Losing Lance 2.0

So it was over a year ago that I started blogging about my Losing Lance project and I haven’t posted anything here since. There's a reason why I didn't share much more, it was utter failure. Frankly, it was a great plan. But it suffered the fate of many great plans, bad execution.

What became apparent to me during my year of on-again off-again struggle with weight loss was the realization that I just had too much weight to lose to nibble at the edges by modifying my calorie intake slightly. For me, constantly thinking about food and tracking daily intake seemed like too much effort. So I found myself on a lose two pounds gain three roller coaster. I needed something drastic.

After years of rejecting the notion of surgical solutions I was ready to give it serious consideration. I quickly decided not to have bariatric surgery. So that left lap band surgery. As I talked to friends who had had the surgery and looked into whether my healthcare provider offered the surgery I found something drastic, but non-surgical, through Kaiser's Positive Choice Wellness Center, Optifast.

Optifast is a drastically reduced calorie liquid diet program. 400 calories per day, served up in a shake that you mix yourself. It's a 70% protein 30% carbohydrate drink. Enough to nudge the body into mild ketosis, with enough carbs to allow the brain to function normally. In other words, because your intake of carbs is so low, your body shifts into burning fat stores, and I have plenty of those. So, like a bear in hibernation, I'm living off my body fat.

I'm four weeks into the program and have lost a total of 35 pounds! About 10% of my starting weight. Which by the way had turned into an all time high of 344.

 

So the goal is the same. To reach a weight of around 180 lb.

As far as bike riding is concerned, because the calorie intake is so low, I can’t do long bike rides. The first time I went on a bike ride after starting the program I was exhausted after a 1 hour and 15 minute ride. I’ve gotten better. As I’ve lost weight, the rides have gotten easier, but I still don’t push it much past an hour. So my rides are now shorter, but are pretty focussed. So far I’ve been working on improving pedal stroke. Next week I’ll start working on some short climbing. I still see a personal trainer twice a week. I want to ensure that I don’t lose muscle mass.

My goal is to update this blog at least weekly as life allows.

Ride on!

Salvaging my riding year...

After a few posts on Operation Losing Lance, it's time for a post about cycling. For a cycling fan,  July is a  three week Superbowl. It's Tour de France time. Although Lance Armstrong has spent more time than ever asphalt body surfing, July is about a lot more than Lance.  I'm always impressed by how these pro riders get up day after day and ride around the French countryside. Over 2,200 miles up and over the Alps, the Pyrenees and on to the Champs Elysee in Paris. It's truly inspiring.

This year, July has been simultaneously inspiring and frustrating. Not only have I been watching the Tour de France every day, but in June I was able to watch the start of the Race Across America, (RAAM) in which riders race from Oceanside, CA to Annapolis, MD. Oh, and by the way, no stages, you have 10 days to complete the mission. And as if that weren't enough, Molly's colleague, Rocco,  has used his summer break from Palomar College to ride alone across the country. All of this just makes me want to jump on "The Girl" and ride.

The frustration comes from how little I've ridden this year, especially when compared to the last three years.  By this time in each of the last two years I had ridden close to 1,000 miles. Last year, not only had I ridden that many miles, but I had participated in the Tour de Palm Springs, Spring Ensenada-Rosarito, Solvang Half-Century, San Diego Metric Century and the Los Angeles River Ride Century. This year, I've only ridden in the Tour de Palm Springs.



While being involved in union leadership and logging lots of miles on the saddle don't mix well at all, it's time to do something about it. I'm obviously not going to stop teaching. Given the challenges on public education, this is not the time to sit on the sidelines either. So, training needs to be less about accumulating a large number of miles, and more about making every ride count. I can probably ride three maybe 4 times a week. Every ride needs to be either about improving technique, increasing hill-climbing strength, or developing endurance for long rides. The work I'm doing with the personal trainer has really improved my core strength, which has improved to more comfort and strength on the bike. the next few months will be about fewer miles, but more purposeful miles.

I also want to salvage the last part of the riding calendar. I'm committing to riding the September Rosarito-Ensenada ride, the Solvang Prelude in early November as well as my favorite ride of the year, the Tour de Tucson. Having these rides as goals helps me stay on track with training. I will be away next week, in Asilomar, CA for some CTA work. However I will take my bike. I'm hoping to carve out some time and ride the 17 mile Drive. I'll post pics on facebook.


Ride On!

Losing Lance Update #2

As Lance's chances of winning his final Tour de France have disappeared in the Alps, his chances of staying on me are also not looking good. Last update, I talked about creating the required calorie deficit necessary for losing weight. I mentioned the need to create a calorie deficit in order to achieve my goal of losing 2-3 pounds per week. I'm happy to say that since that update, where my weight was 329, I'm now down to 323. It's a modest loss, but you know, "a journey of a 1000 miles..." and all that. And while I still have a couple more days before reaching the end of week 4, we've got company coming so I wanted to post early.

So what has happened the last 3 weeks?

Time flies when you're losing weight. I can't believe I started Operation Losing Lance four weeks ago. After a week of struggling and a week in New Orleans, things are looking up! The combination of taking in roughly 2,250 calories and burning between 400 to 1000 calories at least 5 days a week has worked. What this creates is a net calorie range of between 1,500 and 2,000 calories. The graph below shows pretty consistently that when I stay in that range, weight loss happens. (Don't pay too close attention to June 30 - July 7, I was in New Orleans, where bad food doesn't exist)

Remember, 1,500 net calories does not mean that that's all I eat. I think my body would rebel like hungry peasants on Bastille Day. I always eat around 2,250, but if I exercise and burn say, 750 calories, that creates a net calorie intake of about 1500 calories. If I go on a long bike ride, say I burn 1,500 calories, I will eat additional calories to get to around 1,500 net calories for the day. It's important that the body have enough energy to recover. In the last 3 weeks, I have never felt starved. As a matter of fact, there have been days, especially when I work with the personal trainer and we do a lot of core and weight work, that I actually feel a lot more hungry. On those days, if net calories are around 2,250, I'm ok. (You'll notice those high peaks on July 10 and 13)

The graph below shows the relationship of net calories and weight loss.

As I mentioned above, June 30 to July 7 happened in New Orleans. I was actually pretty happy that I only came back with 2 extra pounds. Even in NOLA I was pretty careful exercising and watching what I ate, without really denying myself of anything. I even enjoyed a great dinner at Emeril's NOLA and a very good dinner at a restaurant called The Pelican Club. But as you can see, as soon as I got back in town, I got back down to handling business.

Coming up...

The next few weeks will be interesting. Next week I will be in Monterey, for the CTA ABC Committee Summer Meeting. It also marks the beginning of the school year. (I'll be missing the first 3 days of school). Going back to school means old and very ingrained eating routines. I'll have to strategize as to how to deal with them.

A couple of people have asked me what I'm using to track all of this. I will put together a post with all the tools I'm using and some quick reviews soon. For now...

Ride on!

LA River Ride Wrap-Up.

Ever since I became interested in cycling in the mid 1990s I've read about and wondered what it would be like to participate in a Century. To actually ride 100 miles in a single day. I had participated in half-centuries, metric-centuries (66 miles) and even the 80 mile version of the Tour de Tucson, but never a full century. This last weekend my wondering ended, as I completed the Los Angeles River Ride Century.

The pre-ride plan was for Molly and I to go up to Los Angeles early Saturday and just spend a nice evening lounging lazily. To make a long story short, a morning meeting led to quick and less then careful packing for me. We ended up getting to our hotel early, only to have to double back because we had forgotten some critical items for our ride.

Sunday morning we got up around 5 AM, criminal in and of itself for someone who values sleeping in on weekends. We had a quick instant oatmeal and coffee in our room; We shimmied into our cycling kits (you don't want to see me shimmy...take my word for it) and we were off to Griffith Park. We found the start, checked in and then got ready to go. Century riders lined up around 6:45, (some of us were in the port-a-potty lines) and promptly started at 7:00 am. I managed to catch up with the bunch before everybody had left the starting area. A couple of blocks later as I was attempting to put on my shades I dropped them. I stopped, and a very nice rider had picked them up and handed them to me. By the time I got going again, I had been dropped by the group.

Two laps around Griffith Park was the toughest climbing of the day. Half way through my second lap I had caught up to a woman and we paced each other around the last part of the loop. We didn't know it then, but Carmen and I would become riding partners for the day. We finally found our way out of Griffith Park, (there were sections that weren't well marked on the course) and we got to the first bike path along the L.A. River. We came out of the bike path and then rode some L.A. neighborhoods before getting to another bike path which led all the way into Long Beach. It was pretty impressive. We arived at Long Beach 38 miles in.

At the SAG stop in Long Beach I thought, "Cool! No sweat, now we turn around and head back." Then I overheard something about a loop. I took off with a group of riders, we found the course markers made our way southward almost to Seal Beach and returned back to Long Beach, across the way from the Queen Mary. The odometer read 60 miles.

The ride back simply retraced the morning route. A nice tailwind helped the legs rest a bit. However at about the 80 mile mark, fatigue was setting in, and I was nursing a cramp in my right calf. After a stretch stop, Carmen and I forged on. The last 10 miles were easy and flat, however mentally, I was ready for the ride to be over. After I had paced my riding partner for about 80 miles or so, she took the lead. A few miles later I caught my 7th wind and we pushed into Griffith Park together. My first century was under my belt!

Century rides aren't races, however there is always the personal desire to do well. My goal was an average speed of about 12.5 mph over the full ride, fully expecting an 8 hour ride. Turns out I did the ride in 7:10 (plus SAG Stops) for an average speed of 13.9 mph. A very nice ride indeed!

The L.A. River Ride itself was a good ride overall, and I would highly recommend it as anybody's first century. There is not a lot of climbing, it's pretty flat and there are a variety of distances. Molly did the 35 mile ride, and there were 50 and 75 mile rides as well. The organization was a bit lacking in my view, but not a deal breaker. There were very few port-a-johns at the start line and, for that matter there was no start-line per se. When a fellow rider asked where the start line was he was told "Somewhere around there." A map of the course was never posted online, you didn't really know what the course would be until you got there Sunday morning. This wasn't too big of a deal for local riders, but riders like myself who don't know Los Angeles all that well, it was a bit of a challenge.

Other than that, the volunteers at the SAG stops were very friendly, there was alway plenty of food and recovery drinks as well as water. Even later in the afternoon as we were coming back, the aid stations still had fruit and plenty of Clif Block Shots to give away. I was very impressed with that part of the organization. By the way, a big thanks to all the volunteers out there. From the kids that cut the bananas and oranges to the bike mechanics ready with a helping hand ... Thank you.

One of the things I enjoy about organized rides is the camaraderie that develops among riders. From my spontaneous riding partner Carmen, to the guy that picked up my glasses off the pavement, to that group that formed in Long Beach and kept it together until the loop was complete so nobody would get lost. Or the pair of riders who were going very strong but stopped at a SAG station waiting for their friend who had major leg cramps because as they said "no one gets left behind." In 100 miles I got to see many random acts of kindness such as these, making the suffering a little easier and finishing a whole lot sweeter!

Ride on.

My kingdom for a tube!

It was a beautiful day for the 30th Annual Rosarito-Ensenada Fun Ride. I had been looking forward to this ride. The day however would end up being dissapointing.

Entries were very low. This is the third year I've done this ride and where three years ago there were around 9,000 riders. This year there may have been 3,500 if that. I'm sure that part of the low trunout is the media attention Tijuana has received due to drug related violence and rash of kidnappings. This was compounded by the announcement last year that the ride was to be cancelled. It all added up to a small turnout.

The weather was fantastic. Temperature was in the 70s, blue skies and a light breeze coming off the ocean. Perfect conditions. My plan was simple. Start easy the first 10 miles, pick up the pace for the next 10, but save energy for the climb. Get over the climb and then time trial the last 10 miles or so into Ensenada.Things were going well.

As we veered away from the coast and headed inland we started to descend into a small valley just before the big climb. The descent ends with a small bridge over a dry river bed. The seams along the bridge were a bit wide, but manageable. I rhythmically thumped along the bridge positioned towards the far left with riders to my right. I was boxed in. I approached the next seem and saw that the pavement had crumbled and there was a pretty wide rut. I hit it hard with the front tire and then again with the rear. Immediately I heard the hissing of air leaving my front tire. I knew both tires were flat before I dismounted.

Pinch flats happen when you hit a hard edge or a curb with enough force that the rim pinches the tube. This usually leaves two holes in the inner-tubes. My problem? I had only one tube with me. I replaced the tube in the back wheel. I tried to patch the tube in the front wheel. A few seconds later the tire had gone flat again. I tried to patch it a second time, used my last CO2 cartridge. I thought it was going to work, but the front tire was flat before I remounted. I waited about 40 minutes to see if a Good Samaritan would "lend" a spare tube. But no such luck. I packed it in, got a ride back to Rosarito and my ride was done.

Lesson learned: On a big ride, carry two tubes and more C02 cartridges than I might need. It was a big bummer. But I'm getting ready for my next ride. The San Diego Century. I'll be riding 100k for that one.

For now, enjoy some pictures below,

Ride on!

It's Rosarito-Ensenada Week!

For Southern California cyclists, the Rosarito-Ensenada bike ride is like a yearly pilgrimage. A 50 mile bike ride that highlights both the beauty and harshness of Baja California. And it happens once again this coming Saturday.

In a sense the ride has risen from the ashes like a Phoenix for it's 30th anniversay. Last year it was announced that after 29 years, the ride would be no more. This was surprising to both locals and visitors who come from around the world, because this event at one point had gotten so popular that what was originally a yearly event, turned into 2 rides per year, one is April and in September. However with the however, the Baja Tourism board came up with funds in order to host the ride once again. So this coming Saturday, the 30th Anniversary ride is on!

The best part of this ride is simply the scenery, and because the roads are closed to vehicles, you can actually enjoy it. You ride along the coast from Rosarito heading south for about 22 miles. On a clear day, the vast Pacific fills the horizon and the salty ocean breeze keeps you cool. That's important because then you head inland to face a climb the locals call "El Tigre." When I did this ride in 2007, with little to no preparation, I did the walk of shame, all the way up and over. I didn't have the legs. I promised myself that I wouldn't do that again. Last year, I was proud to ride all the way into Ensenada feeling very strong.

Once you're over El Tigre, the descent can get a bit hairy, but after a few miles you find the Pacific again then it's about 10 miles into the city of Ensenada, where a big fiesta awaits at the finish line.

Last September I did the ride in 4 hours and a bit. This year I'm hoping to get in under 4 hours. I'll let you know.


Ride on!

Theme of the Weekend...Climbing

Usually on weekends Coach Sean gives me a goal consisting of saddle time. For this past weekend the order was simple:

Accumulate 4-5 hours of riding this weekend. Divide up the days however you want, but be sure to get in the time. Make one day hilly, the other day flat.

On my last post I wrote about my leg busting Saturday ride. Sunday was supposed to be an easy 2 hour relatively flat ride. Well, Molly wakes up wanting to go for a ride. There is this 3.5 mile loop close to our house that I do when I want to do some long and short hill reps. We did four laps. By the end of the ride, my legs were like spaghetti. I think next time Molly says "lets go for a ride," I'm using the coach's orders as an excuse to not go. In reality the ride was a lot of fun, tough, but fun. I enjoy when we get a chance to ride together.

Climbing was such a part of the cycling weekend that I even got into a conversation about it with a Twitter friend, Darby Collier. It just so happened that he did some climbing on Saturday as well, and his experience prompted him to post a pretty interesting article on the subject on his blog, Darby's Ride. It's titled 5 ways to Improve Climbing. It's great for those of you who might be starting out in cycling or just want a refresher. Check it out!

Ride on!

A good Saturday ride...

32.10 mi in 02:42:19 hours at 11.87 mi/h

Got off to a late start today. Got out of the house expecting a 3 hour ride, so I eased into it as I maneuvered the short hilly rides that take me to one of my hillier routes.

I got over the first big hill on my ride and all of a sudden I feel a squirrelly rear. (The bike's, not mine.) Damn! Flat tire. After cursing a bit, then I realized my luck. I probably got the flat going down a hill at 35 mph. So, I got into my "Mary Poppins" Camelback backpack, pulled out some tire levers a C02 cartridge and a new tube. I was impatient fixing the flat and didn't make sure the tire was properly set on the rim. After I inflated the tire it had a huge bulge, so I had to re-do it. The lack of patience made my stop longer. Anyway, once fixed I got going and hoped for no more flats. I was out of CO2.

The rest of the ride was great. I feel much stronger on the climbs these days. While there are no HUGE hill here, there are a lot of smallish ones, and one in particular long hill that has some very steep sections and false flats. Got through the climbs fairly well. Even had some juice to attack some rolling hills as I got close to home. By the time I was on the home stretch, my legs were complaining. Overall however, I knocked off 10 minutes off this ride from the last time I did it. And to top it all off, I saw the most beautiful sunset. I'll take a picture next time.

Ride on!

The Great March!

I love Spring! I love seeing the explosion of color all around. And I love Daylight Savings Time (DST), when all of a sudden there’s that extra hour of daylight in the afternoon. The teacher part of me that faces a 50 minute commute and has to get up in the dark again isn’t so crazy about it, but the cyclist part of me gets ecstatic. Because of my schedule I’m relegated to riding after school. However when sunset is at 5:30pm or so, it’s difficult to get out of work, take care of issues after work, and then get a ride in before it gets too dark. This means I spend January and February in the gym working on the spin bike and very few miles on the road.

However once DST rolls around, The Girl gets tuned up, the bike rack goes on the PT Cruiser and it’s time to ride! This past March was the month that I logged more miles on the saddle than in any other month in my life. I managed to log 380 miles on the bike. I had a pretty successful Solvang ride, and am feeling pretty good about climbing “El Tigre” on the Rosarito-Ensenada ride on April 16th. For the uninitated, El Tigre is a 2 mile hill that starts at sea level and climbs over 800 feet in just over 2 miles. It's the only real challenge in what is otherwise a breathtakingly beautiful ride.

At this point my goal is to keep the momentum going. While I’ve set a goal of about 300 miles per month for the year, you can see by the chart I fell short in January and February. A few more months of March and I’ll make up the deficit. It has helped that I’ve been on Spring Break however I also have the motivation of a couple of rides that are coming up these next few months: The aforementioned Rosarito-Ensenada in April, the San Diego Century in May and the Los Angeles River Ride in June. The latter will be my first attempt at a full century! I’m feeling confident right now because DST stands for Days on the Saddle Time.

Ride on!

A good week of training

I had a good training week. After weeks of wishy-washy, more days off the bike than on, and the fact that I struggled a bit with Tour de Palm Springs, this week was hunker down week. Palm Springs was the first ride of my "season" so I don't feel so bad about struggling a bit. With the Solvang Half-Century in March, the Tour of the Tucson Mountains in April, and possibly the San Diego Century in May, I'll be spending a lot of time on the saddle and more time than ever before on climbing. Its time to put serious ass time on the saddle.

This week was all about getting back into a training routine. During the week I did 3 rides, all focused on time trialing and doing cruise reps. My ride today, Saturday, was completely focused on hills. Coach Sean, had me go out and find some 6 minute climbs. My task was to go up but not go above my Zone 5a heart rate. I accomplished that for the most part, but not entirely. Although only about 30 minutes of my almost 3 hour ride was spent abouve that zone. With roughly 1520 feet of climbing, and thankfully about the same in descents, it was a challenge, but it was fun. Training my weaknesses.

This is what my ride looked like today:

The weight loss program also went on hiatus for a few weeks, but I am now back on track. Tracking all of my food through the Livestrong website and their "Daily Plate." Good tools and a very impressive amount of foods listed in their database. I'll report more on that as I become more familiar with it. In any case, I've been keeping track of my food intake all week.

Another bit of fun news, is that the rest of the year I'll be wearing the 53x11Coffee kit on the organized rides I'm participating in. I mentioned this to my students the other day and they thought it was completely appropriate for me to be sponsored by a coffee company that caters to cyclists. I want to extend a big thank you to Evan Laurence at 53x11Coffee.com for agreeing to be a sponsor even though I'm not a racer. My students are also thankful that I will be well caffeinated.

Lessons from the Tucson Mountains

All hail the conquering hero! I have conquered the Tucson Mountains. They are mine! I OWN them. Ok, perhaps I’m overstating a bit…err…a lot. the truth of the matter is that I survived the weekend’s Tour of the Tucson Mountains bicycling ride put on by Perimeter Bicycling. Don’t get me wrong I did well. There were roughly 1200 starters, and according to the official website I came in 709th. Not great, but considering only 722 finished, not bad either. There were 478 riders that didn’t finish. Officially it took me 5:45:01 from start to finish, with an average speed of 12.8 mph. My cycle computer, which measures on seat ride time told an even better story. Without the 3 food stops,4 stretch breaks, and 1 “nature” stop, it took me 5:03 with an average speed of 14.2 mph. I’ll take it!

The course was one big 72 mile loop around the Mountains outside of Tucson. (Click here for course map). It was a relatively flat course with no real big climbs, just a pretty steady upward slope for most of the first half of the ride. Riders call these “false flats.” (Click here for a profile view). I have to say the toughest part about the ride was the wind. The wind was blowing in such a way that for most of the first half of the ride we were riding into a headwind. With the exception of the relatively long stretch of Ajo Road, we rarely had the benefit of a tailwind.

Overall it was a good ride for me. I improved on my average speed on both the El Tour de Tucson ride in November, and the Solvang half-Century in March. Plus I set a personal record for longest single day ride for me. I also learned some lessons about bicycling in general and myself in particular. Here are some:

1. I don’t mind so much when the 20 somethings pass me like I'm standing still…it’s the 60 somethings that really hurt the self-esteem.

2. I need to learn to eat on the bike. Food breaks take time and often come after I’ve depleted immediate energy stores. Eating on the bike would allow me to be more consistent in my energy level.

3. Kevlar tires rock! The Girl’s new Continental Ultra Gatorskin tires allowed me to do the whole route without a problem. T the half-way mark I heard a woman say she had already had 3 flats.

4. Do more hill reps! I need to get much more comfortable lugging my huge body over hills faster. On the flip side, it would probably be better if my belly had a lot less jelly in it.

5. It’s nice to get encouragement on the road. This ride I did some txtcasting to friends and family thanks to the iPhone. It was nice to get responses while riding. It was also nice to get encouragement from fellow riders.

6. Be nice to the people you pass…you never know when they’ll pass you.

7. Talk nice to your bike.

8. The right equipment makes a difference. I know I look ridiculous in my spandex bib-shorts, but the Performance Ultra bib shorts literally saved my ass.

9. Preparation is key. I know I could have done better had I ridden more over the last month. However, the fact that I’ve ridden over 785 miles this year alone have made a difference.

10. Wear Sunscreen.

And last but most certainly not least, support is critical. Molly has been extremely helpful and supportive of my riding. She’s been my cheerleader and my SAG wagon on many a ride. She’s made all the difference in this and many other areas of my life. And I promise to listen to her next time she says. "Wear sunscreen."

Tour de Tucson: it's about the people

Sat, Nov 17, 2007 - 66.00 mi [Cycling]
66.00 mi in 06:48:42 hours at 9.69 mi/h on Giant Cypress. [Cycling] My first Tour de Tucson and first ride over 50 miles.
Posted from My Cycling Log
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Today I did one of the most difficult physical things I've ever done in my life. I rode the 66 mile ride of the El Tour de Tucson. I started bicycling on and off, mostly off, since the mid 1990s. Since then one of my goals has been to ride in a century, a 100 mile single day ride. The most I had ever accomplished was the Rosarito-Ensenada 50 mile Fun Ride back in April 2000 and earlier this year in September 2007. I was a bit disappointed in my results in that ride, I decided to train a bit more and enter another organized ride.

The Tour de Tucson had many things going for it. One, it was a very well organized ride, this was the 25th anniversary of that ride. Second, it's a nationally recognized ride, as a matter of fact the League of American Bicyclists, declared the El Tour de Tucson the National Rally for 2007. Lastly, it was in Molly's home town and we had free accomodations at her mom's. Given these reasons and the fact that proceeds go to a wonderful cause, both Molly and I signed up and went for it.

It was Molly's first organized ride, so she took on what she would apologetically call the "Wuss Ass 33 mile ride." I'm pretty sure that by the end of that ride she realized there was nothing wuss ass about it. I took on the 66 mile portion, which I knew would be a challenge for me. Turns out I was right. I was good for about 50 miles, even with the the first 1/3 of that having some sort of hill climbing. I got through the last 10 miles by sheer will.

So, here are some lessons from my Tour experience. Although they are born from cycling, oddly enough they pertain to life in general:
1) When taking on a challenge, prepare. I rode for weeks before this ride, but not enough, and not with a purpose.
2) When going uphill...be patient, find your pace and keep turning the pedals. This is true in life as well.
3) It's not about what we accomplish or how fast we get to the finish line, it's the people along the way that make a difference.

That last point is really important. There were over 12,000 cyclists in this event and thousands of volunteers. Each and every one of them made this event great. The men and women of all ages that manned the aid stations were quick to refill your water bottles and to offer a banana or a sandwich. They were even quicker with words of encouragement and a "you're doing great!" no matter how late in the day it was. The police officers, which voluneered their time to keep us safe along a 109 mile route. And those yellow shirted bike patrol people? They were riding with us but were quick to encourage and stop to help. I saw them help with flat tires, and offer first aid. They were fantastic. It's because of this part of the experience that Molly and I are already planning on doing the 80 mile ride in 2008.

Some pictures from our ride: