Coach Paul mapped out a great training ride for us three weeks before leaving for Lacrosse. He did not inform us ahead of time that we would be tossing our bikes over closed off entry ways to hidden bike paths- but perhaps that would have taken half the fun away! We had an adventure to say the least…

In attendance:

Coach “Just follow my lead” Paul, Matt, Julie, Sarah, Mary and first time Team rider- Maria from Evanston.

We set out on the Fox River trail from our beloved Mill Race Cyclery- where they fixed up our bikes, our tires and water bottles.  Make sure to keep visiting there this season- they are cool bike people with cool JDRF discounts being offered- Yes, a plug, but a 100% true plug I must say. Anywho…

We biked north about 25-30-some miles along the river. It was pretty cool out that morning and we kept a fairly good pace. Few low BSs on the team but manageable to say the least.  The rain the night before had washed up quite a bit of  rock and tree on the trails. There was a lot of mud, sand and water to avoid as we were on our road bikes. I took a fall. Boom! (Neh, easy to shake off). Later, Julie took a fall. Then Paul took a fall avoiding Julie. Then somehow Matt took two falls. Boom, Boom, Pow. Ya know what, though? We just proved what a rough & tough team we are. No injuries other than Paul’s bloody knee- it doesn’t count though because he called it “cool”.  We cruised by the casino boat in Elgin despite “some” people’s urging. We cruised by the water park, a train show, lotsa fun looking eateries and a ton of fishing poles. Sarah and I decided to turn a few miles before the group in order to go back and grab a snack at The Measuring Cup- cute place on the path. Apparently they have “Chocolate Saturdays” sometimes where they sell nothing but chocolate. This was not one of those Saturdays. We ordered some blueberries and melon, took some action shots of ourselves enjoying life, and downed a diet coke.  We must go back for chocolate sometime. We took off back to home base. The rest of the group circled and stopped at DQ before catching up with us. If only they would have caught up a tad sooner…

Sarah and I (allegedly) got lost. We may have stayed on the path too long and missed our turn off. We stopped for directions and ended up biking where only cars belong. Paul came and SAG’d us via bike back to safety. His only question: Why didn’t you call me for directions?. Turns out this is a great question with no real answer. If only I would have complete Girl Scouts. I would then have remembered that you stay put when you get lost and wait for help… Fairly certain Sarah and I will not be put in charge of mapping bike routes for the group anytime soon.

Anywho, after that  er’ uh’ mishap… we took off back to base. Grabbed a bite to eat and cheered with a celebratory brew. We had to sit outside on the patio because frankly we smelled pretty bad, were covered in mud, and well, we were kinda loud reliving all the fun.  It really was a good team ride. Everyone ended up getting about 60 miles in one way or another. There was a lotta laughs, a lotta bonding, and believe it or not- some great training. Who doesn’t want to ride with the coolest team around???

Next stop- Lacrosse!!! I sent a memo to that guy called Diabetes that we were comin’ for him. I don’t think he understands that we are in the top ten teams for highest fundraising at Lacrosse. WAY TO GO!!!

Ride lots & be real safe folks!

MG

In attendance: Sarah Touhy Ellen Joiner Mary Gollings

Shout out to Coach Paul and Sue riding in WI at the Trek 100 that day!  

It was foggy, cold, and rainy. Just what one expects in mid June in Chicago…  One of these days, it will surely be summer all day every day. Until then, we ride anyway because diabetes knows no weather elements and neither does our search for a cure!  

We ended up riding about 28 miles in about 2 hours. There were no low blood sugars, no bike mishaps and no lost riders. So, all in all a great day! There was the great surprise of getting to cross not one, but two finish lines as peddled. A local charity was having a walk/run on the path that day as well. Our first finish line was about mile 8. It included a balloon canopy underpass. Unfortunately no cameras captured our huge accomplishment. Our second finish line was maybe around mile 19 or so… no grandiose creations, but several volunteers hooted and hollered for us as well.

Lesson learned: Ellen was leading our small but mighty group at one point and was kindly letting people know us speedsters were “on the left”. We came up behind a biker that was all over the place and very difficult to pass at first. Ellen then solved the mystery of why he was weaving on the path and not moving to the right. She called back “Headphones!” and we now knew we had a wild one on our hands. A few moments later we squeezed by unharmed. Good lesson learned, though. Shouting headphones is just as an important alert to your teammates as “Gravel!” and “Car back!”

Since we were cold and wet after the drizzle, we skipped the traditional team lunch. It was a great day, but we missed seeing everyone!

Diabetes doesn’t stand a chance with a team like ours! Hope to get together soon. Until then, Ride lots, keep safe and keep fundraising!

Mary

In attendance:
Coach Paul
Rob Sanders
Patti Haare
Joel Prichard
Matt Schmitz
Julie Ford
Mary Gollings

We started off the morning meeting up at Mill Race. Joel should have received an award for driving all the way from Champaign, IL. We didn’t have one, though, so we were just extra nice to him so he would come back. We headed out on and around the Fox River bike paths. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the bikers were chatting. We did not qualify for any races with our time to miles ratio today… but we got to know each other and we talked shop about the upcoming ride season.

Coach Paul claims we rode about 22 miles. My odometer says 37. Coach is convinced that “someone” changed the miles to kilometers. We found out that our brakes were all in working order after flying down a killer hill. Paul and Rob were thanked for not making us go up that hill on the first ride. Everyone was able to corner the turn OK, too, so no one ended up in the lake. It would have added a lot of excitement to this blog if someone would have road straight in, but we were happy to keep cruising. Rob did have to fix up Patti’s back brake a tad. Then, there was a blood sugar/temporary basil malfunction. Rob helped fix my pump and fixed me up with the perfect combination of insulin and technical food. Thank goodness Rob is so darn handy. We decided he could be on the team forever. One rider, whose name will not be identified until someday when they don’t expect it, forgot to unclip before stopping. We were glad that there were no injuries so we could laugh a little before we picked grass off of them. We didn’t laugh too hard, though, because you never know when you might forget apparently…

We toured Mill Race and left Rob to work. We grabbed some food up the street to refuel and take a breather before heading home. Well, except Superman Matt who refueled before he took off for another ride this afternoon.  All in all- a perfect day. It’s going to be a marvelous year! Coach Paul and Megan have a great season planned for us.  I think diabetes knows it doesn’t stand a chance with us on the streets. Can’t wait for the next ride!

-MG

Well, the JDRF Ride program has had a pretty exciting week. The first week of registration has passed and we have way over 500 people signed up! The Illinois chapter has 22 people signed up and is looking to be our best year ever. To those that have signed up I want to personally thank you. What you are doing is pretty spectacular and will help the millions of people that live with type 1 diabetes. If you haven’t signed up yet all I can say is what are you waiting for? You don’t want to miss out on this life changing event. If Death Valley is your venue of choice I suggest you sign up quickly as it is already 80% full. http://ride.jdrf.org/

We are finalizing the training calendar and it will be coming out soon. We will have many different opportunities for training rides. We will be utilizing the relationship we have with our bike shop partner Mill Race Cyclery http://millrace.com/ as they have group rides out of their shop 4 days a week. I’ll be having training rides from my location in the St. Charles / Elburn area and we’ll also have training rides in the city. We will have meetups at the many organized bike rides in the area. I’d like to go to some of the organized rides that have some hills in their routes. This will help you be better prepared for your ride location.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, please let us know. If anyone wants to organize a training ride from their location let us know and we will help set it up. I am pretty fired up about this ride season and can’t wait to get started.

Best Regards,

Paul Brinkworth
JDRF IL Chapter Coach

Can’t wait to see you next month at our team rides!