Michael's White Lightning

Please Support Me In The 2010 BP MS 150

2010-02-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

Friends and Family,

I am excited and proud to officially announce my participation in the 2010 MS 150 this April 17^th and 18^th. This will be my first year riding for this two-day fundraising cycling ride which is the largest event of its kind in North America. The BP MS 150 is a 180-mile journey from Houston to Austin, benefiting the race to find a cure for those suffering from multiple sclerosis. Last year, 13,000 cyclists raised more than $17 million to help 20,000 Texans living with multiple sclerosis. I am excited to be a part of this impressive, accomplished, and respected group of cyclists in 2010. For more information on the ride, please visit http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/bp-ms-150/ride-information/index.aspx

Multiple sclerosis is a progressive neurological disease that affects people in many different ways. It could be paralysis one day, loss of vision the next or impaired memory the day after that. Living with MS means living with uncertainty. For more information on MS, please visit http://www.nationalmssociety.org/about-multiple-sclerosis/index.aspx

Together, I know that we can make a difference. My friend’s (Robert) mother, Helen Louise Hollan, passed away at the age of 43 during our freshman year of high school in 1998. She suffered from an aggressive form of MS and her passing occurred less than 10 years after her diagnosis. Today, Robert is married (to Beth, a friend of mine for 18 years). Helen never got the chance to meet and enjoy her grandchildren. In the years following her diagnosis, the disease’s affect on her, and her passing, many medical breakthroughs have happened. There are now new treatment options and medications that could have helped her. This is why I ride. I ride to make a difference.

With this journey, I’m helping the National Multiple Sclerosis Society fund research to help find the cause, cure and treatment of MS. My participation also helps support services for people affected by MS. My personal fund raising goal is $2,000 supporting the ride’s 2010 goal of $18 million. Please help support our fellow Texans by making a tax-deductible donation. Any amount you feel comfortable is greatly appreciated.

You can make a donation by visiting the MS website where a special secure online donation link has been set up in my name:

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=6338228&fr_id=12962&pg=personal

Together, we can make a difference for those currently suffering from MS, and those who will be diagnosed in the future. Currently, one American is diagnosed every hour of every day. We can make a difference in the race for a cure.

Thank you for your support,

Michael Lyons

Team Texas Childrens

Team Logo

2010-01-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

Weekend Forecast!

2009-12-18T12:32:00.001-08:00

Great weekend of riding ahead!!

Sat Dec 19		Partly Cloudy	59°/34°	10 %
Sun Dec 20		Sunny	57°/35°	0 %

Weekend update

2009-12-14T09:44:00.000-08:00

Once again, the weather ruined my hopes of riding. You would have thought we were London with all the fog throughout the city this weekend. Sunday morning I attempted to ride but after 10 miles I determined it wasn't safe to be riding, boo!

Weekend!

2009-12-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

Time to ride!

Saturday - Memorial on the MTB
Sunday - Local on the roadie

Dieting!

2009-12-08T07:29:00.000-08:00

What a sad word, haha. This is the starting week where all the bad foods in my life to start disappearing, and I don't mean me eating them.

This means no more:

McDonald's breakfast
Danish Cookies
Soda's ( 1 a day )
Wings
etc....

Wish me luck!

Team Texas Childrens Jersey

2009-12-07T07:05:00.000-08:00

Weekend update.

2009-12-06T16:36:00.001-08:00

SNOW! This is my reason for not riding this weekend, crazy!

This week I will return to a weekly spin class, stay tuned for my complaints of not being able to move!

MS-150, I'm In!!!

2009-12-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

Finally after waiting a year to sign up for my 1st MS-150, I'm in!!! On December 2nd, 4,000 people were fighting to get spots for the ride coming up in April, which sold out in 50 minutes!! I am very excited to be part of this tremendous fund raiser and personal challenge!

Stay tuned over the next 5 months to be informed of my training!

HH 100 Pictures

2009-10-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

TKE starting out...

DONE!!
BEST SIGN OF THE DAY!!

My bike and I barely made it...

Time to catch up!

2009-10-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

Where do I begin! Since I have last blogged I rode in the Hotter N Hell 100 ride in Wichita Falls TX. To date this was the longest ride I have done, finishing the 100 miles in 5 hours and 30 minutes, pretty good I do have to say so myself (pictures to follow). The HHH had a record 14,205 people register for this years ride, below is what that many riders looks like.

As of now I will just be doing some training rides and waiting for the MS150 next April. I was very fortunate to get on the "TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL" cycling team along with my friend Angela.

I forgot about you blog

2009-08-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

I seem to have forgotten about this. I am still riding, just not blogging.

Recent convo...

2009-04-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

A: do you know anybody who wants Spoon tickets for tonight?
Me: what is spoon?
A: an awesome band thanks!
Me: does Fork open for them?
A: Uh, you're retarded!
Me: Uh, Duh!

LOL

No weekend ride!

2009-04-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

BOOOO to me for not having a ride to blog about.

Katy Ram Challenge - aka Katy Wind Challenge

2009-04-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

zWIND WIND WIND WIND and more wind!!! Saturday was the Katy Ram Challenge, the last pre-ride before the MS150. Unfortunately I wont be riding in it :( but good look to all those who are, you can do it!!

Saturday's wind was by far the most intense I have had to ride through to date. Angela, Liza and I pushed through and completed the 75 mile ride in just about 5 hours! woot woot! I was glad to fully get to break in the road bike, and it was great! I was able to ride at 22 mph for almost 45 minutes straight, again WOOT WOOT! Ok enough of the rambling and onto some pictures

PS: Goodluck Angela and Liza on the MS150 this coming weekend!

Dolce!

"no name"

exotic birds

on the road again

Bluebonnets

Liza

Angela's fave gas station

team massages

Road Bike, Finally!!!!

2009-04-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

For the last 3 months I have been doing all the rides pictured below on a heavy mountain bike. This previous Sunday I saw an ad for a perfect bike on Craigslist and immediately went and acquired it. WOOT WOOT! I plan to ride this bike till I get down to my target weight and size. :) After that I plan to get a full carbon bike made, again, WOOT WOOT!

Below is a picture I just pulled of Specialized site, it will have to do till I do a photoshoot, hehe.

Space Race

2009-04-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

The name is a bit deceiving, but it sure did feel like we were strapped to a rocket with all the wind! The day started out a a bit rough, 5 miles in Angela got a flat. Thank goodness for the great Ride Marshall's!! Neither of us really knew how to change a flat, which is bad on my part seeing that I am a man, and we are just suppose to know how to do those things. Soon after getting that fixed and back on the road, I managed to break some spokes yet again. I was able to ghetto rig my rim and we pushed through the wind to finish our 45 mile ride. Great ride once again!

living on the edge - riding with eyes closed

froze for da poze

Bluebonnet Express Ride

2009-04-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

March 29, 2009 - My friend Angela and I traveled out to Hempstead to ride in THE BLUEBONNET EXPRESS, although we didn’t see many Bluebonnets. To date this is the furthest I had ridden at one time, a whopping 65 miles. The morning of the ride it started out in the 40's and climbed to a beautiful 70ish degrees, I even got a tan!! Great ride, great people, great hills, great weather!!! The best part of the ride was when I forgot to unclip after crossing the finish line, resulting in me falling and crushing the digital camera in my shorts. Those who saw me fall gave me a score of "10".

Dolce and Bikey

cheeeeeze

its a pony!

Froze for da poze!

This here is our state flower, the Bluebonnet

65miles later

Weekend Summary

2009-03-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Chilled with the homies, had a good bike ride (more later), learned fgts some people are, ate yummy food.

TGIF.

2009-03-27T14:18:00.001-07:00

Title says it all. The end.

Tour De Houston

2009-03-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

Fantastic bike ride!! I liked the course and the overall organization. My father "Woody" and I headed out to see what the Tour De Houston was all about. It sure did live up to what I had heard about it, super fun ride through parts of Houston never seen by bicycles very often. We saw everything from the ghetto on Hardy St., The Heights, Midtown, Rice Village and the Medical Center. Below are highlights from the ride.

Word of the day

2009-03-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

manipulative

March Madness!!!

2009-03-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

wOOOOOt for it starting today!

Big game of the day: UT vs. Minnesota - GO MINNESOTA!!!

B-Geo Ride : Magnolia Miles

2009-03-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I woke up at 5am hoping it would be raining so that I wouldn't force myself to go ride in the cold! Unfortunately, I peaked out the window and saw that the streets were pretty much dry, so it was time to get going. I arrived at the ride at the nice early hour of 7am and was greeted by some of the loudest music I have ever heard in my life coming from some DJ booth setup at the start of the ride, wtf its 7am!!! We were lucky not to get any rain but weren't so lucky with the wind, but all in all it was a great ride. The 44.4 mile took 3 hours and 3 minutes to complete! woot woot. Pictures......

PS- this blog took me almost 2 hours to write, I need help.

Macro & I

Start (cute girl on left that i need to talk to hehe)

My homie Mike

stupid.

2009-03-15T11:31:00.001-07:00

I just had somebody text me and ask me what the weather was like here in Houston, said person is in Austin Texas. So I reply and say it is still cold and rainy.....and then I get a response of your lying, it says clear and sunny. WTF. Im looking out my window.

/rant.

The best smoothie ever

2009-03-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a recipe I have been using for awhile now to make my workout smoothie a bit more exciting. We all know that mixing your protein powder with plain water can just be outright gross at times. bahhhh. Below is a healthy way to jazz things up a bit.

- Your choice of protein powder ( I like Gold Standards Whey)
- about 1.5 cup of orange juice
- banana + strawberries ( or whatever fruit you like)
- Ice
- dash of milk (optional)

Blend till its all smooooooothy, and enjoy!

Hump day

2009-03-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

Today I have smashed my head on my computer monitor when I dozed off sitting at my desk, Kinda funny. I need more sleep, although I go to bed at 10 every night .

That is all for now.

EDIT: I just discovered I have Ginuwine "Pony" on my Itunes. That is a cool discovery, my day is now a bit better.

Continental Airlines Classic

2009-03-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

Sunay March 8th was the annual Continental Airlines Classic bike ride in Conroe. Now this race might be annual, but it was new to me, but I fully plan to return next year. I never would have thought that 30 minutes outside of Houston would be the biggest hills to date I have had to conqure. Regardless of the large hills the ride was pretty easy and once again met some really cool people. Below are a few pictures I took at the event, Enjoy! I will be writing more in this sucker later today, it is a Monday....

PS-Continental Airlines has the coolest bbq pit ever, I am jealous (picture attached)

Fail.

2009-03-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

Dont you hate when you fail. I just realized that something I had been planning on attending, is on Sunday, not Saturday like I had thought.

Fail.

Maiden Voyage!!!

2009-03-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

I must be bored or something to start another blog, we will see how well I can keep this sucker up to date. I will just say now that I am not a writer, writing in these things sometimes will make me have a headache, so just giving yall fair warning that it might suck.

The name for this blog came from a person I use to consider a jerk, but is now like one of my Facebook bff's (LOLOL). For those of you who know I have been cycling pretty intensely for the last 2 months. I was trying to decide if a certain bike color was gay, so I asked my BFF if I would be gay for riding it. Thankfully she informed me it was a cool color and looked like it had "white lightning" on it, and this is where we are at now.

I plan to use this blog to keep those people who are at work "working" informed on what is going on in my life. I will also attempt to take pictures to add to the stories I write about.

I will post again soon!