Click Here for Gallery of El Tour de Tucson 2008 Photos




Late in the afternoon on November 22, 2008, I pedaled my way over the finish line for El Tour de Tucson XXVI, completing 109 miles of bicycling that I'd started by crossing the start line at five minutes after 7 in the morning, a couple thousand riders already starting ahead of me in those five minutes. I finished nine hours and thirty-two minutes after I started, in 3,487th place out of the 3,814 riders who completed the entire 109 miles.

Click here to read my transcribed voice posts from the day of the ride for more detail.

It was my third century ride in slightly over a year, and the second year in a row I've ridden El Tour de Tucson - and in many ways, the two rides were like night and day for me. The weather was equally gorgeous and tame, starting in the low 50s in the morning and topping out in the mid-70s. But my training had gone very differently, and my riding habits were very different as well.

I still had more strength in my core from working on it in the spring while preparing for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride in Tahoe in June, and although it wasn't as strong as I'd hoped, it did help me take fewer and shorter breaks instead of having to nurse my back every hour or so. I had also learned a lot of valuable lessons during last year's Tucson ride about feeding myself constantly, hydrating myself effectively with electrolyte powder, putting on plenty of sunscreen, getting a good night's sleep beforehand, and wearing shorts with thicker padding... so I never had a moment like last year's where I felt like I was simply too exhausted to finish the ride.

On the other hand, I missed a lot of training rides this fall. Between the weather, greater demands on my time at work, and other issues, I just didn't work as hard to get my legs strong. And I felt it, but not for a while, and not nearly as badly as I expected. For the first several hours, I really felt great - I had some trouble climbing hills, but my riding was otherwise strong and efficient, and I was very glad to be out there. As I alluded to in one of my voice posts, on more than one occasion I thought the rest of my teammates were ahead of me when they were actually behind me, and vice versa (we were just stopping at different rest stops, and hopping over each other, basically). I wasn't doing too badly by comparison, though I knew the effect would worsen at the end of the day when they had more steam in reserve than I did.

Nevertheless, when I realized I had overestimated how much it would affect my overall time on the ride, and I actually had a shot at finishing earlier this year than last, I knew I had to seize the opportunity. All of my teammates had passed me for good by this point, but that was fine. I knew my training had been subpar, and unlike last year the cyclists on the team who were weaker than I had dropped out a couple of months ago, so I knew that one way or another I was almost certain to finish last; the only question was how far behind.

So I hammered my way through those last fifteen miles, especially - with my knees starting to hurt from the exertion, and beginning to run low on my last bottle of Gatorade (or so I thought, anyway; as it turned out, I still had one more packet of mix buried in a pocket somewhere). And at this late stage of the ride, with the police actually stopping us to let suburban automobile traffic through, I was forced to channel my frustration at those stops and renew my efforts.

But it paid off - just as our route took us onto the downtown flats that begin two miles from the finish line at the Tucson Convention Center, I felt my phone vibrate, and I checked to see that Coach Kurt had sent me a text message: "How are you doing, sir?" The rest of the team had finished, and had obviously had time to gather themselves and their thoughts together long enough to wonder just how far behind I was. So I answered him the best way I knew how - by powering up the flats at 20mph, rounding the corner, and finishing the damn ride. This time, Mom and Dad were both there, as was my old friend Mark, and it was a relief to get off the bike, check in, and get my medal.

So I finished this year four minutes earlier than I had last year - but my bike's computer registered a ride time of 7 hours and 32 minutes, meaning it took me about twenty minutes longer to do the actual 109 miles of pedaling. As I'd planned, I made it through with fewer and far shorter breaks, which more than made up for the slower biking and accounted for getting me across the finish line sooner.

But another thing I pondered was this: Last year, I started in the back of the Gold group, which meant I crossed the start line pretty quickly after 7am. This year I started with the rest of the team (minus Anna and Peach, who were shooting for gold medals) in the Bronze section, and we didn't cross the start line until 7:05am. If our ankle chips were scanned at the start line when we actually crossed, then my ride really took nine hours and thirty-two minutes; if on the other hand they were all set with a default start time of exactly 7am, then the time it took me to bike the 109-mile route was really nine hours and twenty-seven minutes, and I shaved nine minutes off my time. Naturally, I sent an e-mail to the organizers to ask them which it is, because I'm just that obsessive - and the answer came back this morning that the start time was 7am for everyone, meaning I actually shaved nine minutes off my time. Woohoo!

(Not officially, but whatever.)

The victory celebration was a nice turkey dinner, just like last year's, and this time instead of feeling burned out from too much sun, I just had trouble using my knees. To my pleasant surprise, the next morning I was getting around just fine, and my knees have been great ever since. My back had trouble on the flights back on Sunday, and then went into full spasms on Tuesday, but I've fully recovered from that now. Last night was bike pickup, so my bike is now back in its rightful place in my apartment's entry hallway.

I even got a very nice e-mail this morning from Team in Training, asking if I would be a mentor or fundraising captain again for the spring/summer season, as I did this past spring. But I politely declined this time, because I think I need a season off - several months during which when I bike, it's because I want to. I made sure to let them know I'd be available as a fundraising resource if they needed me, though.

Which brings me to the final point, and the reason I was doing this in the first place: So far, friends, family, colleagues, and complete strangers have sponsored me for this second El Tour de Tucson ride to the tune of $14,774, which will go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to support its missions of blood cancer research, patient support, and lobbying efforts. I'm very grateful for everyone's support! Still, it's not quite 75% of the way to my 2008 goal of $20,000; and in fact it's still short of my total from last year, $15,395. I would really love to top last year, even with the economy in its current state.

If you haven't made a donation yet, there is still time. There are even a few miles left open that you could sponsor retroactively with a $109 donation (see the sidebar to your right)! Click the link below for information on how to give by credit card or check. Please also feel free to share the information with your friends and family if you think they would be interested; I'm perfectly happy to have strangers sponsor me if it'll help the LLS find new treatments and cures. Thank you for reading, and for supporting my ride and this important cause!

Click Here to Sponsor Me

Just a quick note, since I have to be in court this morning...

My bike has been on its way to Tucson on a truck with many other bikes, since Friday evening.

I've been doing crunches and planks to work on my core so that it's strong enough to support my riding 109 miles.

You wonderful people have sponsored me to the tune of $13,047 so far!

And very early tomorrow morning, I'll head to Tucson myself via American Airlines, with the TNT group.

The ride is Saturday.

Stay tuned, and thank you for all your support!

Click Here to Sponsor Me

...and some very good riding indeed.

I couldn't manage to drag myself out of bed at 6:30 yesterday morning to do the group training ride up 9W; I'd had a long week and desperately needed the sleep. That's one disadvantage of TNT's otherwise excellent training program; all the major rides are Saturday morning, and that's the day I most need just a few more hours. I'm sure yesterday's ride was beautiful, if probably a little bit on the cool side.

But I did make it out this morning, and did several loops of Central Park, for a total of 34.3 miles. More importantly, I pushed my hill-climbing past my comfort zone; instead of dropping down to my granny (the easiest crank) for Harlem Hill, instead even of relying on the largest gear in my middle crank, I forced myself to climb Harlem Hill in the second largest gear in my middle crank. Every time. It wasn't easy, but I made it up five times, which was pretty instructive. Even though I've got a little more padding around the middle than I did while training for El Tour de Tucson at this time last year, my legs are obviously still quite strong from all the hill climbing we did training for, and during, America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride around Lake Tahoe in June.

Of course, the endurance bicyclists among you know that leg strength isn't always the most important thing; I still need to ride often enough this fall, and long enough distances, for my ass to be ready. I think, but I'm not positive, that next weekend our trainig ride is a choice of the 50-mile or 75-mile routes of the Twin Lights Ride, which I found fairly hilly and challenging last year. Again, my only complaint is likely to be how absurdly early I have to get up to catch the ferry from downtown Manhattan to New Jersey... but I'm looking forward to the ride.

Fundraising: $6,413 so far, or 32.065% toward my goal of $20,000. I finally decided that the only way I was going to find enough "free time" to send out all the remaining e-mails was to take my laptop with me pretty much everywhere I go now, so I'm queueing up those e-mails during my commute on the bus and subway. Stay tuned, if you haven't gotten yours yet, you will this week!

Click Here to Sponsor Me

Despite the storms traveling through the area yet again, we finally had some decent Saturday morning weather today. It was humid but not very hot, and so we had a moist but otherwise very nice ride up 9W from the George Washington Bridge to Piermont (Bunbury's Coffee Shop in Piermont for muffins, to be precise) and back. I biked from home to the bridge, and back home from the bridge, as well, so my total was 44.3 miles. The ride back from Piermont was incredibly hilly as always, and due to my relative lack of preparedness at this point in the season compared to this time last year, I took longer than most of the group, but I completed it just fine... and there's still two months left to work on my conditioning.

In addition to a pretty good crowd of this year's Tucson team, all of whom did a great job, my old friend Brian Sullivan also joined us. He lives in Jersey City, so he had about a twelve-mile ride from home to the bridge, and he also rode home afterwards, which probably put his day's riding at about 53 miles. He was pretty serious about bicycling way back in high school, and today he actually rode the bike he'd used in high school, which is amazing, given how old we are and how old the bike must therefore be. We'd only reconnected two years ago, after close to twenty years of not being in touch, so it was a little surreal biking with him, but also most welcome.

As for fundraising, many of you kind folks have already made a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in support of my ride, and the total thus far is $4,964. This means that I've more than met the $4,500 "minimum" TNT sets before we're allowed to travel to Tucson and participate in the ride, so I'm covered where that's concerned. But I've set my own "minimum" this year, like I did last year. I'm aiming to raise $20,000, and I hope to send out the last of the "first-round" e-mails to all of you within the next week.

In the meantime, if you'd like to make a donation without being prodded by e-mail:

Click Here to Sponsor Me

As with last year, it's a relatively small group training for El Tour de Tucson this season. Even including the coaches and mentors, I think we're at about 25 (and this time I'm "just" a rider again). So even with the shortened training season, the Labor Day holiday was going to mean a very small group for any potential training ride. And then each of the coaches independently made the decision to be out of town for the holiday.

So for whatever it was worth, I volunteered to "lead" a Saturday morning training ride just so there would be something for those riders who had stayed in town, especially those first-time TNT riders who might still be feeling iffy about whether they could do this with only eleven weeks of training left. Coach Gregg encouraged anybody who wanted to join me to e-mail me so that I would know to expect them; exactly one teammate did.

Yesterday morning arrived, and New York City was still pretty wet from the nighttime rains, plus the forecast was for more, so I told Jeanine that I was canceling, and we could ride today instead if she was available. She was, so we did.

Jeanine is the quintessential TNT first-timer; she's a woman on the cusp between young and not so young, who hasn't done much in the way of exercise in the last few years, and just bought a brand-new road bike. Although she's already met her fundraising minimum, she's been doubting whether she could actually complete the ride, and in fact last night her long-time jeweler, who used to bike, came right out and told her that she wouldn't be able to do it. Well, that discouraged her a little, but to my delight, it also pissed her off a bit, and she arrived this morning hopeful that I could help.

Now, I'm no coach. But I've learned an awful lot in the last year and a half about what helps me, and I've picked up plenty of pointers from the coaches and mentors I've trained with. So we took it slowly at first, I told her some of my stories about last year in Tucson, and she took to the planned regimen for the day pretty well. We rode three entire loops of Central Park, plus three extra repeats of Harlem Hill, my old nemesis. I taught her how to use the triple crank and gears on her bike for a more efficient ride, and proved to her that she could ride at 25 miles an hour without much effort under the right conditions. I explained how to explore what road food would serve her best (she liked my piña colada Shot Blocs). I narrated a lot about what would happen in Tucson and why, and by the end, I'm pretty sure I had her convinced that on November 22, she might not finish 109 miles in first place, but she damn well wasn't going to finish in last place, either.

I even accompanied her to her bike shop afterwards, after telling her the story of my disastrous training ride last year that led me finally to get clipless pedals after hemming and hawing for twelve years, and I watched as Sam the bike guy swapped out her old pedals, helped her pick out new shoes, and trained her in clipping her cleats in and out.

Unfortunately, and ironically, after close to thirty miles, some great hill climbing, and subtly encouraging a new teammate to overcome personal obstacles, I arrived home and promptly slammed my knee on the stairs carrying my bike up to my apartment. I was supposed to attend a wedding on Long Island this evening; instead, I'm icing and resting. I'm sure I'm fine; my knee is a lot stronger than it was a couple of years ago shortly after surgery. But I'm going to be extra careful about it.

Click Here to Sponsor Me

I haven't posted in several months, and there really have been things I should have been posting about. For the fall season, I was just another rider for TNT; this spring I have been the Fundraising Captain for the NYC chapter of TNT, helping about a hundred riders raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society while they trained for the Montauk Century (now already two weeks past) and America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, this coming Sunday in Tahoe. Together, as a team, they have raised nearly $700,000. I think that's pretty fantastic.

Oh, right, about this coming Sunday. I'm biking another 100 miles on Sunday. I've been training again, though my schedule (now that I have a good job where I'm pretty happy) hasn't allowed the same level of training as I had in the fall (at least not bike training). Plus, this ride is hillier. And at a much higher altitude. But here I go nevertheless, flying out to Reno via Salt Lake City early tomorrow morning, and Sunday I'll be riding 100 miles through the hills around Lake Tahoe. Many familiar faces will be with me; fellow Tucson riders Larry, Paul, and Sal are now mentors, fellow rider Steven is now a training captain, Coaches Matt and Gregg are again coaches, my "other mentor" Kurt is going along as "just" a rider this time, and my mentor Kathryn is now the Mentor Captain for all the team's mentors.

And I'll be live-blogging the ride again via voice post, just like I did for El Tour de Tucson. So feel free to follow along right here on Sunday, June 1, or check in any time after that to read what the ride was like as it happened.

There's a difference this time. After seven years of "watch and wait" with Mom's Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, she started treatment in early May. She tolerated the first round of treatment itself pretty well, but ended up in the hospital for several days last week with an upper respiratory tract infection - which ironically meant the treatment had likely worked too well, given its effect on her immune system. She's got two more rounds coming up, and the next one actually starts while I'm on my way back from Tahoe on Monday. She's a brave, strong woman, but I know she appreciates any and all support she gets from anybody, so if you have a moment to think of her this month, that'd be really nice of you.

When it comes time to ride El Tour de Tucson again in November, I will once again be asking you for your donations, and I'll be asking you for the most you can give. But riding as a Captain this weekend means I don't have to raise very much, though I am paying my own way as far as airfare, hotel, etc. If you are inclined to make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in honor of my ride this weekend anyway, I do still need to make it to $500, so I'd be grateful - please feel free to contact me via e-mail at beeeejesq at gmail dot com for information. (But I do ask as a favor that you not forego sponsoring me for Tucson this fall in favor of Tahoe now.)

Anyway, Mom's got the hard part. I'm just riding my bike. Thank you for all your support.

Folks, as far as El Tour de Tucson 2007 goes, the time for raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is coming to a close. As of midnight this Friday, December 14, I can no longer accept donations online or by check. Friends, family, and colleagues have already donated the incredible sum of $14,760. But I don't want to stop until I have to, because every dollar counts, and every dollar helps real people fighting blood cancers, like my Mom, my friend Christine's dad, my friend Lindsey, and hundreds of thousands of others. I would love to reach $15,000 before pulling the shades on my first Team in Training event... so I will make this offer:

The person whose donation puts me over $15,000 gets one of my legendary, award-winning, got-me-on-TV-with-Toni-Senecal, make-my-southern-friends-weep, home-baked pecan pies.

I hope you'll give anyway, even if it's not enough to put me over $15,000 (or even if someone has already put me over $15,000 by the time you give)... it's a great cause, all gifts are tax deductible, and I'll be incredibly grateful for your help.

This page is where you can make a credit card donation or find my address for mailing a check. If you're going to send a check, though, please do it pretty quickly... or if you're local, let me know where I can come pick it up, which I'm happy to do.

Thanks!

Click Here for Gallery of El Tour de Tucson Photos




Just after 4:36 in the afternoon on November 17, 2007, my mentor Kathryn and I pedaled our way over the finish line for El Tour de Tucson XXV, completing 109 miles of bicycling that we'd started at 7 in the morning. We finished 3,851st and 3,852nd, respectively, out of 4,252 riders who completed the entire 109 miles (and the estimated 4,534 who started the 109-mile ride).

( 109 Miles of Desert on the Bike, 109 Miles of Desert; Take One Down... (Click here for the entire story!) )

Thank you to everyone who supported me on this ride, by sponsoring me or getting involved in some other way. If you haven't yet sponsored me, there's still time; Active.com and I will be accepting donations through Friday, December 14, and I'll post a final honor roll shortly thereafter. Click below to make a credit card donation or for information on where to mail a check.

Click Here to Sponsor Me

Tonight, close to a thousand of us - including nearly seven hundred Team in Training teammates from 40 regions around the country - gathered together in the Tucson Convention Center for an extremely well-run pasta dinner. The NYC team was greeted like all the other teams - by a deafening, exciting gauntlet of cheering volunteers, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society staff, and riders who'd arrived earlier. Here we are, just before our entrance:



They got us through the lines and to our tables, and put on a presentation involving several guest speakers, and got us out the door in an hour and a half, and we felt neither rushed nor bored. There was plenty of good, solid, carb-heavy food (and non-carb options like salad and plain chicken), and fruit and beverages at the tables.

The hour-long presentation was really the thing, though. At the beginning, NYC's coordinator Karen handed me a hat she said I should wear, and that I might be recognized for my fundraising. I'm not a hat guy, but when I saw that my teammate Larry had been given one as well and was wearing it, and I saw the back said "Top Fundraiser" on it, I figured I should go along.

Well, after all the individual regions had been given their shout-outs, and after all the Team in Training alumni (those who are back for their second event or more) were recognized, the main speaker individually introduced the top ten fundraisers in the country.

At $14,180, I was recognized as the #8 fundraiser in the country. (The speaker also recognized Mom, who was sitting next to me, as my inspiration for riding, which recognition was a pleasant surprise to her.) Larry, in many ways the heart and soul of the NYC team as a blood cancer survivor himself, was recognized as the #3 fundraiser in the country at just over twenty thousand dollars. The recognition certainly wasn't why we did it, but we didn't turn it down, either. Larry and me with our mentor, Kat:



We retired to the hotel, where we did final tire pressure checks, and now it's just about time to go to bed, since I'm getting up at the truly happy hour of 4:15. But before I sack out, here are a few select photographs from the last day:

Getting ready for the "shake-out" ride...



The folks bringing up my rear on the way up the Big A Hill...



"It's a what degree incline?!"



A view of Tucson from the top...



We made it!



Down at the bottom again...



Much more to come tomorrow, obviously. Get a good night's sleep, willya?!

Click Here to Sponsor Me

The suitcase is packed. In case the suitcase disappears in transit, the carry-ons contain everything I need for the ride (except my helmet, which I can replace in Tucson if need be). My boarding passes and the list of dedicated miles are printed out.

I'm nervous and excited, and I sure hope I can get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow morning I fly to Tucson with Mom and with about half of the El Tour de Tucson team from the NYC chapter of Team in Training (the other half are traveling on their own schedules). The weather forecast still looks fantastic.

As I get ready to leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has sponsored me so far by making a gift to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It's not too late to do so if you've missed this particular deadline; just click on the link at the bottom of this post. But these wonderful people on this extraordinary (and still growing!) list have given the remarkable total of $14,180 so far:

Barry & Adrienne Anbinder
Helen & Paul Anbinder
Jeffrey Anbinder
Madeline & Steve Anbinder
Mark H. Anbinder
Tricia Anbinder
Anonymous (4)
Laura Armstrong
James Baron
Penny Baron
Robert & Tracy Baron
Elyssa Bass
Marc, Andrea, & Samantha Beck
Kimberly Bendus
Melissa Bergin
Dave Berman
Julie Bestry
Ernie & Martha Bial
Henry & Christine Bial
Marisa Bocci
Farrah Bostic
Laura Brody
Ross Brown
Heather Burns
Stacy Chandler
Jonathan Colan
Benjamin Cooper
Jason Damsker
Scott Davis & Arlene Finkelstein
Brett DeChaine
Greg Deckrow
Mike Dempsey
Ken Deschere
Will Devine
Elke Dochtermann
Brian Dozer
Henrik Dullea
Brandon Eldridge
Cyndi Faulkner & Andrew Ellsom
Scott Fener
Glenda Flores
Anne Foerg & Colin Delaney
Serina Fojas & Manny Mercader
Adam Ganderson
Stephanie Gendell
Nicole & Tom Gerbe
Addison Golladay
Rebekah Gordon
Andy Grosser & Nadine Macolini
Peter Grossman
Gerald Grunsfeld
Jishnu Guha
Oliver Habicht
Yuji Hakuno
Jeff Hardgrove
John & Micaela Hayes
Howard Herman
Dawn Hoffman
Jeffrey Honig
David James & Leslie Daland-James
Matt & Naomi Kall
Seth Kaufman
Patricia Kellogg
Sonja & Ed Kelly
Liza Koenig
Jessica Lang
Michelle Lee
Kelly Lindsay
Joseph Lyons
Sandy Manuel
Jocelyn McCarthy
Kelly McLees
Barbara McMullen
Kim McMunn
Amelia Michael & Larry Hershman
Margot Miller
Dara Mirsky
Thomas Monclova
Gordon & Fredy Morse
Dustin & Linda Moskowitz
Lisa, Martin, Christopher & Alex Mueller
Margaux Neiderbach
Edie Nugent
Mike O'Hara
Doug Onsi
Aviva Orenstein
Clayton Osbon
Cindy Overacker
Stuart Pergament
James Perkins
Jeffrey Pettiross
Michael Pezzillo
Barbara Powers
Noah Price
Thelma & Herb Rabin
John Raimondi
Barbara Katz Rothman
Helene Rothstein
Matt Ruff
David Russo
Leslie Ryan
Lauren & Valdi Sapira
Rahadyan Sastrowardoyo
Abigail Schlaff
Douglas Schneider & Joni Kletter
Rebecca Seacord
Stephen & Nancy Segall
Ann Senghas
Mia Shargel
Margie Hodges Shaw
Kimberley Shults
Meg Silvern
Morton Sinkoff
Ian Smith & Melissa Payne-Smith
Stephanie & Todd Smith
Mike Stuhlmiller
Brian Sullivan
Lloyd Targer
Temple Beth Shalom
Temple Sinai
Joseph Terranova
William Brewster Thackeray
Teri & Jack Thill
Anil & Waikuen Thomas
Stephen Thompson
Fred Trinkoff
Cheryl Turner
Taryn & Stephen Turner
Bob Van Voris
Wendy Wagner
Andrew Wallenstein
Rosalie Walters
Brandyne Warren
R.M. Weiner
Elizabeth Woolf
George Zachar
Elizabeth Zogby

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

And a special thanks once again to Eddie Negron for shooting and producing my video, Tucson or Bust.

The next time I post will be from Tucson.

Tucson, Baby!!

Click Here to Sponsor Me

Well, after Sunday's ride, I sort of expected there would still be some riding this week. But a possible Tuesday morning ride in Brooklyn (due to my once again "accidentally" not having work that day) was rained out, and Coach Matt's tapering instructions specifically said it was now time to stop. Ideally, we want to arrive in Tucson next week absolutely itching to get back our bikes - and if my current mood is any indication, that will be no problem. The only real challenge is not continuing to eat like I'm burning 8-10,000 calories a week on my bike.

Tuesday night was the official "Send-Off" for the NYC Team in Training group; we gathered over pizza and beverages in the conference room of a midtown law firm where one of our conditioning mentors works, and went over the details of our upcoming travel, packing, preparation, the ride itself, and the various parties we'd be attending. For many of us this was the first time we'd seen our teammates in actual clothing, without helmet-hair, and we're a pretty good-looking bunch.

Following the meeting, we adjourned to Papillon for a different sort of beverages, and enjoyed each other's company without the pressures of training. We're a pretty fun bunch, too.

Tomorrow is "Bike Drop," wherein we're all supposed to deliver our bicycles (sans pedals, which we have to take to Arizona ourselves) to a truck at Toga Bike Shop on the west side so they can be driven to Tucson. I have an out-of-town obligation tomorrow evening, though, so Coach Matt is doing me the favor of taking care of my bike drop as long as I bring my bike to him by seven in the morning. Many thanks to him.

After that, it's just a matter of waiting... staying stretched out and loose... working on the strength and stability of my core (for my back) and my quads (for my knee)... and praying for the continued good fortune that has smiled upon me in the six months I've been working toward this goal. One week from today, I'm flying to Tucson; on Friday, there will be a relatively short (25 miles or so) warm-up ride to get us loose; then on Saturday, we'll be doing the real thing, El Tour de Tucson.

I wish I could post several times during the ride itself, because I'm sure that afterwards, I won't remember everything I wanted to say. I'll try at least to get some good photos of my team and myself, and of the spectacular Arizona scenery. Thank you for indulging me by following this journal these past months, and I look forward to posting the full report soon.

Click Here to Sponsor Me

As of about five minutes ago, with my friend Farrah's donation, all 109 miles in my El Tour de Tucson ride have been sponsored...!

When I first decided to ask people to raise the bar along with me by offering to dedicate a mile to each individual donor for every $100 donated, it honestly never even occurred to me that all 109 miles would "sell out." I could not be more pleased with the way it has turned out - together with everyone who has given in smaller amounts, your generosity astounds and humbles me, and I hope you know that you have all done a wonderful thing. I will be bursting with pride when I set off on Saturday, November 17 with this incredible list of names attached to my bike's brake lines.

Now I have another problem, of course; in these last eleven days running up to the ride, if someone else decides to donate $100 or more, what will I dedicate to them? A mile in the warm-up ride my Team in Training group is doing on Friday the 16th? The pasta dinner that night? A specific rest stop during the big ride? In all seriousness - I don't want to discourage anybody from making such a gift, but it would be an interesting question to have to answer. Perhaps I'll just ask the individual donor what he or she would like.

Either way, it's a happy problem to have. For just a moment, turn your attention to the sidebar on this page (if you're reading this entry on your LiveJournal Friends Page, I encourage you to click on my userpic to see the sidebar), and take a look at these names.

I'm really overwhelmed.

Click Here to Sponsor Me

To those arriving here from the latest issue of The True Stella Awards, welcome, and thank you for your interest. Plus, many thanks to Randy Cassingham for including the shout-out in my bio, and helping to publicize the cause for which I'm riding.

The basic gist is this: I'm riding my bike 109 miles on November 17 in El Tour de Tucson, through Team in Training, an arm of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, to raise money for the Society's fight against blood cancers. I've been training for the ride for several months, and the final major training ride is tomorrow.

My primary reason for doing this is that my mother has Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. As I've mentioned in this space before, Mom remains fairly healthy more than six years after her diagnosis, for which we're all quite grateful - she herself has taken a leadership role at the Westchester County chapter of the Society, and she leads our team every fall in the Society's Light the Night Walk.

Because my parents had a long vacation planned for this autumn before I signed up for this ride, they were going to be unable to join me in Tucson. Unfortunately, my father hurt himself only a few days into their vacation; they had to return home, and Dad is now recovering nicely from knee surgery. Since he'll be able to fend for himself, Mom has decided to join me for the weekend in Tucson after all, and although I'm disappointed for both my parents because of why she can go (and I'm also disappointed that Dad can't join her), I'm absolutely delighted that she'll be waiting for me at the finish line. This ride is for her, and it will be that much more special for her presence.

I have already reached my original fundraising goal of $10,900, but I am continuing to push forward with fundraising because every single dollar has the potential to help real people like my mother, my friend Lindsey, my friend Christine's father, and undoubtedly people in your life as well. For more about the specific ways in which the Society helps, please just keep scrolling down and reading... and when you reach the bottom of this page, hit "Go Earlier" for the blog's archives. I would also be most grateful for your donation if you are so inclined; just click on the link at the bottom of this entry.

More on tomorrow's ride after it happens... it should be a good one, if the wind and rain hold off.

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When we started training just over five months ago, the NYC Chapter of Team in Training had nearly two dozen El Tourists - bicyclists hoping to take on the challenge of El Tour de Tucson on November 17. About two weeks from now, only about fifteen of us will actually set off on the journey to Arizona.

One or two dropped out immediately, reconsidering what they must have thought was a good idea at the time. One semi-notorious member of the group dropped out when she finally figured out that she hadn't the slightest idea what she was doing - on a bike or with raising money - and wasn't interested in learning; unfortunately, it was many weeks after the rest of us had figured it out for ourselves. And rumor has it, of course, that at least one person dropped out because she had found raising $4,400 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society a far greater challenge than she'd expected, and did not want to risk having to make up the difference from her own funds - an understandable concern.

But the real shame is people who had to drop out for health reasons. My new friend Sarah, a fellow college hockey fan whose first instinct (as with so many women I meet in NYC) was to set me up with one of her single Jewish girl friends, unfortunately aggravated an old knee injury along the way, and was just plain told to stop biking until it can be fixed. My new friend Ofer (bike_to_tucson), one of the few other regulars at 6am Central Park rides and someone who was always willing to plan rides outside the official schedule, hurt his shoulder in a biking accident in Israel in August, and although he has been able to bike a little since then, he couldn't bike enough to train properly for a 109-mile ride seventeen days from now.

(For my own part, I recognize that I've been very lucky not to hurt my own knee, little more than a year after surgery and rehab. I've been very careful, but you can't control everything, and I'm grateful that I've gotten to this point with only the ususal bicyclist's bruises and scratches.)

These are people I've grown to care about and enjoy, and I intend to spend time with them again. But especially because we had already been through so much together, and because we are all fighting for this most important cause, I had looked forward to spending three days with them in Tucson, and one day with them biking 109 miles. I hope they can join me if I do it again next year, and I hope I can join them if they choose one of TNT's other rides. In the meantime, I wish them speedy respective recoveries, and I hope they know we'll be thinking of them out on the road. Thanks for the inspiration.

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Today's Training Ride (Home to Loeb Boathouse; two outside loops of Central Park with two hill repeats, then two inside loops; E. 90th St. entrance to home):

28.9 miles

Total to Date:

930.4 miles

My first clipless-pedalled ride ever was a complete success. I didn't feel lighter than the breeze, but I had no problems with Harlem Hill, and never used my granny gear. Coach Matt and past TNTer Greg both split off after the first two loops (and two hill repeats) to get their days started, but I wanted to keep going. I had a very nice workout, and still got to work at a reasonable hour. Now I just need to stay awake for nine or ten more hours of work.

Saturday we'll be doing a paceline clinic, shooting for the vicinity of eighty miles.

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For no reason that I can fathom, my fundraising web page is down - it says "Fundraiser could not be found or fundraising has been ended." I also checked my friend Ofer's fundraising page, and got the same result, so obviously something is drastically wrong over at Active.com. I've alerted them, and the Team in Training people as well, so hopefully they'll get it taken care of very soon.

But I wanted to post about it here in the meantime, to alert people to the problem in case they hoped to sponsor me but were foiled by whatever this bug is. I am still raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and I hope the online giving page will be available again very soon. Thanks.

ETA: Something Active.com did brought down all El Tour de Tucson fundraising pages temporarily. As of about noon, they are all now apparently back up.

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Many thanks to Chris White, the proprietor of The Top5 List and Ruminations, for his shout-outs in today's e-mail editions of both humor publications. For those of you who've landed here for the first time, the basic gist is this:

1. I'm in training to ride my bike 109.3 miles in the Tucson, Arizona area on Nov. 17, in "El Tour de Tucson."
2. I'm doing this through Team in Training, an arm of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, to raise money for the great cause of battling blood cancers, in part because my mother has leukemia.
3. I would love it if you sponsored my ride by clicking on the link below. All donations are tax deductible and all amounts are much appreciated.
4. The list of "Miles" to your right indicates to whom I'm dedicating some of the individual miles I'll be riding on Nov. 17; if you give $100 or more, I'll dedicate a mile to you for each $100 you give.

I think that brings us up to speed... scroll down for more specific accounts of training rides, the fundraising process, a short video, and what else I've been up to. Stay tuned... some great training rides are coming up, and I'm going to start bringing my camera. Thanks for dropping by!

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This evening at the midtown offices of the NYC Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the NYC Team in Training group held a "recommitment" party for El Tour de Tucson now that the event is less than two months away. For some people that meant renewing their promise to make up the difference personally if they didn't raise the $4,400 minimum; for some it meant learning about the logistics of ride weekend in Arizona (mmmm, night-before pasta party!). For all of us, it meant convening as a group to remind ourselves why we're training, why we're raising money, and who we're doing it for.

We ate pizza and drank champagne (hey, we take this training stuff seriously!), and our "Honored Teammate" Amanda spoke about her battle with Hodgkins several years ago. Then we socialized for a while, and now that I have a little more time on my hands, at least temporarily, I promised Brooklyn mentors Hollywood and Bubbles that I would try to show my face at a 6am Prospect Park ride one of these days. Finally, our program director Karen promised that we would try to force through an order for some of those incredibly sharp NYC TNT jerseys we were supposed to have by now, and then we all got TNT visors and Chipotle coupons as swag. (Needless to say, I lobbied for more coupons from anyone who didn't intend to use theirs. I'll be in Chipotle Crack Burritos™ for a solid week! Good thing I'll be riding off all the calories.)

I'm hoping to get all my update e-mails sent out this week, but I've still got over a thousand to go. Thanks for sticking with me!

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Today's Training Ride (Home to Penn Station; Middletown, NJ train station to Sandy Hook National Park; two loops of Sandy Hook; Sandy Hook to Middletown, NJ train station; Penn Station to Home):

52.2 miles

Total to Date:

655.0 miles

There was supposed to have been a Paceline Clinic today... Coach Matt was going to teach us how to ride in a paceline, those groups of bicyclists grouped together in a straight line looking alarmingly close to each other. It's a physics thing, a way of "drafting" so that only the lead rider faces the full wind resistance, and those behind him have an easier time, until he pulls out and falls back to become the last rider, and so on so that everybody gets a turn. We were going to meet at the Middletown train station, where we've met for rides to Sandy Hook in the past...

...only I got off, and there was nobody there. Nobody, at least, until fellow TNTer Joe pulled up in his Jeep. We were it. I finally called Matt, and he claimed to have sent out an e-mail canceling the ride due to rain at 5am, but neither of us had seen anything, and we'd both checked our e-mail before leaving home. In any event, Joe had a cue sheet for the ride with him (thank goodness, or we probably would've bagged the whole idea), so we set off on our own.

The ride to Sandy Hook was via a different route than we've taken before, but a more interesting one (and more challenging, hill-wise). Sandy Hook on the other hand was absurdly windy. Joe and I battled the headwind all the way down to the other end of the peninsula, and we did our best to run a two-man paceline, though some of the call-outs were a bit silly given that there was nobody else to hear them. At least it was good practice. The tailwinds coming back the other way were glorious; at one point we hit a good 25mph or so on flat, sea-level road. Then we did it all again, pacelining the headwinds and reveling in the tailwinds coming back. Finally we rode back to Middletown, where I got back on the train.

The real shame is - okay, the two real shames are - it turned into a glorious, partly sunny day, and not a single drop of rain fell on us the entire time... and the harsh winds were absolutely perfect for learning the mechanics and positives of a paceline, but we were the only ones to benefit. In any event, it was a good ride, and I'm pleased to have had Joe as a teacher; El Tour de Tucson won't be his first TNT ride, as he's already done either the Montauk Century or the Tahoe Century (or both, I'm not sure).

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Although I set my personal fundraising goal at $10,900 for El Tour de Tucson, there was always a minimum requirement for me to raise. Because Team in Training invests a lot of resources in organization, coaching, and transportation for their events, they require each participant to commit to raising at least a certain amount for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in order to sign up. For El Tour de Tucson, that amount is $4,400. Those riders who don't raise $4,400 by a couple of weeks before the ride will need to make up the difference themselves (don't worry, they'll have until several weeks after the ride to recoup it).

Well, as of early this afternoon, a donation from my old friend Dara put me over the top of that $4,400 mark. I've fulfilled my obligation to Team in Training; now it's all about meeting my personal goals. The first is to drum up about another $6,477 to finish raising $10,900... and the second is to ride my bike 109 miles on November 17.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, and to everyone who will be donating in the weeks to come! I couldn't do this without your support!

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