July 4th- Hotter Than a Firecracker Ride!!!!

Hi Fellow Bikers-
Well, we are going to host a HOT bike ride on Wednesday, July 4th in East Birdeye.  I know to stay cool we should go for 5:30am, but I might not have many takers that early.  So, 9am.  We will do the Vandale Loop with a detour to Million Dollar Road (I love that nice flat paved road).  After, we will have a low key cookout.  So come on out, it will be fun!!!!  I hope to see everyone there.
Kara

Arkansas State Time Trial

Tested myself against the clock for the second time this month, I couldn't just let all that prime conditioning (ha!) from the Birdeye Time Trial go to waste. And this TT was held at Galloway, just east of LR, along Hwy 70. Pan flat out and back for 24.9 miles and the scenery was good beside the cypress swamps but the pavement was terrible, the classic old concrete slab expansion joints every 40 feet. Ka-bonk, Ka-bonk. 75 people showed up which leads me to believe that cycle races will never draw the size of crowd a triathlon gets, what gives? But those 75 folks were plenty fast and taught me plenty! Such as learning to accept defeat. I did the race in 1 hr, 7 min which I thought was a good time but the winner was 57min and most guys were in the 102 to 105 range and a few passed me so fast I had to check to see if my brakes were rubbing or something. I will say that everyone had a tre' cool TT bike and I of course was on the homemade geek special. Just a good excuse but to think my $200 bike was within 5 minutes of $8,000 bikes is gratifying. In any case I'm sure I gave them something to get a giggle from!

I have since talked to Jason at the Gearhead and he says it's not the bike so much as my set up, as in you've got to have your elbows below your knees. Ouch! don't think my back can take it. I will have to cobble up a seatpost that will rotate my body forward and lower my arms without having to see a PT. I know a PT but she says I'm on my own! And I really should of geeked out and put duct tape over the vent holes of my helment to cut down on the aero drag but they would have disqualified me for bad style. Looking for a Nashbar closeout aero teardrop TT helment already.

At least I ate right and warmed up properly, rode the stationary trainer for 25 minutes and worked up a good sweat. And as far as the professionalism  of the event organization the BBC has nothing to worry about because they time by hand very similar to what we did and that is the norm for cycle only races. If we do BTT next year we could get more people to come if it is a USA cycling sanctioned event which will have the benefit of insurance coverage but will require at least a 1-day license of participants.

So, if everyone is game let's do the Birdeye TT big time next year!

 

Note to the Jacksons: I rocked the Jackson Dentist-Opt jersey, had to rep for Wynne.

Tour De' Rock

This is the ride the BBC should be doing instead of the Big Dam because simply put it's all the gain without the pain. NO HILLS, but plenty of scenery such as plantations, pecan tree shade tunnels and the LR river trails and even the Clinton biking bridge. I stayed Friday night with fellow biker and Wynne native Charlie Hart in his historic place in Argenta (NLR) which is in the heart of the central Ark cycle scene.

Maybe you can tell from the pic that I rode retro for the de' rock ride and I'm glad to say I kept up pretty good considering I was on a forty year old Schwinn. Most people didn't notice the vintage bike or just didn't comment except for the youngster who asked " is that a real steel bike?" and of course a few old farts had to say "that bike reminds me of my Raleigh Grand Prix, wish I had hung on to it". Charlie had a good suggestion that all I needed to complete the vintage theme was a 69' VW microbus, great idea!

So, all you climbing haters, let us think about the TDR in early June '13.

The Eurkean, Eureka Springs

Monday, June 25, 2012

Just thought I'd let you guys know about a weekend that's coming up in Eureka Springs, one of my favorite small towns in Arkansas.  There are 4 events for the August weekend:  The bike race 100 miles http://eurekasportsfestival.com/bikerace.htm ; The triathlon and it's 300 yard swim, 7 mile bike, 2 mile run: http://eurekasportsfestival.com/triathlon.htm ; For the 20, 58 and 100 mile bike rides: http://eurekasportsfestival.com/bikeinfo.htm ; And for the 10K, 5K and 1 mile fun run: http://eurekasportsfestival.com/run.htm ; There's a medal if you do the tri, 100 mile and 10K.

It's fun to share events that are going on in the state.  I'm not sure that we'll do this but I did find it interesting that the minimum age for the 20 mile bike ride is 6 years old, I instantly thought of Whit.  And by the way, Jackie and I have entered the Big Dam Bridge 50 mile bike ride already!  There's talk of making the 50 less hilly and more like 50 miles and not the 58 miles my odometer said I went that painful Saturday! -Keeli

Mighty Mite Training from Birdeye on Wednesdays

CoCo took this photo of a snake in our yard recently...yes, they
are out there and it's a reminder to all our kids to pay attention!

We had a fabulous mountain bike ride at Village Creek
Sunday!  This is everyone checking out Jackie's new
Specialized mountain bike he got at Gearhead.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Kara and I are continuing our Wednesday bike to the country club, swim 30 minutes and bike home.  So for those of you who wanna swim and are preparing for the Mighty Mite July 21, meet us at the pool around 6:15 (We plan to depart Birdeye at 5:30 am) on most Wednesdays.  If you wanna be for sure, just text or call!

Fire up and hope ya'll can join our Wednesday routine! -Keeli

Mountain Bike Ride this Sunday 6/24/12

Good Lord..that's my insulin pump on my hip
and that's Jackie with hair standing straight up:)

Yes, I took this of the view of the large red buoy that marks
the 250 yard turn around for the 500 yard swim...it made me
totally nervous....I was number 8 going in the lake and probably
number 125 getting out of the lake of the 131 entered...I swam
at a total snail pace...

This is the transition area when we got there...

A shout out to Stearns Race Timing for a well run event!!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Hey Ya'll!  I thought I'd let ya'll know how FABULOUSLY run the Gearhead Tri was on Sunday!  We had a great Father's Day at the race.  There were about 131 participants, their biggest crowd ever.  Jackie and I were so thankful to have spent the night at Benton and Alexis' the night before so our morning was much easier without the travel worries.  One thing about the Gearhead Tri are the hills.  The hills on the bike course are up and down, up and down and then there are two final hills rolling back into the park that will get you, so to speak, if you are in the wrong gear like I always am.  The run is no easy feat either, there are the same first two miles of the bike course that you run on and they are not easy at all.  In fact, when a 46 year old (I only noticed her age because we were all marked on the back of our calves in black permanent marker) blew past me going who knows how fast and I thought I'd catch her tail but couldn't muster the energy....It was a tough tri I will say.  And I am not interested at all in the Mighty Mite unless I get some serious training on...

So this Sunday we're planning to meet at Village Creek State Park at 2 pm to try out Jackie's new fancy mountain bike.  He got a Specialized bike from Gearhead on Monday after his Trek Hybrid was stolen last week.  We have a Colorado bike trip planned for Chloe and I and he was ready to get his bike up and rolling.  David Reagler gave me an old mountain bike a few weeks ago that I recently had serviced and looked over.  It's a Pro Flex and I cannot wait to get her on the trail on Sunday!

And this is what you get when there's not many in your
new, Masters Age Group....I'm officially old!

Ted Herget, owner of Gearhead, won the thing with a
blazing time of 51:41...that's insane!  Congrats Ted!

Ok ya'll, come on out Sunday for a couple hours for a mountain bike ride. Meet at the visitor's center at 2 pm.  I'll bring adult beverages and some Ponchos Dip and Chips for post ride fun.  I hope ya'll can make it to see Jackie's new, super duper, orange bike! :)

Mucka Mania 5K & 10K

The BBC....Michael Hirons, Beth Bradshaw, me, Jackie,
Chloe and Martin....all of which placed in their age groups!
Not a bad showing I'd say, especially since I haven't run
one time since the Little Rock Half in March!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Congratulations to the BBC for participating in this morning's Mucka Mania 5K & 10K.   This was the first event for this local running club in Wynne and a mighty nice, well organized event.  It started about 8:05 and results were handed out about 10:30.  Chloe decided on Thursday night that she'd run it and ended up winning her age group with a 37 minute finishing time, we're so proud of her!  So a shout out goes to the Mucka group with a big gold star for a well run event.  There's talk of a next year.  Results please:

Michael, 2nd in age group 30-39, with a time of 54:58  **Stearns must have made a mistake on medals?
Martino, 1st in age group 30-39, with a time of 55:38
Jackie, 2nd in Master Group, with a time of 1:02:59
Myself, 1st in age group 40-49  and only because of the top finishers getting awards 5 deep), with a time of 1:04:13
Beth Bradshaw and Chloe did the 5K and a shout out to Beth for watching over her while we finished the 10K!
Beth, 1st in age group 30-39, with a time of 35:06
Coco, 1st and only in age 11-12, with a time of 37:14

Great showing ya'll!  Fellow runner and Prebyterian Elise Barry finished with a blazing pace of 1:02:42 in the 10K and got 4th OVERALL! -Keeli

Cycle to Village Creek this Sunday, Birdeye

The BBC crew...Becca Jackson, Birthday Girl Stella who turned
5 Sunday, Stan and Beth Bradshaw, Martino & Kara, Cecelia,
Whit, Beth Huff, Chloe, Me and Jackie, Chuck Blanton, Kyle
Killough, Neall & Sol Jackson, Mark Pierce and his wife and
Todd Watts.

The Birdeye Store made Stella a cake Sunday
for her birthday, 5 powdered sugar donuts with
5 candles, this was after the candles...
her hand is hiding the Birdeye Store's "famous"
hamburgers and notice Chloe's IPAD over there...

Monday, June 4, 2012

Jackie and I will depart Birdeye Sunday morning at 7:45 am to meet up with any of you that wanna ride to Wynne Presbyterian's Village Creek Brunch that starts at 10 am.  We can meet anybody at the country club at 8:30 then ride on into the pavilion at Village Creek.  We plan to ride home also, this is weather permitting but it looks like a high of 92 with a 10% chance of rain.  It's a 12 mile trip from the country club (and 11 to the country club from here) so we have the chance to ride 46 on Sunday, we'll see baby!

I added photos from yesterdays Time Trial.  It was great, 11 participants and a lot of fun.  Shout outs to Cross County Sheriff, Poinsett County Sheriff, Gearhead Cycle House, Birdeye Store, Beth Huff, Neall and Becca Jackson, Chuck Blanton, Kara & Martino, Jackie and Cecilia for helping Kyle and I pull it off!  Thanks too to all of you that entered the event!  There's talk of a "next year"! :)

See ya'll Sunday! -Keeli