Michelle and I just spent a weekend away as a celebration of our 10th anniversary. We did what a lot of folks in our area do...we went up to the Leelanua penninsula to do some wine tasting and leaf peeping. I know, how pretentious. The Leelanau peninsula is a beautiful place, but it exudes pretentiousness from its every pore.
During our 48 hours of childless-freedom, we cruised around the peninsula, visited some wineries, stayed at a nice B&B, and did some shopping in little places mostly full of high-class junk.
Quite possibly my favorite part of the whole weekend was driving around some of the backroads of the peninsula in search of wineries. It is fall and the colors were truly spectacular. Most of thes roads amble up and then over the peninsula in a winding fashion that was just perfect for leisurely driving.
I was always a little distracted though. I couldn't help thinking of biking. Many of these roads would be fantastic for riding.
Long meandering climbs followed by fast winding descents the likes of which don't exist around western Michigan. Around here the roads are pretty straight and the climbs are not very long. In order to get a good workout, I often have to do hill repeats. Find a decent hill, then ride up it and then ride back down. Repeat until you are tired of it.
This would not be necessary up in Leelanau. I think I could spend hours climbing up one road and then descending down another and then ride to the next lovely climb. Most of the internal roads had little to no traffic. The two main roads are M-22 and M-204. Both would be good roads to ride on, but traffic would get a little bothersome.
Our next venture up that way will need to involve bikes or I might just go nuts!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
What should the next Crazy Faith look like?
It has been several weeks since the first Crazy Faith. All at once, it seems like it just happened and it was a long time ago. Strange how that is.
Almost immediately, I started to think about next year. Crazy Faith was successful enough that planning v2.0 seemed to be a no-brainer. The questions then becomes:
Almost immediately, I started to think about next year. Crazy Faith was successful enough that planning v2.0 seemed to be a no-brainer. The questions then becomes:
What do we do?
Do we do the same thing again? Will the congregation respond as well as they did this year? Should I include others more prominently?
Before those questions can be answered, a few points need to be considered. There were several reasons I feel Crazy Faith was successful.
- It was pretty crazy. I mean 12 hours on a bike!?!? C'mon! Really? Probably 98% of the congregation had no conception of what it might be like to be on a bike for that long.
- It was a new and fresh idea. Crazy Faith caught the attention of the congregation.
- It took place at the beginning of the school year when education and Christian Education is on the forefront of people's minds.
- The congregation wasn't asked to do much of anything other than donate money. Most of the effort came from me. All they had to do was pledge and write a check.
- Not to toot my own horn, but it was marketed well. There was information given multiple times through multiple different formats to let people know what was going on. No one could say they didn't know about it.
- The money raised went towards a cause that the congregation already supports and has been supporting for quite some time. They were not asked to support some brand new charitable cause.
If the above points are accurate, that tells me we would need to do something different (but still crazy), near the beginning of the church/school year, and do something that doesn't ask too much of the congregation as a whole.
Here are some of the random thoughts and ideas I, and others, have had:
Two Man Team Time Trials
So here's the idea...we would have 2, two man teams that would ride an approximate 25 mile route. Team One would start and try to cover the route as quickly as they could. As they pull into the church parking lot, Team Two would then take off and ride the same route, trying to finish as fast as possible. If you repeated the process for say, I don't know, 12 hours, how many miles could we cover?
100 Miles to Nowhere
Imagine running a marathon...on a treadmill. Take that basic idea and apply it to the bike. What if I set up my indoor trainer in the Fellowship Hall and rode 100 miles without moving even an inch? A century ride is hard. A century ride without actually going anywhere might just qualify as torture. This idea could also be adapted for a particular length of time, maybe 8-12 hours.
Duathalon Repeats
Along with cycling, I dabble in running. Not nearly as much as cycling but enough to do a 5K every now and then. What if I picked a cycling route and a running route and I switched back and forth from one to the other for a set amount of time? Maybe something like 25 miles of cycling and a 5K run done over and over. That, honestly, sounds pretty crazy.
100 Miles to Nowhere Duathalon
How about combining the duathalon idea with the not-actually-going-anywhere idea? Maybe we could set up a treadmill and a trainer and go back and forth from one to the other until we got to 100 miles. That sounds like a fun kind of self-flagellation.
The Obvious Plan
If you just rode your bike for 12 hours, the most obvious next step would be something like 13-16 hours. "You rode 12 hours. Thirteen hours isn't that much more!"
The Overnight
What if we repeated the 12 hour idea but it was from 7 pm to 7 am? The danger quotient definitely goes up for an overnight ride. That makes the overnight option not terribly likely. There is crazy and there is stupid. We're going to avoid stupid.
Other Ideas
Several other little ideas have been floated about. These could be done in conjunction with one of the "bigger" ideas above.
Maybe have one person from each church come up with their own Crazy Faith idea and do it on the same day. Or maybe do the same thing together. Maybe, just maybe, make it into a friendly competition between churches.
Here are some of the random thoughts and ideas I, and others, have had:
Two Man Team Time Trials
So here's the idea...we would have 2, two man teams that would ride an approximate 25 mile route. Team One would start and try to cover the route as quickly as they could. As they pull into the church parking lot, Team Two would then take off and ride the same route, trying to finish as fast as possible. If you repeated the process for say, I don't know, 12 hours, how many miles could we cover?
100 Miles to Nowhere
Imagine running a marathon...on a treadmill. Take that basic idea and apply it to the bike. What if I set up my indoor trainer in the Fellowship Hall and rode 100 miles without moving even an inch? A century ride is hard. A century ride without actually going anywhere might just qualify as torture. This idea could also be adapted for a particular length of time, maybe 8-12 hours.
Duathalon Repeats
Along with cycling, I dabble in running. Not nearly as much as cycling but enough to do a 5K every now and then. What if I picked a cycling route and a running route and I switched back and forth from one to the other for a set amount of time? Maybe something like 25 miles of cycling and a 5K run done over and over. That, honestly, sounds pretty crazy.
100 Miles to Nowhere Duathalon
How about combining the duathalon idea with the not-actually-going-anywhere idea? Maybe we could set up a treadmill and a trainer and go back and forth from one to the other until we got to 100 miles. That sounds like a fun kind of self-flagellation.
The Obvious Plan
If you just rode your bike for 12 hours, the most obvious next step would be something like 13-16 hours. "You rode 12 hours. Thirteen hours isn't that much more!"
The Overnight
What if we repeated the 12 hour idea but it was from 7 pm to 7 am? The danger quotient definitely goes up for an overnight ride. That makes the overnight option not terribly likely. There is crazy and there is stupid. We're going to avoid stupid.
Other Ideas
Several other little ideas have been floated about. These could be done in conjunction with one of the "bigger" ideas above.
- Have a fun ride for church members and there families. Maybe around Millenium Park.
- Set up a kids race course in the church parking lot and see who can record the fastest lap.
- Have a raffle of donated bike goods.
- If we do a 100 Miles to Nowhere format, we could set up a trainer next to me and charge people $10 for 10 minutes.
- If the duathalon idea comes about, let others do the running portion with me, since more church members run then bike.
Maybe have one person from each church come up with their own Crazy Faith idea and do it on the same day. Or maybe do the same thing together. Maybe, just maybe, make it into a friendly competition between churches.
"Our church can go farther than your church! Na-na-na-na-na!"
We'll try to avoid the above sentiment. Yeah, that would probably be a good idea.
At this time, I'm keeping my mind open. The sky's the limit. There are lots of good ideas out there and I'll be doing some fishing with others to see what comes up.
Do you have ideas? Write me a comment.
At this time, I'm keeping my mind open. The sky's the limit. There are lots of good ideas out there and I'll be doing some fishing with others to see what comes up.
Do you have ideas? Write me a comment.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Crazy Faith 2013 - Riding for 12 hours
On Saturday September 21st, I rolled out of my driveway at 7 am and kept on pedaling until 7 pm. During the intevening 12 hours I covered 145 miles. This effort raised approximately $5200 for the Westend CRC Christian Education Ministry. It would not have been possible without the generosity of the Westend congregation, several cycling buddies, the incredible patience of my wife, and, of course, God's blessing, guidance and grace.
Now, a lot can happen while pedaling 13.4 inches circles over and over and over again for 12 hours. Here's the story...
It was 6:58 am and I had just posted on Facebook that I was about to start. I was staring intently at my bike computer so I could hit the start button exactly at 7:00 am. It was now 6:59 am.
Wait a minute, where are my water bottles?
Quick into the house, grab the bottles, and back outside.
The official start to Crazy Faith was 7:00:10 am. The 10 second goof fact bothered me for all of about a minute as I rolled out of the driveway and up the street. Oh well.
The first big loop of the day was the Tour de Christian Schools. It was a ride I had done back on Labor Day weekend as a trial run. Basically, I rode to Grand Rapids Christian High School, then to Calvin Christian, over to Unity Christian High School, up and over to Allendale Christian and back east to Westside Christian School and Westend CRC. The loop was about 52 miles total.
On Labor Day weekend, this had been an uneventful and thoroughly pleasant ride. For Crazy Faith, there was more traffic and a mechanical snafu.
As a little back story, over the last several years I've had some issues with rear wheels. To keep it brief, I seem to be good at destroying them. Why is that? No idea really. Going into Crazy Faith, I knew my rear wheel was not completely right. Fingers were crossed and prayers were said to just make it through the day.
By the time I had made it to Unity Christian, I realized that the rear brake was rubbing because of the wheel being out of true laterally. Nothing like starting a 12 hour ride with some brake rub. When I opened up the brake calipers to stop the brake rub, the tire started to rub the fender.
Sigh.
The tire rub didn't seem bad so I kept on riding up to ACS and back to Westend. Once back to Westend, I took the fender off (with help from my lovely wife) and made sure the brake caliper was open nice and wide to avoid brake rub. This made my rear brake non-functional but that is ok since I never use the rear brake anyway (I would be happy to explain why, if you are curious). Michelle was there with the kiddos and my Mother-in-law, Barb. It was really good to see them because it reminded me of why I was doing this in the first place.
What to do for the next loop? My only planned route was the Tour de Christian Schools. After that, my route was up for grabs. One factor that I needed to take into account was the wind. If you remember, Saturday the 21st was quite a nice day. No rain, moderate temperatures, and occasional sun. The 15 mph wind from NNW did change my plans, however. Battling the wind for several hours did not seem to be the best idea on a day where I needed to ride for 12 hours.
With that in mind, my second loop went towards Millenium Park, Indian Mounds Dr, Butterworth and up the new connector trail that goes from Maynard & Obrien to Rememberance. Not a bad loop, overall.
Little did I know that Pastor Jeremy had been at church and was ready to ride with me. As many of you will know, Pastor Jeremy is not someone with a whole lot of free time on his hands. Just the fact that he was there and ready to ride speaks volumes. He didn't have to. It's not a job requirement.
When I got back from my second loop, there was Pastor Jeremy, all geared up and ready to go. After a brief rest break and some more food, we took off.
Oh wait, is that Scott DeKryger coming up the drive? Yep, it is.
Scott had just returned from le Tour de Donut (which I highly recommend, by the way) and wanted to put in a little time. After a brief delay, we were off. Pastor Jeremy had about an hour, so we rode west on Leonard to Linden and then turned around and rode back to church.
Not surprisingly, this was the fastest loop of the day. Scott and Jeremy cut the wind (not the cheese) for me and basically pulled me along. It is truly amazing how much a little companionship can make such a huge difference. I have often heard it said that God shows his presence and care by sending others into our lives. You've got a firm believer in me! Michelle's effect on my life has long been proof of this.
When the Scott/Jeremy loop was done, I had to decide what to do next. No one was around to ride with me. Do I brave the wind or brave some hills or find some boring, flat loop to do?
What to do? What to do?
I should pause to say that, by now, I was starting to feel it. I had been riding for something like seven hours. That's a long time in the saddle. My neck was sore. My back was sore. My legs were tired. I knew all of this was going to happen. None of it surprised me, but that does not necessarily make it better.
The next hour and a half was not a ton of fun. Most of my thoughts were focused on how many different things hurt, how much they hurt, and how much more time I had to go. It was, truthfully, the lowest part of the ride. It was here that I questioned whether or not I would finish the 12 hours.
Now, a lot can happen while pedaling 13.4 inches circles over and over and over again for 12 hours. Here's the story...
It was 6:58 am and I had just posted on Facebook that I was about to start. I was staring intently at my bike computer so I could hit the start button exactly at 7:00 am. It was now 6:59 am.
Wait a minute, where are my water bottles?
Quick into the house, grab the bottles, and back outside.
The official start to Crazy Faith was 7:00:10 am. The 10 second goof fact bothered me for all of about a minute as I rolled out of the driveway and up the street. Oh well.
The first big loop of the day was the Tour de Christian Schools. It was a ride I had done back on Labor Day weekend as a trial run. Basically, I rode to Grand Rapids Christian High School, then to Calvin Christian, over to Unity Christian High School, up and over to Allendale Christian and back east to Westside Christian School and Westend CRC. The loop was about 52 miles total.
On Labor Day weekend, this had been an uneventful and thoroughly pleasant ride. For Crazy Faith, there was more traffic and a mechanical snafu.
As a little back story, over the last several years I've had some issues with rear wheels. To keep it brief, I seem to be good at destroying them. Why is that? No idea really. Going into Crazy Faith, I knew my rear wheel was not completely right. Fingers were crossed and prayers were said to just make it through the day.
By the time I had made it to Unity Christian, I realized that the rear brake was rubbing because of the wheel being out of true laterally. Nothing like starting a 12 hour ride with some brake rub. When I opened up the brake calipers to stop the brake rub, the tire started to rub the fender.
Sigh.
The tire rub didn't seem bad so I kept on riding up to ACS and back to Westend. Once back to Westend, I took the fender off (with help from my lovely wife) and made sure the brake caliper was open nice and wide to avoid brake rub. This made my rear brake non-functional but that is ok since I never use the rear brake anyway (I would be happy to explain why, if you are curious). Michelle was there with the kiddos and my Mother-in-law, Barb. It was really good to see them because it reminded me of why I was doing this in the first place.
What to do for the next loop? My only planned route was the Tour de Christian Schools. After that, my route was up for grabs. One factor that I needed to take into account was the wind. If you remember, Saturday the 21st was quite a nice day. No rain, moderate temperatures, and occasional sun. The 15 mph wind from NNW did change my plans, however. Battling the wind for several hours did not seem to be the best idea on a day where I needed to ride for 12 hours.
With that in mind, my second loop went towards Millenium Park, Indian Mounds Dr, Butterworth and up the new connector trail that goes from Maynard & Obrien to Rememberance. Not a bad loop, overall.
Little did I know that Pastor Jeremy had been at church and was ready to ride with me. As many of you will know, Pastor Jeremy is not someone with a whole lot of free time on his hands. Just the fact that he was there and ready to ride speaks volumes. He didn't have to. It's not a job requirement.
When I got back from my second loop, there was Pastor Jeremy, all geared up and ready to go. After a brief rest break and some more food, we took off.
Oh wait, is that Scott DeKryger coming up the drive? Yep, it is.
Scott had just returned from le Tour de Donut (which I highly recommend, by the way) and wanted to put in a little time. After a brief delay, we were off. Pastor Jeremy had about an hour, so we rode west on Leonard to Linden and then turned around and rode back to church.
Not surprisingly, this was the fastest loop of the day. Scott and Jeremy cut the wind (not the cheese) for me and basically pulled me along. It is truly amazing how much a little companionship can make such a huge difference. I have often heard it said that God shows his presence and care by sending others into our lives. You've got a firm believer in me! Michelle's effect on my life has long been proof of this.
When the Scott/Jeremy loop was done, I had to decide what to do next. No one was around to ride with me. Do I brave the wind or brave some hills or find some boring, flat loop to do?
What to do? What to do?
I should pause to say that, by now, I was starting to feel it. I had been riding for something like seven hours. That's a long time in the saddle. My neck was sore. My back was sore. My legs were tired. I knew all of this was going to happen. None of it surprised me, but that does not necessarily make it better.
The next hour and a half was not a ton of fun. Most of my thoughts were focused on how many different things hurt, how much they hurt, and how much more time I had to go. It was, truthfully, the lowest part of the ride. It was here that I questioned whether or not I would finish the 12 hours.
"You've already done 9 hours. That's good enough. No one will blame you. You've already done enough."
And then I saw Dave!
"You had me at 'Wanna ride?'"
Dave VanderSchaaf was waiting at church ready to pull me along for a little while. His company was most welcome.
For nearly 2 hours we rode out towards and then up the Musketawa Trail and then headed back to church. We bike dorked out and talked about wheels, pedals, shoes, DALMAC, bike touring and every cyclists favorite topic...the next bike! There is no topic quite as a juicy sweet as the next bike.
Was I still hurting? Yeah, I was. Did I notice it as much? No, not nearly as much.
When Dave and I got back to church, my lovely wife was waiting for us to help me along for that last hour of riding. As my Facebook post said, "Just 66 minutes to go. Just 66 minutes to go".
Michelle and I left church with almost exactly one hour to go. Due to the whole having-a-infant-thing, she hadn't been on the bike too terribly much. This was, realistically, a good thing. After having ridden my bike for 11 hours, there wasn't much of an all out effort in me.
As we got back toward church, I realized there was still about 5 minutes left before 7 pm. My thought process was:
"C'mon, go hard for the last 5 minutes!"
So, I stepped up the pace as I was going around the block a few times. Not surprisingly, I couldn't "go hard" for more than about 30 seconds before I had to back off some and regroup. After 12 hours, your red line is kinda low.
At 7pm on the dot, I hit stop on my bike computer and brought Gimli to a halt. One-hundred and forty-five miles. Not bad.
I rolled into the parking lot where Michelle was waiting for me. We snapped a picture, loaded up the bikes and headed to McDonalds! Extra large, salty fries? Yes, please!
By the time I got home, I was basking in the warm glow of endorphins, serotonin and lactic acid. That period after finishing a long ride is really a great one. Everything seems to be right with the world.
One might think that a person who had just spent 12 hours on a bike would want nothing to do with said bike for a long time. To be honest, that's not the case. By that Tuesday, I wanted to ride to work. The only reason I didn't is because the work day really didn't allow it.
By Thursday, my body felt pretty normal. In fact, by the day after Crazy Faith, everything except my quads and hamstrings felt just dandy. That's one of the wonderful things about cycling. Once your body has adapted to being on the bike, cycling really doesn't beat you up the way other sports can.
Next year? I think there will be a next year. Will I do the same thing? No. Will I still do something crazy? Yep. What about involving others? That seems like a great idea.
More later...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)