Wind is my enemy...

Saturday started with a trip to the brewery with Pete, followed by quite possibly the shortest ride ever, chasing daylight and having problems with the cadence/speed monitor. The actual speeds on this one are off as the monitor thought I was using a 20inch wheel.

Then there was dinner with my family and Shannon, followed by opening presents.
Sunday was a day off to hang with my family, I got to see some of my cousins and had some good food while talking all night.
Today I woke up and decided to do some bridge climbs, got down there and went over the bridge before turning around and hitting some serious wind, so I came back over it and rode home. I will be back out here for more bridge climbs soon.

Until we meet again.

This is what we call South Dennis Motorsports

Thursday was started with a nice easy paced ride to Avalon and back, Now I actually can see my cadence too!

After the ride I headed over to Pete's to hang out with him and Nat, we were using the day to work on a few of our projects, and to install a CB radio in Nats car. I also decided to take some photos while we were doing the work..

This is what we call South Dennis Motorsports:

You can see some of the projects in these photos, an adult trike we are stretching, a BMX frame turned into a chopper, an all original Schwinn Sting-Ray. You can also see the two Austin-Healey Sprites, a Ford Fairlane, two Volksboats, and a go-ped. This is where we spend a good amount of time.


Here are some more photos from the night.

Today I had to do a few errands, and did not get a chance to ride. Tomorrow is a trip to the brewery, followed by a ride, followed by dinner with the family!
Until we meet again!

Firetrucks, Rainy Days, and Magnets

Tuesday I awoke to a call from one of the reporters from the Press asking if I could do a job that morning.  Of course I said yes, before I even knew where or what the job was; Then I got the email and found out.
A local man had challenged all of Wildwood's fire departments to donate bikes to kids that don't have any, all of the fire departments were meeting at the convention center and then driving the rigs to Walmart to purchase the bikes, and I was going with them.
What guy doesn't dream of riding in a fire truck? It was one of the most fun jobs I have had in a long time, and I was glad to be there for it!
The rest of the day was a bust as I was home too late to ride before it got real dark and cold, and then Nat and Cassie came over for the night.

Today I woke up to rain, I just was not feeling it today so I decided to just do some stretching and install the new toy I got. My Garmin GSC-10 came in today, so I took 20 minutes deciding where to put the pieces to make it work best.
I finally got it working, but realized that the supplied cadence magnet was horrible for mounting on FSA cranks, it just wouldn't fit nicely. I got it on there but I knew it would fall off in a few days so I started searching for a way to remedy the situation, and that led to me realizing I could just stick a powerful disk magnet on the inside spindle of my pedal and it would work.

So thats what I did.

Heres the GSC installed:

And here is the pedal, before and after the install of the magnet:

As you can see, it fits nicely in there and is easy to remove. But not so easy that it'll fall out, and the magnets cost about 3 dollars for 10, so if it does fall out it is very cheap to replace.

Thats all I have to say about this boring day, until we meet again.

Slow weeks happen

Its been a slow week, I took Tuesday off and rode Wednesday.

Thursday was a potluck dinner with the local Habitat group, and Nat and Cassie stayed the night. Friday Shannon, Nat, Cassie, Pete, and I all went to the mall and then to a movie. Pete and I also went to the release party for Gameface magazine; A local sports monthly that we both worked on.
Saturday I took a ride to the brewery to meet Pete and to personally thank my friends and donors at Cape May Brewing Company! And then it was a night of hanging out at my house with everyone.

Sunday was a lazy day around the house, with everyone enjoying the day and then a season finale of Dexter along with some baking and a little birthday celebration for Shannon!

Today I woke up and ate some breakfast with Cassie and Shannon, then we played a little bit of games. Followed by a short recoveryish ride for me!

The plan for the rest of the weekend is some short to medium length rides, maybe a spin class or two, and preparations for christmas.


Until we meet again!

Wittyness eludes me!

So, I can't come up with a witty title.. With that I will dive right in. Saturday was a cold day after having spent the better part of 4 days in Florida but I needed to get out and ride. I decided to just do a 13.5 mile based on the fact that I knew the wind would be horrible on the barrier islands. My 21mph avg going east into Stone Harbor fell to 18 as I turned North and stayed there as I turned back South. I managed to keep it there as I headed west back towards my house and as the temperature dropped. The good news is that my lungs are now fairly acclimated to the colder weather and I don't have a problem from that angle as of now. The bad news is that I am still not good in wind, I need to get more used to being alone in the wind now.

After the ride Shannon and I made a pizza (well...bought the ingredients for pizza) and then Nat, Pete, and Cassie came over to hang out for the night, it was great fun and we ended up making some flour-less chocolate cakes, those turned out amazing.
Sunday morning Pete, Drew and I went for a mountain bike ride down in Lizard Tail, but it was cut short due to some downed trees and Pete not feeling upto it.

Sunday night was a bonfire at Pete's house, but that also ended early and resulted in another night at my house to play Forza and watch Dexter!

A late night for everyone involved. This morning I woke up and decided to attend a spin class for some fun and to change it up. So I spent the day mostly stretching and hydrating, I had been under hydrated having spent the past week in Disney and really felt it on both of the previous days rides... At the spin class I finally tried the Lemon-Lime flavor of SDM and it was great, very lightly flavored, but still distinct and very natural. If I am going to do much more spinning I really need to get a second pair of shoes with SPD cleats, I absolutely hate clips/straps on pedals and always either slip out or they hurt the bottom of my feet.

And now I am off to do a bit of training on the rollers before bed, tomorrow I need to travel to the post office, the bank and do a few other errands.

Until we meet again!

Vacation?

Sorry I am a little late on this post. It has been a long week.
I have been in Florida since very early Tuesday morning, didn't get any riding down this week except for a 15 mile on Saturday and Sunday, the data for both is here:

There was however a lot of walking, and I did get to see my friend Pig who I have not seen since early 2009. We spent Thursday in Hollywood studios and in 3 and a half hour were able to ride Rockin Rollercoaster 5 times, Tower of Terror once, get lunch, ride Star Tours and do a Great Movie Ride. Pretty good if I do say so myself.


I arrived home today to find that my new Fizik Arione had been delivered, and it is now on the bike and looks great. I should be doing  a good ride tomorrow, weather permitting (I really need to get a rain jacket).


Well, until we meet again!

Ribbons and Brews

Thursday started off as an early day, with the plan to be riding by 10:15 and be 30 miles in by Noon. The reasoning being that Cape May Brewing Company was having an open house from 12-2 with their official ribbon cutting at 1.
As you may know, I am a huge fan of the brewery and even rode with their team in the MS:City to Shore ride in September, so I wanted to be there for this huge event for them and show my support. Ryan, Chris, and Bob all do an amazing jobs and are always very happy to see me whenever I stop by.

Anyway, as I said the "plan" was to be riding by 10:15, well that didn't happen. First I ended up taking a while getting going after a restless night and then as I was about to set off I noticed my rear had a leak so I ended up replacing the tube and not getting off until about 10:45.

At the beginning I made great time, averaging about 22mph over the first 6 miles, and maintaining 20 well into Cape May. However, once i got onto Sunset Blvd in Cape May the headwinds took over and I slowed quite a bit. Ending up at the brewery at around 12:39, but still with time to talk. Pete met me there and we had a great time talking with all of the people there. I told the guys about Bike and Build, they were excited to hear about it, and offered their support. Pete and I stuck around until just after 3 and I took off to get home before the sun set, I decided to forgo the trip back into Wildwood and Stone Harbor instead taking Rt 9 all the way to the overpass for one last bit of climbing, and finally home. The plan was for 50.05 miles, but it ended up at 41.18, a pretty good day if I do say so!

Today was a rest day, Shannon and I drove Cassie upto the Deptford area for her GREs, and we spent time in the mall. I was able to see my cousin, Kristy, while I was there and it was a fun day.

As an aside, you may notice the fundraising thermometer over to the right, that should hopefully be getting fuller very soon!

Anyway, thats all for today, until we meet again!

That was an experience, for sure

Its been two days since I have written, lets see. Yesterday Shannon came over at around 10, we spent a little bit of time together before I took a ride out to Cape May to get my pass for the CG Base. All in all it was a nice 39.7 mile ride, the wind was bad in Stone Harbor and gave me a lot of work to do once I got over into Wildwood. The weather did turn a bit cold on the ride back (Should have packed the knee warmers!), but it wasn't too bad especially for late November.. Here is the data for you guys:

After I got back Shannon and I went to Murasaki for some food and had a great evening.

Today was a slow rainy day, got a good sleep before waking up and hanging out at my house for a bit. Then I had to drop some papers off at the credit union and finally I was off to my first ever spin class.
That was interesting, once I got over the fact that the geometry was not what I was used to on my bikes it was a little bit easier. Finding the correct resistance was a little tricky too, but all in all it was a good time and I did work up quite the sweat. I will be doing that again for sure, especially on these rainy days.


Well, thats all I have for now. Until we meet again.

Heres goes everything

I guess it is about time to start updating this and get the ball rolling, so we will start with a little bit about the last two days.
Saturday I was supposed to head out for a long run/hike/water crossing workout with some friends, but a bout of heartburn kept me up all night, leading me to sleep in for quite a while. The sunlight was pretty much shot by the time I got going so I decided to have an unplanned rest day.
Later that night I ended up going over to Pete's house for a bonfire, that was a great time and I had a chance to see some people I have not seen in a while.
Everything was finished up there around 1am, so we all parted ways and I ended up back at home falling asleep sometime before 4am.

Woke up Sunday at around 8am to help Nat with a GPS project, we did a few loops around lizard tail swamp to get some usable GPS plots. It was my first time on the mountain bike for anything serious in a few months, I can really feel myself being hurt by the smallness of the frame and hope to get something more my size soon, all in all however it was a nice easy ride with a small sprint at the end to heat things up.
Here is some data for that ride:

After that Nat and I headed over to Pete's where we flipped the resonator on Nat's exhaust and took a trip to Rio Grande to get a gasket for it.

Then we did a small test drive and watched a bit of TV before Nat and I left. I decided that I should get some sort of road mileage in for the day, but light and temperature was fading fast, and a miscalculation of route distance had me winding up at home with just under 7 miles finished. Not much to say about that.. But heres the data:

I am hoping to put down some serious mileage tomorrow after a good nights sleep tonight, Also Shannon is coming over after I haven't seen her in nearly a week. Looking forward to that.

Anyway, that is about all I have to write today, I hope this post wasn't too rambling or long winded. I will eventually figure out how to write well, for now you have to suffer through the incoherence.

Until we meet again.

Welcome to the adventure!

Good evening everyone!
My name is Kevin Marriner Jr and I have been accepted to participate in Bike and Build 2011. I will be using this blog to document my training leading up to the trip this summer.

I am exceedingly happy to be invited to take on this challenge, and I hope you will enjoy reading what I have to say!


Until we meet again.