Tuesday 02.27.07

WooHoo... It was a rocket boy ride home. A little longer than I expected but still a lot of fun. I left the office at 5:15 and rolled in at 6:28. I didn't realize it was that much longer. I even rode about 200 yards on a really busy road but (Thank you Lord) there were on about 5 cars that passed and all were nice. No horn honking and this 200 yards is all up hill. there are a couple of parking lots so I'm able to pull over and let folks by. I had my reflective road worker vest over my backpack and had my rear flasher light blinking so I was visible. This will certainly be a training habit. Next Sunday when the time changes it will be so much better.

Ok, I admit, I'm an FRS snob now. I LOVE this stuff! I drank it about 30 minutes before riding and I was pushing 18 solo into the wind and wasn't tired. How sick is that?!

Hey the Little Rock marathon is this weekend! I love watching these guys run! The hospital is a major sponsor of the Little Rockers. Cool deal where the kids have run 25 miles over the past months and they run their last mile on a course that starts right by the LR Marathon but runs from the state capitol over around our hospital and back for one mile. I was asked again to ride in front of the group. Big honor! We have a lot of fun! We also have a lot of folks from the hospital that run the marathon! Go guys go!!!

Life is good!

Tuesday 02.27.07

Ahhh, some folks talk about the beach being paradise but we’ve got it here in Little Rock! Another beautiful spring day!

The bike in down in the employee kitchen and I’m riding the baby home! I’m almost giddy with excitement! I'm going to zip over to the capitol then down the river trail, over the BDB and through the back of the neighborhood into Sherwood.

Sorry for the short entry but lunch is about over.

Sunday 02.25.07

Yesterday was one of those perfect days! I went to church, went to my parents and had momma’s cooking and even got home in time for a good 3 hour ride! I rode later than usual for a Sunday afternoon and saw a lot of folks I’ve never seen before. Also saw a bi-zillion families on the BDB enjoying the afternoon. As I was coming back over the BDB I noticed a large group of folks had completely blocked the bridge and then I saw a bike laying down. Oh man, first thought was that a bike and a person had collided. There was a lady sitting down leaned against the rails and I made my way through the crowd and asked if everyone was ok? I know, dumb question. I thought if it was a biker, I meant know them. I didn’t but a man asked if I had some sugar. Seems she was a diabetic. She got a couple of espresso gels. Oh yeah, I bet she was rocking about 30 minutes later. She seemed to be ok and I headed on with my ride. The whole ride was solo but that was good since it was for training. I didn’t need to draft. I needed to have the wind try and push me back (headwind) and that it did. Then it times it pushed me forward (tailwind) to the point of wanting to yell out, “I’m rocket boy! Weeeee!” HA! Some days are just like that.

Looks to be a good week ahead and I have my fingers crossed that I’ll ride the bike home from the hospital tomorrow. Mrs. Geo has a reception after hours so I can either bum a ride or I can bring my bike to work and ride it home. It would be my first ride home since the BDB opened. I’ll only have a short section of road (Camp Robinson) where there will be traffic and traffic there will be! But from here I can ride all the way to the BDB and then some on the NLR side before I ever have to get on the road. My thinking is that by the time I get on the busy roads it will be about 5:30 or a tad later and most will have already gone through. Weather is light breeze, sunny and lower 60’s. Does that not sound like the perfect commute home weather?!

Stormy Saturday

Woke extra early just in case I could get a ride in before the forecasted storms came. At 5:30am I opened the back door to see that the rain had already started but it wasn't raining at the moment. Considered grabbing the bike and getting out there even if it was just a little. Coach Mark has me on a 6 hour ride plan today. Oh man, six hours on a trainer in the house? Don't think so. I plan to flip my days and do the 3 hours on the trainer and the 6 hours after church tomorrow.

It was a great work week at the hospital but I'm glad it's the weekend!

02.20.07 Happy Fat Tuesday!

It's Mardi Gras day! Fat Tuesday! The kids were having a ACH Mardi Gras parade today and even threw beads at us! What a hoot! I'm proud of how the staff get together to make hospital stays as fun as they can be.

Even though I'm not Catholic, one of my coworkers that used to work across the hall from me taught me a lot about lent. I think it's a good think to give up something for 40 days. So until Easter I vow to give up something that will be very hard. My coworker said that it is to be a personal thing and not something you broadcast.

I took yesterday off the bike as a recovery day from Sunday's ride. My quads were shot after that ride.

I got home from the hospital and jumped on the bike for a fast and hard ride through the neighborhood. Coach told me to work on speed and less hills but I have nothing but hills around here and I wanted to get some time in before the sun went down. I pushed as hard as I could and got home to find an average of 18.2mph!! WooHoo!

Great ride today! Warm temps and longer daylight! Yep, it's all good!

Almost a week since? Had no idea!

It's been almost a week since I blogged? Guess I was busier than I thought... or lazy.

I got to ride with the club today! The riding was good! I saw and spoke to a lot of guys I haven't caught up with in a while.What's in store for this week? Like I said, warmer temps and longer daylight. We do have a storm day about mid week I think with winds of 20-35 mph. Afterwards I think that's when life as we know and love it returns. I'm turning off my hospital card privledge at Java City so the sole purpose of getting out of the latte habit. I love the stuff but added up my habit and the calories attached. Thanks but that will help the tummy to go away faster! By the way, the jersey I had on was a small today. No kidding. I very relaxed fit small.

Funny article in the paper today. The LR Marathon is coming in a few weeks and the hospital is a major sponsor of the Little Rockers. It's where the kids run 25 miles over the course of months and then run their last mile at the marathon on a different course. It's huge! I mean a bi-zillion kids. Anyway they asked me last year if I'd ride in front of the runners and I did and it was fun and those kids can run a lot faster than I had given them credit for! So I'm reading the artilce and it says that I'm going to be riding as the lead out for the kids. Cool. then it says and he will be wearing a bunny suit?!!!?? WHA???!!!!!! A bunny suit? Buh ha ha ha ha!!! Oh, this is going to be a hoot! I'll do it since it's for the hospital and for fun but how did I ever agree to a bunny suit? Excuse me, I probably need to turn up my hearing aid! HA!

Y'all have a great day! Lots of folks off for President' Day tomorrow.

02.14.07

Sorry for the delay in blogging this week. We've had raining, windy, and now cold weather so no one could really do anything but spin inside. I have the next few days off (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) so I should be able to get in some good rides plus my wife and daughter will be out of town. that equals no schedules!

I met with the director of Audiology, Patti, my Audio hero, Mary Martha, Ginger from PR and Alyssa from Foundation to talk with the Unitron Rep, Sue. Super nice lady. Everyone was excited about the possibility of having Untiron play a role in the ride. We have our fingers crossed!

Mary Martha gave me some very cool swag yesterday! Check this out! They are sweat bands for my hearing aid! The really cool deal is that they are open in the back so I can wear my IPOD tunes while riding/working out and sweating. I'm ready to do a hard spin and see how well they would. I like the name of the product. EAR GEAR. Thought you guys would like the photos. The one of the back of my head is just so you could see me "plugged" to tunes with the sweatband cover on it. Hey they had some wild colors!

We are continuing to work with Jon on the jersey design and it looks so awesome!

The donor letter and the corporate donor sponsorship letter is getting close to finished and they'll be going out soon.









We got word the ENTERPRISE RENTAL is hooking us up with 2 cargo vans for the ride. Thanks Enterprise for helping us. We'll use one in the front of the team and one in the back especially during the after hours riding across the farmlands.

There is a lot of excitement building with this ride and much earlier than my last one.

I'm ready for daylight savings to return so I can ride after work. Remember all those days of riding the 30 to 40 miles every afternoon? Ahh yes, it will be here in a few short weeks.

02.08.07

I'm on top of the world! I met with the PR group at the hospital and they are excited and full of ideas for the River 2 River ride. The room was crowded around the big conference table and everyone was in the mood. The ride is going to be so awesome and as we get more stuff wrapped up I'll tell you the details. One of the really really cool things is that it will be live streaming video. You'll be able to watch it as it happens! Technology is so awesome! There will also be a lot to do with hearing impaired children and I'll be including them as much as I can!Coach has me on the recovery this weekend. A 3 hour ride is it. Next weekend it doubles. The training is really about to up the bar. I'm having the time of my life these days!!Geo out....

02.06.07

Unseasonable warm temps today (62 degrees) and beautiful blue skies. Left the office about 15 minutes early to ride the hills around my neighborhood. Fast intense 7 mile ride before it got too dark to safely ride.

Got new FRS antitox energy drink today! We'll be trying out different foods and drinks to see what we can keep down. Should be a good time huh?!

The Beauty of Arkansas Children's Hospital

This has nothing to do with the ride but we had snow last Friday

and our hospital photographer Kelley Cooper

captured the beauty of ACH

as only her artistic eye and camera lens can.

Enjoy!

This is one of the ponds you can see while waiting in our general pediatric waiting area.

This is the creek that continues flowing outside the main lobby.

The creek really does flow through the lobby.

It ends with a peaceful reflecting pool.

That's the Arkansas State Capitol on the horizon.

Blue skies and snow


The theme throughout the facility is "natural" so there is plenty of room for our featured freinds out in one of the many gardens.



Like so many of our little patients, they are faced with with the toughest battles but much like this flower blooming in the snow, they continue to fight and show us their beauty.

And this my friends is why I do what I do.

Live

Laugh

Love

...and throw some snowballs!

Sunday 02.04.07

Geese along the river trail enjoying the Sunday afternoon sunshine!

Great afternoon of riding. Got 4 hours in the saddle. Felt good, felt strong.

02.03.07

Above: Chris Shaw, Christopher and Rebecca Irons helped push harder in my training today. Christopher will be riding the River 2 River with me.

Below: Spring is coming!

Saturday: Awesome afternoon to be out riding!
Start time 1:30
Start temp: 52
End time: 5:30
End temp: 44
Sunny skies and lite breeze.

Rode the river, Burn's Park, Ft Roots and just here and there.

02.01.07

Weekend schedule calls for a 4 hour ride. Weekend weather is calling it 37 on Saturday with 10-20mph winds out of the WNW. Sunday is plotted at 43 degrees. Both days are sunny. I'll bungle up, have an espresso Hammer Gel and "git 'er'dun!"

I spoke with Foundations today and it's now official that the funds raised will go to helping children with hearing disabilites! Your donation to Arkansas Children's Hospital will help families get hearing aids and cochlear implants for children.

If you know me then you know how excited I got when I got my new Unitron hearing aid last year. It was so awesome and still is.