Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A Valentine's Birthday Ride

Happy Birthday Jan...

She was ambushed with silly string.



We celebrated Jan's birthday on Valentine's Day. All birthdays are special, but how fun to be born on the day Cupid shoots lots of arrows. We planned to ride 53 miles for her 53rd. We tried, but the wind was not our friend. We ended up doing 35 (53 reversed). We ended up at the Range in Bernaillo for lunch and cake (and a couple of drinks) :0) Frank and Tom drove down and met us there. Thank goodness. After filling our bellies the wind would have just blown us over for the ride home. We piled in the warm trucks for the drive home.



Good friends at the Range.

Getting ready to ride in the morning with the group. The first part of the ride was 25 miles on highway 528. The tempreature was in the 30's. Just a bit brisk.


Gina and I were spoiled on Valentine's Day. We both had our special someone to ride with us. My kids were with a friend and Gina's kids were with her mom. Both of us usually try and hurry to finish our ride so we can get home to our kids. Not today, we took our time.

Frank's Valentines present was a new road bike. My mountain bike man finally caved into the road. He said he will never give up the dirt through. I drooled over his bike for two days. I think we should trade.


Looking goofy.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Week 1 ~ The Training Starts

Happy 6oth Birthday Mom,

My mom would have celebrated her 6oth birthday on February 5th of this year. For those who don’t know much about me, my mom died on St. Patrick’s Day 1987 from breast cancer. She was only 38. It is a strange feeling to know that I have lived past 38 and can’t imagine leaving my kids behind. I still cry for her. While I am not the strongest rider out there, I ride proudly for not only my mom but for everyone who has had to endure cancer in their lives. Come take a journey with me to help cure cancer one peddle stroke at a time.


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Our official Lake Tahoe training began on Saturday 2/7. There was a period of about 3 weeks where I thought I was not going to be able to train with the team. When I signed up to be a mentor, I thought I was automatically in. Well, I wasn’t, I did not get picked initially. I was terribly disappointed. I registered for the Tahoe ride when it opened up in January and started to panic as to how I was going to train on my own. I started checking into other riding groups and thought about just hiring a coach to train with. Well, the good news is that I am in and have 2 mentees and hoping to recruit one more.

We have a wonderful group of people training for this ride. Most everyone who knows me knows that I am usually not shy about introducing myself to new people. So when the opportunity came for me to stick my hand out and say hello, I did. I am super excited to be training with someone who has had cancer and is currently in remission. I will be proud to ride next to him whenever I need motivation. We also have an oncologist and his wife training…super nice people. One of my mentees is riding in honor of her sister who is currently battling cancer. It was also nice seeing some of my old riding buddies. Each of us comes from different backgrounds, but we come together as one to help find a cure.

Jemez Canyon Dam was our destination for our first ride. Only 12 miles round trip… sounds easy until you start climbing. But, we made it. I can already see the cold weather not being my friend. I don’t like riding with lots of layers of clothes (I get claustrophobic). Some pictures below to check out.

My friend Cece. She initially started trianing for Tucson with me, but a car accident took her out of training for awhile. She is back!!

Tom my mentee. He is my good friend Jan's husband. I will be kicking his butt to train hard. He is actually a better rider than me. Will you change my flats?

At the top. Gina, me, Tom and Cece.

The girls are back. Me, Jan and Gina.
We are women, hear us roar.

This is a mountain bike ride we did a couple of weeks earlier. That kicked my butt too. I hadn't been on my mountain bike in 6 years. I forgot how the gears worked.




The boys on the bike ride. Jake the hot trainer, Tom and Frank.