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Saturday, June 9, 2007
Syscon 2007 Double-Century (Almost) GENERAL INFORMATION When: Saturday and Sunday, June 9th and 10th, 2007 Where: DeKalb to Savanna, IL (on the Mississippi) Who: Friends of Syscon Why: To help people less fortunate than us, for fun, for health. Welcome to the general information page for the Syscon 2007 Double-Century (Almost) Bike Ride. These pages contain the current information regarding the ride. This year, we are using this ride to raise money for an excellent cause - truly helping transition homeless families to self-sufficiency through Daybreak of Elmhurst. This is a demanding ride and requires some preparation and training, but anyone can do it who has the heart and the interest. The Ride On the first day we ride approximately 100 miles. We then stay at a hotel and reverse the route to return the next day. Most of the ride is along Illinois country roads. See my comments for a more detailed description. We are doing this ride for helping those less fortunate than us, fun, fellowship, and exercise. That is all there is really to it. Syscon is going to cover the cost of lodging, breakfast and dinner on Saturday, breakfast on Sunday, and a SAG van with a driver to carry our supplies and give a respite to anyone who may need it. To make this a bit more fun and beneficial, in addition to the training rides, the riders will meet together twice before the actual ride. Once to share training ideas and the second time to do an orientation on the route and schedule a week before the ride. Do What You Can You don't have to commit to the full ride if you do not wish to. If you don't want to train for 200 miles of riding in one weekend or you don't think you can make it the full ride, plan to do one of the two days - or even just a partial of one of the days. Join us for one of each of the two training rides each weekend or just stop a little earlier during the training rides. What is important is to get out and ride! Requirements Since I am going to suggest a route and Syscon is going to sponsor some of the expenses of this trip, we are going to have to deal with the legal side of things - namely a waiver of liability. It will be required that all of the riders on this trip sign a waiver prior to leaving on the trip. Secondly, I'm going to ask everyone that rides to wear a helmet. I took a very bad spill last summer riding and am personally convinced of the value of having something of a buffer between my skull and the concrete on the road (or a tree, rock, etc.). I'm asking everyone to commit to wearing a helmet during the training and the ride just so I don't have to worry about anyone getting hurt. Labels: bike ride, daybreak, double century, syscon
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4:00 PM
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Daybreak of ElmhurstDaybreak of Elmhurst - Helping Families be Self-SufficientIf you really believe in the hope of the United States and changing peoples lives, read on... UPDATE - Through the generous support of many people, we earned over $5,600 for Daybreak during our 2007 ride. Thank you all for your generouse support! From Homelessness to Self-Sufficiency Is there anything more honorable than to reach out and help someone out of the endless cycle of poverty, homelessness, and welfare into a self-sufficient, productive, and valued member of society? I spent a month in two of the most difficult and turbulent countries of Africa - Mozambique and Rwanda - for World Relief when they were a client of Syscon. It was there that I had the life-changing realization that it is absolutely unique to the United States and a very few other Western nations that a person - if they truly want to and have the desire, self-discipline, and a little bit of luck - can lift themselves from poverty to self-sufficiency. Our ride this year will honor and support this irreplaceable freedom and opportunity. When one of our Syscon Team riders, Joe Berkemeyer (Siemens), suggested that we support Daybreak of Elmhurst with our ride, I was enthusiastic. Here was an organization whose sole purpose was to help people break free of the welfare cycle. Participants in the Daybreak of Elmhurst must pass rigorous criteria with financial budgets, work ethics, and reliability to qualify for the program. In return, they receive free housing for up to two years in apartments paid for by Daybreak of Elmhurst as well as mentoring by two volunteer mentors. To date, Daybreak of Elmhurst has helped over 35 families move from the welfare system to self-sufficiency. The entire organization is staffed by volunteers - including the mentors. Every dime collected goes directly to supporting the participants of the program. This is a good solid organization with no fluff or frills - just a fundamental idea that they execute extremely well. Please consider supporting this organization with a donation for our ride. Syscon is paying all of the costs of the meals, lodging, and jerseys for the riders. We will all ride about 1000 miles in an eleven week training period to get ready. On June 9th and 10th, we will ride 200 miles on our bikes from Crystal Lake to Savana, IL (on the Mississippi River) and we would appreciate your help. Our goal for this year is to raise $3,000 for Daybreak of Elmhurst. E-mail me, Larry Wendt, if you are willing to support us with any donation or if you would like any further information. Some examples are: $0.50/mile = $100; $1.00/mile = $200; $5.00/mile = $1,000 However, we will gratefully accept any donation of any size. Checks should be made out to "Daybreak of Elmhurst", PO Box 2033, Elmhurst, IL 60126. You may mail the check directly to Daybreak or send it to us here at Syscon and we will forward it to the organization. If you do send it directly to the organization, please let us know so we can track our progress towards our goal. Larry Wendt President, Syscon, Inc. Rider in the 2007 Syscon Double-Century Labels: bike ride, daybreak, double century, syscon
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3:45 PM
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2007 RouteRoute DescriptionThe route has been determined with one or two sections yet to be confirmed. We will be starting in DeKalb. We will then head west through Oregon, Polo, Milledgeville, Chadwick, and finally into Savanna. Ride Details Saturday, June 9th 7:00am Meet in DeKalb. We will provide a parking location where we can leave our cars for the duration of the trip. ~7:30am On the road! ~10:00am Stop in Oregon for breakfast. ~2:30pm Stop in Chadwick for another meal. ~5:00pm Arrive in Savanna. Great dinner! Sunday, June 10th 6:00am Coffee and then on the road! ~7:30am Breakfast in Milledgeville. ~10:00am Oregon for rest stop. ~2:30pm Arrive back in Crystal Lake. 2:30 to 5:45m Drive to Larry's house in Elmhurst. Showers for all that want them, change. 6:00pm Dinner, Drink, and Party for all riders, friends of riders, contributors to Daybreak, and Daybreak friends. At Joe's house in north Elmhurst. Labels: bike ride, daybreak, double century, syscon
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3:30 PM
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2007 Route Map Labels: bike ride, daybreak, double century, syscon
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3:00 PM
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2007 Training RidesTraining ConceptsWe are going to use the weekend training rides to build up to the distance we need to do the double century. Using a common recommended approach of building up to 75% of the target ride, we will do two long rides each weekend using this target schedule:  Make sure to get in the additional miles on your own during the week to stay on training. If you don't think you can train for both days of the trip, just train for one day (Saturday) and then you can ride home in the SAG van. To train for one day, do one of the two long weekend rides per week and train do half of the remaining days mileage during the week days. Training Links Here are some of the good articles and links on endurance training and long-distance biking: A good basic guide from Ultra Cycling Magazine. Other good links from Ultra Cycling Magazine: Nutrition for a Century or a Double Eating for a Century, Brevet or Double Century Water and Salt Intake During Exercise Labels: bike ride, daybreak, double century, syscon
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2:30 PM
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2007 Completed Rides Labels: bike ride, daybreak, double century, syscon
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2:00 PM
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Larry's Comments on 2007 Ride The first time I made an attempt at a double-century (We call it an "almost" because a true double-century is completed in a single day) was in early October of 2005. I recorded 95 miles going down to Utica from Elmhurst with a total riding time of 6 hours and 43 minutes - an average of 14.2 mph for the distance of the ride. It was a good ride, but I had some trouble with my seat - both on my bike and my body. I stayed at The Willow Inn in Utica, which was a nice serviceable hotel. Dinner was at the local pub where I had an enormous prime rib dinner for twenty bucks. The next day I sat on my bike and knew I was in trouble with respect to sitting on that seat for another 7 hours or so. I gave it a try and ended up going about 35 miles to Morris, but that was it. I had to call in the cavalry (in the form of my son, Chris, who will be driving the SAG van for us this year) to get a ride home from Morris. My personal goal for 2006 was to make it there and back with endurance and "rear-end endurance" to spare. In the spring of 2007 several friends committed with me to train for and make the same ride. I realized that I had done a very poor job training. With a little bit of research I came up with an eleven week training plan slowly increasing the mileage by 10% each week to reach 75% of the total target mileage. We did the training rides back to back on Saturday and Sunday together and each rider was responsible to ride during the week. What became apparent immediately was that the first ride of the weekend was easy compared to the ride the next day. It was that second ride each week that toughened us up. The training was fun - and though demanding - within the reach of every rider. We had two riders that had never done any distance riding at all - Matt and Lou - and none of us were what you might think of as "athletes." Yet we made tremendous progress over the 12 weeks. We started barely able to make a 30 mile ride at an average of 13 mph. By the end of the training we could turn in rides in excess of 60 miles at 15 mph or faster. In addition, this year we will ride for a good cause, Daybreak of Elmhurst. We will take our time and stop often to enjoy the ride. This is a race everyone can win just by participating. (law) Labels: bike ride, daybreak, double century, syscon
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1:30 PM
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