Loni's Life

So the key to getting photo by the Official Event Photographers is to make sure that you cross the Finish Line each day of the tour... and another tip is to separate yourself from a huge pack of riders too! Here's one of my favorites coming into Sundance Square, downtown Ft. Worth TX. By this time I had sufficiently recovered from the hellacious hill(s) that appear right before the doggone finish line. Had that one hill been any longer, I'd have surely been walking it since I had used the full range of gears and had none left in reserve.

Finish line smiles in Sundance Square, Ft. Worth Texas; May 4, 2008. That's me on the left and my cycling partner on the right. I thought those last few hills into Sundance were going to kill me... but I actually made it without having to stop and without having to walk... there was plenty of cussing under my breath going on.. but crossing the finish was worth the effort.

Oh my gosh, only 1 more day until we are riding seemingly endless hours for a good cause.. The SAM'S CLUB MS 150 is a two-day, cycling adventure through North Texas that raises funds to help people living with MS. To make a tax-deductible donation securely online... or for a mailing address to mail a check or money order follow my link (it will continue to a secured link for credit card donations) http://www.ms150.org/dallas/donate/donate.cfm?id=207326

Wow, the training time has just flown on by... the DFW MS150 is at the end of THIS week... oh my... My cycling partner and I did time at the gym yesterday and then we drove the course. I am confident about making the lunch pit on both of the days; but the post-lunch mileage is quite hilly... so we'll have to see how that goes. Today, I went to Greek Easter at a friend's house and got some kitty therapy from her 19 year old kitty Moose. I've also had some kitty therapy from our 15 year old Boo Kitty. Still getting used to not seeing Tracer at her perch as Queen of the Stairs... but we're doing better. So here's to an easy training week in the gym; a 4 day work-week this week and next... and wishes for good weather and safe travels for Tour weekend.

Ok , so I was up during the night for a software install... and got the all-clear after 7:30 this morning... so made contact with my cycling partner. Now, with just this weekend and next weekend left for long rides before tour weekend, we are trying to be smart about the training. We're not in it for all-or-nothing-training and so we work really well together to accommodate each other around schedules, illness, other obligations, etc. Our favorite cycling loop was tied up yesterday with another worthwhile charity event, so we ended up on an alternate trail. We did 40 miles with the intent to do 52... but the heat was getting the better of both of us and at the 34 mile mark, the heat was getting the better of both of us and it was a long, tired 6 miles back to the car. We stopped at a rest stop about halfway back to the car and rehydrated , sat in the shade, cooled off and rested... and then made the last 3 mile leg back to the car. We then went to Black-Eyed Pea and s...

Oh goodness, with only this weekend and next for long rides before DFW MS150 Tour Weekend, here I am up early again on a Saturday. Today there's a charity walk at our favorite riding loop, so we're riding an alternate trail until that event is over. Last week, we did 40 miles; this week we're aiming for 50 (or more). Hopefully, my cycling partner's sinuses will behave and not knock her out for tomorrow's ride. I'm excited for Tour weekend to get here... a) I have the Friday before the tour off, b) I have the Monday after the tour off = two 4-day work weeks :) and c) we have a spa day planned for that Monday including a well-deserved trip to The Cheesecake Factory. After Tour weekend, we can ease up on the training schedule a bit to riding only 1 long ride per weekend with a 2nd optional ride; we'll also add more strength training thru the week and be able to explore some group fitness classes at the gym. This will allow both my cycling buddy and m...

Started out as a chilly morning with both my cycling partner and me going "I can't believe we're actually up and doing this"..... Gave Thanks for the beautiful day and the blessing bestowed upon us and thought only postive thoughts for the rest of the day. It was an absolutely picture perfect day with the exception of the wind in some spots around our loop... but otherwise the riding was great and we got in 4 great loops. I must say that having experienced the "running" community before surgery on both knees and a great orthopaedic surgeon that said 'no more running and no more stairmaster for you"... and now having experienced the "biking" community... that generally the biking community is much more welcoming to adding new members to their club.... even we obviously overweight, but out there trying to do something about it, members. And after several weeks now at our favorite parking spot, we are recognizing others and others are recogni...

Ok , so I was actually thinking of that Hammie character from Over the Hedge... so maybe it's really a Squirrel on Caffeine.... I love my cycling partner, I really really do... she is the best big sister I could ever hope to adopt and she's my best girlfriend ever. She's getting used to her new bike and her new gears and sometimes riding behind her just cracks me up because sometimes she's just a spinning away in whatever gear she's in...and I truly mean spinning... sometimes her feet look like a hamster running non-stop on a wheel. Luckily, she knows I love her and that I don't mean anything malicious by my uncontrollable giggles as I describe her spinning... which I had described as a Squirrel on Crack... like Hammie ... a cute but lovable squirrel. Anyhow, really really I do love my cycling partner.. and I trust her implicitly as I ride off her back tire... for I am mainly focused on her bike and the pavement and am truly trusting that if there's a...

The Plan: 5-- Week of 3/31 --0--15--22--0--17--55--55--164 The Actual: 0--0--22--0--17--8.5--30-- 77.5 Not the long rides we had planned this weekend; though we had beautiful weather. My cycling partner had a minor snafu at the start of Tour Dallas resulting in a change of training plans. However, we've been dedicated but flexible this year when it comes to training... I'm still amazed that we haven't blown off training even with SNOW on the ground in February at TMS we went and did a training ride... and we've been up before sunrise on I don't know how many mornings now.. when I really would have preferred to just snuggle under the covers next to my hubby and with the cats at my feet. This morning I'm sporting no ill-effects from this weekend's rides... I'm not even having to "sit gingerly".. quads, hip flexors, calves, neck, shoulders, hands, and hiney... all good... woohoo, maybe this training thing is paying off after all. It better...

Week 6-- Week of 3/24 Planned--0--14--20--0--16--50--50--150 Actual--0--14--20-0---16--3hrs gym--3 loops WRL; Total 130 Pretty good week last week... my cycling partner and I even heard words we had never heard before at the gym and on a Friday night too... Attention {Gym} Members and Guests, The Kids Club will be closing in 15 minutes. We had a pretty good training week... now the week ahead as we close in on just over a month until the ride... 5-- Week of 3/31 --0--15--22--0--17--55--55--164 Already messed up today's training since I slept thru the time that I should have been at the gym this morning... but luckily so did my cycling partner, so I don't feel too bad... we can probably just wrap some of that mileage into tomorrow night's ride and Friday night's ride. On Saturday, we'll actually be doing Tour Dallas which is 30 miles and then on Sunday we'll see how it goes. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good with the training... the 3 hours of stationary cycli...

Ok, not the best of training weeks.. .mainly due to too much stress at work... which I really should have gone biking anyhow... Ended up not riding on Easter Sunday since we were invited to friend's for an Easter Brunch and Easter Egg Hunt... I was hoping the weather would warm up enough to ride outdoors, but ended up napping with hubby and kitties instead. Week 7, The Plan 0-13--18-0-15-45-45 Week 7, The Actual 0-1hr - 0-0-0-3 hrs-0 (Easter Sunday) The week ahead 6-- Week of 3/24 --0--14--20--0--16--50--50--150 At this point in the training, I have no doubt whatsoever of hitting the lunch-spot on each of the days of the ride... we'll see how this next month goes... but I'm gaining confidence on our ability to hit the finish line on both days too.

8-- Week of 3/10 Planned --0--12--16--0--14--40--40--122 Actual -- 0-- 60min -- 0 min--60 min -- 90min -- 12 on bike -- 20 on bike -- total 67 miles Week Ahead 7-- Week of 3/17 --0--13--18--0--15--45--45-- Total 136 Met some Cheesy Riders on Saturday and had a great ride except for walking 1/2 the hill at Windhaven ... ok , so not cardiovascularly trained well enough to handle that hill at the RPM's needed and carrying way too much payload as well... but the Cheesy Riders captain was great and very encouraging of the novice riders well at the back of the pack. He said everyone has their own pace and so long as we ride at our own pace and not try to match any one else's pace, that we'll be ok . My cycling buddy's hubby came along for the ride and mine would have too except he had to work. I think her hubby thought he was just going to be outpacing us girls and gee, how hard could 12 miles be.... hahahahaha ... I think we managed just fine... and the pair of us gi...

Planned 9-- Week of 3/3 --0--11--14--0--13--35--35--108 Actual: 0 - 3 - 14- 0- 0 - 35 - 20: Total 72 Ok, at the gym for today, the Startrak bike actually calculated 30 miles; but I'm counting 10 miles per hour since time is a constant; as the LifeCycle bikes calculate only about 10mph vs the StarTrack which were calculating at 15mph. With 8 weeks to go, here's the plan for the week ahead 8-- Week of 3/10 --0--12--16--0--14--40--40--122 Monday is the easy one for after 2 consecutive long rides, my aching hips have joined my aching rear in a wish for a day off. After the last 2 long rides, I think the 12, 16, and 14 milers this week are going to be a piece of cake. I think for the 0 mileage days I will hit the gym for some upper body work.

Ok , so we must really be mentally focused this year and serious about our training for DFW MS150. We've been fundraising since October and have already hit our initial goals and early too! Now to keep the mind and body focused on preparing for ride weekend... so off to the gym today (no stupidity or sanity check with COLD weather this morning!!!) where we did 2 hours.. and darn but my glutes ache something crazy today... the first hour was ok , though the glutes were trying valiantly to convince the mind that they had done enough yesterday... and the break was welcome, the knees and feet all still in good shape.. and then the 2 nd hour was again the first 20 minutes ok , and then the mental games began again... Mina's too funny she was like "find your happy place" as far as working thru the grind of the butt-ocks just screaming to be away from the constant pressure of cycling... so sometimes that happy place was in the middle of crocheting a preemie cap.. somet...

Or maybe we should just be committed... to a mental institution that is.. especially as my cycling partner and I were questioning our collective sanity yesterday! Ok , first off as we met at Starbucks in McKinney and were freezing like crazy shortly after 7am while we were making a simple transfer of my bike from my car rack to her car rack since we were carpooling to save on gas money. Now a mere year ago, we wouldn't have even bothered with getting the bikes out of the garage on such a freaking cold day... but with our new Hotter Than Hell team name of "We're in this together".. we each collectively left home with bikes on racks ready to face whatever Mother Nature was going to throw at us. I mean, gee whiz, certainly with the clear skies and sunshine, it would warm up by the time we made it to Texas Motor Speedway ( TMS ) for this Official DFW MS150 Kick-Off training ride and BBQ Lunch. Well, with snow still on the ground as we traveled thru Denton county to get...

Ok, so here were the plans for Week #10 10-- Week of 2/25 --MO--TU--WE--TH--FR--SA--SU --0--10--12--0--12--30--30 --Total 94 Goals this week: Stick with the training plan Keep a food chart record including time of day and hunger rating. So how'd I do? 0--10--12--0--0--20.35--25 Total: 67.35 So/So on the food plan; have definitely kept track and discovered the potholes that I'll work to fill this week. While eating my planned allotment of calories throughout the day, I do feel at times that I'm just grazing all day long... but the good news is that I'm not waking up in the middle of the night hungry; or if having made it thru the night without awakening, I'm not starving for breakfast. Skipped Friday's workout and was short on Saturday and Sunday... was up late, late, late with some unexpected oncall support on Friday night/Saturday morning; then was up again late, late, late with scheduled oncall support on Saturday night/Sunday morning... so had caught some Z...

Well, it's that time of year again, my 3rd time to ride in the DFW MS150 tour.... please let us have sunshine and pretty riding weather without signs of Dorothy & Toto about to drop out of the sky! It's a cycling adventure from Frisco to Ft. Worth Texas with about 75 miles each day for a total of 150 miles. I haven't completed the ride yet; but I've improved the past 2 years and expect improvement again this year.. especially since my dearest girlfriend is also my cycling partner. My hubby normally participates as a volunteer with the Motorcycle Marshals but this year he has to move his Call Center from their current facility to a new one. I am hoping that this cycling season will help me to shed some pounds in my quest to reach my goal weight and become a Keeping Off Pounds Sensibly (KOPS) member at my TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) chapter. For those who would lovingly support my ride with a tax-deductible charitable donation, you can donate securely online at ht...

The Plan... 11—Week of 2/18 --MO--TU--WE--TH--FR--SA--SU --0--10--14--0--12--25--25-- Total 86 The Actual --MO--TU--WE--TH--FR--SA--SU -0--0--10--0--0--0--6--Total 16 Ok, not the best of weeks from a training perspective; coming up 70 miles short for the week. MO- Rest Day, always an easy one TU- Didn't schedule around my TOPS meeting; plan to fix- move miles to TH or do mileage in the AM WE- Had a great workout with my cycling partner TH- Had planned to pick up Tuesday's miles; but ended up leaving work a little early with a migraine--> mileage was the last thing on my mind that day! FR- Got stuck at the office late with some last minute work for a high priority project SA- Went and spent the afternoon and early evening with my Dad SU- Managed to log 6 miles at the gym after logging a 0.4 pound gain at JC; then met my hubby for a movie date to see Vantage Point {loved it}. Afterwards, we had lunch and I ended up at home for a much needed nap as I had been during Sat night...