Training with the Professor - A TRUE TREAT!

Yesterday's ride was kind of like playing in a Pro Am golf event, where amateurs get to play with the PROs the day before the event starts. Professor Glauser, invited the PCRs to join him for a his last 100 mile training ride before he starts his EPIC RIDE across the country. The ride was to begin at 7am and the route was, Farmington, Little Mtn, mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, allowing those that didn't want to go all 100 to bail. However, with the early morning rain, we met at Glauser's where we were treated to SWAG and stories of the upcoming "Living The Dream" epic ride. After an hour, there was a break in the rain and we started off, soon to be greeted with heavier rain for the next 1.5 hours....... OREGON, here I come!

We saw that heading north, weather wise, was a better bet than coming back and as you will see, the route took us to where the buffaloes roam. Wood complained that he was hoodwinked in going the full distance and Hale was feeling a little sore on the way back.... (Mr. Hale, Justin's Honey Peanut Butter is NOT Nut Butter.... maybe that's why you were suffering discomfort)

YIPPY SKIPPY!

PS - Mr. T, please get with Mr. B when you get back in town, (not sure when that's going to be, RETIRED LIFE IS GOOD), and have him show you how to repair a flat and make sure you get more than 70 psi.

When riding with the PROs they give you FULL ACCESS...... SWEET!

 Keep your eyes open at ALL times, you never know what you're going to see

 

 "CAN WE TURN AROUND YET??"

 Buffalo Sighting

 "GET OFF MY BUFFALO"

 

 

Murdock Canal Trail & The Suncrest Loop

The PCRs took advantage of the spring weather this week and some of them had a GREAT date night riding the Murdock Canal Trail with their babes. This is a great way to spend an evening riding the foothills of Utah county.

Saturday morning, bright and earlier, 6:45am the B TEAM left the hood to ride the 70 mile, Suncrest Loop. A quick pit stop at the Salt Lake Swimming and Tennis Club proved to be very entertaining, as Sexy Legs had to check in to see if the club was open for business. At about 9900 South 700 East the A TEAM raced by, flipping up rocks and sparks causing Mr. T to flat.  The A TEAM saw that everything was under control and sped off. (S. Lloyd, we know you were "torn between two lovers", but we're glad you stayed behind.) Personally Mr. T, Wood was very grateful you flatted when you did, because trying to stay with the A TEAM could have killed him.

As usual, Wood had a difficult time keeping the pack together and there was talk when he took the
group into Alpine and found out the Pastry Shop was up for sale, to "intersect him" Kim, we could have REALLY used your leadership skills today.

The second blow out occurred when Wood lost a few from the pace-line and little man went back to retrieve them that have fallen behind and blew out his knee. Quote, "I think that was the most difficult 15 miles of my life to get home". And YES, like my previous injuries, Wood it was your fault"

Mr. T gave a stellar TATS, where he quoted the 10 rules of success by Warren Buffet and highlighted #10 - Despite his wealth, Buffett does not measure success by dollars. In 2006, he pledged to give away almost his entire fortune to charities, primarily the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He’s adamant about not funding monuments to himself-no Warren Buffett buildings or halls. “When you get to my age, you’ll measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. That’s the ultimate test of how you’ve lived your life.”

YIPPY SKIPPY!

Stay YOUNG!

Always bring rubber gloves to help with changing flats

What GOES on the road, STAYS on the road

Southern Utah Riding is the BEST!

Sometimes riding alone is not the safest thing to do, but when you're NOT chasing the mountain goats (Professor, Lance, Dr. J and little man) you see a lot of COOL things. The best part about this ride was nobody was waiting for me, so I could STOP anytime I wanted to take pictures, talk to the locals and let my heart-beat get back to a normal rhythm.

 They grow em BIG in Leeds

 

 ALWAYS take a picture of the sunrise

 

 

HEY LOOK, they're having a RACE! 

The Mustache Boys and their Women



Note: "Spa model not for hire".... :-)

 

2

2 reservoirs in one ride, THE BEST!

 

Mission Impossible

This week’s ride was billed by the BIG MAN as a “little adventure”.  We were to leave the “Hood” at 6:45 (an hour of the day the little man has never witnessed since he left the farm), ride to Banbury Cross for a donut (that is why I ride), catch the 7:11 Front Runner train to Orem and witness the majesty of the snowcapped Mount Timpanogos. The adventure was off to an inauspicious start at the planning stage.  BIG MAN, did you really think you could travel on your bike from your house, graze on a donut and make the 7:11 train in 21 minutes (roughly 8 miles)?  Most of the PCRs could see the fatal flaw in the so-called “plan” from the beginning and decided to form what the BIG MAN called a splinter group (hey BIG MAN, there is only one splinter in this group, it is lodged firmly in the derriere of each PCR, and if anyone is wondering who it is, I will give you a hint: his last name is a dead giveaway) that would begin their ride at a more urbane hour of 8:30, avoid the deadly city traffic and caloric intake at the donut shop.  Only the BIG MAN and the WHINER went on the “little adventure” (of course that is because no one in the splinter group told the WHINER about their ride).   After hurtling through the city at a reckless rate of speed, stopping by the donut shop, and traveling four blocks on a flat tire, we arrived at the train station at 7:14.  Problem was the train left at its scheduled time 15 minutes earlier.  So even if the Splinter’s “plan” worked the train would have been missed.  Dejected and dismayed he sat on the park bench, ate his donut and remarked: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”, to which the WHINER responded: “No, you planned.  If you fail to plan properly, you will fail.”  Undaunted, the trekkers grabbed the next Trax to Draper.  As the train pulled away from the station, in a northerly direction (Draper is south, in case you were wondering), it looked like they were in for an extended “little adventure”.  Come to find out it would take the train over an hour to arrive in Draper, so after 15 minutes they departed from the train ride and made it back to the “hood” to join the wiser and more sane part of the PCRs.

At the top of Emigration Oaks the BIG MAN sneaked away in advance of the group so he could claim victory on the downhill part of the ride (what a sport).  At the bottom Bruner queried : “Where is Wood?”, to which the WHINER responded: “he took off ahead of the group.”  “I’m glad you told me” said the good hearted Bruner, “I would have been waiting all day for him.”  “Funny”, remarked the WHINER, “the BIG MAN would not have waited a second for any of the PCRs.”  Along the way Jensen, a guy who probably has an IQ greater than the combined IQs of the rest of the PCRs (okay, professor, you are excluded), had a flat tire.  It is a simple procedure to repair one.  Every American man, woman and child is born with an innate ability to fix a flat tire, even with his or her eyes closed.  And Jensen graduated from the University of Bike Mechanics.   So you would think he would have no problem fixing it.  But no, he feigned ignorance and someone else had to do it.  It turns he is also smart like a fox.  He acts like he cannot perform the simple task so he does not get grease beneath his fingernails.  The TATS was given by the Professor.  He offered to give a substance with the appearance and scent of an unmentionable bodily fluid to the person whom the group agreed told the worst tale of woe he encountered during the week.  Of course the WHINER won when he remarked: “I followed Wood this morning”.  In light of the forgoing, I think I like Pres. Bush’s muffed quote: “fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on you.”   Thank you Wood for being fuel for the fire.   We love you man!

 Some early morning nourishment, a MUST for the "little adventure"

 

 Just in case you wanted to know what it looks like at 7am

 

 WHINER'S NBFF - "Are you too losing your hair?"

 

 When one plan fails, development a NEW one...... NEVER GIVE UP!

 

If you're the last one up the hills, stop and smell the flowers and take a pic. It helps to explain why you are SO SLOW

 

A new restroom we had never seen. "Hey, how does it look?"

 

  The two graduates from Bike Mechanic School. Guess who learned how to get the other to change his flats???

 

Spring Riding in Utah

Yesterday's ride is why living in Utah is so exciting. We started the ride in FULL SUN as a few went on another hill climb, "The Six Pack". Like any ride, the best part is reaching the summit and hearing the stories/TATS from fellow riders. As we reached our final 6th summit, it started to snow and the temperature dropped 10-15 degrees... :-)

As we listen/read the conference talks of local church leaders this week, may we too "Be of Good Courage" and ride SAFE, LONG. HEALTHY and HAPPY!

 One of my favorite homes on this ride

 

THE 6th of THE SIX PACK

  (Guess who is leading from behind, AGAIN?)

 

7 To Heaven

Four brave PCR riders hit the road on Saturday morning. Two wanted to do a flat easier ride out Wasatch Boulevard and back. One, who normally whines about what he was proposing, wanted to climb as many hills as possible. His excuse was he wanted to stay close to home so he could quit whenever he wanted.  Hence, Scott, aka, Big Man, took us on his "7 To Heaven" adventure. (note the pics below of beauty that are often missed because we are too focused on the destination and NOT the journey)

After climbing 12 hills, none of us were sure how he came up with the number "7", but we all enjoyed the early season test of our conditioning. The whiner, aka, Mr. President, was as strong as ever. I think he has been secretly training this winter. Hope more of you can join us next week.

-The Professor-   



Spring is Officially Here!

It is now officially springtime when old men’s hearts turn towards bikes (you can tell we are getting old when it is not of the opposite sex) and we must begin to attempt to shed our winter coats.  A few of the band of brothers gathered to the call of Wild, (i.e. Wood, that is) to go south.  

 

We had a newcomer show up, Ric Tanner.  He asked “how long has your group been together?”  In Clintonesque fashion, the response was: “that all depends on what you mean by the word “group”.”  You see Webster’s Dictionary defines “group” as “A cluster, crowd, or throng; an assemblage, either of persons or things, collected without any regular form or arrangement; as, a group of men or of trees; a group of isles.”  In a loose sense we are a group.  We all ride bikes in the same city and start at the same place. That’s as close to a group as it gets.  Ever aspiring to the leader of the heard of cats, Wood continues to demonstrate leadership from behind in all the ways you can imagine.  The “group” was scattered from one end of the valley to the other. And true to one of his motto’s “Every man, woman and child for him or herself”, while Wood was leading from way behind Ric went back to find him, only to learn Wood had taken a different path from the “group”, a shortcut that put him in the lead.  When it came time to climb the “Jack and the Beanstalk Hill”, Wood paused before the assent to take some pictures of some fillies. He said it was for blog material, but all know that one of the reasons he stopped was to take a breather.  We all know he uses the roll of the team photographer resulting in his rearguard command because he needs a break.

Lloyd managed not to have any accidents along the way and shared a GREAT TATS, "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. - Charles Dickens -  Bruner continued to force the “group” to keep up the pace, which is why everyone was scattered all over the valley.  And Hale whined the whole way.  It was a beautiful day.  We missed our brothers who apparently cannot tolerate the cold early morning hour of 9:00am (guys the day is half over by then). 

Our hearts especially go out to Eric, Kim and the Briggs family.  We said a prayer for them as we departed on the Odyssey.  Our prayers and thoughts are with you.     

“May your dreams be larger than mountains and may you have the courage to scale their summits.”  

- Harley King -

 

Life is a journey, NOT a destination..... Stop, Look and Listen