Arkansas Children’s Hospital Endurance Ride
Changing the Gears for Ears route. Alltel office to Alltel Arena. No Cantrell. No downtown Little Rock. No Broadway bridge. It’s a MESS down by the Cathedral School construction. Much much safer route!
Make a big “U”. Now make an outline around it. That’s the loop we will do.
The percentage of rain went down for the ride next week… but the temps have jumped. 86 degrees with 20% chance of rain. I’ll be loving this! Make it through the day and the night riding will be perfect perfect perfect!!!
I’m just a few thousand away from the goal… come on help the kids! donatation online at www.archildrens.org
Thanks! Life is good… it’s Friday!!
Tonight was the last real training ride. I can ride until Tuesday but supposed to take it easy. Just ride around a look at the flowers sort of riding. That actually will be he [ace for the whole 24 hours. Just easy riding but for a long long long time.
We started putting the food list together. Going to be sort of hard when we have no idea how many folks are going to ride but it’s only he ones who give a little bit of a donation to the hospital are the ones we’ll feed and provide drinks to. That’s only fair, ya know. There will be a million folks out there because we certainly would never request a closed trail. I want folks out the re riding and be healthy.
I did a radio show this morning and it was a blast. Thank you Jennifer, Eric and Gang for the warm welcome and friendship. Always make me feel at home there.
Tomorrow I will be on 91.7 with Kevin Clay. I can’t wait. He’s a pal anyway so I will be relaxed for that show.
The donations are coming in finally so I can calm down a tad but there is still a long ways to go. Please make your donation to http://www.archildrens.org Just think, you are changing a child’s life for the better in just a fewseconds and clicks of a mouse.
Life is good… when you’re clicking for kids!
In one week and 2 hours we’ll be rolling out for the 24 hours on the bike for Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Donate now! http://www.archildrens.org
How weird this has been! I took a day off the bike and ran errands after work.
First stop was Arkansas Cycle and Fitness. Super sponsor and all around good folks. I had bought a light and could not for the life of me get it set up right. Stopped in and Dan had it going perfect in seconds. Almost embarrassed. I picked up few more Pro Bars (www.theprobar.com). Dan hooked me up with one called Superfood Slam. I tried it Friday night during the night ride and plan to have several of these during the big ride. It was like I had just had a good nights sleep and ready to ride again after about 15 minutes of eating it. Mind blowing great feeling. I told Dan how much I enjoyed it and thanked him for telling me about them.
Next stop was the cleaners… not a sponsor but always a cheery group. Moose Cleaners on JFK. Great folks even when you leave a sock in the leg of the pants you took in.
3rd stop… ok, I’m hungry and where do you think I went? Aww come on, if you know me then you know where I go. Terri is out of town, Em is working and Geo goes to… BLUE COAST BURRITO for a couple of fish tacos. I’m family there. they don’t even had to ask me what I want other then… “the combo?” You know you’re loved when a eat joint treats you like that. Thanks BCB for being a great sponsor!
I watched American Idol tonight. I don’t watch that show like some of my crazy friends do but Kris Allen was really good. A friend from church gave me a hard time about not voting for the Arkansas guy so I texted in a vote. I laughed after I did it.
Tomorrow we are doing job fair at Ft Roots! I’m excited to see the men and women who served our country. Yes, I will try hard to help them get jobs… it’s the least I could do for my freedom.
Well, Life is good!
I can hardly concentrate this afternoon! Taking a break for a moment and answering the flood of emails coming in. I’ve got my office windows cracked a bit and the air is that of late spring. You, know the kind that makes to crazy to get off from work and go play. I’ll be hitting the trail around 5:30 until dark. With the house semi quite this week, not much else to do but ride.
Here’s a few questions that have popped up…
There is more info on www.archildrens,org. Just click the Gears for Ears logo.
Thanks everyone! This is getting bigger and bigger and it’s ALL for the kids over here at ACH!
Life is good!
Geo.
Stopped to update Facebook and ohhh & ahh over the Big Dam Bridge.
At the beginning of the ride with the sun high.
What a night of riding! Started at 5 and cranked until just minutes before midnight! 7 hours and it was great. I could have kept going with ease but about 11:30 the winds really picked up and I could feel spit rain. I saw what I thought was a flash but after I was driving home I began to wonder if maybe it was a fisherman at the dam with a spot light. There was no lightening around. But a MILLION lightening bugs!
Back up 7 hours — As I started Doug Pope was rolling in finishing up a ride. He is a good guy and awesome awesome rider. Super strong. Likes to laugh and have a good time.
There was a little wind at the start but nothing to complain about. It was nice riding. A couple of times I felt spit rain and knew that the ride was going to be short. Then about 7 the wind stopped. The river was smoothing out and it was rock-n-roll sort of riding. With no wind 20mph was easy. I rode and rode and rode. Had my tunes and was just really enjoying my training time. I mean compared to last weeks night ride joke. Crazy security and wind and 44 degree with wet air. Friday night was 65 at the start and 63 at the finish. Can’t beat that!
With the clouds reflected the city lights I hardly had to use my headlights. I was rolling along through a field where I knew I would see deer and sure enough they ran across the road. About half a dozen. No babies. The next time I came through they were laying in the field about 20 feet off the trail and could care less that I came by. They remained there the rest of the night. I was so funny because I would sing out loud before I got there in case the were going to run then they wouldn’t do it and plow me down. Guess my singing is not so bad after all, they didn’t leave.
My biggest fear of the upcoming ride? The skunk. He/She is out there somewhere and I could smell it once last night but barely. I remember last year momma and 3 babies came up from the river banks and they were really cute. Cute is deadly! HA!
We with temps doing a really nice climb this week to the 80’s then I suspect there will be some snakes showing there colors down by the river. I think I’ve only seen a couple of bad ones. Most are just King snakes.
I took the day off the bike. It was supposed to be raining and we did get some around 2a.m. but that was it until almost 2pm this afternoon then boy did it come down. So I could have rode this morning. That’s Ok I’m happy with the 7 hours of night riding. I’ll crank it out tomorrow afternoon.
It’s not to late to donate to the ride! Just go to http://www.archildrens.org and look for the Gears for Ears icon on the right hand side of the page.
Life is good… in the dark.
The day is about up and there are storms due to hit tonight in the Little Rock area. With 80% chance of rain tomorrow got to get the ride in so I’m riding tonight until the rain starts or it gets to wicked out there.
It’s usually date night with my wife every Friday night but I got a free pass tonight but something tells me I will have to upgrade tomorrow evening. May even have to sit through a chick flick. The things we do for our wives. HA!
I have downloaded some new tunes… Ever heard of Altus Pocket or Silversun Pickup. Both are great bands! Altus Pocket will have tunes on the Punisher movie coming out and they are local. Excellent tunes for climbing. it makes ya a little crazy! HA! Silversun Pickup is just a flat out good band that i stumbled on. Saw a funny ITunes mix called “I like orange juice”. There are some great tunes in that mix!
Me and super biker Jenn. She has on the last jersey we did and I have on the new Gears for Ears jersey. Jenn has been a pal since the early days of biking. Her and her husband Chris are those sort of folks you want in your circle of friends. Good as gold.
I rode solo tonight and just punch the clock for a little over an hour. I know.. whimpy! Just one climb and it wasn’t too hot of a climb either. Just a climb.
I’m thinking of changing my riding schedule a bit. Saturday is 70% chance of rain. that’s a pretty hefty chance so tomorrow is supposed to be pretty and nice with rain starting late. Thinking of taking the training to the river tomorrow after work and just ride into the night. Forget that track riding stuff. I just have to remember to eat something about 4 tomorrow afternoon.
Oh by the way… Arkansas Children’s Hospital ruled the river trail tonight! By that I mean our logo was well represented! I saw an ACH blue and white jersey for the 2005 ride. i saw a river to river jersey (like the one in the photo above) from the 2007 ride. I saw last years slick looking CARTI jersey with the ACH logo on it and I had the Gears for Ears jersey on myself. 4 jerseys out there showing ACH. Now that’s pretty cool if you ask me!
Did I tell y’all I have been off of caffine for 5 days now. No, I didn’t get the headache. Did I cheat, no but I have a placebo. I learned that I can drink a skinny steamer with a shot of flavoring and I think I’m drinking my latte. Hey, whatever works. Brad has me off so that on ride night in 2 weeks that I can take caffeine pills and it will send me into orbit rocking! Said they do that at Ironman. Hey, if it gets folks through Ironman, maybe it’ll get me through this. If you think about it, 24 hours isn’t a long time at all in the big picture. Friends have asked me if I’m going to start drinking coffee and cokes again after the rid. Serious, I think I’ll just stick with the steamers. Oh sure, I’ll have coffee or coke every now and then but I don’t know, we’ll see.
Jump over to http://www.archildrens.org and make a donation to the ride! OK, what if you could not hear the music… that’s right NO AMERICAN IDOL?! Huh? What if you couldn’t hear your family… no not that selective hearing that people joke about but no hearing all the time. No laughter, no “Hey, I’m home!” … and no I love you… what if you couldn’t hear that? That’s why I ride for 24 hours. If I need to take the pain to help you hear… I will!
Life is good!
The past couple of nights have been kicking for the training!
I rode up tempo and did hill repeats. It was really funny because I rode up behind a group of folks and then down and then as I was climbing again that group was coming down and on the switchback I heard someone say, “Whoa that guy’s climbing it again!” It was my 4th repeat climb and it was just what I needed to hear. I gave me a little extra push. Well that and U2 and Green Day singing “Saints” piped straight in to my hearing aid. Love that song!
I rode on out to the park and climbed the backside. I was feeling really good out there! I rolled into the back of the Nitro group. These guys are screaming fast racers. You know those guys who can change clothes and ride with no hands. These guys are so good they could probably make a loaf of bread while riding. Anyway I snuck on to the back and rode along a little while.
Headed over to the bridge and met up with Moondawg , JMar, Jenn, Mike Moore, Charlie and a dozen others. Great group. It’s the band of heathens I used to ride with all the time. Fun crowd.
Sun started to go down so I rode back to my car and got to see a beautiful orange and pink sunset. Man, I love it when I time it just right to catch those.
Funny: I put too much tape on the cochlear implant again and the thing was glued to my head! When will I learn? Yeah, you’re right… probably never!
Tonight’s ride was up tempo and a bit of climbing. Lots of folks out. I got smoked like tuna by a guy on a tri-bike. Man that guy was moving!
Well thanks for stopping by and hanging out a few. More fun stuff coming up.
Life is good!
Gears 4 Ears 