The is some truth to the rumor that ace TNT reporter Craig Hill jumped out of his car on Thursday morning saying “Ice cream ice cream cherry on top how many friends do you got 1,2,3… “ The cause of his singing was his choice of items to tie down his bike. In his haste to make the morning ride, he picked up his daughter’s jump rope to tie down his bike. Our group of guys are a safe group to make mistakes around – yeah right – Russ Meyers, Kenny Espionza, and I jumped (No Pun Intended) him asking if “He stole it from her in mid jump,” - “Did the lunch duty know he took it from the play ground?” – “ Was he planning on Double Dutch on the ride?” We are such a mature group.

We rode 30 miles, so after 30 miles on Tuesday and 50 on Wednesday, I felt little of the rust I felt the previous days. The break for one week from the bike alleviated a bit of fatigue I was feeling towards training. Normally I love working up a sweat and getting after it, but I started to dread the bike a little bit. The forced break helped either my over training or staleness from the same routine.

As STP approaches watch the signs of over training – a cold that won’t go away, a feeling of fatigue, no joy in training, ect. One of my goals is to enjoy STP by training enough to endure the discomfort that comes with pushing yourself to ride 202 miles, but I found I can do this by using common sense with my training. I utilized one of the many guidelines on the amount of miles to ride to be ready for STP, and the team has talked about how much we need to ride. This approach has helped us get ready without over doing it.

Have fun and be safe riding – Rick Beitelspacher

There are bike shops and then there are bike shops, so I haven’t had an exceptional experience with many shops; however, Ken Espionza raves about the Bonney Lake Bike Shop of Sumner. He has had two broken spokes in the past two months, and the shop owner Paul Qualey fixed the bike within the hour. The shop charged a fair price for the repair, and more importantly left Kenny feeling like he was treated with extraordinary customer service. We don’t have enough of those kinds of experiences and I think I know where I will be going to get my next repair.