It's been about ten months since my last post... yes, I've been training, and yes, I've even ridden a bike century recently (more about that later). But in the meantime, I needed to clear the sidebar of the blog for this year's list of those people who've given $109 or more in order to sponsor an entire mile of El Tour de Tucson, so here's the list of people who did that last year:

Miles 1-5: Paul Anbinder
Mile 6: John Raimondi
Mile 7: Thomas Lento's girlfriend's cat "Awsome"
Miles 8-9: Tyler & Lisa Anbinder
Mile 10: Jessica Lang
Miles 11-12: Noah Price
Miles 13-21: Meg Silvern
Mile 22: Fred Trinkoff
Mile 23: Rebecca Seacord
Miles 24-26: Henry & Christine Bial
Mile 27: Michelle Lee
Mile 28: Marisa Bocci
Mile 29: Missa Bergin (In Honor of Luke Romano)
Mile 30: Andy Grosser & Nadine Macolini
Mile 31: Jason Damsker
Mile 32: Brandyne Warren
Mile 33: Stacey Golub (In Honor of Bob Golub)
Mile 34: Rob Necco
Mile 35: Kendall Golladay
Mile 36: Temple Sinai
Mile 37: Adriano Manocchia
Mile 38: Jeremiah Gertler
Miles 49-50: Lev Spiro
Mile 52: Dustin & Linda Moskowitz
Mile 54: Jeffrey Anbinder
Mile 55: Wade Kwon
Miles 58-59: Mark Weiss
Mile 60: Stu Fox
Miles 62-63: Linda Rodd
Mile 64: Dustin & Linda Moskowitz
Miles 65-68: Ross & Melody Brown
Mile 69: Mark Giordano
Mile 70: Ken Deschere
Mile 72: Mark H. Anbinder
Mile 77: Barry & Adrienne Anbinder
Mile 78: Ann Senghas (In Memory of June Murray Senghas)
Mile 79: Ernie & Martha Bial
Miles 93-94: Tim Vinciguerra
Miles 95-99: Madeline & Steve Anbinder
Mile 100: The Future Mr. & Mrs. Ellsom
Miles 101-4: Tracy & Rob Baron
Miles 105-9: Helen Anbinder

Thanks again to all of last year's Mile Sponsors!

I did, in fact, get in two more rides this week - I rode both Tuesday morning at 5:45, and this morning at 5:45. Each time, I rode to Central Park, did two loops, and returned, for a total of about 16 miles. It wasn't a major workout, but in light of El Tour de Tucson being only nine days away, it was important for me to get in the saddle time. My back is doing well, and I'm continuing to work on my core. Meanwhile, bike drop is tomorrow - we put our bikes on a truck and wave goodbye, and we won't see them again until a week from today in Tucson.

I'm very excited - and gratified by all the messages of support I've been receiving from friends and family, both with and without donations. Fundraising is still lagging behind last year at this time, but I'm hopeful that there will be a last wave of giving as there was last year - particularly from those who gave last year but have not yet given this year. If you're one of them, watch for my next e-mail.

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As I mentioned yesterday, I rode today instead of riding in the rain. It was a beautiful day, though a little chillier than yesterday. Since I'd been out late last night at a wedding, I got a late start this morning, and everywhere I went to ride was already fairly crowded - Central Park, Carl Schurz Park, Fifth Avenue, Central Park West, everywhere. I managed to get in about 57.5 miles before I started getting a little chilly and called it a day.

Because of the work I've been doing on my core, my back handled today's ride better than last week's, and I plan to keep that work up over the thirteen days remaining. I might get in two short training rides this week before bike drop, but that remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, fundraising reminders will start going out tonight... finally.

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Just as happened with last year's final big training ride, the group at large is out there somewhere right now, attempting to put 79 miles behind them in the rain. It's not nearly as cold as last year's, but also just like last year, the weather forecast for tomorrow is better by degrees of magnitude. And again, just like last year, I have a big social event tonight - not my own birthday party this time, but a black-tie wedding in Brooklyn. So after taking everything into consideration, I have once again opted out of the group ride in favor of riding on my own tomorrow. And, once again, I feel fairly vindicated - although it wasn't raining at the time Coach Gregg made the decision six hours ago, it's pouring right now.

Unlike last year, though, bike drop is on a Friday this year, so I may actually be able to get in two shorter weekday rides after tomorrow's longer solo ride. I've also been working my core very hard every day since my last ride, and I'm confident that my back and abs are getting stronger and will be better able to support me on the 109-mile ride in Tucson on Nov. 22.

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After last Saturday's somewhat painful ride, I was determined to take advantage of as many opportunities to ride as possible before bike drop, when my bike will disappear and head for Tucson over a week before I do. I was ready to do this past week's Tuesday 6am ride, but it was rained out. Then, I did actually show up for Thursday's 6am ride in Central Park, but unfortunately not all the air in my front tire showed up with me; there was some kind of slow leak, and Coach Gregg decided it wasn't worth the risk or potential damage to my bike. So I rode a total of 3.5 miles that morning, and had to bring my bike in Friday evening to make sure I'd be ready for yesterday.

Yesterday was beautiful, perfectly cool and sunny weather for riding. And ride I did, a total of 57 miles (including my 16-mile round-trip to the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge). I rode up 9W, over Tallman Mountain, into Piermont, up to Nyack, and a little beyond - but not very much beyond. The rest of the group went on to Rockland Lake Park, where I presume some of them did loops of that park and then rode back down. But I was having a lot of trouble with hills by the time we were heading uphill out of Nyack, so I turned back, and Gregg joined me.

(As a side note, on the way back, a bee flew into my helmet. I would love to report that I didn't panic, but this would be a lie. I did, in fact, panic for a few moments, and nearly rode right off the road (I probably also nearly swerved into car traffic, but I can't say for sure). Finally I managed to get the helmet off and toss it to the side, allowing the bee to fly away and me to calm the @#$% down. No stings. Yay.)

57 miles is still nothing to sneeze at, but I was having trouble with my back, my legs, and my ass. Ironically I had plenty of wind left, so I know that aerobically and cardiovacularly, I'm still doing great. I just had muscle and energy problems, which should be no real shock given how much training I unfortunately missed this season. But one thing was very curious: after Gregg remarked that he hadn't seen me eating very much on the ride, I stepped up the pace at which I consumed my carbs and electrolytes, in the form of Clif Shot-Blocks, Clif Shots, and Gatorade. And by the time I finished the ride at 57 miles, I felt much better than I had 28.5 miles in.

It's a rather foolish lesson to have to keep learning over and over again, especially after I had a similar problem on last year's El Tour de Tucson - but unless you're really stupid about it, it's almost impossible to overeat during a ride. So I resolve, on my one remaining long training ride next Saturday, and on El Tour de Tucson in twenty days, to feed and hydrate myself constantly and effectively. I will also work on my core as much as reasonably possible between now and then, so that my back feels as good after this year's Tucson ride as it did after this year's Tahoe ride, not as bad as it did after last year's Tucson ride.

As I've said before, I won't be as ready for this year's ride as I was for last year's. But I will finish it.

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For a variety of reasons, before yesterday, it had been over a month since the last time I'd ridden my bike at all. El Tour de Tucson is in less than a month away, and yesterday was the first of only three remaining long training rides. The weather wasn't promising, but I knew I had to go, or I might even have to withdraw from El Tour for lack of preparation. Travel reservations (including my parents') notwithstanding, that would have been extremely disappointing for a host of reasons, so I knew I had to ride yesterday.

I felt my five-week layoff pretty powerfully during the ride; my legs, my ass, and my back all felt it. I'm still feeling it today. The headwind on the way back didn't help, but most of it was my own fault for the lack of riding. But it's a good pain, the kind of pain that says, "What the hell were you waiting for?!" And I did make it up all the horrific hills that 9W South offers, it just hurt.

Since there was rain coming soon, the (fairly small) group only went up 9W as far as Piermont and then turned back. I even got a lift back into Manhattan with Kurt and Sandra instead of riding back over the Bridge to home because I was so wiped out, but that was fun as well. And the whole experience has renewed my determination to do a few weekday rides in the next two weeks as well as the last two weekend training rides, both of which promise to be quite long.

I will be ready for El Tour de Tucson on November 22. I may not improve on my time or performance from last year as I'd hoped, but I will bike 109 miles that day.

Second-round fundraising e-mails go out this week and next.

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Due to weather, some annoying health issues ('nuff said about that), and my travel to Ithaca for a wedding this past weekend, I haven't been out on the bike to train in a couple of weeks, and won't be again until this weekend, weather permitting. Now that we're in the last calendar month before the ride, it's sort of the "stretch run" - only five Saturday rides remain before we ship our bikes off to Tucson and hit the ten-day "taper" period. I may try to make a couple of the 6am Tuesday or 7pm Thursday rides as well, but my work schedule makes that rather difficult. Either way, I believe I'll be ready to ride El Tour de Tucson XXVI.

Meanwhile, fundraising has proceeded nicely - y'all have kindly donated $8,591 toward my goal of $20,000, or nearly 43% so far. We're already way more than halfway to the $15,395 I raised last year, and I haven't even sent out any reminders yet. And trust me, I will.

Slight update on the training schedule - I just moments ago heard from Coach Gregg that this weekend's training ride is on Sunday instead of Saturday. Naturally, because "all" the training rides are on Saturdays, I cleared my Saturdays for the remainder of the training period, and committed myself to something else for this weekend specifically making sure it was on Sunday instead of Saturday. So it looks like I'll have to ride on my own Saturday to get my training in, unless one of the coaches offers an unofficial alternative ride. *grumble*

Anyway, my apologies that this blog isn't quite as active as it was last year... I had a lot more free time and flexibility last year. But I am still training and fundraising, and I am still grateful for all your wonderful support, both financial and moral!

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This morning's training ride, up 9W through Piermont to Nyack, was canceled on account of rain. Although the forecast for tomorrow is similar, at the moment we're planning to try to ride tomorrow instead.

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...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!

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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:

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...this morning's training ride was canceled due to rain. The forecast was so adamant, I didn't even bother waking up to make sure the ride wasn't on. We'll be riding tomorrow, instead.

Oh, and my knee is fine, thanks!

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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.

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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!

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?!

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I don't know if I slept on it wrong, or if it was the flights, or if I'm just tired and out of whack, but my lower back has been weak and in pain all morning. I lay flat on it for a while, which helped - but I finally decided that it was in bad enough shape that I had to take my back meds. I'm glad I thought to bring them with me, though I hesitated, not having needed them in a couple of years. So an hour and a half later, I'm flying a bit high on Ultracet and Robaxin, some pretty good stuff. I made it through the El Tour de Tucson registration, orientation, and bike expo process okay, but my back is still feeling weak.

And our warm-up ride is in 45 minutes.

I'm going to lie flat for another half hour, and see how I feel. It may be that a shake-out ride is exactly what I need, but it also may be that I shouldn't be riding 25 miles under the influence of these really happy drugs. If it comes down to a choice between riding today and riding tomorrow, I will without any hesitation choose tomorrow.

Lots of other stuff to blog about since our trip here yesterday, including a bunch of photos, but that will have to wait until after I get myself right. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

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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.

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As I noted on Saturday, I elected not to participate in the scheduled training ride because of a particularly inclement weather forecast. I felt a bit bad about it, which was compounded by the fact that none of my fellow riders (save for Ofer, who has bowed out for the year anyway) put in an appearance at my birthday party on Saturday night, despite several having indicated that they would come. I hoped that they weren't staying away because I opted not to ride that day, but mostly I just enjoyed myself in the company of the friends who did show.

I found out today that the ride was just about as nightmarish as I'd feared it would be. Rather than the planned 75 miles, the group made it through only about 40 miles of brutal winds and driving rain before calling it quits and getting on a train back to the city from somewhere out on Long Island. One rider had a relative pick her up, and spent the night out there. The teammates who'd hoped to make it to my party largely didn't show because the ride simply totalled them. (Though I think at least one tried to drive in for my party but couldn't find parking because of the next morning's marathon, so she gave up and went home.)

Given that I had a very good solo 64-mile ride on Sunday, and given that I would probably have been a terrible, cranky, exhausted party host with a much less clean apartment on Saturday night if I'd joined in with the scheduled ride, I feel just fine and dandy about my decision. If the weather for El Tour de Tucson turns out to be nasty, I'll deal with that when the time comes - but I would happily wager that there will be no tropical storm in Arizona on November 17.

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Today's Solo Training Ride (Home to Brooklyn Bridge; over the bridge to Joralemon St., up to Henry St., back to and over Brooklyn Bridge; Chambers St. to West Side Bike Path; two round-trips on WSBP to George Washington Bridge then back down to Chambers St.; WSBP to 91st St.; Riverside Dr. to 86th St., across town to 3rd Ave., up to 88th St. to home):

64.1 miles

Total to Date:

1,236.1 miles

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The forecast for today doesn't get above 49°F, and they're predicting winds of up to 40 mph - not to mention showers all morning. Today's training ride is on, according to Coach Matt's e-mail - but I have decided not to participate.

Today is our last big training ride before our bikes leave town on November 9. While I think I would rather face El Tour de Tucson in two weeks with at least one more long ride under my belt, I don't think today is the day for it. I think ultimately my health is more important, and I don't see coming back from today's ride without a cold, or complete exhaustion, or some other reason to regret it. During most of this training season, when I haven't felt "up to it," I've pushed myself and gone anyway - but there's a difference between succumbing to lethargy and exercising prudent judgment.

If the forecast for tomorrow weren't so spectacular by comparison (sunny with a high of 56°), I might be on the subway right now heading for Kew Gardens, weather be damned. But since I can probably get some good riding in tomorrow (as long as I manage to avoid the NYC Marathon), in this one instance I'm going to be satisfied with my whole valor/discretion assessment, and stay in for the day.

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