Woolley G's Bike and Fitness

4 States Triathlon 2008

2008-05-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

Chancey Deller came away as the overall winner in this years 4 States Triathlon with a time of 57:57 a minute and 49 seconds ahead of second place. Not bad considering he puked twice during the race.

Sydni Barnhart won 1st place in the 15 and under division with a time of 1:21:12 which would have given her 1st in the 16-19 division and she would have still placed 2nd in the 20 to 24 division.Eric Deller came home with 2nd place in the 25-29 division with a time of 1:01:46. I expect the next time that Eric and his brother meet at a triathlon that Eric will do whatever it takes to come out on top.

Lisa Barnhart accepting her 4th place trophey with a time of 1:27:25 which you might notice is nearly 6 minutes slower than her daughter Sydni. Lisa and I couldn't have been more proud to have her beat us both so badly. I don't need to publish my time here you will have to do your own research to see how poorly I finished.

Shelley Beaty bested the competition in the 35-39 division with a time of 1:14:06. Shelley also beat another close competitor and training partner of hers for the first time. Mike Laborde and Donna relaxing after the race. Donna was a great volunteer and she stood out among the title sponsors volunteers from Hooters.
It was a great day for a race and a good time was had by all the after party was steller as always for results follow this link http://www.doitsports.com/results/page.tcl?id=193832

Products That Don't Suck

2008-03-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

By Devon Ratcliff CI-CPT

Periodically I will be testing various products of lesser popularity that we carry. Those that don’t suck will be featured here.
I was surprisingly impressed by the Precor S3.21 home strength training system. I’ve spent a lot of time working out in different gyms and health clubs and, until now, I hadn’t seen a home gym that I’d actually recommend. Needless to say I was very skeptical about this machine, almost to the point of wanting to not like it. One exercise at a time the S3.21 began to change my mind.
One can perform over twenty five different exercises using the S3.21, and a detailed wall chart of these exercises is included. What I find most surprising is the fact that back extension (roman chair) is one of the exercises. A few of the exercises took a little getting used to as I’ve been spoiled by the stand alone units for each exercise, and/or free weights at the gym. Once I got past the fact that I was not at a health club and that this unit only requires 6’6” by 5’of floor space, I was able to perform each of the exercises listed on the wall chart with ease. The S3.21 didn’t whine, squeak, cry, or rattle a single time during my workout, which is a lot more than I can say for my body.
The S3.21 (with the heavy weight stack and leg press option) is truly a total body workout. I’ve never been convinced that one could attain a “Bowflex body” using any home gym, but working out on the S3.21 has definitely got me rethinking that opinion. I would highly recommend the Precor S3.21 home strength training system to anyone looking to achieve or maintain a respectable level of fitness.

Superbowl Ride

2008-02-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

For the past several years we have been getting a group of people together to ride on Superbowl Sunday. The ride starts in the morning at one of our homes or more correctly we gather in the morning the riding doesn't typically start until about noon or so. This year we gathered at my house for bloody mary's and a couple of breakfast beers. Once we had a good group gathered up we loaded up for our ride. The typical Superbowl ride bike isn't your typical road bike as the ride takes us down sidewalks over curbs and through ditches most people opt to ride their moutain bikes. However, for style points and style is important in this ride several people this year rode thier cruiser bikes, single speed coaster brake bikes with nice wide balloon tires for a smooth carefree ride. Our journey took us nearly 4 blocks down the road to Steve and Nancy's house where we parked ourselves in their driveway and wouldn't leave until we either convinced them to ride with us or until we drank their fridge dry. We were unsuccesful in recruiting Steve and Nancy into riding with us although we were very close to bringing them down to our level, they had a prior commitment to rode ride with Mark Lane. As a peace offering or just to get us out of thier driveway they graciously gave us a fresh ice cold bottle of Jagermister straight out of the freezer. Our next stop had begun as a tradition for us last year and I think we just crashed the party this year as I don't know if we were actually invited. A friend of Mike Laborde's has a great "Man Town" in the form of a very nicely finished metal shop behind his house. Man Town consists of a pool table, poker table, large screen TV, beer fridge, recliner and a whole host of other ammenties that any man would envy. We enjoyed this well deserved rest stop after the 4 hard miles that we had put in to make it to this point on our journey. After departing Man Town we made our way to David and Kristine Plants brand new home in fact they had moved in just the night before so we gave their neighbors a first hand look at what they will be up against in the years to come. Steve, Nancy, Mark and Dwight caught up to us at David's house, I didn't realize that one speed cruisers, mountain bikes and a bike loaded down with a trailer would be faster than an Itailan road bike but I guess when you put that type of team together there is no defeating a team so dedicated to the sport. We finished our ride at Devon's house where Devon pulled out the skateboards and we all proceeded to injure ourselves in one way or another. The first run, no problem, Devon, Brandon, and I bomb down the hill with agility and grace wowing the spectators glaring out their breakfast nooks and peaking through their blinds. Upon completion of our first run Devon decided that we were accomplished enough to tackle and even larger and longer hill. Little did we know that the hill would end up "tackling" us. Devon rode the hill with the grace of a Eli Manning scrambling out of the pocket compared to Brandon and I's exhibition. Brandon was behind Devon but ahead of me when things started to take a turn for the worse as reported by Brandon. I guess the speed generated by the steeper longer hill influenced the dynamic stability of the board and through no fault of his own the board began to break loose of Brandon leaving him no choice but to take a sack face first hands down onto the asphalt. The most unfortunate part of the wreck according to Brandon was that no one got the chance to see it. If there are any witnesses out there that did see this please come forward with your account of the events. I came around the corner passing an injured Brandon being helped off the field by Devon. I was able to make the first turn and was gaining speed up to the second turn when it became evident that I was not going to scramble my way out of this situation so I found a nice soft place to take a dive, even landing on the turf I did suffer a little bit of turf rash but I was able to shake it off to play again. The ride ended at Devon's with each of us licking our wounds and going our separate ways looking forward to next years ride.

Wheelie Clinic

2008-01-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

Brandon, Mark and I put on a little wheelie clinic for those at the Hamby trail this past weekend. As you can see Brandon had some difficulty getting much vertical lift under his front wheel and not much distance. Mark came up behind him with better vertical and held the wheel off the ground quite a bit longer. Both Mark and Brandon were not committed enough to their wheelies as they were not riding clipped in. I on the other hand wanted to give all that I had to the demonstration of the wheelie, being fully clipped in, I wanted to get as close to vertical as possible and hold on regardless of the results. As you can see I preformed not only a well executed wheelie but a full 180 to finish off the demonstration. Come out to the trail next week when we demonstrate at speed tree hugging.

Wonderland Run 5k

2008-01-16T12:16:00.000-08:00

The Wonderland Run 5k held every year in Marshall, TX it is a nice run starting and ending at the Marshall Courthouse. The course winds its way through Marshall giving you a chance to check out the lights along the way.
Jeff Soape threw down an impressive time to bring home a 3rd place ribbon for Longview. Not to be out done Harrison Beaty also pulled off an impressive 3rd place finish in his first Wonderland Run. We look for many good things to come from Harrison in the near future. Congratulations Harrison!
The Beaty family dominated this race with Amanda placing an impressive 5th place in a very competitive field. I look for Amanda to come back next year and blow away the competition. Way to go Amanda!Shelly Beaty came home with the most accolades from the Wonderland Run for the Beaty family with a time besting all but one in her age group to come home with 2nd. Speaking with Shelly she said that she trains all year for this race and expects to come out on top next year. This being Shelly's "A" race of the year she plans to double up her training to come out on top next year with plans for 2 IronMan's and a HalfMaxx championship just to be in prime shape for the 2008 Wonderland Run.

White Rock Marathon/Half Marathon Dallas 2007

2008-01-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

Here we are decked out in our new Crown Royal vests for Brandon and I, and a Crown cape for Mikey. Fuel belts were filled with Crown Royal but do to an oversight on my part we didn't have any mixer we were able to improvise at the first aid station, turns out Crown and Gatorade make a great combination. Our race stats are as follows: 5 Crown stops 1 bathroom break for Mikey 1 beer stop at a spectators house followed by a short photo shoot and 1 twisted ankle at mile 7 or 8 on my part but was able to walk it off in a couple of blocks. Finishing time 2:12:44 10:08 pace

Group of first time Half marathoners except for Shelly on the left she is the veteran, it was her daughter Amanda's first next to her my niece Mallory's first as well as Sydni, Donna, and Annette's. Sydni and Shelly ran together for the whole race with the rest of the ladies running together until Amanda told them she was feeling good and ran off on her own. Mallory held on with Donna and Annette until about mile 10 when she started having knee problems and found an aid station. It wasn't a great surprise that she was having a bit of trouble as she said that she hadn't ran at all in the past year. Mallory did catch a ride to within a 1/2 mile of the finish and had them drop her off so she could run across the finish line so she covered the distance maybe next time there won't be a vehicle involved.
A view of the race start with about 5300 participants for the 1/2 Marathon
Shelly and Sydni Smiling big for the camera.

Shad Hicks and Clint Funderburk of Longview both competed in the Marathon, this was Clint's first marathon and Shad's second in less than a month after completing his first in Tulsa, OK just a few weeks prior to the White Rock Marathon. Pat Stevens also did the Marathon with a great time of something like 3:24 we don't know the exact time as he forgot his chip. Although, had he been wearing his chip his time would have qualified him for Boston. Congratulations to all who participated in this race look forward to seeing you all back again next year.

Longhorn Half Iron Distance 2007

2008-01-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

Shad and I going over our game plan for our first Half Iron Distance Triathlon.
Jeff fresh off of his great finish at IronMan Canada in the middle of his post IronMan recovery. What better recovery than doing a Half Iron Distance tri? Jeff and his wife Shelly both went on to win a spot at the HalfMax National Triathlon in Las Vegas, NV October 2008.
My plan of spending 1 hour and 9 minutes in the water to give my competition a false sense of security is really paying off, you don't see anyone behind me.
Lisa with a big smile on her face because she can see me just ahead of her coming out of the water. The only problem for me is I left about 25 minutes before her. Just starting out on the run my plan of lulling the rest of the field into a false sense of security worked well until my flat on the bike and my slow shuffle on the run gave my competition a Real sense of security. Now that my plan was shot I might as well pose for the camera if you aren't going to have a good race you may as well look good doing it.

Longhorn Tri Sprint 2007

2008-01-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

Sydni did great in the Longhorn sprint tri, this was her final race of the season she put in lots of time training for this race and it paid off. This race had a great field typically at races that Syd does she is one of only a couple of 14 and under in her age group so she doesn't have real competition. This race they didn't have a 14 and under age group so we thought that she was really going to be out classed by the competition but her hard work in training really paid off with a second place finish in the 19 and under age group.

Here is the athlete in her deluxe travel accommodations as you can see her dog "Trek" gets the seat while the athlete is on the floor board of the truck. In this position the athlete is able to visualize her race and get a feel for the road.

Ready to Swim!

On the BikeHere is Syd finishing Strong! Make room for her on the Podium.

Longhorn Tri Festival 2007

2008-01-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

I know that this is not in chronological order however I found several pics on a different camera and thought I would try to catch the blog up from last year. The Longhorn Tri Festival in Austin this past year was their first year for this event and it consisted of a full weekend of triathlon fun. Saturday they held an Olympic distance and a Sprint distance tri and on Sunday they held the Half Iron Distance tri. The support for this race was fantastic plenty of water stations with gatorade, Pepsi, Gu, water soaked sponges, on-course misting statioins for the run. If you asked real nice you could get a cold Busch Light on the run course at the Rock and Roll aid station just before you had to climb the heartbreak hill. There were a couple of bottle exchanges on the bike, full support from Mavic with wheel cars and motorcycles providing support. I got to utilize the services of the wheel car as I flatted on mile 6 of the bike leg, they got me back in the race in about 15 minutes, it would have been quicker but where I flatted was at a busy intersection and they had a hard time getting to me. The run was rather hilly but what else would you expect from a race in Austin? If you believe that "Pain is a Gift" then this course was littered with presents throughout the 13.1 mile run course.

One main complaint for me was it was very hot for an October event but you can't blame the race director for the weather and they were well prepared for the heat. The race director did address a couple of other issues the parking/shuttle situation wasn't ideal and the swim course was short on buoy's two issues that they promise to take care of for next year's event.

We had a great group for this event we had four families enjoy this weekend we brought 3 trailers down to a great RV park with great amenities including a pool, hot tub, cable and dog park located only about 3-4 miles from the race site.

A fun run was held for the kids on registration day

Everyone was a winner!

Customer of the Year Competition

2007-12-19T15:19:00.000-08:00

The 2007 Customer of the Year Competition has been heating up we only have 12 more days of 2007 remaining so don't put off your entry any longer.
Mike Laborde greated us with some holiday cheer a couple of weeks ago to help quench the thrist of our weary shop employees this busy time of the year.What's amazing about this photo that it doesn't look "staged" at all not only a great customer but a fine actor as well.
If you didn't recognize the famous poses of these fine young men they are "Magnum, Blue Steel, and Chucky Cheese"
Mike Perez greeted us today with a feast of a Peperoni and a Canadian Bacon/Pinneapple pizza even cooking it himself in his dutch ovens right in the back of his pickup. To top it all off we were treated with his famous dutch oven peach cobbler and ice cream for dessert. Mike has really taken this competition to the next level. Thanks Mike!

Hamby Trail

2007-12-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00 pm this Fall and Winter we have been gathering out at the Hamby Mountain Bike trail. We have also been meeting on Sundays at 10:00am. More and more people are making there way out to the trail during the week and on Sunday. Last night we had a good turn out about 12 of us were out there enjoying a great December day with temps in the low 70's. A couple of guys took a lap after the sun went down donning their high powered lights. If you haven't had the chance to mountain bike at night it really is a rush.

The Hamby trail is available to any Longview Bicycle Club Member as this is on private land it needs to be a "Club Ride" consisting of at least 2 bike club members to comply with the bike clubs insurance.

The trail is located 3 miles north of the shop on 259 take a left on Hamby Rd go about 1 1/2 miles and take your first right on Big Woods and then take the first right into a private drive pass through 2 gates and follow the trail back to the woods. The trail is well marked in three loops an A, B and C loop the total length of the trail is about 4.7 miles. We have used about a thrid of the land that is available to us and we plan to add some more to it this year. If you have any questions about the trail come on by the bike shop we would be happy to help you.

Thanksgiving Games

2007-12-19T11:23:00.000-08:00

I know that this post is a little delayed but this is from Thanksgiving. The object of this ping pong game is to have everyone play by positioning themselves around the table. The first person serves then immediately sets down the paddle and moves to the left the next in line picks up the paddle and returns. This goes on until someone misses the return then they are out of the game until it comes down to just 2 players. This was a lot of fun and proved to be quite hilarious at times.

Toilet Bowl freeze tag game picked up after ping pong and surprising or maybe not so surprising if you know who was involved it wasnt' just the kids playing tag. The object of Toilet Bowl freeze tag is one person is "it" and tags the others in the game, if you are tagged you have to "freeze" in a toilet bowl positon by kneeling down on one knee and putting one arm out as your "flusher" to get untagged another player needs to sit on your knee and "flush" you by pushing down on your arm.

Wind Tunnel

2007-11-20T08:44:00.000-08:00

David Plants had the opportunity to join John Cobb at the wind tunnel last week. John was working with Angelo of Wilier on the Cento Crono time trial bike that John had designed. John fit Angelo to the Cento Crono in the tunnel to give him the best power and aero position possible. If you notice in the pictures above a change in position can change your aerodynamics significantly. The first picture shows smooth air flow over the helmet, notice that the rear tip of the aero helmet is touching his back. In the next picture the rear tip of the helmet is raised from his back as he is looking down and notice the effect of the air flow. So remember when you are wearing an aero helmet to keep your head up to keep that aerodynamic position and save precious time on your time trial. The last pic is of some girl that just happened to be in the wind tunnel that day, I guess you would call her a bicycle groupie. Wilier is our newest bicycle line and we will be one of the first bike shops in the country to have the Cento Crono in stock.

Trigger Point Technologies

2007-11-17T14:21:00.000-08:00

If you have ever had issues with Planar Fascitis, tight IT Band, Sciatic Nerve, tight piriformis or any other aches and pains that could be limiting your workouts Trigger Point Technologies has something for you. What Trigger Point is, is essentially a Massage Theripst in a bag allowing you to work on 6 key points on your body to provide you with the best possible preformance. An actual Massage Theripst in your closet may be what we would all wish for but may be prohibitively expensive and it may get the attention of local athorities not to mention your significant other. The tools offered by Trigger Point Technologies give you the ability to give yourself a massage on a daily basis without the time and expense of seeing a Massage Theripist everyday. Check out our website at www.bikeandfitness.com/catalog for more information or stop by the shop and we are happy to give you a personal demonstration.

Best Customer of the Week

2007-11-17T13:03:00.000-08:00

Mark Lane has stepped up in the competition as our best customer this week. Marks generous donation of a couple of Double Dave's Pizza's Saturday afternoon greatly improved the moral of our shop employees. Mark is wise beyond his years as he knows that a good shop employee works best when plied with pizza, cookies, cakes, beer, soda really anything consumable. I think that Mark's motivation for said generosity revolves around a new bike in his future, the Wilier Izoard.

Wilier pronounced Vee'-lee-air is a bicycle company from Rossano Veneto, Italy that we had just brought on as a new line of bikes that we will be offering this year. The Wilier does have local ties, John Cobb of Tyler, TX designed Wilier's Tri Bike the Cento Crono, with this connection we are offering a free professional bike fit by John Cobb himself with the purchase of a complete Wilier bike.

Daisy Weekend

2007-11-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready for our annual Daisy, Arkansas Mountain Bike weekend. This is a camping, cookout, sit by the fire and squeeze in a little bit of MTB weekend. We ride on the Wambel trail about 40 minutes from Daisy State Park, it is a great trail with a great view and some good challenges along the way.

Last year we rode about 20 miles of trails I took my doberman "Trek" turns out he is good for about 15 miles my Boxer "Calfee" is good for about 2 miles she stayed at camp. At the 15 mile mark I think Trek wasn't quite sure how far we planned on going so he went into conservation mode, just put his head down and slowed to a trot for the last 5 miles. He made it back just fine but I think he was a little upset, we will have to find a shorter route for him this year.

So anyway several of us are getting ready to head to Daisy over the next couple of days. Mike Perez already made it there this morning but not without incident. Mike hit a deer just outside of Jefferson on his way up. Mike is alright the deer did a little re-engineering to his front bumper, I didn't get a status on deer but we may be having Venison at the camp fire this weekend.

Cappella #1

2007-10-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

Mike Perez just competed the finishing touches on his first custom made aluminum frame. This particular bike is a 96er mountain bike. The 96er uses a 29" wheel up front with a 26" wheel on the rear. The 29" front wheel provides greater obstacle clearance while the 26" rear wheel maintains great acceleration. We all got a chance to ride it here at the shop we are looking forward to riding it on the trail to see how it preforms. Mike will be leaving the bike here at the shop for anyone to try out at our local Mountain Bike trail off of Hamby Road. Mike looks forward to any comments on the bike and ride qualilty so those suggestions can be used to improve his next frame.

Commercial

2007-10-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

Check out our recent commercial. Tell us what you think!

Orbea Onix Dama

2007-10-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

We just got the 2008 Orbea Onix Dama in today. It looks fantasic! The Onix is a full carbon frame, womens specific geometry, decked out with ultegra components and Kyrsium Race wheels. This is a sexy bike we expect this to be a popular choice this year.