Promoting - EVEN Hotel Fun Ride, July 17, 2014

(Disclaimer: I was paid to help with the ride and I stayed for free at the hotel. On the other hand I was not asked or required to post anything about my experiences with the ride or hotel.)

As I posted earlier I'd been asked to help run a fun ride to help publicize the opening of a new hotel in Norwalk, the EVEN Hotel. Since the hotel sat in an area I knew pretty well, since I enjoy working with  riders of all abilities, and since I felt it a personal challenge to do a good job, I thought it'd be a good fit.

One of the benefits was that I could stay at the hotel the night before the ride. I totally forgot to take pictures of the very futuristic lobby area so those will have to wait until I visit the hotel again, but the rooms were very nice for a $120-130/night room. I stayed in a more expensive sister hotel, by chance, before the White Plains Crit, and I thought the EVEN Hotel was a better value.

Unfortunately, because of the hustle and bustle before an event, even a short one, I was up until 2 AM working - riding part of the course with some of the folks, marking the course, then making more arrows and driving the whole course again (and putting arrows in whatever places necessary). This means I never turned on the TV, I didn't get to explore the room, and so I could only go by face value - what I saw was what I got.

TV, modern plugs, and efficient use of space.

You can see my laptop at the bottom of the picture above. I eventually had a laminator and a printer going as well. What I didn't realize is that I could have fit virtually all of it on the fold-down desk that has the words "uber-efficiency" on it. The laminator would have needed to go on the shelf where the orange water bottle sits but still, it would have worked out.

I didn't open the desk until just before I left.

Shucks. I could have used that space. It's a standing desk also, meant for use while standing, not while sitting. Awesome. I might have even turned on the TV had I been working at standing level.

Yoga mat, foam roller, some other stuff, plus wipes.

I didn't touch any of the stuff above. The floor looks like bamboo but I don't know what it is. For all I know it might be rubberized tile or something.

The door to the bathroom. Or the tracks for the top of it anyway.

I loved the rolling wall door thing.

The "backlit" mirror is cool, I really dug the indirect light.

The indirect light actually let me see my face without blinding me. I want at least one for the house.

EO stuff in the shower.

EO is one of the brands in the hotel that is a stand alone brand. They provided all the soaps and fragrance type stuff.

We need to redo our 20-ish year old shower and bathtub in the house. This looks nice and sweet.

The sink was functionally nice.

I thought Junior would love to play with the water coming out of the faucet.

I liked the open clean look. Also the hardware (Kohler, based on the logos) moved smoothly and easily. I want similar stuff in our house.

The ride is on the schedule!

Across from the elevators there's an event calendar type thing. The fun ride was on there! It legitimized the ride to me.

There is a pedaling theme here.

No, we didn't use this bike on the fun ride. The first hill would have been tough, although we could have brought a LOT of refreshments with us.

Optional conference room.

This was part of the grand opening stuff they set up.

The ride itself was basically a corporate fun ride. The marketing rider was a guy by the name of Matthew, he was my contact. He'd be riding and making sure the folks had a good time. I'd be another ride leader. This left us with two ride leader vacancies.

The hotel is next door to Podium, a cycling/training facility that sponsors a local USAC team. They sent over one rider, Mike H, who also ended up one of the ride leaders. I know Mike from when he first started racing, going through the Bethel Spring Series clinics a couple years ago. He's now a Cat 3 and a good solid racer, on and off the bike.

One of my long time friends and a long time helper at the Bethel Spring Series, David B, lives in the area. He also agreed to help out with the ride and joined us as the fourth ride leader.

On the morning of the ride I was up at 5 AM, after a few hours of sleep, and went to get the rental bikes checked over. Matthew and David would do minor fit adjustments (saddle height mainly) while I made sure the bikes were okay. When the first couple quick release skewers practically fell open in my hands I realized that the bikes weren't 100%. Shifting seemed off on a few bikes, and most of the bikes needed substantial air added to the tires. This meant a bit more work than expected (Matthew was told the bikes would be 100% when delivered).

The rental fleet ranged from a pretty new CAAD10/105 to mountain bikes that dated back to the early 90s. I actually smiled when I saw some of the bikes because I remembered selling the purple and pink two tone Specialized Hardrocks back in the day. It was in surprisingly good shape, as were the other bikes from that era. One promising bike, a Cannondale 2.8 Ultegra road bike, unfortunately had dry rotted tires and was unrideable. We used every single bike except the dry rotted tire Cannondale and two kids bikes. I think there were a couple people left behind because of the lack of bikes, which totally shocked me because I think they'd gotten something like 28-29 bikes.

Most of the riders were casual, although a few were what I'd call enthusiasts, mainly on mountain bikes. If they were serious about cycling they hid it well - no one except David, Mike and myself used cycling shorts and no one had cycling shoes. About half were unfamiliar with modern bikes, so the integrated shifters threw them off on the road bikes, and even the flat bar bikes had unfamiliar controls.

On the other hand everyone was super enthusiastic about the ride. It might have been the culmination of three years of work to get this hotel concept off the ground (the Norwalk EVEN Hotel is the first one), but whatever the reason there were a lot of smiles, a bit of nervousness, and a lot of energy just begging to be unleashed.

About half the group before the ride. Mike and David are to the left.

When I plotted the course I realized that the only way out from the hotel would involve a steep hill. It was short but still, it was steep, and I wasn't sure how people would do on sneakers on regular pedals. I also had to find a way to get back over the same ridge to get back to the hotel.

Therefore the ride had a sort of theme built into it. It started with a tough beginning, rolled along with some enjoyable mid stuff, had a final test, then ended with a fast and fun descent back to the hotel. I compared it to a movie - the opening exciting scene, the regular stuff in the middle, the part where you think the good guys have to struggle, and the final triumph.

Someone removed a number of arrows between about 1 AM and 7 AM so we had to regroup a bit more than planned at the beginning, but overall the ride went well. No one got hurt, no one fell over, and everyone made it back to the hotel in one piece.

I didn't have any expectations at all because I hadn't met pretty much any of these people before this morning. Therefore I didn't know what to expect, how they would respond to adversity (aka "hills"), and just their attitudes in general. Overall I was pleasantly surprised - the folks were all very nice, thoughtful, cheerful, and, importantly, enthusiastic. I was particularly impressed with the determination of the riders when it came to tackling the hills.

I told at least one rider how to shift into lower gears on the first hill, and thanks to modern cassette ramp technology (and properly adjusted drivetrains) everyone got into their lower gears for the first hill and we were up and over that fine.

Explaining how to shift on the first hill.

Some rolling terrain followed and that went by quickly. The hills really challenged everyone, me included, but the flat and downhill stuff everyone loved.

I'm not sure who but someone wanted video and photographs so every now and then a vehicle would pass us with guys holding cameras leaning out of various windows and sunroofs. I felt very conscious of the cameras. I think most of the footage with me starts with the camera on my back while I'm yelling, "Car back, wow this guy is close, move right, oh, hey, it's you guys again."

I hope they got some good footage. My helmet cam battery died (I seem to have issues with one of the three batteries I have and I had the wrong one in the Contour I used) so I don't have footage of most of the ride. The footage I did have seemed to be shot over everyone's heads. For races I aim the camera sort of high since I ride much of the time with my head hung low. I guess in fun rides, especially ones that I'm leading, I tend to keep my head up much more than I do in races.

Before the ride I had helped fit one rider to probably the nicest bike out there, a CAAD10 with 105, probably a year old and with virtually no miles on it. The rider came up to me on the second hill, the hardest one of the ride, and very calmly told me that the gearing felt a bit high. The calmness really struck me because it was an absolutely critical point of the hill, one where even I was wary of toppling off the bike. Even though there was an undertone of worry the way the rider talked to me really impressed me because I'd expect most people to be yelling in panic at that point.

At any rate I glanced down and the poor rider was in the small-small, a 34x11 or so. For the steep hill - I'd use a 39x25 given the choice - it was an enormous gear, especially considering the non-cyclist nature of the rider and the sneakers and platform pedals.

"Push the big lever in on the right side. That will get you into lower gears."

The rider reached and found the smaller lever, the one that would ultimately put the bike in the 11T.

"The other big lever," I continued.

The rider grabbed the main lever and the chain quickly moved across the cassette.

"Is that better?" I asked.

The rider nodded.

I looked up. I'd slowed down to help this rider and now I saw that two riders were sprinting to the very top. We needed to turn right, there was an arrow there, but I wasn't sure if they'd see it.

"I need to get back up there. Will you be okay?"
"Yes, now it's fine. Thanks!"

I gathered myself and sprinted up the hill like it was the finish of a race. I managed to get to the top as the other rider made the turn.

Phew.

As we got to the end the riders relaxed. With the second tough hill out of the way they felt like they'd accomplished something and I could see the smiles broadening. After the short drop down the last descent we rolled into the hotel parking lot, cameras recording the moment for posterity. Some folks cheered for us, like we'd done a big ride.

And in a way it was.

For me it was an 11 mile ride, not much at all in the scheme of things. But for them the ride represented just a bit more than that. It had been a three year journey for the hotel folks to get the EVEN Hotel off the ground, from inception to grand opening, and now they were going to see the fruits of their labor. I think that the ride triumph symbolized that, and that's why I saw such big smiles.

Of course it could be that they just had fun riding bikes again.

Training - EVEN Hotel Recon Rides

A very short time ago I got a vague email about helping out with a non-competitive ride. It was a weekday ride, it was early in the morning, and they wanted it to last a maximum of about an hour. This seemed pretty straightforward except for missing a few details. I asked a few questions, the person that contacted me gave me a few answers, and it seemed really doable. After figuring out how to handle Junior (he'll be at half day day care that morning and I'll have to pick him up at noon the day of the ride) I committed to helping out.

For a fun ride the permitting process through USA Cycling is a bit more forgiving. No officials, no scoring, no road closures, so it's just a group ride. USAC offers insurance for group rides, basically letting a club or shop permit their evening or weekend rides. To encourage this they keep the hoops and hurdles to a minimum.

This helped a lot since I first heard the details of the ride just two weeks before it was to take place. If it was a race there'd be no way to permit it (2 weeks is the minimum time required to permit a race). For a fun ride, aka "a group ride", we just had to pay the somewhat substantial late fee and we'd be set.

Of course I needed a route as well. Fortunately for me I grew up in the area, and in fact I trained on roads literally a little bit up the road starting when I was 13 or 14 years old. Back then it was a big deal for me - I was riding in the next town! My friend Allan and I would ride to a hobby shop in Norwalk to check out plastic models of tanks and planes.

Later, when I started training for racing, I rode some of the same roads with a friend and teammate in high school, Kevin F. He and I last rode together just a couple years ago, exploring some roads near my  "new" hometown. Back in the mid-80s we trained together somewhat regularly. I remember turning left into a road and cutting him off - his frame ended up breaking in that crash.

Actually, now that I think if it, it was about then that we stopped training together.

Ironically I ended up buying a house just off that left-turn-road, my home for a good 16 years or so.

At any rate, 7 years after moving away, I needed to refresh my memories of the area, including those roads that I explored so many years ago. Naturally the roads would have evolved so I wanted to know the conditions of the various roads, widths, stuff like that. Many of them are smaller roads, more neighborhood roads, and some are busier roads.

I mapped out a route that might work on gmap-pedometer, eventually mapping it out on Strava.

I also did some research on exactly who was doing this fun ride. It ends up that it's a new concept hotel,  EVEN Hotel, a healthy lifestyle hotel. It's one of those ideas that you think, "Oh, that makes sense!" when you hear about it. Basically it's a hotel where you don't have to sacrifice your health oriented lifestyle just because you're traveling. For me, when we stay at a hotel, it means eating foods that we normally don't have at home - processed foods and the like. It means traveling with, sometimes, push up bars, so I can do push ups like I do at home. With EVEN Hotels it seems like they want to handle that part of it for you - they'll handle your non-business stuff, you just do whatever you're there to do, like work or visit family or whatever. I'll have more to report after I stay a night there and go through the whole experience myself.

I figured that this fun ride was at just one of many locations but to my surprise it ends up that the Norwalk location is kicking off the EVEN Hotel chain, being the first of the hotels.

Well now.

I've done two recon rides now, adjusting the route slightly, and I'm pleased with what it is, at least based on the area. My goal was to make for a safe ride that challenged, encouraged, and rewarded. The ride starts on a short, steep climb, has some rollers, lets you get some speed up, then hits you with another short, sharp climb. Finally you roll back on friendly terrain, a nice cool down. All the major turns are right turns, although there is one left on a not-quite-quiet road.

The front of the hotel.

The inside is really, really nice. No pictures yet.

I've only been in the lobby area so far but it was unlike any hotel I've been in - for me it was more like a spa than a hotel. One of the people behind the desk in the lobby told me that someone walked in the day before and asked if it was a spa, it's that nice and peaceful. I didn't take pictures on my brief visit but I will Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The kicker is that it's not a super pricey hotel.

At the end of the first recon ride I headed down a bit that's now off the route. There's no shoulder (as evident in the picture), there's a no-turn-on-red, and there's no shoulder or sidewalk for the few hundred yards of busy road back to the hotel.

However, on this first recon ride, there was a minivan in front of me with "Happy Birthday Trevor" on the back window. A boy was leaning out of the window, watching me do a track stand. He motioned to me.

That is not Trevor, the birthday boy, but Trevor is in there somewhere.

"How do you do that?"

I thought of the technical aspects of doing a track stand, the idea that steering allows a rider to stay upright, that you have to move back and forth minutely while steering minutely in order to stay upright.

"Practice", I replied.

He grinned.

I nodded to the back of the minivan.

"Are you Trevor?"

He looked puzzled for a moment.

"Oh, the letters are still back there? No, I'm not Trevor, he's back here."
"Tell him I said Happy Birthday."
The boy duly poked his head back into the minivan.

"He says thank you."

And with that they were off. I concluded the ride (this was the first recon ride) and decided I had to test two alternate ideas. Otherwise I was pleased with the route, with the whole progression of challenges and rewards and such.

During the second ride, with one of my two personally-vetted ride leaders, I tested the two alternate ride bits. One has to do with the last bit of the route (the Trevor bit), the other to do with a "straight with no stops" versus "three stops but less traffic". We're going with the "no stops" option, for what it's worth, and that second ride made all the difference in making those two decisions.

After the first recon ride I headed north a bit to Outdoor Sports Center, the sponsor of the Bethel Spring Series for the last few years. They've been a great help both financially as well as in spirit. The sponsorship helps, of course, basically keeping the race afloat, but the owners would show up at the race and one of the owners showed up pretty much every weekend we had a race. They set up a tent, they gave away gift cards to their store, they wrangled all the raffle prizes we gave away, and basically brought the race up a level. They didn't just write a check, they really participated in promoting the race.

I'm working on the 2015 Series now and so I figured it would be good to stop by the shop and give them an update on how it's going. More on that as it happens.

Outdoor Sports Center.

With that out of the way I headed back. There's still a lot to do before the ride and I want it to go smoothly.

If you're interested in doing the ride, in checking out the hotel, you can sign up here at BikeReg. You get a free t-shirt, some refreshments, and a view of a brand new hotel chain. If you're around in the afternoon/evening there's more stuff happening, some food served, and some health/fitness type folks giving presentations and such.

The ride itself is at 7 AM, Thursday, July 17th. The route is on the BikeReg page but it's about 10 miles long and it's such that even I can do the route without struggling too much (and I really don't climb well). We have four ride leaders at the moment and it's absolutely a no-drop ride. All riders have to wear an EVEN Hotel t-shirt during the ride, that's the price of admission.

I'll try to have one more update on Wednesday but realistically the next post on this will be about the ride on Thursday. If you can make it I'll see you out there!