A great big THANK YOU!

YEAH! I am impressed and overjoyed at the generosity of friends, family and strangers that helped me reach and surpass my goal. Apparently last week I had the highest percentage of growth over my previous week's donations, and I received this wonderful email this morning-

"On behalf of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), I want to congratulate you for reaching your event fundraising goal. Our records indicate that to date, you have raised $2,380.00 for your event, Solvang Century which will be held on Mar 14, 2009.

Since its founding in 1949, LLS has invested more than $600 million in blood cancer research. We fund more blood cancer research than all other voluntary agencies combined. An LLS-funded researcher developed Gleevec, a pill for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). Now, more than 95 percent of newly diagnosed CML patients survive more than five years with a good quality of life. LLS was also instrumental in the development of Velcade, the first new treatment in more than a decade to be approved for patients with multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma.

Thank you again. Your support is helping blood cancer patients live longer, better lives.

Sincerely,

John Walter
President & CEO
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society"

9-year old Winter Vinecki racing for her Dad

Now for your inspiring video of the week, check this out-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjZa0GWa-o4&feature=channel

Last September 9-year old Winter Vinecki competed in a Triathlon in honor of her father, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Malibu 40 miles!

Last Saturday I had a GREAT ride, and I'm not generally the sort of person who expresses excitement in all caps. I got up around 6:15 anticipating a rather long car ride up to Malibu Bluffs Park, but taking the highway cut down my commute considerably. I was the second person to arrive, just after Head Coach Ramone around 7:15. He and some of the other bikers helped me out adjusting my bike to ride more comfortably.


The weather was chilly and threatening to rain, though not a single person seemed fazed by the possibility of inclement weather. Coach Dave reminded us that a couple of years ago the Solvang Century occurred in rain, sleet and high winds, so we had better get used to riding in all sorts of conditions!

This was our first meeting of both the East and West side teams. I really enjoyed meeting all of the new people. The coaches and mentors are all fun and helpful biking enthusiasts, full of great stories and advice.


We biked into a cloudy and wet day, but it cleared up as the morning wore on. By mile 16 we had the sunshine and clear skies that Malibu is known for, but also the sometimes bracing winds.






The first few hills that we encountered were very challenging. I was determined not to stop so early in the day, but man I am not used to biking uphill! Luckily, the whole ride was going up and down hills with nary a flat in site, so I had almost 40 miles of practice by lunchtime. In the same way that I am not used to the physical and mental effort of climbing hills, I am not used to the invigorating, and at times terrifying, effortless downhill acceleration. At one point I went by a speed monitoring sign that clocked me in at 24 mph and increasing. While fun, I was apprehensively conscious of only my helmet and my clothes protecting me from the pavement.








We had a few technical problems during the ride. Coach Ramone barely made it out of the park before experiencing the first of two flats. Later on in my pace group Brad's chain fell off during a steep uphill climb. A few miles later Kira had a flat in her back tire. Luckily east side coach Sheldon and mentor Linda were there to help out. I enjoyed the mini break and the refresher on how to fix a flat. I'm pretty sure that I could do it on my own, but the girls like to joke around about how you can just let your hair down and wait for the next guy to bike past. Bikers are generally a friendly lot anyway, and rarely will they bike by a someone in trouble, especially a 'damsel in distress.'

Around mile 16 we stopped by Neptune's Net to use the restrooms. Neptune's is a pretty famous seafood shack and biker (as in Harley, not Schwinn) hangout. I've been a few times for their excellent and gigantic plates of fried seafood. I was pleased to see that they were decked out for the holidays. The last four miles after that were probably the toughest of the ride. However, I knew that Marylin, who was manning the SAG (support and gear) stop up ahead, had a whole box of Nutter Butter cookies, so I used that as motivation to keep pedaling.




The ride back was exhilarating. I had the wind at my back, my muscles were warmed up and I had a pretty good feel for how to shift my gears to handle the hills. I was also adjusting to the momentum of riding down hills, and learning how to use that speed to my advantage in order to make going up the next hill much easier. There were a couple of hills near the end were I was almost sure I wouldn't make it to the top. Even now I'm sort of amazed at myself. I developed a few strategies that seemed to help. One, I avoided looking at the top of the hill. I found that if I had no idea how much further I had to go it was much easier to trick myself into believing that it was "just a little bit further," even if I had to blatantly lie to myself. I also found that counting up to 12 over and over again helped me concentrate but narrowing down my effort to just those 12 counts. In the end I made an agreement to myself to make it half way up, and then if I needed to I could stop. And then when I made it that far it seemed silly not to just keep going to the top.

I rolled back into Malibu Bluffs Park with a big smile on my face, and though I was pretty sore I also felt wonderful. We had a team potluck, with food generously provided by the coaches and mentors. I made myself a cheese and mustard sandwich (one of my staples when I first became a vegetarian) and I could not imagine a tastier post ride treat, topped off with some mini brownies and half of a muffin.


Next week I will be out of town for the holidays!

Something I learned today

"You will get the greatest fitness benefit, produce the greatest sustained power and have the greatest endurance if you learn to spin the pedals at high revolutions per minutes against low resistance."

Yeah, I've been doing it wrong.

for love of baking...

Bake Sale Time!

I've heard lots of great ideas for fundraising, from garage sales to surfing contests. But, as I have no garage and am terrified of sharks, I figured I would stick with my passions and bake like a fiend for two days. Starting with a trip to the grocery store Monday night and ending with a last batch of scones at 6am this morning, I completed what must be the century ride equivalent of baking. Every spare minute has been filled with making doughs, rolling pastry, prepping ingredients, washing dishes and making sure everything made it out of the oven on time.
My friends also generously donated delicious baked goods, from my roommate who made scones at 7:20am, and Chris and Alicia who making some muffins, and Logan who making amazing cinnamon rolls (which required staying up late to proof) and making the RH kitchen smell amazing, something I'm sure was greatly alluring to people walking by, and Ryan, the non baker who brought tasty baked goods anyway.


We had a wonderful spread, including Cinnamon rolls, Blueberry Oat Bars, Cranberry Orange Scones, Maple Oat Pecan Scones, Homemade Nutella and Strawberry Pop Tarts, mini Quiche-Ham and cheese, spinach and feta and apple and sharp cheddar, Banana Muffins, mini apple turnovers, yogurt parfaits...

What's really amazing about this, besides how generous my friends and co workers can be, is that I spent about $50 at the grocery, received a $25 gift card from the Santa Monica Co-Op, and used some pantry staples I already had, and turned it into over $600 in donations. Everything turned out spectacularly, and the response from everyone at work was awesome. I was left with a few mini quiches, some pop tarts and a few yogurt parfaits, everything else was purchased and enjoyed. I am absolutely thrilled that all of this effort has turned out so well!




And though the bake sale is technically TNT related, it has sort of taken up all of my workout time the past couple of days, but I will be back in the gym tomorrow!

Special thanks

I want to send a personal thank you to my boyfriend's family for their generosity in asking so many of their friends and neighbors to contribute to this wonderful cause. I received a wonderful package in the mail with over $500 in checks from these amazing people. Their altruism is very moving, and I was smiling all day. This puts me over half way towards my fundraising goal!

Long Beach to New Port-34 Miles

Please don't hate me. I realize that many of you were experiencing the first snow falls of the year last week. I hope you know that I am envious of your festive snow covered streets! I would love to go outside in my winter coat and mittens and make a snow angel, and hang up Christmas lights in the blustery winter air. Instead, the high when I woke up this morning was 72. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the breeze was mild, and I went on a 34 mile bike ride in near perfect weather. Like I said, please don't hate me!

On Friday before our weekly ride, I was a little unsure if I would make it. I had developed a pretty nasty cold during the week, but I woke up Saturday feeling groggy, but decent. I met with the team in Long Beach for a planned 37 mile bike ride. My pace group went a little short, as Brad missed a turn off near the end. At that point I was feeling just fine about going only 34.5 miles.

Before taking off we had a brief clinic about nutrition for cycling. We are supposed to get 300 calories an hour while biking, in mostly carbohydrate form so that we can refuel quickly. "Your brain requires glucose all the time. If blood sugar is not maintained...then you have serious symptoms of fatigue, disorientation, confusion and deterioration of performance." Yikes. (For some more great info, check out this article.) Coach handed out some Power Bars (PowerBar is a TNT sponsor) and some weird looking Clif Energy Shot Gel packs, and recommended that we keep one water bottle full of some sort of sports drink to help keep us going. I'm not too keen on sports drinks, it seems like a lot of them are composed of Yellow 5 and high fructose corn syrup. I did a quick google search and I'm pretty sure I can substitue a mix of orange juice, regular sugar and a dash of salt. Sounds healthier, and less expensive, so I think I'll give it a try next week.

I really enjoyed the particular route that we took this week. It was fairly flat with a couple of small hills thrown in. From El Dorado State park we meandered over to the Pacific Coast Highway, where we rode north all the way to the beginning of New Port Beach, before turning around to make our way back. The distractions along the PCH made the ride more interesting. There were classic car enthusiasts out for a morning spin, naval cruisers docked in the Marina, lots of chain stores like Best Buy and nautical themed restaurants with words like "Captain" "Wharf" and "Booty" in their names. When we got into the Huntington Beach area I enjoyed looking out upon the ocean full of surfers and sail boats, and wondering how much the beach front property must cost. At the half way point, we stopped across the street from the National Cat Protection Society and my dubious sounding "Oatmeal Raisin" power bar proved to be pretty darn tasty. The ride back was a slightly slower repeat, but I was feeling really great at that point. My body was warmed up, I was learning a lot about when I need to shift my gears, and I was really proud of myself for doing so well.

After practice I met with Coach Dave at the Redondo Beach Bikeology (conveniently next door to a Baskin Robbins....) for a quick lesson in bike parts. I have now added phrases like "compact double crank" to my vocabulary, and I feel much more comfortable browsing at end of the year bike sales. For some reason I had a lot of energy the rest of the day, I got all kinds of chores done. Maybe it was the post ride ice cream?

Next week I think we will be up north in Malibu, where I have been promised some interesting hills....

I'm back in town

Hi! I had a wonderful thanksgiving holiday with my boyfriend and family. Now that I'm back I have been getting up around 6:45am to get some time at the gym to work off the pie, fudge and box of esther price chocolate that I ate, and to get back into my workout schedule.

This Saturday we are back at El Dorado Park in Long Beach for a 35 mile bike ride. My mentor Doug kindly gave my bike a tune up last night. He's very handy and has a garage full of tools, one of those guys who has a head for fixing things. I offered to make him some cookies (or buy him a beer) in exchange for the help, but I think he really just enjoys the mental gymnastics entailed in fixing things. I'm really looking forward to getting back together with the team this weekend.

Soundtrack this week-A Splendid Table, KCRW's Good Food, and the Today Show on NBC.

Westchester Parkway

Unfortunately this morning I needed to be at work at 10am, so I had to cut my ride short. I got up around 6:20 and checked the weather. The temperature was 58.9F, and as I watched it actually started to go down. I was glad I wore a long sleeve shirt under my jersey when I got out there in the wind! I don't think I got anywhere near the goal of a 30 mile ride, but it was nice to get out there and get my heart rate up. Biking over to the Westchester area is about 3.5 miles, which took around 15 minutes, and then I just sort of biked around the neighborhood until 8am when I met up with the team. I enjoyed the area, there are some really nice roads, and some hills that would be good to practice on. The TNT triathlete team was also meeting off Westchester Parkway. It was nice to see so many friends from work out there having a good time.

During our team meeting we went over mid week fitness, and how to pace line, which is basically riding behind someone to cut down on wind resistance. Haven't exactly practiced that yet, but hopefully in the next few practices I'll get the hang of it (and not go careening off into a bush.) Coach Dave also recommends getting 2-3 hours of some sort of cardio exercise during the week in between practices. Last week I got up early almost every day to go use the elliptical machine in our gym, and do some weight training. I've been stuck at work pretty late the past couple of weeks, so getting an early work out has been essential.

Next week-Thanksgiving! I'll be out of town and bike-less in North Carolina. I'm bringing some running shoes, so hopefully I'll be getting some exercise.

Fundraising-Pie Day!

Like most offices, R&H has a pie club that hosts monthly pie days. (If your office is behind the times, why don't you start one?) Usually everyone pitches in a few dollars, and votes for pie based on the offerings of the local Marie Callenders bakery, leaning heavily towards apple and key lime classics. (Every month my humble cry for 'blueberry!' goes unheeded.) However, this week the Piestapo was generous enough to lend me their time, taste buds and donation jar in exchange for beautiful homemade pies. As a friend put it, " Pie Day-Now with 100% more good pie karma!"

Sarah, my roommate, made her now famous Chocolate Bourbon Pecan pie, while I returned to a childhood favorite, Chocolate Chip, which is really just an excuse to make a giant pie shaped cookie. We also threw in an Apple Sour Cream with Streusel, and Peanut Butter Cream pie with Peanut Butter Cup Topping.

And if that wasn't enough, there were several delicious pies donated by fellow pie lovers, including Cardamon Pear, Chocolate Caramel Banana Cream Pie and Pumpkin.

Thanks to everyone's pie baking (especially Sarah's heroic 2am peanut butter cream), hungry stomachs, and generous donations, I raised over $100 towards my TNT goal.

Marina del Rey Loop-25 Miles

Here's everybody at the top of the hill near the end of our ride.

Last Saturday we met at Playa del Rey Lagoon Park to begin our 25 mile loop around the Marina. This was my first occasion using a route map, and it was nice to get used to it on my home turf. I bike around the Marina quite frequently. It's flat and very convenient to my house, and I love biking so close to the Pacific. The weather was lovely, though I'm glad we were out there early. The recent forest fires that have been raging north in Santa Barbara and south in Anaheim caused very smoky air in the city for the rest of the weekend. You can see the smoke in the distance over towards the Malibu mountains. By 2 that afternoon everything was grey and overcast.

The ride was great. We went down the Ballona Creek path for a couple of miles, and then looped around the Marina twice. I rode most of it with Audra and Doug. I was very excited to bike back into the parking lot where we started. I felt very accomplished...only to discover that we had four more miles to go! Up hill and into the wind! I was definitely struggling a bit near the end, but I made it to the top of the hill with a smile on my face. There's nothing quite like making it past the hard part and realizing you've really accomplished what you set out to do. Doug gave me a lot of advice on when I should be down shifting so I don't waste all my energy fighting wind or inclines. Usually I just keep my gears on one setting. I've never done endurance training before so I've never really had to worry about saving my strength and energy.

After making it back to our cars (again) we headed over to The Shack for the tastiest tuna sandwich and Corona I've had in a long time (I think at that point even my taste buds were tired). I also got a free TNT hat for raising over $250 in the first couple weeks. Thanks again to everyone who has donated, all of the support I've been getting is wonderful. I feel like I'm off to a great start so far and I hope to keep up this momentum.

Next week I will be baking pies to raise money at work, and we have a ride on Westchester Parkway, 30 miles.

Ain't it a beauty

Hmmm, I wonder what is in this box, it seems awfully large....


IT'S A BIKE! Isn't it lovely? My mom (who is amazing) has loaned me her bike for the season, and she and my step dad (who is also amazing) had it shipped all the way from Ohio. Thank you guys so much! I can't wait to take it out for a spin.

And thank you to our TNT mentor Doug, who is a whiz and put it together for me. He's only been into biking for a year and a half, but in that time has done 4 or 5 century rides. I hope to be just like him one day haha.

Training Schedule

Coach Dave sent us our training schedule, and we will be meeting every Saturday from now until March, for an approximate total of 908 miles. We will be zipping all around West L.A., from Long Beach to Malibu, starting out with some flat rides, and gradually increasing to a 90-ish mile practice ride, with an elevation gain of 4000 feet. Solvang is 104 miles, gaining 5000 feet.

The only big hill I have attempted is the one next to LMU going south on Lincoln, and I made it maybe 1/16th of the way up before I burst out laughing and decided to walk to rest of the way. During our practice ride on Saturday I mentioned to a fellow teammate that I was wary of January 31 ride, listed as "Climb Mulholland." I've driven around Mulholland , and those did not seem like easy hills to me! However, he scoffed at my anxiety, saying simply, "Wait until you see some of the other hills on our schedule!"

Sunday no biking, 8 mile mountain hike instead

I went hiking with some friends of mine and learned a valuable lesson-be wary when triathletes invite you hiking. We went north up to Ventura country and Point Mugu State park. From there we hiked four miles up the mountain, and then four miles back down. It was great hiking weather, around 65 degrees and very windy. When we got up near the top of our trail I was glad that I had brought a jacket, the wind really picked up and the temperature dropped considerably. We wanted to start heading back down around 3pm just to make sure we made it by sunset, so a few people in our group (namely the triathletes I was talking about) decided to jog the rest of the rocky, steep, zig zagging trail to the summit. Hey, whatever floats your boat. I took a little break and enjoyed the incredible view and huddled with my fellow slackers. (And by slackers I mean people who had just hiked and climbed up rocks for the previous 2 hours...)


Making it back down was much quicker and easier. If someone had told me how steep it would be going up there, or how far we were planning on going, I think I would have stayed on my couch with a nice cup of tea. All of us felt rightly sore, tired, and proud of our adventure. It was pretty grueling, but the company of good friends, and the mountain views, were definitely worth it. There's nothing quite like the hot shower after spending all day outside, scaling a mountain, or the soreness in your legs when you're sitting on your couch, munching on some much deserved pizza.

First Team Ride-El Dorado Park-18 miles

I met up with the West Side team for the first time this morning at El Dorado Park in Long beach, about a 25 minute drive from my house. The park covers 800 acres, including 100 acres of nature preserve. There's an 18 hole golf course, baseball diamonds, soccer fields, an archery range, wild bird, lots of trees and shade, and abundant trails for bikers. We met up near the baseball diamonds, where our coach Dave went over bike safety and equipment and we had a chance to introduce ourselves.

From there we started our bike ride. We only saw a small section of the park, as some of the roads were flooded. Mostly we went in a one mile loop past some fishing ponds and an archery club practice. It was flat, and I had a great time going at my own pace while also getting to know my fellow bikers. Our team is comprised of all sorts of people, young and old, experienced and beginner, from engineers to elementary school teachers. I got to talk to almost everyone as we made our way around the loop. Some people joined up wanting to get into shape, some are looking for a challenge, still others have been affected by blood cancers and are looking for a way to help. All in all I went about 5 miles further than I ever have in one day. To get to Santa Monica, my usual weekend ride, it about 12 miles there and back. I feel a little sore and wobbly, but also very good. Go Team!

Later in the day, after returning home for a shower and a nap, I went out to Performance in Santa Monica to investigate these 'bike shorts' I have heard so much about. Basically, bike shorts are designed to be aerodynamic and cushy. Translation-tight spandex with built in padding where your tush meets your bike seat. After 100 miles or so, I have been told I will really appreciate that padding. After our 18 miles this morning I could already tell my little sweat pants were quite lacking in some areas.


Next week-another flat ride, this time in Playa del Rey, 25 miles, followed by burgers and beer at the Shack.