1000 miles and counting!

From Jarod's journal:  Well, we surpassed the 1000 mile milestone (YAY!!!) as we coasted into the Navajo County town of Goodwater, AZ that is situated right at 1 mile in elevation.

Unfortunately due to crazy weather, some sickness, and extended work days, we missed a few important biking days last week.  And when you average 40-50 miles per day, that is no easy thing to make up.  However, we are not discouraged and know we will be right back on track within a week or so.

To compensate for the days we missed, we are adding several miles to each ride day this week and next week.  We've knocked out 61 miles every morning this week...most days completing the miles by 7am (after the first 30, I'm usually finally awake for the day) which allows us to still be available for a full work day afterwards.  On this pace, we will be back on track sometime by the end of next week.  One thing is for sure, by March 1st, we will be joyfully strolling into Malibu, CA.  If only we could physically be there to complete the final miles down the Pacific Coast Highway...

Another thing is for sure, our backends now reside in a permanent state of numbness.  I'm not so sure if this is a good or bad thing for the remainder of our ride.  Either way, we are rolling with it and enjoying every turn of the pedal!  Some days we are even lucky enough to catch a good televised sporting event while riding.  This can help pass the 2 - 2 1/2 hours of riding.  Thank you World Gym for this much appreciated luxury.

The NWA vs Hunger event is coming along nicely.   We have a great number of awesome teams already committed to helping us pack several hundred thousand nutritious meals for our neighbors in need.  It's going to be an extremely fun day of service and giving back and we can't wait to see it all come together.

#beneighborly

Rogers2Malibu - Days #18-24

From Bret's journal: We've settled into a good rhythm at World Gym's Springdale location. They have a room full of these really great Keiser spin bikes:

We've made it a habit to participate in the spin class that meets from 5:15-6:10am on M/W/F and then also ride on T/Th afternoons. Last week we crossed into New Mexico, and next week we'll arrive in Arizona. We're over 700 miles into this adventure!

To be honest, I had no idea what I was getting into when we planned this ride! I've never been consistent with being active, especially in the winter. And this winter has been really cold! Several mornings when I've left the house at 4:45am, the temperature has been in the single digits. Yikes!

Nonetheless, I've shifted my sleep schedule so that I get up by 4am on M/W/F to go to spin class. And I can tell you that I'm feeling a lot better! Strangely, I've had a diminished appetite for coffee (say it ain't so!) and find myself drinking a lot more water. Guess my body just craves it! And because I'm up and active early, I'm not so tired during the day, even if I ride 50 miles before 7am (like we did this morning). Perhaps I'm getting hooked! Just so you know I'm still human, I sleep until about 8:30 on Saturday mornings AND enjoy a cup of Airship coffee, roasted right here in Bentonville.

I'm excited about getting out on the Razorback Greenway this spring with my family to explore the trails and parks in northwest Arkansas. (Check out Get Active NWA too.) I think I'll be in a lot better shape to keep up with my kids!

We're riding to raise awareness about hunger and funding for our upcoming NWA vs HUNGER event. If you'd like to get involved, please support our Indiegogo campaigns (Bret and Jarod) or get a team together and join us to pack meals on March 7-8 in Rogers. Thanks!

Rogers2Malibu - Days #13-17

Well, as we surpass the 500 mile mark (YAY!!!), I can't help but think of the song by the band Proclaimers.  Although in my head I have changed the words to be sung as, "But I would walk ride 500 miles and I would walk ride 500 more...".

We have now completed roughly 1/3 of the ride!  Our legs are getting stronger (or so it seems) as the rides get longer and longer.  Yesterday we arrived in none other than Amarillo, TX and are nearing the New Mexico and Texas border!  Little known fact, Amarillo was once the self-proclaimed "Helium Capital of the World" for having one of the country's most productive helium fields.

Bret mentioned mountains in his last blog.  The other component of the spin class the instructors love to include is racing.  Racing means, in a spin class, to basically get in an aerodynamic position, shoulders down, and pedal as fast and as hard as your legs can go.

I've only been a part of a couple "races" in my life.  One was particularly interesting.  It was a team relay marathon with each person running roughly 6.5 miles.  I was the 4th leg of the race and thought I could breeze through it.  WRONG!   Little did I know I would soon need to be escorted over the finish line by other team-mates and friends as my legs literally felt like wobbly piles of jello.

One thing I did learn from that experience is that if you want to accomplish anything of significance, it usually requires more than one person.  It requires a team!  And that is exactly what we are putting together for our March 7th and 8th NWA vs Hunger event.  Our goal is to organize a team of over 2000 passionate people to put their hands to work in order to better serve our neighbors in need and create a more well nourished and peaceful world!

"We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry."

- Jimmy Carter

Rogers2Malibu - Days #8-12

From Bret's journal: Sometimes the miles go quickly. At least that's what we've found in the great spin classes at World Gym! Classes are about 55 minutes and are very engaging with up tempo music and constant encouragement and direction from the class instructors. At the end of class, 20 or 25 miles are completed, which means on some days that we're about halfway done with our ride!

Mountains. The instructors love to climb mountains in class. Why is it, though, that when we reach the top of the mountain, there's another mountain right in front of us?! This situation reminded me of this picture I took in Rwanda:

Rwanda is called "the land of a thousand hills," and that's probably a gross understatement! If my only means of transportation were a single speed bicycle (no Shimano gears!) and I had to traverse the hills of Rwanda, I would probably look for opportunities to do just as these guys are doing ... latch on to a fuel tanker!

There's more to this than just the hills. In spin class, I'll burn 600-800 calories. Of course I'm able to replenish a lot of that through a very healthy diet. On average, people in Rwanda consume 1,400-1,700 calories per day. So imagine if you're riding miles up and down hills, at times carrying up to 100 pounds on the back of the bike. You're burning so many calories, most likely many more than you'll consume on any given day. And you do that day after day after day ...

This week we'll reach Texas! The panhandle is relatively flat in real life. I don't expect that our spin instructors will take that into account!

Rogers2Malibu - Days #6 & 7

From Jarod's journal: Well, we are moving right along towards our beautiful destination of Malibu, CA.  We are 259 miles into our ride and seem to be hitting some resemblance of a stride.  These untrained chicken legs are definitely getting one of the best workouts ever!

We just went through Edmond, OK yesterday and arrived today in the Oklahoma City suburb of Yukon, OK, a town named in reference to a gold rush in Yukon Territory, Canada.  What you probably didn't know is that Yukon is also the childhood home of a fairly well-known country music singer, Garth Brooks.

One thing that we quickly learned on this ride is that, although the miles are virtual, our legs can't tell the difference.  And just when it seems that our legs are warming up to the extended rides each day, other parts of our body seem to have difficulties dealing with the new found friction...no matter how many seat pads I add to that dang bike seat.  

Today was quite the workout.  About halfway through our ride, two gentlemen showed up to join us.  Soon after, we learned that they are instructors for the spin classes at World Gym and were trying out some new music. We were asked to join in their session and throwing caution to the wind, I foolishly said, "Why not?"  A few times I thought the speed of my pedaling would launch me off the bike and through the air, had my feet not been strapped in.  Next thing I know I am climbing what could only be described as the steepest mountain in the world with the tension/gear on the bike so tight I could hardly pedal.

Today's ride reminded me a lot of a time in Rwanda, East Africa where my wife and I were Peace Corps volunteers.  We had just moved to our village on the edge of beautiful Nyunge Forest National Park a couple weeks prior and decided to take our beautiful Peace Corps edition mountain bikes for a stroll through the hill side.  If you didn't know, Rwanda has been coined The Land of a Thousand Hills (great book by the way), and I am pretty sure we rode a good portion of those hills on our ride.  And by rode I mean pushed our bikes up the hills and flew down the other side.

We were told Lake Kivu, a beautiful lake that divides the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda was only 8 or so miles away.  Well, after 3 1/2 hours of riding we were not even in sight of this so called "Lake."  We decided to turn back.  After another couple hours of pushing and riding we heard an interesting and alarming sound.  As we rounded the corner, we noticed a large, and not so friendly looking pack of baboons and their infants.  I stopped to snap a couple photos when I quickly remembered how viscous these animals can be.

We were nearly surrounded and they continued to make a barking noise, show their teeth, and shake the trees and branches near them.  We looked at each other and said, on the count of three, pedal as fast and as hard as you possibly can and let's get out of here!  So, we did and fortunately for us, they decided not to chase us.  We safely made it home just 7 hours after leaving with sore legs, sore back ends, and a great story to tell.

I expect we will have a very similar ending to this Rogers2Malibu ride as well.

I want leave you with a quote that I love that deals with hunger.

"It is an eternal obligation toward the human being not to let him suffer from hunger when one has a chance of coming to his assistance." - Simone Weil

Let's make sure we take advantage of those chances to help those in need and be neighborly!

Rogers2Malibu - Days #2-5

From Bret's journal:

We've now journeyed 166 miles, from Rogers, Arkansas to Drumright, OK. We're averaging 33 miles per day, which is really great ... for us! Again, thanks to the kind folks at World Gym in northwest Arkansas for allowing us to ride at their facilities across NWA.

The first few days of the ride were ... well ... a bit tough, especially since I haven't had a habit of regular exercise. The discomfort reminded me of the last time my legs hurt like this.

A few years ago, on the weekend before we moved back to Arkansas from Rwanda, I climbed Nyiragongo Crater near Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a group of close friends.

We ascended almost 5,000 feet in just six hours to reach the volcano's rim at over 11,000 feet. That was brutal. Crazy pain. I had two walking sticks and traversed the rain forest and volcanic rock at a slow (almost crawling!) pace. But I made it to the top and experienced the unparalleled beauty of power of the world's largest lava lake. (For a great article about Nyiragongo, check out the April 2011 issue of National Geographic.)

We spent the night on the rim of the volcano, listening to the crashing waves of lava almost a mile below us and marveling at the ever changing landscape of the lake's crust. After a fitful night's sleep, we began the descent at sunrise. I thought the ascent was painful. My legs began cramping almost immediately, and within an hour's time I was well back of the main group (aka "mountain goats") who were skipping joyfully down the mountain. However, our Congolese guides and porters were extremely sympathetic and kind, and they supported my between their shoulders and at times on their backs, literally! The rest of the group waited for us to catch up, and then they allowed me to set the pace. This was an amazing lesson in humility and grace. I couldn't have been happier when we reached the bottom several hours later. Here is a photo of my and my Congolese angels:

All this to say two things:

1. If you ever have the opportunity to climb Nyiragongo, DO IT! Just spend a few months on the stepmaster before you go. Seriously, do some training. I didn't. Big mistake.
2. The discomfort of the first few days of the #Rogers2Malibu ride for hunger does not in any way compare to the pain of the Nyiragongo climb.

We're 10% done with the ride. Still a long way to go ... but I'm encouraged and determined. For the last few miles of each ride, I listen to Fuego by LeCrae. The song has fantastic lyrics, but one line has been standing out to me. I'll end with it.

"Faith is dead if I don't get up and go work my legs."

(Special thanks to my friends Carter Crockett, Dano Jukanovich, Greg Urquhart, and Samuel Clark who encouraged me, shared resources with me, and didn't leave me to die on Nyiragongo!)

Rogers2Malibu - Day #1

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Or, in our case, the journey of 1,678 miles from Rogers to Malibu begins at World Gym in Lowell! Today, we rode 34 miles on the stationary bikes as our adventure takes us across the country over the next two months. The 34 miles represents the distance from Rogers to Siloam Springs, home of 90.9 KLRC and a really cool historic downtown area.

For our first day, the mileage might have been a bit ... well ... ambitious! Especially for Bret's 45 year old legs! Nonetheless, we finished and are looking forward to riding from Siloam Springs to Locust Grove, Oklahoma tomorrow. 39 miles. Yeah. We did learn that for long rides like these that we need to bring some snacks.

As we were in the last few miles of the ride, we received word that the River Valley Leader ran a story about the ride! Too cool! And we had friends in Colorado and Arkansas who told us they rode with us!

If you want to get involved in the ride, check out all the details at #Rogers2Malibu.

World Gym is hosting the ride at their locations. We rode at the Lowell location today.

Jarod gives the thumbs up after finishing!

Bret's working hard to get in those last few miles!