Mountain Bikes and Bank School

Mountain Bikes
Greetings race fans... Well, last week was the Fort Custer Stampede and I raced Expert with Team Active Racing. While it was a "slower paced" Expert ride than most of the other racers that were in my category, I tried to keep the pace that I'll be holding for the Lumberjack 100 in June. They added some new sections to the course, and since I had not been over to the Fort yet this year, it was the first time I got to ride the new sections (and they were very cool). They re-routed some of the areas that were getting rutted out and added some more technical sections with some pretty steep hills and "dipty-dos" that could put you on your nose very easily if you're not paying attention.

I had a bit of a challenge getting into my pedal at the starting line and my teammate Matt was giving me crap when I was pedaling away from the starting line. I completed the three laps in just over 2 hours and 10 minutes with a total distance in the 27 mile range. So, if I am able to maintain that same pace for the LJ100, that will easily bring me in under the 12-hour time limit (allowing for "pit" stops between the 25 mile laps to refuel and get a breather). I'm amazed that many of the "top level" riders will bust out laps and not even spend time in the pits and they just keep on riding, having support crew hand them a couple of water bottles and they are out for another lap. Oh well, I have to keep things in perspective and just be pleased that I'm able to do this. As many of you know, my motivation for doing the LJ100 goes back to Christi - and she'll never have the opportunity to do something like this because cancer took her from us way too soon. So, if that gives me a different view on things, then so be it... Al the more reason to push forward with my Pedaling with a Purpose effort and try to help make a difference!

Bank School
My lovely wife Alicia and I had the pleasure of spending the day together this past Wednesday as we were instructors at the 2008 Perry School of Banking and taught a class on "sales". The course name was "Sales: It's not a Four Letter Word" and we had about 26 students from banks all over Michigan. If you're curious, you can visit Alicia's website and we have put the course material online and there's a link at the bottom of her home page that will take you there. If, by chance, any of our new "banker friends" happen to stop by my blog for a visit, I wanted to let you know both Alicia and I had a great time and hope you all were able to take away some helpful ideas that will benefit your institution!

Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to "sneak" in a long ride on Saturday morning with some guys from the Team. I'm hoping to get in at least 100 Saturday and then take out the tandem with Alicia for a more "relaxing" ride on Sunday. Weather permitting, we'll spend some time in the yard getting caught up on mowing and other house stuff and will be sure to wish my Mom a happy Mother's Day. My parents are traveling back from their winter in Florida, so not sure if they'll be home or if I'll have to track her down on her cell phone - but either way I'll find her! Until next time, thanks for checking in...

Eric