Grelk Earns A Third Cup!

I have 3 ways to earn a Cup... The Full Cup O' Dirt, a watered down version called a Cup O' Mississippi Mud and the metric one called the 1/2 Liter O' Dirt.

One Cup is hard to earn. Just ask me. I created the danged thing and haven't earned one yet. Ask anyone. They just don't come easy. Earning a Cup -any of em - is recognition of time spent in the saddle - intentional time. You don't just turn around at the end of the year and say "Hey! I earned a Cup!" - it is something that is sought. Earned.

Dennis took the challenge. Took it full on. The dude's blog name is short for "Never Rest". He didn't For all of 2008 he didn't rest. The dude rode. And rode. And rode.

By mid summer, he'd earned the full Cup O' Dirt - 12 full dirty centuries. Not content, he started riding metrics - and by mid-fall had earned his 1/2 Liter O' Dirt. Then he decides that that's not enough and goes after the watered down Cup O' Mississippi Mud. That means 6 full dirty centuries before December 31.

Well, he did it. With 3 to go at the beginning of December - Dennis 'never rested'!

Congratulations Dennis. you have the honor of the quickest Cup earned and now, the most Cups earned. Not only in a single season, but total. Impressive!

Now, here is his final report:

Started my weekend by hike-a-biking around in the crusty snow in the forest for five hours on Thursday afternoon. That didn't get me very far though.

Friday was forecasted for a 15-20mph South wind with 30mph gusts, so I apted for something new, a tailwind ride. Rode from home up to IA City. Started out super fast on the glazed ice, like 16mph avg fast. Then it turned to slush/mud about 40 miles in and the average died. The tailwind was still appreciated, got in to town before dark.

Saturday's Data
Todays forcast was much nicer with a 10-15mph winds and a fresh layer of ice on the gravels. Unfortunately the ice was short lived, and the mud was abundant. TI training conditions. I'm not sure I like TI training conditions. I found a bunch of new roads to ride and linked a bunch of old favorite routes together for the route. Finished just after watching the sunset, a good finish for the cup quest.

Sunday's Data
Thanks for the motivation Dave!

DG

Two to go for Grelk!

From Thursday, the 18th of December:

So we got 1/2" of glare ice on everthing Thursday and temps in the single digits with forcasted winds holding 20mph gusting to 30 Saturday afternoon? Good time for a century!

I converted the cross bike back to winter duty with the addition of studded tires and gears and I'm glad I did. The Nokian W240s did alright on the glare ice, but the small piles of ice/snow on top of the ice were sudden death. I only lost it three times throughout the day though, so I think I did pretty well. The winds did indeed pick up about the time it got dark. Lucky for me that was about halfway through the ride and it was a headwind! It's really neat when the wind is strong enough that it can actually slide your tires sideways on the ice. And you know its a good ride when your eyelashes start freezing together.

Click here for motionbased route

Will They Make It?

It's December 18 (dang!) and Grelk and Anderson are still in pursuit of some hardward. Or glasswear - or, well, tableware? No, no - it's STONEWARE! That's what they are in pursuit of! Stoneware! Anyway - Grelk is after his 3rd Cup of the year. He's earned a Cup O'Dirt (for 12 dirty centuries), the 1/2 Liter O' Dirt (for 12 metric dirty centuries) and now he's after the Cup O' Mississippi Mud, a watered down version of the Cup O' Dirt, earned by completing 6 dirty centuries. He's got 3 done, and two weeks and 3 to go. Will he be the first person ever to earn all 3 Cup? With a blog name like 'nvrrest' my bet is on him getting it done. After all - what else is there to do, but go for a bunch of long dirt road bike rides this time of year -eh?

Mr. Anderson, while he's earned his Cup O' Mississippi Mud, is in pursuit of the Cup O' Dirt - and not just any Cup O' Dirt, but the Holy Grail of dirty coffee transportation devices- the One-A-Month Club Cup! You may not have known that we have that.... well, neither did I.

Last January a bunch of guys around the Des Moines area, set out for a hundy - planning on doing one every month. Little by little guys bagged the effort. Some earned some Mississippi Mud along the way, some just plain bagged it. Not Anderson. Every month I'd get his report. Every month, sometimes in the nick of time, I'd get his report. Except this month.

He had a hundy planned for December 7th, but bitter cold, wind and maybe a late 'Nadas' show curtailed his effort.

Will he make it? Will he be the first, the one, the only, to earn the coveted One-A-Month Club award? (I'm still working on what that may be....)

Stay tuned - 13 days to go. I just realized - some ambitious soul could start today and earn the full Cup... so, all you kids that have been laid off from your mortgage or real estate job and have an Uncle in Pheonix, pack up your bike and head south - get a work on it - and get those centuries in! The Cup O' Dirt - MMMmmmm - doesn't it just make you drool?!

Here's Grelks latest report, from last weekend.

Another century down, and three to go.
I started out Friday at 6pm, riding off into the moonlit night on snowy roads. The moon was bright enough that I only turned the lights on for cars, beautiful. My Garmin battery died at midnight, so I had to pause for awhile to get that charged back up. In the mean time temps went up, snow turned to mud, and winds picked up to somewhere in the twenties, gustng to the thirties. Finishing it off Saturday was nowhere near as much fun as the night before. Anyway, two weeks and three hundys to go.

The Full Set

Way back when I started all this ultra nutty cup challenge you said this:

"we've got 3 cups, Cup O' Dirt - 12 dirty centuries
Cup O' Mississippi Mud - 6 dirty centuries
1/2 Liter of Dirt - 12 dirty metric centuries"

I've got the Cup O Dirt and the 1/2 Liter of Dirt. I figure if I can manage 6 more centuries in November/December, that should make for good training motivation for the TripleD/Arrowhead 135/ TransIowa/ Ect.

So here's my first stab at those last six:

40 miles of state forest trail riding and 60miles of gravel on Thanksgiving Thursday.


Another 100 miles riding from home to Jingle CX on Friday: http://I was going to ride back home after the races, but I was smoked and I'm glad I stayed to watch the mayhem, that was awsome!

One month and 400 miles to go.

DG

Editorial by Dave: I say we're all invited to Grelks for coffee - he'll have enuough Cups for all of us!!! Keep rolling!