First Update

Yes I have started a countdown.

For those of you who may not know, this summer I am participating in a fundraiser for the American Lung Association of Washington. In an effort to raise funds and awareness for this program I will be riding my bicycle across the United States of America, starting in Seattle, WA and ending in Washington D.C. A distance of 3,300 miles in 48 days. In addition to getting in shape for this ride, I have also pledged to raise $6,000.

First off, I would like to thank everyone for the tremendous support I have already gotten so far; it has been in a word, overwhelming. There is no way I could have even contemplated going on a ride of this magnitude without your help and encouragement. Therefore, I thought that I would start to do a weekly or so update to let you know how the training and preparations are coming along.

I had wanted to start "serious" training the first of the year, seemed like a good New Years Resolution. Unfortunately, I came done with a serious head cold, go figure. So, training started off the second week of the year. I did a spin cycling class at the downtown YMCA Monday evening. For those of you have never done this you sit it a room with a bunch of other people (5-25 or so) on stationary bikes and are lead by an instructor who will tell you to up the resistance on the bike or sprint or stretch for 45 minutes to an hour. All this is accompanied by music, some arranged very carefully so the tempo matches the work out, whither your sprinting (fast techno or jazz) or your climbing (slower tempo) or warming up or down.

Tuesday night Barbara and I take dance lessons at the South Shore Y. We are learning Salsa and swing dance. This is to prepare us for the Cudahy High School Jazz Cafe night that the student Jazz band puts on. It is a lot of fun, and Barbara and I get to spend time together, and I consider it "cross-training".

Wednesday nights are spin classes at the downtown Y. This session is lead by a gentlemen who is a tri-athelete. He has done over a dozen of them with the latest being last October in Hawaii for the original Ironman. Each workout session is like a bike race. He will pick a stage of some race perhaps the tour de France and we will mimic the terrain and sprints during the course of an hour. He also plays the baritone in a brass band. And did I mention he's 54!

Thursday and Friday have been rest days, Gotta leave some time to get the domestic stuff done.

Saturday mornings are another spin class at the downtown Y at 6:30 am! Tony is the instructor and a very personable fellow. He has three adult children and has pretty much been a bike racer his entire adult life. He has lots of stories to tell. He has been very helpful in recommending a work out regiment for me to get me ready for riding every day.

That has been my schedule for the past two weeks, starting this week I will start doing spin classes 5 days a week for two more weeks and than bump it up to 6 times a week, with a couple of double sessions thrown in.

This should get me in pretty good shape so I can put in some serious mileage on the bike once the weather becomes nice enough to go outside.

The organizers of the ride recommend that we riders try to get in 2,000 miles on our bikes between the first of the year and the start of the ride. Here in Wisconsin, that might be a bit difficult. Therefore, I will just do as much indoors as possible.

I have started serious fund raising this week, I have handed out many appeal letters at the Wave games, and on Sunday, I got up in front of our congregation and spoke a bit about the ride and why I was going on it. (Boy was I nervous!) Then for the coffee hour, we being good Lutherans, I set up a little display. I had brought my big map 30” x 48” along that I had stuck pushpins into at each of our nightly stops to show the route. In addition, for a good visual, I had Martins bike with me and displayed it on the PVC stand he had made. I handed out many sponsorship packages and received almost $400 in checks and cash right then and there! Many people promised money in the future, and one lady gave me $20 and said I could expect $20 each month until I leave! I had not even considered offering people an installment plan.

If you have not received a letter yet, it is because I have just been handing them out to people as I see them.. This week I hope to do a large mailing, so it should be coming to a mailbox near you soon!

If you would like to get more information on the ride, you can go to www.bigride.org and follow the links to the Big Ride Across America. There you can learn about a typical day in the ride, look over the route and itinerary and learn about some of the programs that we are raising money for.

So, that is what has been happening the past two weeks. I have put together this email list and if you’re on it and would rather not hear or bear witness to my insanity, email me and I will take you off the list. Conversely, if you know of anyone who might be interested let me know and I can add them just as easily.


Thank You and Ride ON!

Bob

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Ride XUSA '07