they always were pushing me harder and making me ride longer, and they would step up to a car or a dog so I could always be a little safer. However, no boys today, they were all off doing their own thing and I was left alone to train, and in the rain no less.  

You see yesterday I was left on my lonesome too, and I never made it on my bike. So no excuses, I had to get peddling today, rain or shine. And of course the weather was rain. Couldn't tell you the temp, or the wind speed, or wind direction. But I can tell you that the rain would go from a gentle drizzle to a downpour of small raindrops and here I was on my bike. Surprisingly I was having a really good time. 

As long as I can remember I have always enjoy playing in the rain- from soccer, to track, to flag football on the front green, I swear to you that my mom has a picture of me drinking from a puddle when I was just a toddler. Since I have always really enjoyed spending time in the rain I was in a good mood about the rain and the ride and positive about the way the ride would go. Sadly, things did not go in my favor today.

 My destination was to get to New Carsile and back using the roads that I travel for school and if I didn't have the mileage I wanted I would just take a long block around on the way home.  It all started out great; 41 was a breeze, then childrens home I was really flying down. I even thought to myself "do wet road make you ride faster?" I was hitting 20-25 mph on my own, with a crosswind, and hardly even raising my heart rate. I turned onto Walnut grove and I decided to try and shift my Rings again. Because like the full service fiance I have, he took the time to fix my bike up so I could hopefully be able to get in and out of the Big ring. So here I am cruising up Walnut grove, shifting back up from the middle ring and wham.... Chain flysoff... No sweat, I jump off my bike, get it back on the ring and I am on the road again.... to Climb Walnut.. I did switch my rings with success very shortly after :). 

 I am in love with Walnut right now, you can not keep me off of it! It is this slow climb that peaks at the school. You can see the top from a little ways back and by the time you reach it your legs are burning. It just happens to be on my route to school and this is another reason I decided to ride the route I was taking. I make it up the hill, never dropping below 15 mph, and trying to teach myself to lower my heart rate as I climb up a hill. I do a pretty good job but I max it out anyways on the way up so I stand up and really finish the hill out strong. 5 miles in and feeling great and all warmed up. 

It continues to rain, and have I mention yet that this is the first time I have ridden my bike in the rain, a little scary but make my way all the way to New Carisle it‘s a little over 10 miles there. I really wanted to take a different way home, but I only really know the route that I take for school. So like a boring person I turn around and head back the way I came. The advantage to this is I know for at least a few miles it will be mostly up hill. More training for the mountain. It seemed as if when the road started to increase it incline into a hill the rain started to fall harder, and for the next few miles up the road it continued in this fashion. I am wiping my glasses constantly at this point, just to be able to see out of them, and trying to keep from getting hit by cars- there seemed to be A LOT of traffic tonight. Food for thought "If you are in a nice warm dry car, and I am out in the rain peddling my a$$ off, why is it that you feel the need to sideswipe me and cause the puddle on the road to splash me, and scare me to death" No sweat. I am already wet, and it seems like every time that a car feels the need to rush by, I just have more energy to put in my peddles. Like I am proving that I don't need your car not even in the rain!

  I make my way back to Walnut and I am debating in my head if 20-22 miles (which would have been the number of miles if I had gone straight home) was enough or if I wanted to squeeze a few more in. It was raining pretty hard, but it was just putting me in a better mood. I wasn't frying in the sun that was for sure. THEN ALL OFF THE SUDDEN I can barely control me front wheel- Holy crap what is wrong? - I pull over on the side of the road to check out what went wrong, wouldn't you know it I had a flat tire. No big deal I have a repair kit in my little bag thing under the seat. That is everything but those dandy tools you use to get the tire off the rim. So I put in a call to my full service Vinny Bear. He'll be right there he says. And he was. But that didn't make waiting in the rain for 10 minutes and more fun. The whole time I was trying to get the tire off the rim so it will take less time when Vince get there and I could get back on my bike and finish out my ride . 

I didn't get the tire off, but Vince does. We realize at this point there is a bad puncture in the tire. I guess my ride in the rain was supposed to stop at 16 miles. That's okay, I still had fun today, and I realized even if it is raining while we are in NY that it won't be that bad because rain okay too, just another training out. 8 more days :) Until Next time

MoBA......whaterver that stands for!

After a day of scrubbing my grandfather's Hydra Sport fishing boat with soft scrub I had full intentions of riding the the dirt cycle, that has been sitting in the the "bike room" for at least a year without seeing one bit of dust.  At three o'clock I climb out of the boat and bolted to the shower.  Willis was waiting for me before I had finished with the shower. At least Timaire and her mother were there, so he had someone to talk while I scurried around the house getting things ready for the mountain bike adventure.

I told Willis that I would drive if he was going to be the navigator, so off we went.  When we arrived there were a few cars in the parking lot. So, we did just like any other ride put our gear on and the way we went down the trail.  We starting on Creek Side at a pretty good clip with the terrain rolling and and easy to ascend with all the momentum we need for the down hill.  After creek side we went onto the blue section of the park and I don't think that it was any different except they forgot to cut some trees down.  Willis had mention, "how else are you going to make a mountain park in Dayton, Ohio technical unless you keep the trees to turn around."

The legs were feeling like a million dollars, but I had forgotten how intense every turn in the woods is.  It felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head.  After riding the "upper" and "lower"  I thought that we were just doing cricles. I would find myself thinking.... I swear that I have seen that sign before.  

We stop at a navigational becan and decided to attack the black diamond of this mountain.  Willis and I were a little cocky about this black diamond.  Come to find out, we had to ride it a few times to figure out how to ride it without putting a foot down or walking.  The name of the trail was called Hawk's Lair.  Although it wasn't steep the rock field was fairly tough the first time.  I have to say that I was feeling a little scared about falling on one of the sharp rocks sticking out of the ground.  The second time through Willis asked me if I wanted to ride the beast.  So I threw my leg over the bike and off I went. I had clipless shoes on platform pedals.  Only a few seconds on this lovely machine and I was in love.  I rode through three quarters of the rock field and stop to trade a few words.  WOW this bike really can corner!  By this time I believe Willis and I were burnout for the day and we headed back through the bolder field for the car. I would go back to ride this little tresuse of Dayton anyday.  What a great ride Willis.

Dog Ride

Being inspired by some folks I have been stalking.. hehe.. I have decided to create my own blog, and share it with Vince. I am infatuated with these blogs about bikes. You get to experience what others feel on their own rides. So here I am in the morning putting down in text what I experience last night. 

Dog Ride    

Once again inspired by the Moo Moo's, which is not their actual name but what I refer to them as, I have decided, along with Chris, to do a ride Sept.13th. Because of this I have been making more of an effort to get my butt in the saddle and get some burn in my legs. The ride is certainly going to be a challenge, but why live life if it will be easy all the time.

Last night around 6:30 Chris arrives at my house and we leave for our ride. No specific route or destination, just trying to make it over to Troy Urbana so we can ride on some fresh smooth payment for a chance. We take off and head down 41 and encounter our first dog, Harley, which isn't a big deal, we know him and we let out our calls of "good dog" when he stays in the yard and just runs along the road next to us. The ride is going along okay but I CAN NOT for the life of me get my bike to go into the big ring since my gears have me altered by my lovely fiance. But no big deal I have a whole ride to work on it. Chris and I take Children’s home to some other road that I don't know the name of to another road I don't know that name of, and this is where we encounter our second dog. In the country which means he isn't chained up, no big deal I don't chain my dog up. Until that is he starts chasing us. Chris steps up of course and starts yelling at the dog. We are going at least 20 mph and the freaking dog passes us and jets across the road. So of course we continue to yell and start peddling faster 23....25....26 mph and this dog is not giving up. I am sitting back about 5 ft just watching all of this happen. The dog goes between looking happy just to run next to us, to teeth showing he really wants to bite Chris. After what I would guess was at least 1/4 mile the dog finally gives up and stops in the road and is content with just barking at us.

 So our ride continues, both of our hearts now pumping and our legs warm we continue on our ride to make it to Troy Urbana... and then what do you think happens... not 2 miles from the last dog another dog launches it's attack on us. Chris again steps up in protection mode and we peddle harder. Luckily this dog doesn't have the heart or the speed of our former challenger and shortly we have sprinted away from our foe. I comment to Chris that this must be a dog ride, because in all of our rides, that I've done around Troy, we have never gotten chased by a dog before, and now two with in a short distance of each other. No sweat, we just keep peddling.  

We turn onto Troy Urbana  with smiles on our faces. This is what we rode all those pot hole ridden, bumpy, gravel scattered roads for, this one fresh paved, smooth going road. Then what do you think happens another dog jumps out from the bushes.... No time this time for Chris to step in and scare him off. He is on my side, big, yellow, and very happy to see us.. We crank it up again and yell for him to stay. We curse by him with somewhat ease this time and make it out alive with no bites. 

We finish out our ride 22 miles all together while the sun fades away and dusk sets down. Vince calls me to let me know he is done with his ride and that he will be bringing home pizza for the two of us.... yummy.... until next time

Oh and I guess Vince had a good ride too... You can check out Craig's Blog for that :)

      "Vince at his ride with Team MadCow Ramble"