Thursday, March 24, 2011

Eureka Springs Multisport Festival - "The Eurekan"



I saw this event and thought I would share it. You start Friday afternoon with a sprint tri, on Saturday there is a century ride, and then on Sunday you finish it all with a 10k. Not only that, it's in August, it will probably be hot, and there area is pretty hilly also. You finish all three events in the weekend you can yourself the "The Eurkean". If you do not want to complete all three of these there are shorter ride options on Saturday and a 5k on Sunday, but you have to do tri/century/10k to call yourself "The Eurkean." Also, they will be giving awards for the fastest cumulative time. So, that means some people will actually be racing the century ride and not just touring! I think I'll probably be in for this challenge.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Local Weekly Riding Information

This an email sent from The Ride about riding opportunities in the Conway, AR and Arkansas for the week of 3-21.

Monday-5:30PM, The Ride. Morrilton Out and Back. Pace will be moderate as an intended fun ride/recovery ride from a weekend of good riding. We will be leaving the shop via Donaghey to Tyler to Hogan.

Thursday-5:30PM, The Ride. Bigelow lollipop, pace very fast. We will be leaving the shop via Donaghey to Tyler. This is not a no-drop ride, please know the route and have your own supplies with you (extra tube and such). Everyone can ride as hard as they like. Bring a friend with you to grow the ride and make sure you always have company.

The Ranch Ride Training Program
...begins this Sunday. Meet at Conway Regional Health and Fitness Center at 2:00PM for some very valuable pre-ride education time regarding riding in groups and in traffic followed by a question and answer session. Then we will have time to change clothes and will ride at 3:00PM. The ride will be Lolly Bottoms. See www.theranchride.com for more details. There will also be a group trianing ride on Thursday night at CRHFC at 6PM.

Tour de Cure
Join CAB as they are building a Tour de Cure team to ride in the upcoming Little Rock tour. They aim to average around the mid teens. This will be a great ride. The Ride will be matching donations raised up to $1500 for the CAB team. For more details email Peter Mehl at peterm@uca.edu

Tour de Toad
The Tour de Toad is on and scheduled for Sunday, May 1st, 8:00AM at the Conway High School West campus. This year's tour is looking to be a great one and the order has been placed for good weather. Come out and support this great local classic and support the Faulkner Literacy Council right from your bicycle seat. Click here to register now.

The Slobberknocker
Saturday, April 30 · 8:00am - 11:00am. You'll want to put this new gravel grinder at Lake Sylvia on your schedule of events. This will be a great one to do the day before the Tour de Toad. Click CARVE to register for this new favorite.

Click for a complete listing of cycling events in Arakansas

The Ride Hours
Sunday 12-4
Mon-Fri 10-6

The Standard Run/St. Louis/Tunica & More

Here's the two week update after being in St.Louis for 3 days and Tunica for 4 days.

St. Louis

While in St. Louis, I did get one chance to go running. The hotel was right next to Forrest Park. I was able to get a 6 mile run in. It was a very nice park to run in. They had some gravel trails which is always nice to run. Also, it was very quiet and away from traffic which made for a very nice run. I was able to take some pictures while out and about. I swear I didn't push the "Earthquake" button on the elevator at the hotel. Although I was tempted to.








Tunica

The trip to St. Louis was quickly followed by a trip to Tunica for a sales meeting. 4 days is a lot of time to spend in Tunica. I was hoping to be able to go for a bike ride while down there but the meetings never ended in time for a ride. I did get a couple of runs in while there and I'm not used to running on such flat ground where you can see for a long ways. A short 5 mile run seemed much longer when you see your next turn a mile ahead! I did get to go shot sporting clays for the first time in years which was a great time. It was to bad the course was moved to a new area because it the normal course was flooded due to the river being high. Sporting clays can be a challenge because you just don't know what the clays will do!




The Standard Run

I have a standard run route that I normally due maybe once a week. You would think that the same route would get old after completing it numerous times, but I find that is a great to gauge fitness after a few years of running. I still remember when it would take me over 30 minutes or more to finish my 5k route. Now the route has morphed into a 30 minute route to see how far I can finish in that 30 minute time.

Upcoming

Next week I get to ahead to Northeast to complete some site surveys to work. The surveys are mainly in the Philadelphia/NJ area, but I do have a couple sites near NYC and one site near DC. My hope is to finish the sites in NJ/Philadelphia quickly, so that I can have some time in DC. If I have the time, I'll probably do a quick running tour of the National Mall area because that will be all the time I will have before I have to leave Thursday morning from Philadelphia.

Also, next week the Capital City Classic is coming up and hopefully I can beat my time from last year. This will be the third year in a row that I have run this race, so I'm excited to see what I can do.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Just an Update - St. Louis/Tunica/Races

Things have been pretty uneventful lately. I haven't run any races in a couple of weeks and have only been out of town once briefly. Tomorrow I go to St. Louis. I'm not sure if I'll be leaving either on Saturday or Sunday? It's still up in the area. If I'm able to get back in Arkansas on Saturday, I may head to Hot Springs for a trail race. If not, the next race that I will run might be the Spring Fling 5K. The one distance race I haven't run in awhile is a 5K. I haven't run one since 2009! This will be interesting if I get the chance to run this.

The week of the 14th. I get to spend a week in Tunica, MS for a sales meeting. While I enjoy a night a gambling, it will be a long week there. I will take the opportunity to ride the Memphis In May bike course. While I know it will be flat, it will give a good chance to check my fitness level.

Other than that, I've just been living it up here in Conway.

Thursday, March 3, 2011