Johnnys Ride... kid-less ride 2

Today is Thursday July 16 2026 and yesterday i did the Johnny's group ride.

i got dropped but it was still pretty great. 

I did feel very comfortable on the road bike and in the group, last week on this ride i actually led the group up the big hill, then got dropped, this week i pulled a bit prior to the big hill. So just the fact that i'm finding myself in the front and able to do a little (a very little!) work in the wind is a positive sign.

Although to be fair the group has been small for the past couple weeks so its kind of easy to find yourself in the front. But the simple truth is that when the ride gets hard i struggle. However i use to struggle before the ride got hard so i'm moving in the right direction.

Tonight i'm hoping to ride but if so it will be slow. After last nights ride i went immediately into mowing the yard and then immediately into walking the dog. So a great night for exercise and now i'm tired. 

The not so little man gets home from his camp this Tuesday so i have 5 more days to squeeze as many bicycle hours in as possible.

Evening Ride... kid less ride 1

Today is Wednesday July 15 2026 and yesterday i did a long evening ride.

The not so little man is away at a 10 night summer camp which means X and i have a lot of free time on our hands. 

It was around 7:15pm by the time i started pedaling last night but that wasn't a problem. It's summer so its warm and the sun stays up late, plus i love riding at night if its in the city where there are lots of  lights.

X and i flew the not so little man out to camp and got back on Monday, so this was my first ride since Friday morning. Although we did get in a decent but short high end workout when we had to sprint thru the Atlanta airport for maybe 3 minutes to make our connecting flight. We made, for the record i was faster than X, and we'll now be trying to avoid a layover of only 45 minutes on future plane trips. 

My legs were still soar from that sprint so i really played this ride by feel. i went fast when it felt good but slowed way down as soon as my legs spoke up. They usually spoke up when i started going up.

Anyway... it was a great ride.

Today i plan to do the evening group ride and i want to pedal for at least an hour before it starts.

Bicycles!

Trip to drop off the not so little man...

Tuesday evening ride...

Somethingclassicin... Colorado

Today is Monday July 6 2026 and last week i was in Frisco Colorado on a family vacation.

It was pretty great.

We did a lot of things besides bikes but this is a bike blog so below are a bunch of bike pics.

i finally completed the Peaks Trail this year between Frisco and Breckenridge. i've attempted it maybe 3 previous times and this year it all came together, although it was a little anti climatic. The ride was somehow both easy and hard which probably means i'm a 46 year old man at altitude with decent fitness who was a little fatigued. 

i did chicken out and after getting to Breckenridge i opted to take the paved trail back to Frisco instead of retracing my steps via the single track. That saved me at least an hour and a lot of effort. 

In addition to that ride we also rode down Vail pass, rode to Breckenridge and back via the bike path, and rode the bike path around the Dillon Reservoir.

The ride that stands out the most was when X and i rode to Breckenridge and back via the bike path. This was Wednesday the 1st, the day of the USA - Bosnia Herzegovina World Cup soccer game. The ride to Breckenridge was all head wind and totally brutal, upon arrival in Breck we found a sweet coffee shop and i went to town. Then we hauled a*s home averaging around 20mph with the tail wind (on mountain bikes! X was hammering!) and made it just in time for the beginning of the soccer game... which we won!

The Vail pass ride was also great because the not so little man joined us via the tag along. He's not big on biking but look at the smile on his face pre ride, we had a blast! 

Anytime you have the opportunity to ride down a mountain while blasting 'The Imperial March' from Star Wars via a blue tooth speaker i highly recommend doing it.

The Mandalorian theme is also a good one.

Music!

Bicycles!

Mountains! 

Jerry's Bait Shop Ride...

Today is Tuesday June 23 2026 and yesterday i did the Jerry's Bait Shop group ride.

It was fun, the weather was beautiful, i got dropped.

i lost contact with the group around the halfway point on a very fast right turn that goes strait into an uphill. i was slowing down for what i thought was a stop sign and by the time i realized what was happening it was too late. 

Up to that point i felt good but closing a gap to a fast moving group is currently a bridge to far for me. Perhaps that skill will be improved upon in the coming months. Or not.

i kept riding hard and i kept a positive attitude and soon hooked up with another dropped rider so we traded pulls to the finish.

The route was fun, right before getting dropped we went thru one of the old Tuesday night crit practice locations, out at K7 and K10. The last time i pedaled that road was probably during a practice crit in like 2013. X was there. Plus we went on Prairie Star Parkway which is where X went to train for her roller skating marathon. 

It was a hell of a day at sea.

My legs feel very tired today. 50 single speed miles on Sunday followed by a very fast hour and a half on Monday is no joke for this middle age man!

Weekend Bike Ride... Fathers Day edition

Today is Monday June 22 2026 and yesterday (Fathers Day) i rode my bike outside.

The ride was great and the weekend was great.

Friday = Watch the not so little man fence at the last day of a weeklong fencing camp. Watch USA World Cup victory on TV. Attend Weird Al Yankovic Concert with the not so little man.

Saturday = 3 hours at the pool then passing out on the couch watching a Marvel movie with the not so little man.

Sunday = up early for 50+ miles on the single speed bike.

It was raining early Sunday morning (seemingly constant rain lately) so i sat in the garage for a bit drinking coffee and enjoying the atmosphere. The dog joined me. Then i kitted up and headed out as the rain died down and after an hour it stopped and the rain jacked and cyclin cap came off for the rest of the ride. 

Have i mentioned how much i'm loving the single speed bike?

It's the best and it seems like the perfect bike for this moment in time.

During the ride i stopped twice for coffee, once to pee, and once to help the not so little man set up his own Disney+ profile via my cell phone. X was out of town all weekend, she did a marathon on roller skates Saturday Morning in Wisconsin (she won the quad division! "Quad" meaning she skated on traditional roller skates, not inlines. Once a Roller Derby gal always a Roller Derby gal), so the little man was home alone during my ride and he wanted to watch the Simpsons but he wanted his own profile first. 

Profile setup was a success (his avatar is H.E.R.B.I.E. from the Fantastic Four movie, btw) and i continued my ride while he crushed Simpson's episodes.

Prior to finishing i had another go at the Old Leawood North loop and this time i did it in 50:35... which is 3.5 minutes faster than last week... which is nice.

Did i mention that while pedaling around Cliff Drive i passed a guy riding a bicycle that had a hand crank in addition to the traditional foot pedals? He could do both at the same time. He wasn't easy to pass.

Next Sunday we leave for 5 nights in Frisco Colorado and ill be bringing my Mountain Bike.

X is in pretty amazing shape right now so she's also bringing her bike and i look forward to some fun rides together. The not so little man is still looking for confidence on his bike but i'll try to find a way to get him out and about, maybe the tag along again.

Bicycles!

Johnnys Ride

Today is Thursday June 18, 2026 and last night i did the Johnny's Ride.

i suffered big time but with the help of some timely stop signs and stop lights i was able to finish with the main group. 

There was a 2 minute stretch where i dug deeeeep. The outside world melted away and all i saw was the wheel in front of me. It was a true Zen moment. Later on in the ride, as the fatigue mounted, i debated sitting up but managed to stay positive and push thru that rough patch. 

Fitness is improving but by the end of the ride i was toast so when everyone ramped it up for the finishing sprint i hugged the gutter and cruised in with what i assume was an exhausted smile on my face. 

Great ride. 

Plus i felt noticeably more comfortable on the road bike and in the pack. 

Great night.

i have to skip this ride the next two weeks so perhaps i'll try the Jerrys Bait Shop ride this Monday. 

Bicycles!