...And you thought Barry Roubaix was Tough

UPDATE - It appears that Mother Nature intends to spoil this one for us. We're going to move the ride to Sunday if that's cool with all of you?!?! Let's say 1-ish at PLRA Parking Lot? I just got off the phone with the owners of the Gas Station on Grange Hall road. I had to let them know that this Saturday, Team Hot Dog and friends of tHD will be heading out on our bikes, up some of the biggest hills in Michigan on our way to their fine establishment. I specifically asked them start making their delicious fresh sandwiches and wraps, get their pigs in a blanket ready to go and, if Jay shows up, stock the Root Beer! The pace will be slow, the heart rates will be high. Some will laugh, some will cry and others will just plan hate life. Pack the Cytomax, make sure you have enough nourishment for a 40 mile ride and bring a camera in case we come across Kid Rock! So if you've got what it takes, show up at the PLRA parking lot @ 1pm this Saturday and get ready to rock and roll. Wheeee!

Tour de Cure

Confirmed on my 2nd race. Signed up for the Tour de Cure and began my fundraising by harrassing my fellow employees, facebook friends, and family. 75 days should be plenty of time to wrangle up $200. Who else is participating? I only saw Steve out there. I'm going to do the 14 mile mountain bike event that they have. I'm assuming it will be Murray Lake.

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up...I think I finally thawed out (and sobered up) from the frozen 2011 Barry Roubaix. I won't bore you to death with the details of my demise, just wanted throw some props out to everyone who raced and supported the race this weekend. Special thumbs up to our new Team Members David and James for flying the tHD colors and to David especially for finishing his first bike race! All in all, a crazy weekend. I can honestly say that after this one, I was gassed (literally!)

Unfortunately, this wasn't an overly photo-happy trip for me but here are a few shots from the pre and post race festivities! - Steve

Our trusty cross bikes taking a breather in the shadows of the beer silos at Michigan Brewing Company

from left to right Shaun, JRAD, Purple Helmet, David and Hot Dog Himself flashing gang signs in the beer tent

Hot Dog doing his best "Cornholio" impression before the big race

Couple More Snaps From Yesterday

Here are a few more shots I took from yesterday's first HD ride of the year. Good times for sure, hopefully we all get back out there again real soon!

David on the climb

Tim learning the hard way what 8% is all about

Coach overlooking spring training

Resting at the top

Cruising through Island Lake

Shaun approves

Great Day for a Ride!

...and some Buffalo Wild Wings! (edited by Coach)

First Logged Garmin Ride

I managed to get out and ride today. Nothing fantastic. I just went over to my folks and did a 10 mile ride with my mommy. It counts!

Kensington Rd. Hill Sausagefest

To help usher in Spring and the 2011 riding season, don your favorite Team Hot Dog sausage casings and join us this Saturday @ 11am @ Kensington Metropark. We'll be starting the suffering at the first large parking lot off the Kensington Road entrance. If you don't know where that is, let me know!

Our goal is to hammer out 30ish miles on mainly paved roads in preparation for Barry-Roubaix. Yes, we will be climbing one of the "Biggest Hills In Michigan", Kensington Road Hill. Road Bike, Cyclocross Bike, Mountain Bike, Recumbents....wait, no Recumbents please! Roll whatever you want, we're not going to be pushing the pace too bad. This will be a no-drop ride so don't worry about being the slow guy....that title is reserved for yours truly.

RSVP in the condiments section below or on our Facebook page so we know to keep our eyes peeled for ya. Keep an eye on the weather as it might change. If we do get rain, we may consider moving it to Sunday....Stay Tuned!

- Coach Steve

A Fat Man on a Little Ride

Got a chance to get my first ride of the year in outdoors this evening. My gosh the winter has not been kind to me!! I simply did two laps around the lake at Stony, on my trusty steed, Jake the Snake. Why does it seem every spring, my belly stretches that spandex just a tad more? Ugh. Time to right the ship!

Proposed Wuss Training Ride

I'm doing a Wuss Training ride later this week. Mostly likely I'll go twice because I'm feeling froggy with all the nice weather coming our way. I want to go Thursday afternoon and again over the weekend. This will be a sub 30 mile ride. My plan is to start at Milford MTB trail head at the baseball field. I'll then ride up to the YMCA and take the paved pathway around hubble pond, along the huron river and into kennsington where I'll then ride around Kent Lake and make my way back to the trailhead where I parked. I'm not sure how many miles this will amount to. My goal was something around Barry Roubaix distance and this should be about right. I am doing the 23miler after all. I suspect this ride will be right around 25. Anyone who wants to tag along let me know. Or if you have better plans for a weekend ride let me know as well. I'm a hot mess so if it's over 30 I'll probably need an adrenaline shot at about 15 miles.

A Sunday In the Park

Well since it seems as if Steve and JRAD were doing their best imitation of snobby elitist roadies today. Below is a reconnaissance photo I got from Steve and JRAD's ride. Notice the shaving of the legs and the skin suits obvious signs of their transgression to the dark side.

This left me to rolling my knobby tired one geared bike by myself. I left out of my drive way today with the hopes of getting in 40 miles. I grabbed the wife's Garmin, strapped it on, and off I went into the beautiful Sunday weather. The Weather Channel promised me a peak of sun and a high temperature of 37, my ass. What I found was cold weather and at times I was pelted with ice pellets and no sun. Not many people were out to brave the elements except for the die hard tennis players that I saw at the West Bloomfield hunt Club.

Here you see a young lady having to clear the snow from the court before she could start her match.

Once clear the action began

The only other highlight to the ride was being buzzed by the West Bloomfield SUV police cruiser

All in all I put in just a hair under the 40 miles (37.22) that I was shooting for. I somehow only managed 550 feet of elevation gain. Damn Michigan is flat. Somehow I need to find the 2200 feet of climbing that is promised at Barry.

By the way don't forget to sign up for Grab an Ass Week on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=122850304427097&index=1

A Couple of Hot Dogs And Some Heinz...I mean Hines

Met up for JRAD for some Barry Roubaix "training." We decided to roll down the I-275 pathway out to Hines Drive. We planned to keep going until we hit 18 miles on our garmin, then roll back to the car. I was excited to hit the 275 pathway since I haven't been on it since my folks, sister and I would cruise it WAY back in the day.

The path was in real good shape with only a few downed trees and snowbank obstacles. When we got on Hines, the road was mostly dry and surprisingly void of any cycling traffic. At the turnaround spot about 18 miles in, the wind kicked up and I slipped into a deep and dark place in my mind. My quads were on fire and my calves felt like they were going to burst. I shoved a whole packet of frozen Cliff Bloks in my pie-hole and kept pedaling until I was able to focus again but it was over with...I felt cooked.

We decided to roll back through Northville for a change of scenery and I reluctantly agreed to follow along. The last section of Hines Drive had what must have been one of the biggest hills in Michigan on it. All I remember was seeing JRAD take off like a friggin' rocket and I was left in the dust. Thank goodness for granny gear and no traffic because I really felt like throwing myself in the way of oncoming traffic at this point.

Somehow, we made it back to the car...I think I blacked out for a few miles. Amazed that I just went from winter-couch-potato to pedaling 37 miles, I was pretty proud of my accomplishment. In celebration and in true Team Hot Dog fashion, the wife and I hit up Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and Dairy Queen for some dessert.



Roadhouse,
Steve

Copter Dogs

A few hot dogs playing with a remote control copter at the spandex party over the weekend:

2011 tHD Jersey Party

If I had just one photo to sum up the 2011 Team Hot Dog Jersey Party, it would be this one..

If I had two photos to sum up the 2011 Team Hot Dog Jersey Party, it would include this one...

But seriously, we really didn't need to crack open the 151...Anyways, Thanks to Hot Dog for having us over and sharing his bountiful harvest of hot dogs and Coors Light and Cheers to a great 2011 Cycling season!

- Coach Steve

Sunday Gathering Anyone?

Steve and I discussed it, and I'd like to open up my crib and invite you all over Sunday afternoon. Everyone's welcome to come on by, pick up your gear, and I'll have some beers on hand. We can think of something to do food wise if you all like too. The 12 oz curls will be good training for Barry Roubaix in a few weeks.

Mrs. Hot Dog will be out for the day, so I will have the place all to myself. I was thinking of having you all over around 1pm or so if that is ok? Let me know if you guys are down for this, and I can e-mail you out my address and stuff if you don't already have it.

For those of you who can't make it, I can either mail you your gear, or, Steve or someone else who may see you more often can drop it off. We will figure something out.

Hope things are well. Hope to hear from and see you soon. Peace.