Breast Cancer Ride

Breast Cancer Ride 2009

Last week I received a call from Kari Mitchell, one of the organizer's for the Breast Cancer Ride. She called to inform me that the BCR, in addition to benefiting the Open Arms of America association was also benefiting the Susan G. Komen organization. This was great news! Kari and I talked for some time about last year's ride and what was in store for this year. She said they were tweaking the return ride as some riders had trouble with the hills on the second day. Kari said they are working on a route that would hopefully include part of the Cannon Valley Trail.

I have already committed to this ride and hope to get others to ride with me. This was one of my favorite rides last summer. Another thing Kari mentioned is that this year the ride will take place August 1 - 2, so that it doesn't conflict with the MS150 ride. Last year they were only about a week apart, if I remember correctly. I've already committed to the MS150 ride again this year too.

If you're interested a blog has been started for the Breast Cancer Ride, it was developed to allow riders, crew members, volunteers and supporters of the ride a chance to share their stories, training regimen, fund-raising techniques (I sure could use some of those ideas) or anything else they want to write about.

As most everyone knows I love to ride my bike and I usually do rides "just for the fun of it." The St. Paul Classic, Mesabi Trail ride, even the Tour of Saints rides were examples of that but the Breast Cancer ride and the MS150 ride hold a different meaning for me.

Cancer has hit my family hard on both sides, nearly all of my aunts and uncles have died of cancer and my grandmother on my mom's side died of cancer. My father was diagnosed with cancer nearly three years ago. I have three cousins battling cancer right now, all of which are under 50 years old, one is under 40. Both my Grandmother and my Aunt on my dad's side had breast cancer and I've had three biopsies for Breast Cancer myself, fortunately they were all benign. To say this cause holds a special place in my heart would be putting it mildly. I also have several friends who have battled Breast Cancer, this is something that is just not going to go away. We need research, we need medicine, we need people to contribute to organizations like Open Arms of America and Susan G. Komen.

If riding a bike isn't your thing, then volunteer, sponsor someone (pick me), collect money from your family, friends, co-workers, get involved. An Orientation Meeting will be held Monday, February 9 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm at the Bloomington REI store, what better reason to stop by the REI store. There will be more orientation meetings so check the Breast Cancer Ride website. The orientation meeting is a great place to learn more about the Breast Cancer Ride. I'll be there, come on by.

Sessioning...

picking out a small section of trail and doing it over and over again until you get it right.

I recently read this article on the Mountain biking by 198 website "How To Become A Better Mountain Biker and in part 2 he discusses sessioning; in other words practice. This is a great piece of information and something I never do. This year I'm adding it to my riding. Rock gardens are my fear zone, so they are first on my list. Practice, practice, practice.

Winter in Minnesota

I've finally admitted it; it's winter! Eid al-Adha has come and gone. Winter Solstice has come and gone, whew, we made it through the longest night without any ghost issues. Hanukkah has begun and is soon to pass. Christmas is over. Boxing Day is over. All of this means, I ain't ridin' my bike. I have moved everything into the basement and put the road bike on the trainer. It's not much fun but I can at least catch up on all the movies I've been wanting to see. 

I've plugged the TV in and hooked up the DVD player and the cable box, all by myself! The bike is strategically placed in front of the TV for better viewing. I have a stack of wood near the fireplace just in case I don't workout hard enough to stay warm. So far that has not been a problem but you never know, we still have January coming up. I also found my weights and workout balls so I have no excuse for not staying in condition over the winter. The gym I belong to has closed the location closest to my house so I don't know if I will be makin' it to the gym. I'm not much a gym person anyway; somehow I just can't get myself to go and having everything I need right here at home works much better. 

I certainly miss my long Friday morning rides and my afterwork rides on the Gateway. I'm sure we will get a couple warmer days and I will be able to try winter riding again.  I can also spend this time figuring out next years rides; that's half the fun anyway. 

40 degrees in December

Dint wanna waste the bright, bright sun shiny day so I pulled the old Kona out of the garage yesterday. I haven't ridden this bike for quite some time so I wasn't sure what condition it was in. Mike's boyfriend Curt had been riding it over the summer so I figured it should be OK. I brought it into the house to warm up a bit, even at 40 the bike was super cold; call me a wimp but I dint wanna put my butt on a cold bike. I added air to the tires and lowered the seat and it was ready to go. I headed to the park down the street, getting used to riding on the snow. I have zero experience with riding in the snow. I went out one time early this year to check out the Gateway trail and ended up riding in some snow but that was all. Anyway, the snow on the street was pretty well packed and not too bad to ride on; the snow in the park was something else entirely. Super fun! I rode around the neighborhood for a while just testing things out. The slushy snow was probably the worst, the hard packed stuff was a little slippery but not too bad to ride on. I only hit one spot of nastiness where I thought I might lose it and as expected I had a car behind me but I just pedaled harder and stayed upright. 

I think having the hardtail and a heavier bike made things a little easier, like putting sand bags in the back of the pickup. I really enjoyed my ride through the neighborhood, the neighbors probably think I'm nuts but that's OK. It felt good to be out riding again, I haven't been on my bike since October. My back is starting to feel normal again, now I just have to keep it that way. I have some space in the basement set up for my bike trainer and workout equipment, so I should be good to go for the winter. 

The weather today has been yucky, it was raining when I drove to work at 0530 and now the temperature has dropped and we are getting snow. I guess I wont be doing any outside riding for a while again. Good thing I bought those cross country skis to keep me entertained through the winter add that to my curling and yoga and my evenings are pretty well filled. 

SYLVIE AWARD - MS150 Ride

This weekend was the Minnesota Chapter Multiple Sclerosis state convention. We, the Edina Realty "Real Estate Riders" received the Sylvie Award for raising the most team funds in 2008. We as a team raised over $112,000.00.

Thank you to Edina Realty, Mortgage, Title and Real Estate our team sponsor. Thank you to all of the MS staff and their many volunteers that made the MS150 ride so enjoyable. Thank you my family and friends who supported me in so many ways, without you we could not have made this happen. 

GOALS FOR THE 2009 REAL ESTATE RIDERS: To have 175 riders and to raise $125,000.00. We believe that both of these goals are very realistic. If you have not signed up you can go to www.realestateriders.org and click on the button that says "Join The Team". This will take you right to registration. The price to register is $30 until December 31, 2008, then the price will go up to $40. Save $10 and sign up before the price goes up!

Come on, join the team, let's ride together to fight this disease!

bikes

I took a count the other day, I now have in my possession two mountain bikes, two road bikes and one hybrid. I am in the "clean out the house" mode and need to make decisions about what I'm going to do with these. I know I'm keeping the two mountain bikes and one road bike. I may have a buyer for the hybrid so that just leaves the other road bike.  I was using the hybrid to ride to work but have decided to add a rack to one of my mountain bikes and use that instead. 

I need to purchase some warmer riding clothes, right now I'm good until about 35/40 degrees but anything colder than that and I freeze. I also need to find my other head light as it has disappeared over the summer.   

I haven't been on my bike for nearly a month as my lower back has been bothering me but I've decided to just bite the bullet and deal with it. I eat way too much to not be exercising on a regular basis. Curling season has begun so my Tuesday and Friday nights are dedicated to that, Thursday is yoga night so I'm thinking Mondays and Wednesdays will be good riding days, and maybe a Friday morning. 

One lesson I learned this year is that if I'm going to spend my summer riding then I better spend my winter getting my projects around the house done. I've been in a mad scramble to get the yard ready for winter and I don't think I'm going to make it.  I need at least two more warm days to get it completed. I'm happy I was able to get a load of wood before the weather turned crappy. 

Brrr, I miss the sun. The way the squirrels and birds have been acting this year I think we are in for a long winter.