12.27.2015

Final 2015 Ride and 2016 Goals "Year40"

Headed out to Luton for one last 2015 ride on the trails. I have never hit the trails so late in the year. I have ridden later in the year, but only on roads. It's been unseasonably warm and it wasn't until just a day or so before this ride that it started to really get cold. With snow, wind and freezing rain coming this week, don't think I can squeeze in one more ride before 2016.

Some hard winds about 3 days prior pushed down quite a few trees. This was one of the biggest. I was surprised that the trail was all cleaned up and ridable.


It was a nice (freezing) day for a ride. Trail was perfect. 34 degrees with a 10mph breeze. As usual, the first 10 minutes is brutal until everything warms up. Lots of runners on the trail too.


There are some goals I'm trying to meet for 2016. I'm coining the year as "Year40", as I turn 40 years old in April. Time to do some amazing things, here are a few of my goals in no particular order:

Ride a total of 2,000 miles
Ride the N24HC (National 24 Hour Challenge)
Lose 30 lbs, get to the 200lb mark
One Day Ride to Sturgis from my house (approx 120-130 miles)
Ride to work and back once a month for each of the 12 months
Run a 10k with Patti

I don't know how many of these I can make happen, but they're on the list so I have to at least give them a good try. With Patti going to school full-time, spare time has been hard to come by. I've been trying to get to the gym twice a week for the last month. The good news is that its actually happened for the most part. My available time period to hit the gym is between 5:30-7:00 am, so that means getting to bed early is critical so my alarm can go off at 4:15.

Wish me luck!!

11.24.2015

Weak Update

Not much time for riding this fall. But when I did, I enjoyed it and realized I miss it a lot. Only six rides since Night Shift - mainly to work and back, plus some laps at Luton, the annual Tour de Donut and a solo, day-off-from-work Gravel ride (my favorite).

Think I'm going to try to sell the Road bike and the Cross bike to get one, better cross bike. When/if I ever decide to ride roads again, I'll just get another set of wheels. Rode the road bike less than 200 miles this year. I don't forsee any extra time next year for riding the pave, so maybe it's time for Enzo to find a new home while he's worth some money yet.

8.20.2015

Time for Memories

Well, we upgraded Marissa to a 24" bike about two weeks ago. Got a good deal on what appeared to be a "never used" Specialized Hot Rock. She wanted something "with more color" and was happy with this Craigslist surprise.



So the black and purple 20" Cannondale had to go. Sold today for the same price as the new Specialized. So it was a straight-up even-steven trade essentially.

Seemed only like yesterday this happened....    :-(

http://tmaravolo.blogspot.com/2013/04/pure-happiness.html



2015 Night Shift


Well, another Night Shift has come and gone. The route this year was found by many to be a better one, even though we had more mileage of pavement than the previous two years. Including eleven miles of the North Country Trail for single-track proved to be a nice bonus over the previous year’s five miles of Hungerford Trail. Overall there was less climbing and less sand (which meant less walking and happier riders).


Friday was a very long day for most of us, as we all arranged to prepare camp north of Ludington at the super-nice Lake Michigan at Manistee Campground and Rec Area (managed by the Feds). It is a REALLY nice campground with close location on Lake Michigan with access to the beach and lake. The kids loved riding their bikes on the paved surfaces – one evening until 10pm. The driving there and back seemed like it took forever though. Once we arrived back at Night Shift Headquarters, we had about 50 minutes or so to gear up for the ride start. This was a problem for me, for I was planning on having a few hours to waste by napping and gathering up the rest of my ride gear. So the rushing around began….



Just 24 hours before the ride start I had contracted an intestinal bug of sorts that would have me sitting on the crapper 8-9 times in 12 or so hours. Bad news! This made me REAL nervous. I already suffer from dehydration during normal days and had been stocking up on fluid for the previous one and a half weeks. I immediately began taking anti-poop medicine to ward off the rumbling hydration-robbing demons.

Not only was I nervous because of the “brown-out situation”, but also because I had gotten little to NO time to ride bikes this year. Life is crazy. Life is busy. I bought a new mountain bike in the spring, so I’ve only been riding trails in short bursts – hardly any roads. (You know how it is with a new bike, the others no matter how fancy or expensive, get to sit and wait their turn.)

Some stats and numbers on my "training":  I was going into this 100+mile ride with only 338 miles logged for the ENTIRE YEAR! Only four times this year, did I have any ride more than 23 miles – and three of those were all on paved surfaces to and from work at a casual pace. In July I rode a whopping 62 miles the entire month, and that INCLUDED a ride with the family 11 miles roudtrip to Sand Lake for ice cream. In August, ZERO miles. So that’s twenty three training miles in the last four weeks!

IF I completed Night Shift (if), it would account for twenty-five percent of all my 2015 miles. All in one evening. Those thoughts already had me virtually pooping my bib shorts, now with my intestinal “issue”, I could literally be pooping them too.

We met up with the legendary (SAG) Crankshaws (John and Judy) at our departure location just west of Sand Lake. Bob’s wife Dawn and Matt’s wife Laura were also going to SAG, so we had two vehicles to greet five men (myself, Matt R, Matt L, Bob C and Jeremy C) at our pre-planned stops.  Matt R and Jeremy were riding their Fat Bikes (the first ever Fat Bikes on NS) and myself, riding my Cyclocross bike (the first ever also on NS). The other two guys were on their 29er mountain bikes.



So, the stage is set. Let’s begin…

Segment 1: Sand Lake to Newaygo (19 miles)
The ride began with us being our usual jovial selves, excited to get the trek underway – swerving all over the dirt roads, acting like 10 year olds riding BMX bikes in that local town to go play pick-up games of baseball for the day. Matt R was seeking out beer and pop cans to crush with his fat bike. I counted 4 crushed cans in this segment. Somehow he was managing to have the tires pick the damn things up and shoot them through the air – usually splattering whatever fluid had been hiding inside over whoever was riding close to him.




Matt L and I didn’t fully recon this section of the route back in May because I had forgot some equipment, so we fast-forwarded straight to Newaygo figuring it would be uneventful. For the most part there were no surprises until we came across a dreaded sand-filled Seasonal Road. Oh crap! I thought we avoided all of those this year in the route planning. This was a surprise. The fat bike guys didn’t even flinch at the challenge. They were gone and out of sight almost instantly. I was all over the place on my cross bike. I was spinning out and weaving back and forth until I’d come to a halt so I could walk.

After coming out of the Seasonal Road south of Newaygo, there was this “sawed off family of round red necks” that welcomed over Matt R and Jeremy to their brush-fire they were monitoring with a garden hose. According to Matt the conversations revolved around their Fat Bikes. "Are those motor bikes? How much one of dem cost?" Jeremy's responses, "No, you pedal them. They cost about two to three."  (Yep, no descriptor with that, just “two to three” – you add the zeros my friend.) My assumption is that the other four riders couldn’t wait for me to join up with them so they could leave that immediate area – because we left pretty quick after I stopped to observe. Dang, I missed all the good stuff.

Shortly after this, we had to ride on about five miles of busy M-82, which felt pretty dangerous. We rode the shoulder much of the time, only zipping back onto pavement when no following cars were present. We didn’t stop or slow for anything, Matt R railing over a cooler lid with his fat bike in the process. It was like a 5 mile Time Trial – we were riding so fast and tight, drafting off each other, in order to get off that road! We all felt pretty dang good rolling into the first SAG stop at the Wesco gas station (where apparently, there were some bystanders accosting our SAG women with random comments).

Segment 2: Newaygo to North Country Trail (23 miles)
While at Wesco, we notice there are cops everywhere. Lots of late night hooligans in Newaygo apparently. As we ride out (with a curious cop following us), a strike of lightning made us take notice of changing weather conditions. Wow, did I really just see a flash? Then another. And another. BOOM! LOUD, and close. It has not yet begun to rain, so we considered to keep riding (only until the next lightning strike). Mother Nature answered us with a big, fat “NO!, we safely gathered and stopped under the overhang at an ice cream store, when it started to pour. We waited out this rather severe looking pop-up line of storms for 45 minutes. It literally came out of nowhere and formed right above us and to the north. It agitated us to have to sit and wait for this while our bodies cooled down and muscles stiffened. Impatient "Old Man Remus" came to visit us, who later turned into "Weather Man Remus" (reading radar maps and forecasting for us).




Once it was clear, we left – getting only wet from road spray and mud. It was tough to get back in the saddle after that much downtime. Since it was still really humid, we rode through lots of fog and quickly discarded the use of our riding glasses. We did miss one turn here, but found our way back on course with little issue. The dirt road leading to SAG #2 was pretty soft and washed out – Jeremy threw his chain from ripping over one set of the washout bumps. This SAG stop turned out to be a really good one – the sky was clear with a million twinkling stars above. I did manage to see one shooting star from the (now waning) Perseid Meteor shower. This was a New Moon night, so it was SUPER dark out. What beauty exists out there – but only if you deliberately take the time to look.

Segment 3: North Country Trail start to end (11 miles)
A few of us switched out some socks, gloves and jerseys for nice dry ones before tackling the single-track. This would be the most exciting part of the ride. Jeremy donned his blue-tooth Bose speaker pod facing outward off his Camelbak, hooked up with streaming Pandora radio. He would be our leader for this segment so we can all experience the booming likes of AC/DC, Eminem and Metallica during the contrast of beaming headlamps and total darkness. Always bringing up the rear (“riding sweep” sounds way cooler), I got to witness four mountain bikers lit up like daylight at 2am on night time single track. So cool! What a good flowing trail from 6 mile north to 13 mile road. For me, it was a real challenge for the first 3 miles on the cross bike. The lowest gear, nearly the same as my single-speed mountain bike, wasn’t too much trouble. However, the drop bars and road bike-style brake levers were the toughest part to get used to. My back and hands were cramping from lack of steering leverage and frequent braking. My right tricep kept locking up from cramps.



We did get lost in this section, travelling to the east side of Nichols Lake and ending up in a campground instead going toward the west side and continuing on the trail. This segment took near 2 hours to complete. We always seem to have one section that is a weird time-warp of continuum. No way, that took two hours!!?! Once we got back on track and made contact with the SAG, (the two hours confirmed) there were more clothing changes and refueling to happen. This was supposed to be a quick stop, but ended up being longer than planned.

Segment 4: North Country Trail to Branch Township (15 miles)
Most of the ride away from the trail to our next stop was paved. This section went pretty fast. Nothing unusual to note up until our next SAG stop at the Ruby Creek Tavern. Once we arrived all we heard about from the SAG women was how clean the port-a-john was - like brand new. Then we noticed that there were still men inside the bar closing it down. Eventually, an old man came out suspicious of our activities. I approached him and told him we were just borrowing his parking lot for our ride. He says “Oh, you guys are the bikers!” What!? You heard of us? Someone called here ahead of time? What is going on? Turns out this old man had no idea what he was saying. He made himself to be the mayor (or land owner?) of hick-town and spent his time bragging about how there was some Argentine olympian there at the bar that very night. Oh. My. Gawd. An Olympian? Really? Some guy he didn't even recall the name of that did the decathalon and won a silver medal and a bronze star. (yep, he said bronze star). I think Old Man got tricked. Also, he wouldn't shut up about a Veteran’s benefit parade the next day that was going to shut down their main drag for about an hour that morning. Demo Derby. Carnie games. Bon fires. Car Show. Beer Tent. Wow, impressive. (Little did we know that two of our group would get to actually witness this event.)




And then we made the mistake of answering his question of “where y’all goin’?” Of which, Jeremy responded first with “the forest” – then John Crankshaw unveiled the super-map he created on corrugated outlining the entire route. (so beautiful!)



Of course, we had to listen to Old Man Jenkins tell us which roads we should take. I guess Hawley Road (pronounced "Holly" apparently by rednecks) was the crown jewel of all roads in the area. We didn't notice anything special about it. Just another road. It started as dirt, which pissed us all off because Old Man told us it was all paved beautifully. It did change to pavement eventually, but that was funny - how mad we were.

Segment 5: Branch Twp to Custer (21 miles)
Less than one mile down the road from the RCT, we knew we had to take a right turn – which is apparently why we blew right past our turn and proceeded to climb TWO giant steady hills and continue for another mile or two. Ha! But even before these hill climbs, Matt R said to me “is that it?” I said, “No way. Seasonal road. AVOID.” Apparently, glancing at a white sign with black lettering without reading it means it can only be a Seasonal Road. Upon inspection later, Matt R read it to be a sign about winter-time snowmobile restrictions. Whoops. We had actually been heading south – which led to lots of map reading, confusion, etc in the middle of the road. I couldn’t even read a map at this point, so I handed over my copy to Matt R and said “here, do this for me – I can’t.” (At least the downhill back to our mistake turn was sweet – I’ll take credit for that at least!)



Since we had gotten lost a few times this evening, we began cutting a few turns out of the route. The sky began to lighten as we rode straight north to Custer on all pavement, towards our last SAG stop – avoiding the gravel I had planned “for fun”.


Segment 6: Custer to Lake Michigan at Maninstee Campground (23 miles)
SAG stop in Custer was good. Apparently I missed all the hub-bub about a missing SAG vehicle. It took me about 5 minutes to catch on which led to some chuckling. I didn't even notice a full size pick-up truck was missing!! I was pretty spaced out. It turns out that Bob and Dawn’s truck got a flat tire at the Ruby Creek Tavern. So a few men's gear and food was still there. Hence why I SAG with the masterful Crankshaws – he’s never said, but I’m sure John has a redundancy plan in place for such events. Safe! (Bob and Jeremy's reward for completing Night Shift was to then go travel 40-some miles to go tend to the broke down vehicle, repair it and talk to more locals near Ruby Creek Tavern during the parade and festivities. They eventually made it back, but they were pretty blown up and tired.)

Even though I had stomach pains and didn’t want to eat or drink anything, I knew I had to. That’s one of the worst feelings, making yourself consume something when nothing sounds good, nor do you feel like you even have room for it. I managed about 1/3 of a small Diet Coke and some other stuff I can’t even remember. I just remembered that I needed caffeine in my system in order to finish this thing out.

There were general discussions of it “almost” being over, except for the 20+ miles left that we knew of. Men laying flat in the parking lot. Moaning. Groaning. You know, old man stuff. Gear scattered, bikes thrown askew. We all began to shed the gear we wouldn’t need like lights, extra tools and water bottles. It was time to try and make short work of these last few miles, lighten the load was the strategy.



The route was pretty flat and boring. We needed the flat, but not really the boring and cut a few more miles from the route. The last dirt road on the route, Townline, was all washboard, stony and bumpy as heck. Also, full exposure to the sun through flat corn fields. One last punishment to the sitting area, hands, neck and shoulders. Terrible. Once on the entrance road to our campground we were feeling pretty good about being close to done. It went on and on for miles though, the longest 8 miles of the trip. Just a continuous “let’s be done with this!!” attitude. Without cutting out miles from the pre-planned route, we probably would have been close to 120 miles on the evening. It ended up being between 112 and 113 miles on a 108 mile planned route. Which then led to discussion of me planning future Night Shifts to be 96 miles since once we get lost we’ll end up around 100 anyways. Sometimes out of painful desperation, comes great ideas!

In Summary:
Like Bob said, each Night Shift is unique in its own way, never repeatable even though the route may be. However, there are a few pre-requisites that must come about for it to be a true “Night Shift” experience:

1)   Seasonal Roads, walking in sand and muttering angry words to oneself - or the feeling of being totally lost all by yourself in the dark
2)   Random talks with crazy locals
3)   Broken equipment or equipment malfunctions (this time a SAG vehicle)
4)   A time-warp section taking way longer than it should

All of which 2015 Night Shift fulfilled. Within the last 10 miles of the ride, I rode up next to what appeared to be a suffering Bob and said “Bob, the only reason I can figure why we do this each year is for the stories.” I guess that’s it. Without the stories that can become embellished with friends over time, what good is it? It’s not like we are actually doing it to meet health goals. Adventure and stories. That will keep us young, right?

I don’t know how I really rode all that length of a ride with little to no training. I don’t want it to give me a false sense of not having to train more in the future, but at least I know what I’m capable of. I concentrated so hard on managing my water intake, nutrition, stretching and rest. It proved to really work. And the thought of me bailing on my four friends suffering in the exact same manner, was unfathomable. Sure, I was slow and at the back of the pack – I always am – but I couldn’t give up. I get that from my mom. That’s a story for a different time.












6.06.2015

North Country Trail

Rode the southern most section of the North Country Trail starting at the M20 Trailhead and heading north. Rode up to where we'll enter the Night Shift section on 6 mile road. Fun ride, beautiful morning. High 50's for temps and dry. It's a pretty tough section. Enjoy some pics and another movie.





These are the blue markers we'll be looking for at 2am on Night Shift.




6.01.2015

Wed Night Ride

Finally got my chance to be "in" on a Bob/Dawn Cooper Wednesday Night Ride last week. I was more than willing to travel to far off destinations since everyone is located near the Lansing Area. However, Bob said I should just organize one locally here in GR instead and everyone would come over here to ride. Okay, will do. Bob, Dawn, Jason and Earl made the trip.

I joked that since I had no idea what these rides consisted of, I'd plan a "Soul Crusher" of a ride. I don't know if it turned out to be a soul crusher of a ride for anyone other than me, but I am glad it hurt as much as it did. My life has been complicated with lots of other priorities over the last month, so riding has not been included in the mix. I'm lumpy and out of shape and I needed a good thrashing.

I decided that we would ride Cannonsburg Ski Hill, then ride a few (hilly) road miles over to ride Cannonsburg State Game Area, then back to Ski Hill to finish out. Overall ride length should not be more than 20 or so miles.

Let's break it down like this...the single speed killed me on Ski Hill. Tough! So much walking, I had no leg strength. I fell once on a soft shoulder of the trail on a straight-away (which produced a nice green and blue hip bruise). I almost puked 2 times and I was delirious (low on sugar) before we even hit the Game Area trail. Danger!

In all, the ride turned out to be really good. It took us longer than I anticipated though, which meant a late night for all the travelers. All was right in the world moments later though, with dusty and dirty friends at The Score patio with a live (although terrible) band playing in the background, surrounded by sand, palm trees and a cold Founder's All Day draft in-hand and a spicy chicken quesadilla displayed before me.

Here is a link to some video footage. Kind of long. Riding conditions were very nice, I found it hard to cut extra sections of footage out. Plus, I figure once I record sections of a trail once, I'm likely to not repeat the process again unless something special is going on.




Earl and Dawn in "Florida".

5.12.2015

2015 Night Shift Recon

As in years past, Matt Longest and I took to the road on April 26 to verify the route for this years Night Shift. We departed just after 8am Sunday morning and didn't get home until around 6pm. Another long day of planning, reading maps, eating beef jerky & Combos and consuming RedBull.

Like Matt said, "It must be done".

We drove 269 miles (including a re-route because I forgot my bike shoes - thanks to wifey for meeting us part way, with kids in tow), rode our bikes for almost two hours and enjoyed delicious burgers and Founders (in bottles only) at a local biker/snowmobile bar, Woody's in Woodland Park, south of Bitely. Sketchy at best, but damn good burgers and of course the beer was refreshing!

Here's some tidbits: 

General Route Description:
There is more pavement this year than last. Most of this is unavoidable due to us having to travel towards Newaygo (not around it). The paved roads seemed to be in pretty good repair.

There will be some good rollers within the first 10 miles. A few of the busier looking roads have decent enough shoulders to ride on should traffic/safety dictate or should sheer enjoyment of riding dirt the whole way urge you to ride them.

The route has us hitting a few more rollers deep into the evening (before and after the single track), eventually becoming pretty nice and flat as we approach the last few hours of our route. We'll finish with about a mile or more of beautiful newly paved road leading into camp. So overall, look for a faster ride because of the pavement, but the mostly light beige and rollers will put a hurtin' to us later. So I expect still about the same overall average mph and arrival times. About average as far as light beige and dark beige comparisons go too. Wish for rain that week before our ride, so we have more dark beige rather than light.

It didn't look like any extreme issues with sand or walking as in previous years - NO SEASONAL ROADS!! 

Single Track:
We will be hitting some single track again. This time about 11 miles of the North Country Trail. (It is the segment from 6 mile road, north to 13 mile road (at Nichols Lake) should you want to venture out there this summer.) I may go out there again, it was a good ride. The nice thing is that it's not that tough of a ride and there is still plenty of opportunity for Bob to crash into random things which will bring delight to anyone that has had the pleasure of following him through the forest in previous years.

The trail itself was very leafy at this point in the season, kind of slippery because of that, but a really good ride. We averaged 10-11mph riding casually just taking in the sights. During the day, crossing four (?) rather narrow pedestrian bridges over water was simple enough, but at night they should probably be walked across. (two in particular moreso than the others)

The trail is pretty well marked, but I would suggest that anyone that is able to not only mount a light on their bars, also have a helmet-mounted one as well. There are blue painted markers on the trees helping you find your way (about every 20 yards) and at times those may need to be spotted from a few hundred feet away or around bends. Lots of twisting and turning through the forest.

Here is the link to the shared GPS if you have a Garmin. I anticipate no route changes.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/9153846 

I got a GoPro for my birthday and am still learning how to set it up and edit videos, but here is a sneak peek at some trail and driving footage. Because of the fish eye lense, it looks like we were going 100mph on dirt roads, we were actually going 45-50 and sorry about the angle on my chest-mount - still trying to figure that out too. 

Here is a video too: http://youtu.be/xtEELMIz9fI 

Enjoy, and hope you can come out on Aug 14 for another Epic Night Shift ride.

As Jeremy stated last year: "I think night shift is like having a baby. You think it is a good idea until you are laboring through it. That is when you question yourself, but when it’s done you are happy and sore in your crotch area. Then as 6 months go by and you get all healed up, it sounds like a good idea to repeat the process."


4.07.2015

First Ride

Took the new niner out for the first official trail ride last night at Luton. Temps were low 60's, sun was out and the trail was dry and perfect. No leaves on the trees yet, so you can see inside the forest for quite a ways.

This was some of the most fun I've had on a bike in a very long time. And I've had some good ones. The ride was so simple - no shifting, no suspension - NO chain slap (love that).

I determined there are two rules to piloting a single speed rigid bike:

#1 Pedal or walk (no in-between, no guessing - either get off your lazy ass and pedal or give up and walk the walk of shame)

#2 Be extra vigilant (watch for every imperfection in the trail - small hidden roots, holes and rocks that would normally be soaked up by your cushy shock - now all of a sudden really matter)

There was lots of standing up and pedaling. Which is good for me, because I'm not much of a climber, so hopefully this helps with what I have always been lacking. My hands really hurt - combination of no shock and just lacking "bike muscles" and my middle and lower back were crampy later. I think just from having to stand up and pedal.

I really did feel like the 29" wheels carried more momentum than my old 26". There were spots that normally put me down for granny gear that I felt like I was carrying up most the way just by momentum. Or else it could have been the combination of...1000mg of Acetaminophen, (1) Hammer Fizz Tablet, (1) Reese Peanut Butter Egg and (1) fat guy on a brand new mountain bike.

Overall, a super fun ride. I was under no time constraints. I was solo. Peaceful and quiet.

I showed up to ride happy, and that's exactly what happened.

3.16.2015

Meet "Mike New Bike"

I really don't have a name for him/her yet. I guess I will come up with one later.

I've been looking to go old school and simple with my mountain biking experience for awhile. Last fall I sold the 2006 Cannondale 26" I built up a few years ago with parts and pieces from my previous Cannondale ride. I parted with Blue Bomber with the hopes that I would either just ride my cross bike or else get a basic 29er in the spring of 2015.

Well, as I was in trying to get a very bent rim trued for a friend's bike I was borrowing for Iceman, I spotted a gem of a bike. A 2014 Specialized Crave SL. Single speed, aluminum frame, rigid all around. Old school. It was truly love at first sight. And the best part was that it was on sale for nearly $200 off regular price due to it being a 2014. I didn't have money to put down for months, I just figured it would always be there waiting for me - since it was made to be, right? Of course, as soon as I had money for it, I called and the size L was gone. The only "local" place that had one was out in Holland at Cross Country Cycle. And it was their last. The 2015 was not an option as it's paint scheme is terrible and of course, it would be fetching nothing less than MSRP.

So in January, I put money down on the L at Cross Country, they were kind enough to store it on layaway and I paid it off in March. What a beauty. What fun to ride!! First thing I did when riding was instinctively reach for the gears. Nothing. I chuckled to myself. Took my little buddy Nick for the first ride on a melty, cool, dreary and cloudy day. What fun. 13mph max. I think it's going to be a fun ride. Let's hope I can put a lot of miles on "Mike New Bike" in 2015.

Starting to plan the route for 2015 NightShift! Now I know who's coming with.

Here's some pics...



My little buddy happy to be outside again.

My two dirt riders. Love them both.

M.I.A.

Wow, I guess it's been 7 months since I've posted to my dead blog page. A few things happened last fall, let me recap briefly:

Rode Merrell Trail for the first time. Fun, but not terribly impressed.
Rode a small section of Cannonsburg Ski Hill. Miss that place.
Blew out my shoulder (dislocated it) riding a Jet Ski. Got to visit the fine people at Grayling Hospital.
Rode with the kids a lot to gain back confidence in shoulder.
Rode the Tour de Donut with my mom - where we didn't finish dead last (and she crashed into me.)
Rode a section of the White Pine in the first ever Memorial ride (since the ride is defunct now)
Rode to Pando to watch fellow Rapid Wheelmen race the Classic.
Rode around the MetroHealth Marathon as a spectator, in which my wife was running.
Raced in the Lowell50. Got lost. DNF.
Rode to Luton Park and back. My one and only ride there in 2014. Sad. Pathetic. Depressing. Did I say sad?
Raced in Iceman. Got extremely muddy and frozen. Flatted out. DNF.
Rode to work and back 4 times.

There you have it. On with 2015, I say. The hell with 2014.