South Carolina State Line

I know, I know. I need to keep up with this blog. It’s just so hard!! So I’m doing another catch up post.

These are mainly posts directly from Facebook with a few elaborations. I also posted some of the pictures I’ve taken along the way.

Day 14 – Macclenny, FL to Statesboro, GA

The Bike Shop – Statesboro, GA

In Statesboro, GA. Both bikes broke down today (broke a a spoke on each bike) so we had to pack up at mile 80 of 100 to find a bike shop. Closest was in Statesboro. So here we are! The Bike Shop got us all fixed up and even stayed open a little late for us. Great guys! Thanks!!!

Church sign quote of the day: If God is your co-pilot, then guess who is sitting in the wrong seat?

Day 15 – Statesboro, GA to Yemassee, SC

Had a great ride today from Statesboro, GA to Yemassee, SC – about 75 miles. Lots of head winds and dogs chasing me. No broken spokes or flats. Thank God!!

Best church sign of the day – Real men love Jesus – Happy Fathers Day.

Day 16 – Yemassee, SC to Moncks Corner, SC

Vince and Chris

I spent fathers day riding 90 miles and thinking about my Dad and about why I’m on this journey. The conclusion is that I’m on this journey to create ripples. One ripple leads to another and another and another. My hope is that these ripples will do something great and help get rid of pancreatic cancer, what my father asked me to do.

If you will please email your senator and Congress person and tell them they need to back the Pancreatic Cancer Education and Research bill that will add some much needed funds for research. Pancreatic is one of the deadliest cancers and yet is the least funded. Let’s change that.

Share this so we can do something good together.

Best Church sign of the day – Happy fathers day God!

Day 17 – Moncks Corner, GA to Conway, SC

In Conway, SC very close to Myrtle Beach staying with family. I’m going to take a day off the bike and visit the ocean and give my bottom a rest. Tomorrow is a 100 mile day to Wilmington, NC.

Best church sign yesterday – VBS, where kids get down and lift God up high.

Day 18 – Day off in Conway, SC

Chris Bike Maintenance

I spent the morning fixing and cleaning both bikes. They really needed it. The one bike I’ve ridden the entire way had a MAJOR build up of grime on the bottom of it and needed some major degreasing action. I got them both into proper working order.

Headed over to Surfside Beach to visit with my wife’s Grandmother, Grandma Keller. She is so sweet. We had a great talk and then I walked to the beach (she lives two blocks from the beach) to sit in the sand for a while.

The day went really quick – too quick as I think I’m ready for some down time at this point. My bottom is killing me (a couple of saddle sores still) and I think it’s going to take a month to heal. At least I’m into the very last week of the ride now! Yea!

Day 19 – Conway, SC to Wilmington, NC

Ferry Ride

Quick status update. It was a looooooong day in the saddle. Left Conway, SC at 7 am, got into Wilmington, NC at 6:30 pm. Rode a ferry across Cape Fear and of course broke another spoke. Took a few wrong turns and added mileage to an already long day. But I’m here safe and sound.

Best Church Sign of the Day – A cold church is like cold butter, it doesn’t spread well.

Day 20 – Wilmington, NC to Jacksonville, NC

North Carolina State Line

Safe and sound here in Jacksonville, NC. Camped right outside of Camp Lejeune. Had a strong tailwind today, so I made great time. About time right? No broken spokes, very good. Vince stayed behind and took wheel with broken spoke to an awesome bike shop in Wilmington that rebuilt the entire wheel, so hopefully that will take care of all of those issues.

Not a church sign, but I liked it- Think of mistakes as feedback.

Day 21 – Jacksonville, NC to Washington, NC

Wheel Fix

Rolled into Washington, NC (yes that’s North Carolina) a little while ago. Nice day. It sure got hot, but nothing a good ol Texan boy can’t handle. I had an old Marine pull up next to me yesterday and say, “Son, you gotta be tougher than leather to be riding in weather like this! At a boy! Ride one for me!” I just laughed.

Off for my last century ride (that’s 100 miles for you non-rider folks) tomorrow to Suffolk, VA.

Best Church sign today (completely relevant to me by the way) – God doesn’t promise your journey will be easy.

That’s it for Now!

I’ll try to just take the post I add to Facebook from now on. I think writing a full blog post is just too much each night. Especially on long days. Tomorrow is going to be a long day – 100+ miles with a strong headwind (go figure).

Thanks and God Bless! Until I see you next, I’ll be riding the white line!

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Georgia State Line

Today’s ride was really meant to go from Macclenny, FL to Jesup, GA – about 100 miles – but I ran into more spoke issues. The first spoke broke around Folkston, GA and we switched out the back wheel with the spare one. And just outside of Hortense and 80 miles into the ride,  the spare broke.

So that left me stranded with only one option – find a bike shop. Unfortunately that meant driving to Statesboro (an additional 70 miles and the next day’s ride) as the closest bike shop was there.

Fortunately The Bike Shop (that’s the actual name by the way), was a really awesome shop. They fixed us up and got the bikes rolling again. We also used the opportunity to get the tools we needed to fix the spokes ourselves next time they break so we don’t have to keep trying to find bike shops.

So that leaves us with only one night in Georgia. That’s ok with me really as I’m not extremely fond of Georgia roads. They don’t believe in shoulders and the shoulders they do make are filled with what I’m calling rumble strips. You know, the kind that keeps a driver awake if they veer off the road.

Well it seems as if Georgia has a love affair with the rumble strips and that unfortunately means not very safe conditions for bike riders.

We will see what South Carolina brings tomorrow! Until then – I’ll be riding the white line!

Best Church Signs of the Day

If God is in your co-pilot seat, guess who’s sitting in the wrong seat?

A man who kneels before God can stand up to anything.

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Mississippi State Line

Ok so I’ve been so derelict on keeping up this blog, that I’m going to lump up my experiences into one blog post instead of putting off writing and falling further and further behind.

So here goes.

Day 7 – Franklinton, LA to Perkinston, LA

This day was another day in Louisiana and dealing with the horrible roads. The morning was ok and I suffered another flat just outside of Perkinston. Can’t wait to get out of this state. Perkinston was ok, but the RV park was something else. They had signs posted everywhere about not doing drugs, so that left very little confidence in it for Vince and I. We just did our normal thing and went to bed early and got up early so it wasn’t a big deal I guess, but I’m sure we won’t be going back there ever again.

Day 8 – Perkinston, LA to Mobile, AL.

Alabama State Line

This is the day the rain started. As soon as I woke up, it was raining. Luckily it quit just before I left, but about 20 minutes into the ride it started again. Nothing too bad, just a light rain.

However, about 50 miles into the ride I crossed into Alabama and God opened the flood gates. My visibility went down to about 5 feet in front of me, which meant that the drivers couldn’t see me. BUT, there were very few cars on the roads thankfully.

So I stopped on the side of the road and let it rain. After about 15 minutes, I looked down and noticed that my back wheel had another broken spoke. Nuts.

I sat there for about 45 minutes until it let up enough to keep on going. Vince met me not far from where I had stopped initially and we switched out the wheel and had lunch.

I made it the next 30 miles to just outside of Mobile when Vince came and picked me up. We ended up staying in a motel that night as it’s just too hard to set the RV up in the rain.

Day 9 – Rain out

So it was a good thing that we stayed in the motel because it had rained so much throughout the night that Mobile had received 9 inches of rain. Even more importantly, Pensacola (our next destination) had received about 15 inches of rain and had a lot of flooding.

There were massive storms heading our way this morning as well. So after debating for an hour, Vince and I decided to hole up in the motel and let the storms pass. Great thing as Pensacola had received up to 22 inches of rain by the end of the day and they were having massive flooding.

Day 10 – Rain Out Again

This was almost a repeat of the prior day. In fact the storms were just lining up one after another. So we made a command decision to drive to get on the other side of the storms and get back on track.

That was a hard decision for me as I really wanted to ride the entire thing, but I’m trying to make it to Washington D.C. on National Pancreatic Awareness Day to help lobby to our congress folks to pass the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act. And more importantly, if Vince and I had to stay in the motel another day, we would both go nuts!

So we drove over to Bonifay, FL and found a really nice RV park – the Florida Springs RV Park. The owner was extremely nice and inviting and the folks around the park were completely interested in not only the ride, but the Casita (the RV we are in).

Day 11 – Bonifay, FL to Tallahassee, FL

Florida State Line

I guess a few days off the bike does wonders. I had the best ride yet on this day. I had a slight tail wind (one of the very few I’ve had) and felt extremely strong. So I made extremely good time. The plan starting out was to make it to Chatahoochee, FL (about 70 miles) and see how I felt.

I got there at around noon and felt great. So after a quick lunch at Subway, we decided to push on the next 30 miles to Tallahassee and get a day ahead of schedule. One thing we didn’t really consider – all of the very big hills between Chatahoochee and Tallahassee. They slowed me down some, but I kept on pushing through and made it in at around 3:30. It was actually quite a fun ride despite all of the steep hills.

Now is where it gets interesting. The day before we had called the Capitol City riding group and asked about safe routes heading out of Tallahassee and was directed to a place called the Bicycle House.

Bicycle House is a non-profit bike shop that teaches people how to work on their own bikes and serves as a bike advocate around the Tallahassee area. They help with planning for bike lanes as well as volunteer to go out and work on the road shoulders and cleaning up glass around the city. It’s a really cool idea actually.

Scot Benton is the mastermind behind Bicycle House and he not only helped us with a safe route, but also volunteered to ride out with me the next morning. Also, come to find out, his dad also passed away from Pancreatic Cancer as did mine so we had a lot to talk about.

What a blessing that was. It’s strange how God has put us in the right place at the right time and lead us to the people who could help the most.

Day 12 – Tallahassee, FL to Live Oak, FL

So Scot and I headed out together and he rode 33 miles with me to Monticello, FL. We even had lunch for a bit. When we were done, I continued on towards Live Oak.

We made it into our next RV park destination – the Spirit of the Suwanee Music Park which apparently hosts music festivals almost on a weekly basis. We were lucky to get a spot as there was a music festival to begin the next day.

Day 13 – Live Oak, FL to Macclenny, FL

Today is the first day back where I’m facing a head wind. The forecast has the wind coming from the Northeast for the foreseeable future, so it’s going to make it exciting as I will be turning north after Macclenny.

The ride today was a tough one. I’m not sure why other than I’ve been nursing some saddle sores and they sure were hurting today. That combined with the heat and the headwind and the 60 miles I rode sure seemed like a 100 miles once I got in around 12:30. We couldn’t find an RV park here either, so we are currently in a Travellodge.

Well that just about wraps up this post. I know it was a long one and I’m sure I’ve left a million details out, but I felt I needed to get caught up. Tomorrow will be a 100 mile day with upwards of 15 mph headwinds, so please pray that my bottom doesn’t hurt the entire day like it did today and that my strength holds up.

Thanks and God bless you!

Best Church Signs from the Road

God will provide for all your needs.

What is missing from ch ch?

Is what you are living for worth dying for?

Gods word is set in stone. Trust God.

We aren’t in ministry for the income. We are in it for the outcome.

God looks down from on high and sees into our hearts

Words can either be hurtfull or helpfull.

God reigns and the Son shines.

Man sets the course and God provides the steps.

Worry is a burden God never intended for us to bear.

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The first few towns I went through seemed very nice and for all of my badmouthing of Louisiana roads, the roads on this stretch were actually quite nice and smooth.

Right outside of Greensburg (about 50 miles into the ride), I was unfortunate however to get a flat. I’m not sure what I ran over that caused it, but sure enough – there’s another 30 minutes wasted on fixing another flat.

During this morning, Vince headed down to Baton Rouge to Mid City Cycles to get the spoke on the wheel fixed from yesterday. Great guys. If you are in Baton Rouge and need help, we highly recommend them!

Fortunately Vince had planned to meet me for lunch close to I55 and Greensburg is just a few miles outside of it. We ended up meeting at the Greensburg Truckstop and Grill. I got to talking with a lady who was making a sandwich for me and then talked with a few of the other people there. They ended up giving me my sandwich and signed my jersey.

You know what happened next? The manager came out while I was eating and gave a donation and signed my jersey. What great ladies! I’m so surprised at people’s generosity and willingness to help out. What a blessing.

So I continued on riding to Franklinton and as the day got warmer, it started blowing harder. I also noticed some thunderstorms moving in to the east of me. I don’t mind rain, but lightning on the other hand is another story.

So it became a race. Could I make it to the camp site that Vince had set all set up at the Bogue Chitto State Park before the storm rolled in?

It was close. Vince actually met me close to Franklinton and picked me up so I didn’t get caught in the storm. And sure enough, as soon as we pulled into the camp sight, it started poring!

That’s about it. It ended up being a 90 mile day with lots of hills and headwinds! After a good night sleep it was on to Day 7!

Best Church Sign of the Day

God will provide for all of your needs.

Until tomorrow, I’ll be riding the white line! See ya!

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Chris over the Mississippi River

Whew! Today was a doozie! The ride today was scheduled to be a very short day – only 64 miles. However due to the technical difficulties we faced it took a LOT longer to get to our destination – St. Francisville.

I started out the day at 7 am – right on time and rode out with high spirits thinking it was going to be an easy day. However, I knew I was riding into a headwind after my first turn north. The first I’ve faced on the trip so far. It was coming out of the North West – exactly the direction I would be going for over half of this day.

The other issue I faced out of the gates were the roads – AGAIN! Right outside of Opelousas I crossed a bridge that had a pothole in the middle of the road! I couldn’t avoid it due to the traffic. How in the world do you have a pothole in the middle of a bridge??

Anyways, my back tire hit it hard and I just KNEW it did something to it. I looked back as I was riding and it seemed a little out of round but was also holding up. However, about 30 miles down the road, I turn into a gas station right before this big bridge to refill on fluids and happen to check that tire. It was not only out of round, it had a broken spoke!!

So I call Vince and tell him my predicament. He happens to be only about 10 minutes behind me with the RV. So he pulls in and we switch out the tire – again -  and hope for the best. We’ll fix the spoke that night.

We also had another problem. The RV park we had planned on staying at is all full up. One of the oil plants around the area there is in shut down, which means that the plant is flying in people to work around the clock to get it back running, which means that those people have to stay somewhere. That also means we needed to find somewhere to stay – quick!

Bruised Ego

After the tire was fixed I crossed the bridge of the Atchafalaya River – it was HUGE! The grade had to have been 10%! And it went up at least 100-200 feet! So I got out of the seat and just climbed and climbed and climbed. I was thinking about stopping at the top to take a picture, but decided to just keep on trucking (or biking really).

Now about 20 miles down the road was my first turn off to take me to the Mississippi River – the Mississippi River Trail Road. At that intersection – I hit a yellow light and decided to stop. Well I stopped and couldn’t unclip my left foot. I ended up falling and hurting my hand and bending my brake a bit. I felt completely stupid as I fell in front of a full intersection of cars.

SO after I picked myself up and checked myself out – nothing was hurt too badly except my pride – I started rolling again. I make it all the way up to a major turn off and there was Vince, waiting for me at a Subway. So we had lunch there and it completely hit the spot.

During lunch we decided to stay at the Best Western in St. Francisville – and we were lucky to get in there! Otherwise I’d have to keep on riding for at least another 30 miles – and at that point, I wasn’t so sure about that.

Crossing of the Mississippi

After lunch I headed out – only 18 more miles to the Mississippi River crossing!

Crossing the Mississippi River was an emotional moment for me and I took a while on the bridge and took a few snapshots and did some reflecting. The thing I focused on was how extremely cool it was to be standing above the Mississipi – and I got there on a bike from Texas. Who would have ever thought? Definitely not me a year ago – that’s for sure.

After the Mississipi it was a “short” 18 miles to the Best Western – straight into the wind. It took me a while, but I made it – just in time. Because not 30 minutes after I get into the room, it started raining. In fact that night, 30 miles south of us in Baton Rouge, it rained 8 inches! Good thing it didn’t rain that much where we were!

Broken Spoke Issue

That evening Vince and I tried to work on the broken spoke. The problem that we ran into was the spoke was on the side of the cassette (what the chain turns) and we needed to remove the cassette. The tool that he has to remove the cassette didn’t work on this one – it was a size too big.

So that meant one thing – we needed to find a bike shop. Only problem is – there are no bike shops in St. Francisville. The closest one was 30 miles away in Baton Rouge. Which also meant that Vince needed to run down there while I rode on my own the opposite direction the next day.

Best Church Sign Quote of the Day

“Shine your light Jesus and show us the path for our life’s journey.”

Or something similar to that -  I need to stop and take pictures of the ones I like!

And that brings us to Day 6 – which I’ll post tomorrow probably! Until then – I’ll be riding the white line!

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"The Bike"

Today started well. It was supposed to go from DeRidder, LA to Washington, LA, a 91 mile day. However, because there were no RV camps in Washington, Vince had to go searching for an RV spot. He ended up finding one in a town just south of Washington called Opelousas.

In the first 5 miles of the ride, I had a flat. So I took the 30 minutes it takes to fix a flat on the road and got back on route – easy peazy lemon squeezy.

At about mile 45, I hit another snag. At that mile destination, I had planned to take a rest stop at the gas station at the turnoff. Only problem is – there was no gas station. So I called Vince and he was 45 minutes away.

The next town was 18 miles away and I was running critically low on water and down to one bottle of Gatorade. The question was, should I keep riding and hope for the best, or wait for Vince to catch up to me with provisions?

I decided to trust in the Lord and know that he would provide for me and keep on riding. During those 18 miles, I conserved as much as I could and took drinks only at the 5 minute marks. No willie nilly drinking when I was thirsty!

So believe it or not, just as I’m pulling into the next town, I drink my last sip of Gatorade and the water was all gone as well. I ride into the first gas station completely dry. Fifteen minutes later, Vince shows up.

Louisiana Roads

Now another thing about this ride. The roads are HORRIBLE! On one road in particular, there were so many potholes in the road, that I thought for SURE that the state of Louisiana was putting speed bumps in the road!

The “speed bumps” happened for about 70 of the 91 miles. By the end, my arms and bike were completely beaten up. In fact my back wheel was very untrue (out of round). So much so that I ended up switching it out with the back wheel of the spare bike later that night.

Opelousas

So this brings me to my favorite part of this day. Opelousas. Vince ended up finding an RV spot in none other than the city’s park that happens to be at the back end of their baseball fields. And guess what Tuesday night is? Softball night!

So Vince and I ended up eating with the shades open in the RV so we could watch softball while we ate.

After dinner, we set up the bike stand so I could do some maintenance on the bike and clean it. After I got all set up, a gentleman came up and talked with us for a while. His name is Julius Alsandor and he’s an Alderman (we call them councilman in Texas) for Opelousas.

Great guy. We ended up talking I think for about an hour. He signed my jersey and was generous enough to donate some money to I Ride for Cancer.

I just amazes me how God has been putting me in the right place to talk with people who need it. Julius told us how his dad died of liver cancer just a few years back. Cancer touches us all and I think we all agree that we need to get rid of it.

Best Church Sign of the Day

“God responds to Kneemail”

That’s it for Day 4. Tomorrow is a “short” day of 75 miles from Opelousas, LA to St. Francisville, LA.

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Sabine River Crossing out of Texas

Day 3 of the I Ride for Cancer 2012 Ride started out very well. I was able to get on the road at 7:30 (I keep shooting for 7 or earlier) which just allows for me to get more miles in before the heat of the day.

So the ride today was from Silsbee, TX to DeRidder, LA – about 76 miles. So a shorter day again, but that’s great for this first week. No need to burn out my legs (and bottom) on 100 mile days starting out.

I had a tailwind. I felt strong. I rode hard for the first 40 miles. My average during that time was around 19mph, which is amazing as I’ve been averaging 16mph lately.

The reason I was making such good time was the tailwind, but also a very nice road with wide shoulders and nice smooth pavement. My first turn however took me onto a very bumpy road with no shoulder that was trafficked by huge logger trucks. Thankfully that stretch was only about 17 miles. By the end of that stretch my arms and shoulders just plain hurt.

The next stretch was again on a nice wide road with smooth pavement and a tailwind again. Plus I got to stop at the Sabine river and take a quick video and a few pictures. Into Cajun Country I go! (That’s Louisiana if you didn’t know)

About three miles from the river, I stopped at what I thought was a convenience store, but was actually a small tractor and lawn mower store. I walked in and immediately knew I wasn’t where I expected to be. Three elderly gentlemen who were sitting around talking looked at me and I said “I don’t think this is a convenience store.”

They all laughed and said, “NO that’s down the road.” As I stated to turn around they asked what I needed and I said “Gatorade”. They said that they had Powerade. I figured that was close enough.

They of course asked where I was heading and I told them to Baltimore. All three of their jaws dropped to the floor. One old guy said, “Well I ride my bike to the river ever once in a while, but that takes me 45 minutes.”

Another old guy said, “I figure I’d just fly there.”

“I’d probably drive – I don’t like to fly.” said Old guy 3.

“You know, my son used to work for continental and he tried to get me to fly for years, but I never would. He’s now an insurance salesman”, said Old Guy 1.

And that’s how my next 15 minutes went until I could eventually get out of there. It was pretty humorous actually how their conversation just went from one thing to another without even notice that I was standing in the room.

So on the bike I went and headed for the next stretch of 19 miles. The rest of the ride was great. With a tailwind still, I made good time. The heat of the day was coming on at around noon, but really not too bad. I made it into the Pleasantville RV Park at around 12:45 where Vince and I met our host and delightful lady – known as the cyclist angel. But that’s going to be the next blog probably tomorrow.

Here’s the best church sign quote of the day: “Disclaimer (or Warning, I can’t remember) – exposure to the son will prevent burning.”

Tomorrow’s ride is 91 miles from DeRidder, LA to Washington, LA. It’s supposed to rain in the afternoon so I’m trying to get an even earlier start to maybe avoid that. Wish me luck and a tail wind!

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Crossing of the Trinity River

Day 2 of the I Ride for Cancer 2012 Ride started out a bit earlier at 8am. That combined with the fact that the planned ride for the day a little shorter than the prior day allowed me to get into camp a lot earlier.

The ride took me from Coldspring, TX to Silsbee, TX and for the most part was uneventful – except for being chased by dogs. I was chased by at least 5 pairs of dogs in various towns along the way. None looked vicious though, so I was thankful for that.

My favorite quote from a church sign was “The task ahead of you is nothing compared to the power behind you.” It was very fitting for me and for this trip.

We stayed at the Red Cloud RV park and I met a former methodist pastor named Bill. Bill and his wife are “full timers”. This means that they are full time RVers. I’m new to this whole RV thing if you haven’t guessed.

Bill said that he and his wife are on their way to Canada to spend for the next 5 months and then by October, they will be heading on back to Texas. Pretty cool guy.

We were blessed with having WIFI at this park, so both Vince and I took full advantage and facetimed with our families and checked email and uploaded videos of the day to dropbox for Lee to take and spin into videos for you guys.

Since I got in earlier that Saturday, I was also able to put the bike up on the stand and give it a well needed wash and lube. I also adjusted my aero handle bars a bit for comfort, so we’ll see how they do in tomorrow’s ride.

Well that’s it! I’m off to bed. Tomorrow is crossing of the Sabine and into Cajun Country (Louisiana). Wish me luck and a tail wind!

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The send off was just amazing. We had a LOT of people out there as well as KBTX and KAGS. I did interviews with both of them and I’m sure I just stumbled all over myself.

A lot of my Peace Lutheran friends were there. In fact, cool story. My friend Will was there to ride out with me. We’ve talked about it at church quite a bit. There was also a bike group (sorry guys, I didn’t get your group’s name except that you ride out from Pebble Creek on Saturday mornings) that I ended up riding the first 20 miles with. Since we were in a big group they let me draft off of them so it was really easy to go 20mph.

Well, Will wasn’t able to keep up at that pace and dropped back and unfortunately didn’t get to go as far as we had discussed. So later in the day as I was traveling to Coldspring, he calls his mom (who is also a member of Peace) to wish her happy birthday.

She just happened to tell him that she was in Coldspring, TX with her friend Gretchen celebrating news that Gretchen was cured of her brain tumor. Will says, Mom – that’s where Chris is going tonight!

So Jeanie (Will’s mom), gets hold of my mom and they both plan a nice dinner for us. I get to meet Gretchen and Vince and I went home with full bellies. I don’t believe in coincidences by the way. I believe that God did that to further fuel me for this ride, both physically and spiritually.

Back to the Ride

The first 40 miles were just fine. I felt good except I was still feeling the effects of having a stomach bug on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week. So I just took things slow and didn’t push myself too much.

However, because of the later start at 9am and going slower, it was pushing me more and more into the heat of the day. The next 46 miles were pretty hard needless to say. Between Richards, TX and New Waverly, TX (23 mile stretch), I started feeling the effects of the heat. I probably averaged about 14 mph in that stretch which is pretty slow for me.

I took a nice break in New Waverly and replenished on fluids and felt a little better heading out. However, right outside of town I hit my first snag – a flat. I couldn’t find a puncture point however, so I decided to air up the back tire and see if it held. One mile later, it’s running flat again.

So I pulled off the side of the road and fixed it and 30 minutes later, I was back on the road. That did however put me even later into the day. I think it was 2 by then and around 94 degrees and rising and I still had at least 2 hours of riding to go!

Those last 23 miles from New Waverly to Coldspring were tough. But I kept on and made it into town at around 4:30. Sometimes I crawled at 10mph, but I persevered and made it there. Whew. Time to replenish fluids and get some food! I had burned close to 8,000 calories by my calculations!

All in all it was a great day. I am so very thankful for the awesome sendoff that my church provided and am so thankful to live in such an awesome community.

I’ll fill in on Day two tomorrow as I’m off to bed!

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News Stories:

The Eagle

KBTX

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Chris and Family

Howdy there! I’m so glad you’ve come to the I Ride for Cancer website. I first want to start this post out with an apology and an acknowledgement – I know, I know. I promised your a blog per day, and it’s been a month and a half since the last blog post. What’s up with that? What in the world have I been doing?

I follow blogs from people all of the time and never really thought how hard it is to find time to sit down and actually write a blog post. Combine that with 4-5 hours of training per day, family time and oh yeah – getting some work done in between all of that – writing a blog post every day just kind of hit my back burner.

But guess what? At the time of this writing, I’m about eleven days from leaving on my 2,100+ mile journey to raise awareness and money for pancreatic cancer. So, I’m back on the wagon – the blog wagon that is.

Big News for Upcoming Ride for Cancer

So let me lead off with the big news. We are now going to be leaving from College Station instead of Houston. Unfortunately, leaving from MD Anderson in Houston just started to become more and more of an issue, so we decided to change the start of the 2,100+ mile ride for cancer to my church, Peace Lutheran Church in College Station.

This move just makes sense to me. We have more of a base of friends and associates as well as all of our sponsors. So we will be leaving June 2, 2012 from the parking lot of Peace Lutheran Church at 8am. I’m inviting anybody and everybody who wants to ride with me to come on out. You sure don’t have to ride the entire 90 miles for the first day, but if you want to ride a mile or two or whatever you feel you can, please come on out and join me!

Heck, my 7 yr old is going to ride out with me initially. He says he’s going to do 8 miles, but I’m sure it will be more like a mile.

Here is the address to the church:

Peace Lutheran Church
2201 Rio Grande
College Station, TX 77845

Training

Which brings me to what I’ve been doing the past month and a half. I’ve been training. A LOT!! Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was riding around 80 miles per day (so between 4-5 hrs per day) with the full intention of working up to 100 miles per day. However, life got in the way and I’ve slowly been tapering off to make time for family and work before the ride.

I never thought I would say this, but I’m down to 40 miles per day for my training.

I’m confident I will physically be ready to ride 90 miles per day so my focus now is to take care of the other half of things – the mental side.

Changing Your Life

This brings me to an important point that I hope to continually discuss. And that’s to change your life. Every person in the world can afford to change something. I chose last January to lose weight. That small decision led me on the path that I am now on and will allow me to hopefully help others change their lives.

If you have been waiting to do that one thing that will change your life, I urge you to just do it. If it’s a decision to go to Washington D.C. because it’s something you’ve never done before. Do it. If you want to lose weight so you can look good at the swimming pool this summer, there’s no time like the present. All it takes is one step and then another and then another.

I’m not Lance Armstrong. I’m a normal guy that decided to lose weight last January. I lost close to 60 lbs and then rode in a 160 mile supported ride for MS in that October. Then I made the decision to ride cross country to raise money and awareness for Pancreatic Cancer. What’s next? Who knows? I need to get through this ride first. But that little step and small decision has led me to this and I don’t regret it one bit.

What’s your step? What’s your decision? In the words of Nike – Just Do It!!

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Bluebonnets on Hwy 2562

I get asked all of the time why I’m going to ride 2,100+ miles this summer. The answer really is simple. I’ve been guided to it. I don’t usually talk about my religious views as I’m a pretty conservative Lutheran – and we don’t really talk about religion much (at least how I was raised). But I believe God has been guiding me towards this ride since my dad died from Pancreatic Cancer in 2009.

I wrote what ended up being a pretty long post on my business’s blog about why I’m doing the ride as well as starting I Ride for Cancer. You can read it here:

http://www.webunlimited.com/blog/business/web-unlimited-vp-operations-takes-cancer-riding-2100-miles/

By the way if you would like to help sponsor the ride, I will be sending the finalized jerseys off in the next couple of weeks. Please let me know at irideforcancer@gmail.com if you would like to sponsor the ride!

Thank you and God bless!

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My current route on Hwy 30.

We’re now down to 60 days until I head out from MD Anderson in Houston, TX and ride my bike 2,100+ miles to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD to raise money and awareness for cancer research. This number scares the bejesus out of me. That’s a word right?

My goal this week started with a big number – 300. That’s how many miles I wanted to ride. It’s more miles than I’ve ever ridden in a single week and I definitely ran into obstacles like rain and mechanical issues.

I’ve decided (with the urging of a few friends) that from now on, I won’t let rain get in the way of training because I definitely won’t be avoiding it on the Ride this summer. Sound advice.

Mechanical issues — well what can you do about those?

So today, I decided to ride after church. I was on the fence for skipping it so I could get on the road sooner but since my church, Peace Lutheran Church, is a major sponsor of the ride, I just don’t feel right doing that. I need to make up some miles to hit my goal, but I’m just not sure I have time for 100 miles today.

I opted for 75 instead. It’s a little short of my goal at 275 miles, but it’s better than nothing right?

By the time I got home from church, changed clothes and ate lunch with the family it was after 1:30pm. So I headed out and found out that it was going to be a repeat of Saturday with an approximate 10-15 mph headwind. Oh well, I’ll make the best of it.

On approximately mile 7 I got a flat. Nuts. It took me about 30 minutes to get that fixed and back on the road. I decided not to stress out about it as thankfully my wife Tara, wasn’t expecting me back until between 5 and 6. That should leave plenty of time for a 75 mile ride in the hills and even with a stiff headwind.

I stopped in a gas station in Roans Prairie for a “natural break” which is a nice way of saying I had to go potty. I also filled up on Gatorade and water. I also had a nice conversation with a lady there.

“Do you have a skinny seat or a big one?”

“I have a skinny one.” I said.

“You need a wide one. That’s what I have and I can ride forever!” She said. Although to me it looked like she really couldn’t – but hey. Who am I to judge?

Back on the road again. The rest of the ride went relatively uneventful. Lots of headwind until I turned to head north at Navasota where thankfully I finally had a tail wind all the way back home. There’s nothing like having a tailwind heading into home. Almost like ice cream after a baseball game.

Since I’ve been this way before, I didn’t really see anything to stop and take a picture of. So the image above is a Google map screen capture of the route I took. Nothing fancy, but it might give you an idea of my route.

The total time for the ride was 4hr 15 min. If you take off the 30 minutes it took me to change the flat, this put it right at 20 mph average. Again not bad with headwind and hills.

That leaves me at 275 miles for the week. Not exactly my goal, but still not bad. I’ll get it next week right?

Speaking of, next week I plan to ride to Huntsville and back. That should be a 100 mile ride in lots of hills. That will definitely be an interesting ride.

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College Station Little League Opening Ceremonies at Olsen Field.

Today started with plans to wash and lube my bike and then head out for a 65 mile ride to further my training goals for the 2012 I Ride for Cancer ride from Houston to Baltimore. However, I ran into an issue. As I washed the bike, I noticed that my tires had tiny cracks on the sidewalls. I guess after almost 4,000 miles, the tires are due to be changed out.

So off I headed out to my friends at Cycles Etc. and grabbed two new tires and tubes. By the time I got back to the house, had lunch and got them on there and all ready to go, I only had time for a short ride as my son had Little League opening ceremonies scheduled for the late afternoon.

So I ended up just doing a 25 mile ride. However I figured since it was such a short distance, I would just go all out and try to get a really good time. BUT – as I headed out, I noticed that I faced a decent headwind of 15mph which slowed me down significantly on the way out. I think my average on the first 12.5 miles heading into the wind was about 15mph.

However, the way back proved to be significantly faster. I think I averaged almost 30mph! WOW!!! The total ride time was 1 hr 9 minutes for an average speed of 21.7391 mph. Not bad for having a 15 mph headwind!

That puts me at 200 miles for this week total. It’s not exactly what I was hoping to be at (300 was my goal), but I feel that mechanical/safety issues absolutely must come first. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make up the mileage tomorrow, but we’ll see what comes.

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Bluebonnets on Hwy 2562

I realized on my ride this morning that I’m doing just a horrible job of posting and part of my training for my 2,100+ mile ride this summer to raise money and awareness for cancer research also involves documenting my experiences on this blog. So – starting today, I will be shortening my posts and including some quick thoughts about that day’s training. Sound fair?

But first I need to get caught up with this week’s training.

This week I’ve been trying to concentrate on riding. I haven’t told Charlie and Sara yet at Boomfit, but I made a decision that I think from here on out, I need to be riding and not doing CrossFit. As much as I love CrossFit, it’s one of the things keeping me from riding as much as I really need to be right now. And I need LOTS of time in the saddle.

Monday March 26

Flooding on Hwy 30 from the Navasota River

So my goal this week was to get 300 miles. I haven’t hit that milestone yet in my training, so I’ve made up my mind that I’m going to do it. Monday started with a 50 mile ride on Hwy 30 to FM 244 and then Anderson, TX and back. It was an awesome ride and I saw some really interesting things like all of the flooding (see the included pictures here).

I also found some hills! I didn’t know there were hills around College Station, but sure enough, if you head east on Hwy 30, you’ll hit lots of hills! So I’ve been getting some good hill training in. Yeah!

Tuesday – March 27

CowTalk Steak House in Navasota, TX. I've never seen this before - so I thought I would take a picture of it.

Tuesday, I went a little further on Hwy 30 to Roans Prairie and took Hwy 90 to Anderson.  I also found out that there is construction the entire way between Roans Prairie and Anderson. Very bad. I had a choice to either ride in traffic or ride on the ‘shoulder’ where all of the construction people were working and hope I didn’t cheese off too many people. I chose the later.  It was a very rough, slow ride for almost 10 miles.

Wednesday – March 28

Wednesday, I didn’t get a chance to ride as I talked about I Ride for Cancer to the Bryan Rotary Club. That went very well by the way and we raised $2,120 (we estimate we need $7,000 for the actual ride) so that went a LONG way towards our goal. Thank you fellow Rotarians!!

Thursday – March 29

It rained cats and dogs on Wednesday night and I wasn’t sure if it was going to continue it on Thursday so I took a down day. However, I was thinking the entire day that I should have just sucked it up and rode. I mean I’m going to have to ride in inclement weather on the ride – so I think from now on unless there’s a tornado or lightning, I’m going to ride. No more excuses.

Friday – March 30

Roans Prairie Nursery

Friday – Back on track. I decided to try a different route from Roans Prairie to Anderson, so I took FM 2562 to FM 149 into Anderson. Interesting riding and very beautiful. I took a few pictures in those back roads.

I also saw a few people who I think were riding cross country (lots of saddle bags and gear on their bikes) heading east while I was heading west. I waved, but that was about it.  I almost turned around and now I’m kicking myself that I didn’t. Next time I see somebody that looks like they are doing that, I’m going to ride with them for a bit. It’s what I would want, so why not right?

Oh and I ran over a snake today. It scared the bejesus out of me. I was heading over a small bridge that overlooked an overflowing creek and the bridge just happened to not have any shoulders. There was a car coming behind me and one towards me. I didn’t see the snake until I was literally on top of it and did a bu-dump right over it. I’m just so very glad it didn’t have the sense to reach up and bite me!!

That makes it 175 miles this week so far. That leaves only 125 miles to reach 300 for the week. As you’ll see below, my plans actually exceed that by 20 miles.

Upcoming Rides

Ranch near Navasota that is completely under water. Look at it - that's not a lake.

I’ll document all of my rides now individually instead of a huge long post like this – but here’s what my plan is for the next two days.

Saturday – I have plans for the exact same ride as Friday. 65 Miles again. It’s a nice ride.

Sunday – This is going to be a little bit longer. I want to do 80 miles, so we’ll see what I do.

Next week, I’ll try to do 300+ miles again. The main thing I need to accomplish is just get lots of time in the saddle to get used to riding for long periods of time.

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Crossfit Kettlebell

Hey Everybody. I’m so sorry. I’ve been so very busy with training, work and family life that posting my workouts and experiences has been put to the back-burner. I’m going to start making it a priority.

Rest assured that I may be a month behind on posts – but I’ve been training pretty hard. I feel extremely strong thanks to Charlie and Sara at Boomfit!

On a side note – if you’re in the College Station area and want to start working out and getting into shape – there’s no doubt in my mind that the absolute best place to do it is at BoomFit. Call them today at 979-693-3103 or email info@myboomfit.com  to get started!

Today was a great day for I Ride for Cancer. I spoke at my Rotary Club about the upcoming ride and I Ride for Cancer. In the past couple of weeks, we have been adding volunteers and board members and the ball is rolling!

Workouts

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve combined my rides and CrossFit. So I ride 15 miles before CF workout and the do the workout and then ride another 15 miles. At first it was pretty exhausting, but I’m adjusting.

Monday 2/27

Riding – 32 Miles
CrossFit -

WOD:
“Fran”
21-15-9
Thrusters @ 95/65#
Pull ups

then:

1 mile run (cool down)

Tuesday 2/28

Ride – 32 Miles
LIFT: Clean Deadlift 5×5

WOD:
“Callaway”

For time:
21-15-9
Row For Cal
Double Unders
Push-Press @ 95/65#

Wednesday 2/29

Ride: 25 Miles

Thursday 3/1

Rest Day

Friday 3/2

CrossFit – Wow – what a workout! See below for details.

1 rd. of Bear Complex @95/65# (7 reps of clean, front squat, push press, backsquat, push press)
“Gas mask”
4 rounds:
400m run
500m row
1 rd. of Bear Complex @95/65#

Saturday 3/3

Ride – 50 Miles Scheduled (I’ll post when completed)

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Strength Training for 2012 I Ride for Cancer Ride

This week was a busy one for sure! For training, I spent every day concentrating on improving with CrossFit as well as my rides. I only got out one day this week for an actual ride and spent the rest of the week on the trainer.

For the 2012 I Ride for Cancer Ride, our planning included setting the dates and getting some of the route planned out. The dates are set to roll out from MD Anderson in Houston on June 2, 2012 and Rolling into Johns Hopkins in Baltimore on June 30, 2012. We decided on these dates (both Saturdays) so that we could maximize the amount of people riding out and riding into each event.

Next week – we’ll be setting the route – so stay tuned for that!!

Monday 1/16/2012

Today was a holiday so I took Tara and the kids to the Waco Zoo (very cool). So no workout today.

Tuesday 1/17/2012

Great ride this morning on the indoor trainer. I did 30 miles in 54:12! I concentrated on high spins (110-130 RPM) and some intervals for simulating hills.

Wednesday 1/18/2012

LIFT:
Snatch Deadlift 5×3 (185lbs)

Deadlift 7×1 (225lbs)

WOD:
For time w/ a 6 minute time cap:
1000m row
AMRAP box jumps in the time remaining (18″/32)

Thursday 1/19/2012

Another great ride on the trainer. 32 Miles in 60 minutes. I again concentrated on high spinning (110-130 RPMs) and high watts (200-250 watts). I did several intervals (3min on/3min off) in a high gear (20) to simulate hills.

Friday 1/20/2012

What a great workout today was!!

LIFT:

Back Squat 10×2 @ 90% 1rm (155lbs)

WOD:
3 rounds:
5 back squat @80% 1rm
200m run

Time – 3:45

Post Workout:
AMRAMP Burpees in 1 min (18).

Saturday 1/21/2012

50 mile ride today. Great ride with very little wind. Completed the ride in 2:35.

Sunday 1/22/2012

Off day to recover.

Next week:

I don’t anticipate getting in much this next week as my mom is going into the hospital for surgery.

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Time to Workout!

This was a challenging week for sure! Two Crossfit workouts that were endurance type workouts and lots of riding. It started with Sunday (I added that ride to last weeks’ workout) and ended on Saturday – 7 full days of workouts!

As I write this my entire lower body is aching for sure! But it’s totally worth it!

Monday 1/9/2012

Great workout with CrossFit today! It’s the first CrossFit workout that I feel I actually did OK with! Yea! See below for the workout and time:

For time:

15 OHS @ 45
100m run
25 Burpees
100m run
15 Push-Press @ 45
100m run
25 Sit-Ups
100m run
15 Clean and Jerk @ 45
100m run
25 Burpees
100m run

Time – 14:41

Tuesday 1/10/2012

Great ride – but cold and windy! 25 Miles -  45 degrees – 40 with wind chill. 15 MPH head wind. It took me 1 hr 14 min for a ride that normally takes 1 hr on the dot – I was pushing very hard!

Wednesday 1/11/2012

Crossfit today. The strength part really wore me out (200 reps), but the shuttle runs WHIPPED me.

Strength/Skill Work (5 sets of 20 reps):

1. High-Hang Clean High Pulls (30lb)
2. Hang Muscle Clean(45lb)

WOD – 5 Sets of:
Shuttle Runs – worst time was 1min:44sec – best time was 1min:37sec.

Thursday 1/12/2012

30 Mile Bike Ride. What a good day. Great “ride” this morning (with our new indoor trainer). 30 Miles – 59:10.

Friday 1/12/2012

Wow. This was one heck of a workout at Crossfit (and that’s a very major understatement). Talk about endurance training.

They called it the “Filthy Fifty”.
50 Box jump, 24″/18″
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 53#/35#
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20#/14#
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

Time – 22:17.

Saturday 1/12/2012

50 Mile Bike Ride – This was a great ride. In the first 37 miles I faced a side wind that was 10mph with 15mph gusts and it felt most of the way that it was a head wind. But the last 12.5 miles the wind died down nicely and allowed me to make up some time. In rides like this I plan not to stop – and this was no different. I had plenty of water and had a few snacks with me to keep me fueled so I rolled the entire way. Total time was 2:45 at an average of 20.6 mph.

Sunday 1/12/2012

Off for Recovery – Yes off for some well needed rest. This ended 7 full days of working out. Time to let my muscles rest.

Next week

I plan on doing the following workouts next week:

• Monday – Crossfit
• Tuesday – 25 mile ride
• Wednesday – Crossfit
• Thursday – 25 mile ride
• Friday – Crossfit
• Saturday – 50 mile ride

In February, I will be bumping up the riding a bit to 150 miles per week.

Last Note – Come Ride with Me!

On another note, I’ve had a few people ask about riding the 2012 I Ride for Cancer Ride, but not being able to do the entire thing. That’s no problem really as you can ride for just what you want to. I have several friends  that are going to join me on the last leg going into Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, but you could also ride out with me on the first day from MD Anderson in Houston.  The dates haven’t been set yet, but should be very very soon.

Contact me at irideforcancer@gmail.com if you are interested in riding any leg at all!

Keep Riding and let’s Beat Cancer Together!!! Please share this blog, Facebook wall and Twitter stream with your friends!!

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Week 4 - I Ride for Cancer

Due to the holidays from last week, this was my week to buckle down and get back into the swing of training as well as nutrition. And I feel I did exactly that. Read below for my week of training for the 2012 I Ride for Cancer Ride from Houston, TX to Baltimore, MD.

Monday 1/2/2012

Today was a really good day – but not because of training. I had all three kiddos today, so I just didn’t have time to do any kind of training. But we had a ton of fun playing all day! So I guess the rest of the week will be make up.

Tuesday 1/3/2012

I rode my scheduled 25 mile ride today. Posted time – 1 hr 14 min.

Wednesday 1/4/2012

First day back to CrossFit at BoomFit. Whew what a tough workout it was too!

Strength:
Deadlifts – 5 rounds of 5 @ 155 lb.

WOD:
21-18-15-12-9 (these are the reps in each set)

Power Snatch 60lb
Wallball 20lb.

Thursday 1/5/2012

I ended up riding 30 miles today. It was very nice 65 degrees when I started and ended up at 55 degrees. Posted time 1hr 28min.

Friday 1/6/2012

Crossfit today to work out my soreness. Plus I wanted to double up and do a short ride. It ended up being really short – just to work and back which is a 10 mile round trip.

WOD (Workout of the Day)
20min AMRAP (As Many Rounds as Possible in 20 minutes):
15 Thruster – 55lbs
15 Pull-Up – I did ring rows
15 Burpee
400m run

I ended up with 3 rounds and 15 Thrusters accomplished in the 20 Minutes — and totally whipped.

Saturday 1/7/2012

I had a 50 mile ride scheduled for today – but I decided to spend time with the family and go to an Aggie Basketball game. I’ll do the ride tomorrow.

Sunday 1/8/2012

After church – I got a ride in – only 25 miles. With blue skies overhead, I started out with the full intentions and equipped with everything I needed to do 50 (snacks, water, etc). However on my first loop of 25 miles, when I got to the furthest point I could go, the skies opened up and let loose. So needless to say, it turned into a fun, cold, wet, ride. By the time I completed 25 miles I was soppin’ wet and shivering and I didn’t know how hard or much longer it was going to rain so I headed in. It was fun though! Posted time – 1hr 14min. Not bad for a wet ride!

All in all – I think I ended up the week nicely. I’m looking forward to next week as I’m getting a stationary bike for work and will be figuring a way to hook up a keyboard and mouse to it. My goal for next week is a minimum of 125 miles while doing CrossFit three times. Fun huh?

What is I Ride for Cancer?

I Ride for Cancer is a site dedicated to raising money and awareness for Cancer Research. I Ride for Cancer is headed up by Chris Hunter who plans to ride from MD Anderson in Houston, TX to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD in June 2012. Follow along on this site while he documents training and experiences all along the way.

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I Ride for Cancer

Since this is the week between Christmas and New Years and I had time, I wanted to spend the week in heavy training. However, between rain, family commitments, laziness and a head cold, it really didn’t work out that way.

But the down week  served as a refocusing week. I took the time to really figure out what I want to do in the next six months for training for the 2012 I Ride for Cancer Ride from Houston to Baltimore as well as open our online store.

Here’s my training for Week 3:

Monday 12/26/2011

No ride or training today. No excuse – just plain lazy.

Tuesday 12/27/2011

Today I did a lot of things with our family. We met some friends at a restaurant and went to the movies to see the Adventures of Tin Tin. By the time we got home, it was too late for a ride.

Wednesday 12/28/2011

Another lazy day. I ended up going to St. Arnold’s Brewery in Houston with some family members. That ended up taking precedence over biking.

Thursday 12/29/2011

Time to focus. Time to ride. I did a 25 mile ride today on my normal route. 1 hr 12 min. Not too hard, but I did some intervals training.

Friday 12/30/2011

I did a quick 20 mile ride today. It took just a little less than an hour – 55 min. I took a more hilly back road route and had a tiny head wind on the way back.

Saturday 12/31/2011

I had a little head cold this morning – so I decided to forgo the ride. Maybe tomorrow morning.

Sunday 1/1/2012

So this has turned into the ultimate lazy week. Instead of a New Years ride today I decided to lay off and have fun with the kids! LOL – there’s always tomorrow!

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