One Week Later!

Only one week after my race and the only long term effects are a sore lower back (it is really sore though). I know that I will do this again. The race was great, and I feel awesome for having raised money for a great cause.

There were over 9,000 riders in the El Tour de Tucson, and I came in 3,000something. I feel pretty good about that. Of the 9,000, 500+ were riders from Team in Training riding for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We raised over $2 Million dollars for Leukemia and Lymphoma while in Tucson!

I have to go and watch Tom Osborne's press conference. At least I am having a better day than Bill Callahan :)

I did it, and I am home!

It is 1:20 am on Monday (the 19th) and I just got home from my trip to Tucson. How do I look? Tired? Anyway, I will post more pictures and more stories later, right now I just want to go to bed.

I did it!

Kissing my Silver medal!

Beckie and Chad

Beckie and Chad surprised me and came to my race!

Crossing the Santa Cruz

Ready To Go

It is 6 a.m. And we are ready to go. I am wearing my Nebraska socks
and have my reminder of why I am doing this on my arm... In memory of
Aunt Sandra.

Made it to Tucson

Having supper on Thursday night. Left to right: Jess, Stacia. Erleen,
Brent, James, and Me.

This is what I am in for...

Here is a picture from a previous year's El Tour de Tucson. Our coach, Brent, sent this to us so we will have an idea of what we are in for. There are two places in the ride where we have to dismount and carry our bikes. From what I have read, this creek crossing is about 12 miles into the ride. It looks like fun.

Here is the address for the tour's web page: http://www.pbaa.com/!ETT/ETThome.html

Check out the pictures, it looks cool. Also, here is the address for the maps... the elevation map has me a little nervous: http://www.perimeterbicycling.com/!ETT/eltourmap.htm

All boxed up!

Tonight, I drove to Omaha and boxed up my (Abel's) bike. I met up with my team and we took our bikes apart and boxed them up for shipment. They will be waiting for us when we get to Tucson next week. We fly out next Thursday (Nov 15) and we ride our race on the 17th.

We are supposed to spend this week hydrating and keeping active. No big rides, but we can't sit around and eat pizza all week either. I think a few leisurely bike rides will be nice after having to ride 50, 60, 70 miles at at time.

I plan to blog a little from the trip, so check back for updates and pictures.

I don't even know where to start...

Another crappy weekend ride. I am borrowing Abel's bike (thanks again Abel!) and when I was riding home from teaching class Halloween night, one of the spokes in the back wheel broke. I took it to Bike Pedalers (I love those guys) and got a new spoke put in. They told me that they tried to break the other spokes and couldn't, he said that they looked pretty good. But, he did follow up with, "after one spoke goes, they have a tendency to keep breaking". But he thought they looked good, so I didn't think much of it.

Saturday morning I drug myself out of bed for my final long ride (85 miles) before I have to ship out my bike to AZ. I got on HWY 77 and my plan was to ride to Beatrice and then come back. Well about 20 miles into the ride, another spoke broke and took out my back derailleur, which is the "transmission" for the bike. So I was stuck half way to Beatrice waiting for Beckie to pick me up.

We took the bike to Bike Pedalers (www.bikeped.com) to get new wheels. They didn't have the wheels in stock, and would have to order them. I made a few other calls to other shops in Lincoln and same story... would have to order the wheels. So here is the current game plan. Bike Pedalers is currently rebuilding my back wheel and putting on a new derailleur. The bike will be done Wednesday morning, which is good, because the bike has to be boxed up to be shipped Wednesday night. Basically, I will not get an 85 mile ride in before the ride in Tucson. It seems that I have had a streak of bad luck, or some bad bike karma. I hope my luck changes before Tuscon. Wish me luck.

It is getting close!

One more large ride this weekend (85 miles) and I am ready to go! I think my bike gets shipped next Wednesday. I am getting pretty nervous! I will post a few times before I go and hopefully be able to post from the ride itself.