Rider Bio: Captain Snookums

Who you are: David S.

Nickname: Captain Snookums

Years riding the New Mexico MS150: will be my 4th

Why you ride: For my friends, my family, and myself - suck it, MS!

What you ride: Being what is generously termed a "Clydesdale" rider, I ride a sweet Bianchi Volpe steel frame beauty with custom built 40 spoke wheels from Peter White Cycles and a comfy Selle An-Atomica Titanico X saddle. Fast? No, but neither am I.

Best cycling memory: Departing on the second day of the 2010 MS150 and cycling through the foggy morning on our way to Chimayo. Beautiful, quiet, with all you could see in either direction were cyclists riding for a cause including my great teammates!

Your favorite recovery meal/beverage: My special home made Spicy Bloody Mary's. If you ask nicely, I may share.

Saturday 6/23 fun ride!

Here is the ride report from last weekends fun ride lead by Val. Below is her ride up. Thanks to Val for leading the ride and reporting back!

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Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day for a fun ride around town!! We all met at O'Neill's at 7:00 am. Four new members - Diane & Ron Nelson, Gary Chantler and David Beutler - joined the five veterans - Val, Laura & Eric, John M, and Calvin - to make us nine riders strong. Totally unplanned, the five veteran riders all showed up wearing their MS-150 jerseys from last year. What an awesome sight!!

We headed out on our route - a CCW loop around town - which caused a tiny bit of confusion trying to find Campus which turns out to be Copper on the other side of the street. Who knew? But a quick turnaround got us on track and on our way. We found our way to the N. Diversion Channel and headed North. Hopes were high that the underpasses would be finished and open, but that was not the case. Thankfully, the underpass at Osuna was open and we did not have to navigate that awful crossing. Crews were out getting lines painted on the trails, so hopefully next weekend, all will be smooth sailing. 

We stopped at Paseo del Norte to take a vote on whether to proceed further to Alameda or turn back. By popular vote, and I believe some full bladders had some say in the matter, we headed to Alameda open space. We took a short break in the shade and the call went out for Fig Newtons, but none were to be had. Bummer!! 

Heading South on the Bosque Trail, we wound and wove our way through all the other folks out walking, riding, running, and enjoying the beautiful day. At Mountain, we headed East to Edith and made our way South to Coal. Finishing our ride with a bit of climbing, we made our way up Coal and on to one of our sponsors, Serafin's Chile Hut, for some grub. There, seven of the nine gathered to indulge in some amazing food - from green chili stew and Pasole to breakfast burritos smothered in chili, to tacos and carne adovada. While waiting for our food to be prepared, guess what popped out onto the table? A small bag of Fig Newtons. Now where were those earlier, Calvin, when the call went out?

It was a great ride on a great day, with great team members all having fun!

Training Schedule 2012

Training season is right around the corner.  Time to kiss our free Saturday/Sunday mornings goodbye! If you ride with us and the training below, I guarantee you can rock the ride in true Penultimate style (i.e. meaning not last).  Last year we did the long rides primarily on Saturdays, but are pretty flexible.

Yeah, it is pretty much always like this!

This year they have added some new distances for the first day.  Now your options are 36, 58, 85, and a 100 mile ride.  The second days rides are 40 and 55 (the only difference is the hill climb into the Puye Cliffs).  So think about what you want to do - and dream big!

The training for the short ride will involve doing about 30 miles a weekend, with maybe some longer ride up to 50 miles thrown in too.  If we get enough interest we will try to structure our rides so that some of the long rides overlap with the shorter rides so we can ride as a team!

Schedule:  also shows up on the calendar over there (way down at the bottom) ------------------------>

Saturday, June 23         Fun ride   20ish miles
Saturday, June 30         Fun ride  30ish miles
Saturday, July 7          Inner city loop - diversion 36.7 miles
Saturday, July 14        City Loop CW    51.65 miles
Saturday, July 21        Jemez Dam 62 miles
Saturday, July 28        South 14 + rollers 65 miles
Saturday, August 4      Ride to the Crest! (55 from the city, ~25 from the triangle)
Saturday, August 11 Santa Fe 72.4 miles (plus a train ride home!)
Sunday, August 12   Recovery Ride ~40 miles
Saturday, August 18 Jemez Dam (Recovery weekend) 62
Sunday, August 19      Inner City   Loop 36.7
Saturday, August 25 The MS Ride!

Jersey Sponsors

We are very fortunate this year to get two fantastic local businesses to sponsor our cycling jerseys: Serafin's Chile Hut, a delicious New Mexican food joint in Nob Hill, and Tractor Brewing, with their brand new tap room opened in Nob Hill.  We used their sponsorship to help us offset the fixed costs of our fundraising activities this year.  We will be rocking their logos all over Albuquerque as we embark on our training rides this year.  Thank you sponsors!

Yeah, our jersey rocks.

Photos from Smarty Party!

Here is a slide show of the pictures from our Smarty Party Trivia night.  A big thank you to all who participated!

 

If you are having difficulty seeing this, click here to go directly to the web album.

Paired Scotch Dinner

We are currently working on finalizing the date (or dates?) of our second annual Paired Scotch Tasting.  Details very soon!

While you are waiting, why not whet your apetite by checking out a description of last years event here, and notes from the actual night here?

Smarty Party 2012!

A great night was had by all at our inaugural Smarty Party Trivia!  We had 31 participants on 7 teams vying for victory in our trivia fueled bacchanalia.  Our sparkling MC of the evening, Dan Mayfield, editor-in-chief of Albuquerque: The Magazine, kicked off the event at 8:15.  The questions ranged from beer questions, movie villains, to identifying real or fake sports, all the way to mad scientists.  There were bonus questions between each round that were specifically about MS to educate and inform.

It was a see-saw battle to the end, with 4 different teams in first place through out the evening.  One team marched away with the title tonight, coincidently named "In First Place".  They won a spot on the Golden Domo, gift certificates to Artichoke Cafe for $150, and a place full of Domo cupcakes!  The second place team (the Motley Penultimate team of Jeff, John, Erica, and Kenneth) walked away with a pizza party from Pizza 9! 

All told, it was a fantastic night of trivia and we hope everyone had a great time.  We sold out all 15 of our gift bags stuffed with goodies donated by local businesses (see our sponsor page here)!  The best part was that we raised over $2300 to support the MS Society!  Go Domo!

Our scorekeepers hard at work!

The winners of the night - "And in first place"!

Golden Domo Ready for Friday!

The stuff of legends. The "Golden Domo" will go home with the team who has the brains, tenacity, and cunning to rise victorious over their peers at the battle o' the brains, at Smarty Party Trivia!  Test your mettle against teams hungry to gain victory and the priceless trophy.  The only thing greater than taking home Domo at the end of the night, is the glow of triumph that follow you for all your days.

Golden Domo is ready to go!

To get a shot at history, get your tickets now!  Details here.

Preseason Training: Easin' back into the saddle

Today we headed out nice and early to do the easy inner city loop (route here).  For many of us (well, for me) it  was the first ride long ride of the season.  There were six of us that gathered at O'Neills in Nob Hill  including one of the newest Penultimate John (aka Buddy).  

Must be very serious to take pictures.

We wound our way through the neighborhoods before going south of the airport to pick up the south end of the Bosque trail.  From there is was all bike for the next 25 miles.  We slowed down a little bit when we hit the main Bosque trail mainly due to the many cyclists, runners, roller bladers (seriously, people still do that), and walkers out enjoying the morning.  A little crowded, but nice to see so many people out enjoying the fine Sunday morning.

A little break in the shade.  Fig newtons were consumed too.

With about 5 miles to go, we all decided that we were hungry and wanted to get some breakfast.  So once we finished got off the diversion channel bike path, we bee lined it from the University to our jersey sponsors Serafin's Chile Hut where we enjoyed a nice well earned breakfast.  A great Sunday ride of 36 miles and breakfast to boot!

Penultimates and family enjoying a nice breakfast!