Courage Ride 2021

Courage Ride is an event for cyclists to support cancer research. There are several routes you can choose. We decided to do the longest route. It started at Big Grove brewery. Started riding from home. Had breakfast at Big Grove. There was a nice buffet with plenty of food.

Headed south towards TrueBlood and headed to Hills. Passed Riverside and kept going. Several challenging hills.

Finished the day with 131 miles.

Fourth of July 8K Training

 My next race will be on the Fourth of July. It's a race I have done before. It's a good distance, 8K. Not sure how I am going to be doing. These are my chronos from previous years:

RAGBRAI Training

 Decided to do RAGBRAI for the first time this year (last week of July). Bought a bicycle in March, a Trek Emonda. Cycling miles has been improving these days especially after joining the Bicyclists of Iowa City. 

Last weekend was my longest mile weekend, sixty miles on Saturday and seventy miles on Sunday. Had to take a picture of one of my rest breaks after climbing the Sugar Bottom hill.

FTP February 1st, 2021

 Recently, I bought a Tracx Bicycle trainer (sometime in the middle of December). It was my perfect Christmas gift because of winter time. I like it very much together with a subscription to Zwift.

Thought about doing an FTP test every month to see if there is any improvement in my cycling.

The test started with some warm-up (I think it was like 7:30 min). Then it started at around 50 W for 1 min and made increments of ten Watts per minute. The final minute interval was at 250 Watts.  Then there was a ten minute cool down. I suffered. It was fun!

Got a new FTP of 190.

GARMIN CONNECT

New World Records 1 hour

2020 Diamond League in Brussels, Belgium held an event where two world records were broken. Mo Farah, a Somali-British runner went for the one-hour record held by Haile Gebrselassie. 

This record was broken on March 30, 1991 by Arturo Barrios in Le Fleche, France, running 21,101 m. The same day he broke the 20,000 m record too. It was not until 2007 that Haile Gebrselassie broke Arturo's record on June 27, running 21,285 m. 

Mo FARAH ran 2,330 m (13.25 miles) in one hour. He had three pacers and a light showing them the world record pace. 

Mo Farah's pace was 2:49 min/Km (4:32 min/mile). He had to run each lap in 67.75 sec. Very impressive run!

YouTube Video

YouTube Full Video Men's One Hour

YouTube Women's One Hour

Tuesday Night Track

July 7th, 2020. One mile warm-up. Speed workout.

Distance	Time	Pace
100 m	19.8	5:21
100 m	18.7	5:19
100 m	18.9	5:10
200 m	40.0	5:29
200 m	42.7	5:42
200 m	46.4	6:19

GARMIN-CONNECT

Our First Trip to Alabama

Forty two years ago, on a day like this, June 26 (1978). A group of students from Mexico traveled to the US to live with American families for a few weeks as part of the Experiment in International Living. These "experiments" are life-changing experiences. Not only for the students, but also for the family hosts. Young teenage students experience what is like to live in a different culture and speak a language different than their mother tongue.
I traveled with a small group of Mexican boys and girls. We flew from MEX airport to HOU airport. Then, traveled by Greyhound bus to New Orleans. We enjoyed the opportunity to hear some New Orleans jazz and see what Bourbon Street looks like. My American family was the Al and Pauline Pugh. My siblings were Rusty, Rachel, and Robby. They had a ranch-style house and a beautiful swimming pool in their large backyard. Grand Bay, Alabama was very hot that part of the year. Swimming everyday was great. We all enjoyed having swimming parties.
We visited places like Dolphin Island, Pensacola, FL, and one day we even visited Mayor Lambert C. Mims of Mobile, AL and we became honorary citizens! I made some very strong friendships with my neighbors and also with families of other Mexican kids.

My family and I kept in touch for several years. I went back to visit them and they also came to Mexico. It was a lot of fun and a great unforgettable learning experience. I practiced my writing letters everyday with several friends from Alabama. I never imagined this experience would shape my life the way it did.