Just another ride with serge...

We did 50 miles today.  Burnt more than 2500 calories.  Got the inevitable flat. Success!

Stop ERIC!!! Just one day...

Yesterday was a day that I just said I want something good.  Took down an awesome sundae and swallowed a whole half pound burger. MMMMmmmmm....  Now I feel guilty that I'm gonna do more than 100 miles this weekend. lol

Trip to the canon. Good workout.

I sometimes get bored.... Well good thing I have my bike.  Boredom used to lead to snacking and laying around seeing TV but not anymore!  Got my bike and set a destination.  Wanted to make it to the canon and back before nightfall.  A good 50 mile route. Battled the wind for 25 miles.  Burned lots of calories.  Rides like these are the ones that will help me get to my weight goal.

battling the wind.

helmet felt awesome.

Things you see on the side of the road.

The Canon.  Exactly 25 miles away from my house.

love having the wind on my back flyin'

Bikes and Bucks...

Some of the best morning rides are the ones that finish with a tall Pikes Peak brew, sitting back on a nice cold leather chair while talking trash with the guys.   That is a great way to start the day.

Went all Martha Stewart on my rims...

Decided to give my old Mavic Ksyrium Elites a freshening by giving the a new paint job.  Decided on white because they fit good on my Trek and look nice on the SWorks too.  Took my time and I think they came out pretty good. Check them out for yourself.  It just takes lots of patience.

Light coats 10 minutes apart.

After 5 coats drying up

Clean!  My new set of old rims.

New Helmet...to me.

I would have never thought of ever getting one of those ultra light, ultra expensive, ultra cool helmets. Well, I have been very lucky to get good deals on things and I pickup a new to me Giro Ionos and Giro Atmos helmet. Could not pass up on the deal.  I will review them later and see what's the deal with these $$ helmets compared to my first helmet the Giro Indicator which you can get at your local sporting good store for around 35 bucks.  is it worth paying 259 for a helmet? I'll find out.

Giro Astana special edition Ionos

Giro Atmos

TOUR DE GRUENE soundtrack

This song will forever be embedded in my brain as the TOUR DE GRUENE song. Billy played this song the whole trip. Too funny. The good thing is that whenever we hear this song it will take you back to the day. Good times. Music has a way of taking you back.

Some backroad cycling...

 Once again.. A perfect calorie burner and GREAT muscle builder for leg strength is using the mountain bike. Here in the valley we do not have many hills but we make up for it in brutal winds and lots and lots of land!  We trek the back roads, the canal banks and the levee system.  The perfect place to get lots of miles in without the danger of traffic.  Looks like we will be doing these more often in the off season because it makes our legs into canons. Thats all we need.

100 Mile Ride...Why not? TURKEYRIDE100

I love to eat turkey!  For the past thirty years of my life, thanksgiving has been the day where we eat lots and lots of food.  From  ham to mashed potatoes (spell check by Cindy de la Frontera) to pecan pies to carrot cake to rolls to turkey to tamales to food food food.... It is one of the many reasons I got to the point where I was.   BUT NOT THIS YEAR, this year I am a new person.  I have a new passion.  I have a new direction that I want to take my life and in order to feast the days food, I must face the pain of going out there and burn all the calories I may possibly take in!  Well I'm being a little over dramatic but you get the point...lol    

This is the perfect picture to show the mood of this ride. EXHAUSTING!

Like always Sergio has to piss everywhere.

At mile 74 we stopped for a little nutrition. Not good choices but hey we have been on the road for more than 5 hrs.  I decided to not eat anything and just drink some gatorade, bad idea I soon realized a few miles down the road.

Whenever you see salt, thats not a good sign. That means that Eric is getting kinda dehydrated. Remember DRINK LOTS OF WATER.

Hey we needed a good photo op to get our mind off the pain.

The view I had for many miles, trying to see my cadence and speed. Wind is not your enemy, your psycological being is - it can completely make you give up or do the unthinkable.

One last break before we head home. You don't care where you lie down when your tired, here we are on the cement of a dirty gas station lane.  We finished our Turkey day Century, battled the harsh wind the whole way.  NEVER Quit.

Really McDonalds?....

Tried out the McRib for the first time ever.  I have been bombarded with so many commercials of people having orgasms just looking at the thing that I had to get one!  What a disappointment. All this sandwich is is just a salsbury steak from the high school cafeteria with two dry buns.  Two BBQ thumbs down!

The great 85 mile ride... or was it...

Since Sergio and Billy were off for Thanksgiving break we decided to head out on a long ride. We had planned to get a ride out to Raymondville and back, should have been a good 85 mile ride.  I do not know why but whenever you have an awesome planned ride, no matter how prepared you are, something always goes wrong.  We made sure to take extra tubes and CO2 just in case we got flats.

 Well on mile 20, mileage that we usually do all the time, Sergio got his first flat. WHY! Ok it just happened... Fixed his flat and used a CO2 cartridge.  Then once we get ready to put the rim back on  tire we notice that it is flat again....bad tube....   So there we go and put use up another pair.. this time it works.. So off we went.

A few miles later... we look back and we see Serge lying on the street.  Frustrated that he had another flat!! WOW how can that happen. By that time we were around 30 miles out so we used up our last tube. Now we just think he has a bad rim or tire so we decide to just go home since it was our last repair.

 In the end it was a good ride. LOTS of wind and we ended up doing around 60 miles.  It's off-season so we are just getting in some good base miles to build up our endurance.  With all this wind resistance it seems like we are working twice as hard. We are gonna be beast once race season comes around.

Thanksgiving Blessings...

Loads and loads of turkeys

Success!!!  The annual turkey giveaway was great this year. We were able to give turkeys to more than 200 needy families who without our help would not had a turkey for Thanksgiving.  It's a great feeling.