The first big event for me this year is going to be The Half Pint at Dirty Kanza. This is a new kind of riding for me. Just getting ready to delve into it. It will be 100 miles on gravel/dirt roads. I understand that it is also a pretty hilly ride too, that will give my old man legs a good workout. preparing for this should help me with my second big event of the year too, TBA as soon as I get registration paid. So the training begins.
I guess the first thing you might ask is “why do a gravel/dirt road event”? Fair enough. I think the biggest draw for me is just the fact that I grew up in small town Oklahoma and we spent many a day and night out in the country on those old red dirt roads. I have a lot of really great fond memories on the roads of Seminole County growing up. Memories that go back to early childhood; riding in the pickup with my grandfather checking the oilwells that he pumped in and around Wewoka and Ada. I can’t think of a time that I could have ever been more at peace and happy. Then as I grew older and into high school we spent many a night out on the edges of town drinking good cold beer and maybe a few other recreational choices just enjoying life! Still to this day if I am out away from home making sales calls on customers out of town, there are times I will choose to just take those old red dirt roads back to the city as far as I can just to get some space and clear my mind a little. Maybe roll down the window with some good tunes or maybe just enjoy the silence and have one of those talks with God. So the dirt roads are a huge part of life for me.
Having said that, this is going to be a new type of riding. So if you are a big boy who still like his toys, you know there isn’t anything like a new bike for a guy like me. Looks like I will be springing for the new wheels sometime this week. There are two bikes that I am looking kind of set on: one is the Cannondale SuperX CRX1 and the other is the Specialized Crux Expert. Both of them would be great bikes. I should know in the next couple of days which bike I will be getting. Either one will be a great addition to the stable!
The big thing for me has been finding the motivation to get this year jump started. I think this week I finally found it. It was probably a combination of several things that pushed me on to the point of getting going again; watching my wife at the Houston Marathon, fond memories of the fitness level I enjoyed last year, and the the big tipping point was that I could just barely get my dress shirt to button to wear a tie the other night. I just thought “come on Mark, off your ass… enough already, lets go!”
So this is a part of what I am looking to do this year. There will be two big events before July, Dirty Kanza and XXXXX , then after a recovery week in Atlanta at a conference I will remeasure and decide what to shoot towards for the last half of the year. At any rate, I am getting excited again. So here we go!!!
What better tune than this one from Brooks and Dunn !
I really wanted to put out some good sounding blog stuff that would “wow” my audience but here is the real deal is; I am an out of shape guy that found a way to improve my health. I wanted to live a big year before I turned 50, so I packed some cool stuff in that year. Along the way I have found a pretty cool community too, the Oklahoma endurance community; people of all sorts of abilities, those that compete at every level imaginable from local, state, regional, national and even on the world-wide stage for one local superstar. They are a people that motivate and inspire me to be a “better me”. I found that endurance sport not only helped me to get in better shape physically, but that it would affect me as much or more mentally and spiritually. So I am biten, time to get going again!
So here I am dragging myself back to blog again too . I plan on using the blog to help me with personal accountability and also self motivation. Anyone reading this, you should know that I don’t know squat at the end of the day about what you should or shouldn’t do in your endeavors with endurance sports, I am just putting out my own experience and don’t want to come across like I know a damn thing. If you want to leave some kind words of encouragement feel free, that fires me up! I’m not sure how often I will blog this year, but I am going to try to hit it at least once a week.
From time to time I will probably blog about some other interest’s too; family, friends, good books, music, food, addiction recovery, spirituality…. some of the other parts of my life that I love too.
And as usuall, I always like to end with a little music.
Looking back on 2013 I feel really pleased with the way it all went; there were highs and lows, but certainly more highs than lows. It was a great year of progress and learning too; some things gracefully and some things not so gracefully. It was a year with three pinnacle events and milestones; experiences that deserve a story all to their own. I wanted to finish out this year before my 50th birthday living life as fully as I possibly could and I have.
When I attended the Redman Triathlon in September of 2012, I left wishing I was on that line and doing that race. I knew that 2012 was a year of progress, but while I was satisfied I knew I had more in the tank to give and more progress to make. I remember coming home last fall and registering for the Ironman Lonestar 70.3 and knowing that this was a “stretch event” for me physically, emotionally, and mentally, but somewhere in my mind was that old saying of “if you can think it or dream it, you can do it”. As many of you knew, swimming was a bigtime issue and had been for my entire life. Getting to the point of being able to even visualize swimming 1.2 miles was probably the biggest hurdle of the year, the second biggest was actually doing it. I was fortunate to get the chance to do some work with Amanda Stevens, who was to become my coach for the year. She worked with me at workshops and a few private lessons then helped me to stretch out my distances and eventually get to my goal. While swimming had its own unique set of challenges for me, so did running. When I started out the year I had never done anything beyond a 5k, and that wasn’t what you could even begin to call a great base to begin with. Over the course of the season I was able to finish four Half-Marathons and eventually my first Full Marathon in Chicago. That was the perfect end to a full season!
When I first started cycling four years ago none of this could have ever even been on my “radar of possibility”. After finishing the first Hotter Than Hell Hundred in 2010, it left me really high with a feeling that the sky was the limit! True, but what I learned about that sky was it wasn’t going to be as easy a trip as that beginning enthusiasm made me think it would be. There was to be much hard work along the way. Sometimes the progress has seemed so slow too, but it always came if I kept to the work. Endurance sport is so honest; what I mean by that is that there are no short cuts to take. The work you put in determines the outcome you get; and when the work is short-changed, the outcome is too. That was a humbling lesson I learned this year. I am proud of finishing the two Ironman 70.3’s but, I also know that I had the ability to do more physically if I had done a more consistent job of training. The cool thing about that, I know that next year has the potential to be another year of progress for me. I know that I will gain more strength and physical ability this next year, but I also know that will be as much about changes in mental toughness maybe more than my physical changes.
So looking back on the 2013 Season there were three pinnacle events for me: Ironman Lonestar 70.3, Ironman Buffalo Springs 70.3, and the Chicago Marathon. Each event was special for different reasons. The Lonestar 70.3 was an awesome experience of accomplishment for me; it pushed me on all levels of my being. Right from the very first jump into Galveston Bay, it was an endurance fight for me. Being able to gut out the swim and make it onto the bike was huge for me. I know that when that was over that was the biggest physical challenge I had even met, it was an unbelievable experience. The Buffalo Springs 70.3 was a different event, my coach encouraged me to go when I wasn’t sure I could. Again, I didn’t get the follow through that I wish I could claim in preparing for the race but Amanda encouraged me to just do it! So I did, my swim was much improved over my Lonestar effort! That was a huge deal. Then there was the bike, wow. This course had some climbs that were tougher than any climbs I had ever done to that date. Driving the course I told my wife “I’m not sure I can make those climbs”, so when I made it through the bike portion I was really feeling satisfied in what I had done. The run was pretty damn tough too, but I knew I could gut through that with run/walks and get to the finish line. The final pinnacle event was the Chicago Marathon. It was probably the most enjoyable event of the year, just an awesome feeling doing something with over 44,000 other people. It was the perfect way to top off the year.
I can tell you this for sure too; none of this is possible all on my own. First and foremost without the Spiritual life that has been spoon fed to me throughout my life and my coming to find God in a way that is special to me, this never happens. Frankly the last 25 years of life wouldn’t even have happened and those that have known me throughout my life know that is truth being told. Right behind my relationship with God is my family; my wife and daughter are always an inspiration to me. How can you not be inspired by watching someone come out of a battle with cancer to do her very first marathon 14 years ago and in Chicago of this year qualify for the Boston Marathon. If that’s not enough inspiration, how about this: she is also a polio survivor too! My daughter Cynthia is always the most encouraging and sweetest young lady that I know; she and her mother will have accomplished doing 12 marathons in 12 months! I believe they call that true Marathon Maniacs. My Spiritual support community, my training friends and my coach were all a big part in this too. No great achievement is ever done truly alone. On the starting line of all these events was my grandfather Cunningham whose last words to me were encouraging me to stop smoking, as he said ” the damn things got me Mark”. So every race I started with him and took him with me.
So it was a great season. Farewell 2013 Season, you were a good friend to me. You have taught me some valuable lessons along the way this year. You will always have a special place in my heart, you helped me put a perfect crescendo on this year leading to my 50th birthday. When I look back on the year I see the places for improvement but, I am proud and satisfied beyond what I could have ever dreamed even a few years ago. I hope all of you get the chance to experience a year like I have. Thanks everyone, I love ya all !!!
Hmmmmm…. and a tune to end…. wouldn’t wanna short change ya!
I know that I have used this quote on more than one occasion, but I just love it ! It is so true too. I really like where my mind is going these days in terms of my fitness goals and triathlon goals. There have been plenty of occasions that I could have chased out some negative thread of thought and said “No way I can do this.” Even this morning at the pool I had one more occasion to get to ride someone else’s negative rift, but frankly I just feel to good about the progress made so far to allow that! I am still feeling pretty high from the weekend at the Austin Marathon, my confidence is growing. What was once my worst fear of an event, swimming, is now becoming one of my favorites. While I thought that my running times seemed so insanely slow, I made progress that was beyond what I would have thought possible. So today my mind is right on track!
I remember one thing that my mentors in another area of my life always told me “you can’t think yourself into right action, you have to act yourself into right thinking”. If I had not learned this lesson and listened to people that had learned how to make positive changes in their life and then taken actions that at times didn’t appear to even make sence, I wouldn’t have the life I have today. Truth be known, I would probably not be alive. So I keep that experience close to my heart when I hear those negative voices, either internal or external, giving me the skeptics chant. Those voices are only real if I act on them instead of acting in a positive way regardless of what else might be heard.
Learning to shelve the negative voices is only a part of the game though, watering the seeds of the positive life-giving voices is the other side of the coin. The more that I feed “the good wolf” the stronger it will get! So everytime I complete one more good workout , I feed “the good wolf”. Everytime I do my workout even when my mind might want me to slough off, I feed “the good wolf“. The smile I get after completing my swim workout, that is food for “the good wolf“. The time I spend getting to practise meditation, that is food for “the good wolf” too. Every time I get the chance to give someone else a lift of encouragement and share my experiences with my difficulties and how I was able to walk through them, that too is feeding “the good wolf“. That’s what I want to be about, feeding “the good wolf“; not only mine but others too.
One of my favorite sayings that my mentor consistenly tells me is “life is open on the big end , baby” ! The guy helped me walk through some of the darkest times of my entire life and kept telling me that over and over. He didn’t ever promise me it was easy though, but he always told me it would be rewarding beyond my wildest dreams. Ride a bike 100 miles? Run a half-marathon? Swim a mile? Do a 70.3 triathlon? Not even imaginable 5 years ago. Ride a bike 100 miles? Run a half-marathon? Swim a mile? Do a 70.3 triathlon? Hell ya !
And ya know what, that’s just what I can see and dream today! I believe in the un-imaginable today ! IT’S OPEN ON THE BIG END, BABY!!!!!
The last couple of years we have gone to Austin, Texas for the Livestrong Austin Marathon/Half-Marathon. Austin is one of my favorite cities to visit, which is strange for a life long Sooner to say, but we always enjoy our visits to Austin. In the past when it is marathon weekend I am usually really relaxed and I have always enjoyed following the girls all around the course to cheer them on, but the last 6 months have changed our game plan since I am now running too. One part of running in these events that I really enjoy is getting to see a city from a different perspective, seeing the city on foot running is different than any other way to experience a city. My fitness level continues to get stronger, feeling the difference physically from the two earlier half-marathons to yesterday’s was really gratifying. So to give you a glimpse into the biggest part of my weekend training, let me share a some of the Austin highlights.
The city of Austin has a feel unlike any other city than I have ever visited. There is just such a positive vibe about the whole community. Austin is considered one of the most physically fit cities in the country and my experience has been that the more physically fit I have become the happier I have become too. So it is no surprise that people in general just seem to be happy about life, there is a certain aura that people generally have in Austin, they seem to have this carefree positive attitude that just exudes from them. Of all the places that I have ever visited in my life I am certain that there are more people out with there dogs in Austin than anywhere else in the world, seemed like everywhere you went there were people with their pup dogs tagging along. Who doesn’t smile when they have a great dog-friend to run around with? So besides the music and awesome food, those two points stick out about this great city!
So the stage is set, we are getting ready for a great weekend in Austin on marathon weekend. I have done a bunch of these events with Becky and Cynthia over the last 12 or so years and always loved following them around the different courses to root them on! As a spectator watching your family members get to work hard and accomplish their goals on race day, that is a lot of fun. I am always really proud of them. That was how race day had always been until this November when I became a participant myself. Now the thrill is different, there is more of a common bond about being at the start of these big races with them. Not only is it the excitement of getting to expereince what you have worked hard to do, but getting to do that with your family is even extra-special for me. The girls do the full marathon and I am doing the half marathon. There is a since of closeness doing that together that I suspect few get to experience. It is just so odd to even be thinking about it too, going from someone who never exercised to actually being out there doing this type of thing still blows me away. None of us would have ever thought that we would be doing this stuff together until the last few years. So we are really gratefull for the experience.
The start of the race was at the State Capital, it is a really beautiful place too. After leaving the capital you weave through downtown and eventually head out on Congress Avenue through one of my favorite places to hangout and eat. One thing that is dieffernent in Austin than in Oklahoma City is all of the food vendors in “coaches” or trailers throughout the city. There are even trailer park type areas that they are alll set up in that have bunches of picnic tables around for customers to sit and have their meals. They have some great park areas in Austin too, I hope someday Oklahoma City develops a park system in that same class. As I was running I made notice of all the dedicated bike lanes in the roads, there are some many bike lanes throughout the city, it is just awesome. You could actually safely commute to work on bike in this town without getting run over or have some fat cig-smoking, jelly donut eatin’ neanderuthal riding up your ass and honking at you to get out of his way! (and yes that may or may not have been me 3-4 years ago) One of my favorite parts of the race was when we were running at about 10 miles with all the Livestrong volunteers out on there in their yellow cheering us on, they were absolutely great! Again, the atmosphere of Austin makes the race.
Now about the race and my fitness gains, this was my best half marathon so far. I was able to improve my half-marathon time by 17:19 minutes! I was really pleased, to say the least. I really wanted to do well and I felt I was in much better shape than back in November and December, but I was a little apprehensive about expecting a great gain in time. At Dallas after the first one in Tulsa, I was actually slower; that stung my pride pretty good. I thought surely I would do better than time. So with that experience I was a little gun shy about my expectations, especially since I knew this would be a tougher course than the others. I had a little piece of paper on me that showed where my mile splits would need to be for 3 different finishes, one being a “pie in the sky” time that I didn’t think I would even be able to do. Well at mile 11 I was so close to the “pie in the sky”, I couldn’t believe it. If mile 12 didn’t have that one major hill, I could have maybe done it. I tried, I really did, but I just wasn’t able to get up that bastard like I needed to close it out. Having said that I was so pumped about the time I was going to be able to pull off! It was actually a better time than I honestly thought I could do; 2:33:49 ! I felt so stoked about that! I was one big major smile when I crossed that finish line!
So that was my training highlight this week, I leave Austin feeling really confident that I will be able to do Galveston. I know that my run is getting better and stronger, I also expect it to be even stronger by April 7th.
Tonight let’s listen to an Austin favorite son Jimmie Vaughan live at Antone’s.
When I first started this blog several years ago the original title of the blog was “Body, Mind, and Soul”, so today I am going to go back to that pattern for this post. There are lessons that I am learning along this Road To Glaveston; some new, some old with renewed strength. So with this being my first post in over a week, I feel somewhat refreshed and not nearly as over-whelmed in writing this morning. I like the tri-concept of body, mind, and soul; it seems to weave a really beautiful tapestry of life.
Body- Physically last week I was to have a recovery week in my workout routine. If recovery was the goal, I acheived that. I had two scheduled days of rest and ended up with 3 rest days. There were three workouts that were my highlights, each for different reasons. My swim workout was awesome this week, I really enjoy getting into the pool. I wouldn’t have ever thought that swimming would become so enjoyable. For me to come full-circle in swimming is a big deal! My favorite run this week was Saturday’s Fridgid Five in Edmond. We did this event with my brother in law. He wanted to do a run to celebrate his 70th birthday, so we had a nice dinner out with them on Friday and met them for the run on Saturday. Jim has been a lifelong runner and has done the Boston Marathon a couple of times too. I know my wife felt good about doing that with him too. She feels like her mom would have been proud to see them running together. The bike ride on Sunday at the lake was really relaxing, it was to be 90 minutes of riding just for enjoyment. I put in my headphones and did lake laps. It was refreshing too, helped me to get my head clear. Hopefully with the recovery week I will be able to hit this week in full gear. We will cap the coming week off with a good trip to Austin for the Livestrong Marathon.
Mind- My mind is in pretty good shape this week. Mentally I feel pretty positive about where I am with the Road To Galveston. There are times that I wonder “are you friggin nuts?” but those are usually fleeting and I don’t feed them with second thoughts. But more importantly there are times that I think “what else can we do?”, the opening up of a wide range of possibilities is so refreshing to me. I don’t just mean what other exercise goals, not just the thought of another physical challenge like maybe a 140.6 or maybe something like a Leadville 100 bike challenge; I have some other challenges that are teasing me too. The ability to put my mind in better focus towards goals is opening up some other new possibilities that I have thought were maybe lost to my age. So stay tuned this year, there just might be some other journeys on the horizon.
Soul- Spiritually this last week was really good. I had the opportunity to spend some time with another man listening to his life story; the good, the bad, the ugly. I love getting to do that, it is a real honor and priveledge. If you have never had the chance to sit down and tell someone your entire life story, warts and all, not withholding anything, give it some thought. Maybe it might be something you would consider for Lent this season. Richard Foster talks a little about this in his book Celebration of Discipline, and I believe that it captures the spirit of two verses in particular in the Christian faith James 5:16 ” Confess your sins one to another that ye may be healed.” and Matthew 18:20 “Wherever two or three gather in my name, I am with them.” When I get the opportunity to listen to someone like this, it reminds me of how we are all just human, trying our best and at times our ‘not so best’, and really I have never felt anything but a real sense of love and care that I know comes from our best “Spirit”. It also helps me to loosen some of that hyper-criticalness I have toward myself too. Looking forward this week towards Lent, I know that I have one commitment that I want to be diligent with, that is daily meditation. As far as something that I might sacrifice, I still am not sure what that will be. I am looking forward to this season though, it is one of my favorite times of the Christian faith.
So there you go! That’s the recap from last week. Hope you find something useful in my ramblings today.
Don’t you just LOVE THE GRAMMYs? Today’s tune is from Ed Sheeran and Elton John singing A Team. Elton John was a true ‘elderstatesman’ last night, what a great man he has become.
Yesterday we had a 3hr bike ride followed by a 18 minute run on the schedule. I put in the time, but it was anything but pretty. I was supposed to keep in my Zones and I couldn’t push into them, from the very start it was as if I was just done. I don’t really have much explaination either. After being at it for about an hour I just resigned my mind into “this is just one of those days”. So I made sure I got the saddle time and did the brick run just to say I got it all done.
I am going to cut back on posts. Probably do 3 a week. The Monday off workout day post will be easy, maybe another on Wednesday or Thursday, and then a weekend post. The longer I go, the more time crunched I get. I like blogging though, it is kind of like an accountability deal. I like the feedback and getting to read you guys blogs too.
Well I am at work now, so I better get off here……..
Today I think I’ll go with The Cars and Drive…. Enjoy.
This morning it was COLD outside at 7am ! I was so tempted to roll over and go back to sleep and wait until later in the day to do my run. When we do Landrunners Becky usually leaves before me to pick up Cynthia, they usually do a little more than I do, and then I leave a little afterwards. It was so tempting to just get back under the warm covers when she left, but I didn’t. Now that it is 3:30 in the afternoon I am glad I didn’t do that, but it was so tempting.
My running workout today was to be a 90′ run, mostly in Zones 2 and 3. I stayed pretty true to the plan, there were a few times that I would get out of Zone, but for the most part I held myself within Zone 3. My top heart rate in Zone 3 is 160 bpm. I did notice after the run I had downloaded the data off my Garmin that my pace within those Zones has improved, so that’s a good thing. I got a little down about my slowness a few weeks back. I think the testing last week and then some of the intervals made me see that I can and will improve, it just isn’t an over-night deal. One thing I am reminded of is the fact that “fast changes” in life rarely translate into sustainable longterm change. So what it takes is just what it takes! I did notice that my legs felt pretty shot afterwards. I think some of that might have been the night befores bike workout that I didnt finish until 10pm, I did that workout “out of order”. I was actually suposed to have down a 200o yd swim yesterday, but I wasn’t sure I could get it in on Friday with work so I switched it with the bike. Amanda sent us (her clients) an email and it talked about keeping workouts in the order because they were designed that way for a reason, I’ll do better next week. 🙂
I also added stregth training this week. I am to do two workouts per week. Today I did the one that I needed the weight machines, it went just fine. It was a set of 6 or so workouts to be done in 3×10 set, actually 2×10 and 1x 15 this week. I thought of doing the other set at the same time, but I held back and saved that set for tomorrow. I can do those execises at home, so I will knock that one out in the morning before the afternoon ride.
My attitude is doing better today. I still need to get better at doing a setting meditation EVERY day, it just makes such a difference. Getting that time to let things “settle”, even when it doesn’t “feel” like it is doing anything at the time, always makes my days go by better. A little time with the Creator goes a long way. Ya know, how can you have a relationship with someone if you don’t spend time with them? Or like one of my mentors used to say, “how you going to know what God’s will is in your life if ya never spend anytime with God asking him?” Good point, huh?
Right now I am reading three books; Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg, Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Naht Hahn, and Body Mind Mastery by Dan Millman. I have really enjoyed all the books by Thich Nhat Hahn, they helped me find some new tools for life and some new perspectives that in some ways I had never had, but in some ways I had always had. The Borg book is kind of challenging for me, actually it feels kind of like my struggle with learning to swim. I am going to just push thru it and see what happens with it. The Millman book was a gift from my daughter for Christmas, Phil Jackson is a big supporter of this book, that endorsement alone makes it worth giving a read.
Well I am going to cut out, it’s 4pm and I am thinking its about dinner time. 😉
Just found this song today, Caught By The River by Doves. Really like it too, reminds me of spending time at the park watching the ducks and squirells when I was going through some tough times. 🙂
I’m not going to be very “wordy” tonight. I’m tired and ready to hit the hay. I am thinking of cutting back my blog to 3-4 times a week, I need rest!
Tonight I did a 1:15 Bike trainer ride, doing several high cadence intervals. It felt pretty good. I just wanted to get the workout done. I had to get up early this morning and I am feelin my tired hangin out now. It does feel good to be on track to finish all my workouts this week. Looks like it will be somewhere around 12 hours this week. A pretty good load for a working guy!
I have an early morning run with the OKC Landrunners tomorrow with Becky and Cynthia.
Feels good to get all my workouts in today. My attitude is getting back in shape and just knowing that even though this week was sorta abnormal in the way my schedule unfolded, I feel good about the fact that I willget all my workouts done this week. That’s just pretty cool too. I just decided to not sweat it, just do the stuff as I could. Get flexible, and create a way to get it all done!
This evening I had two workouts to get done; one run and a swim. The run was a 50 minute run that i did at Oklahoma Christian running trails. It is so cool to get out there and see all the work they have gotten done on the trails. They are working on installing the lighting that will light the entire path at night. Night running is just around the corner, that is going to be so cool too. It will make my training so much more flexible; with a good lighted path, that opens up earlier morning runs and later evening runs. We are really excited about that. The swim workouts are the most difficult to work into a busy schedule, but it is possible. Ya just gotta think about the possible, not worry about the impossible! So I flipped this swim workout to tonight just to make sure I got it in. I am continuing to enjoy progress in swimming, I actually really like swimming now. Tonight I had 2000 yards to do, I thought it went pretty well too. I did several drills with the buoy too, that is getting more comfortable all the time too. I got to share a lane with a guy that looked like he was swimming like I was swimming in September/October, it was nice to see. God, he looked like he was pissed at the water! It was like he just wanted to kill the water. So I knew I was making some progress.
I was reading something on Siri Lindley’s(my grand-coach) website earlier that caught my eye. It was about her coaching philosophy, she said “My goal is to have every athlete I coach, achieve their every dream while having fun, and learning about themselves, every single day.” I really like that idea too. She is my coaches coach, and thats the same attitude I get from my coach too. I belive in the process and the road that I am on, and it’s getting more fun every day. It’s work, but damn it sure feels good.
Tonights tunes will be, The Fixx doing “One Thing Leads To Another”. One of my all time favorites!
The first big event for me this year is going to be The Half Pint at Dirty Kanza. This is a new kind of riding for me. Just getting ready to delve into it. It will be 100 miles on gravel/dirt roads. I understand that it is also a pretty hilly ride too, that will give my old man legs a good workout. preparing for this should help me with my second big event of the year too, TBA as soon as I get registration paid. So the training begins.
markwcunningham 