Bike Diva

ABOVE: Bike Diva on day 1 of the 2008 MS150 ride. Posing on top of Card Sound Bridge, on the way to Key Largo. My apologies to the zMotion team, I don't have my team kit yet, so you'll have to live with this picture of me in my Office Depot jersey.

This morning my husband and I woke up at 5:45 AM to get ready for a training ride with the zMotion cycling team. Back in May, my husband and I participated in our very first MS150 ride as part of the Office Depot Foundation team. For 2009 we wanted to hook up with a slightly more aggressive team to help us become better, faster roadies. We started racing in time trials, the beginning of 2008, so we are good for short, bursts of speed. But right now we are only averaging around 18 MPH on our metric century (62 miles) and century rides (100 miles). We are hoping that training with zMotion is going to make us CRAZY fast, well, at least fast for us. I don't think the zMotion pro team has to worry about us stealing their jobs.

MS150 Bike Ride

We recently signed up to do the 2009 MS150 ride, which takes place on May 3/4. The MS150 is a 2-day, 150 mile road bike ride which benefits the Multiple Sclerosis Society. We signed up for the 2009 ride as part of the zMotion team. Zimmerman Advertising sponsors the south Florida MS150 ride, their cycle team is zMotion. ZMotion has various training rides on the weekend, once you join the zMotion team, you can go to the zMotion website and choose a training camp to join.

Training Rides

Right now we are riding with Team II as part of Pat's ride on Saturday mornings. Once we start training for our next Team in Training century ride, we will probably have to switch to Carmen's training camp which trains on Sunday mornings. Team II averages 20-22 MPH, which means the rides can get up to 26+ MPH at some points. A bit too fast for our blood today. It was really WINDY along A1A so we got dropped shortly after the start of the ride. We only averaged 17.7 MPH today, with a max speed of 28.1. Pat's Team I averages something insane like 24-32 MPH - are you riding in cars?

Bacon on a Stick

I was REALLY dying towards the end of today's ride. The only thing that kept me going was the vision of the free breakfast buffet waiting for us at the Cove restaurant, at the conclusion of the ride. I had visions of BACON on a stick the last few miles. Might have been a hallucination, but there was a 5 pound vat of bacon waiting for us back at the restaurant - YUM! Nothing like a crunchy piece of pork to get the legs spinning. The rest of the breakfast wasn't bad either - scrambled eggs, bagels, sausage, fresh fruit, yogurt, cereal, coffee, orange juice, and my favorite - TATERS!!!! I'm full now. My Garmin Edge 305 cycle computer says I burned 2800 calories during today's ride - load my bike bag up with some more of that crispy goodness. :)

Shout Out

I'd like to give a shout out to a few of my sponsors that helped me out with today's ride. MotorTabs electrolyte tablets in the water bottles, Action Wipes for the after ride "shower" so we weren't totally stinking out the restaurant and Sock Guy socks - COOL! I forgot to bring my Fluid recovery drink along with me today - that's probably why I'm so sore and cranky right now. I've got to run. My dogs look like they are getting ready to pounce on me like a couple of vultures. I took a shower after getting back from the ride, but apparently essence of BACON is still seeping from my pores.

Take care,

Lynn Smythe AKA the Bike Diva