inspiration

phew. it is almost time for my fundraising event, and my fingers are crossed that i raise lots of money for this amazing, unbelieveable cause that touches way too many people to imagine. every 5 minutes someone is diagnosed with cancer. every 5 minutes. that is not acceptable.

we had are weekly brick training today at Cartersville, about an hour north from my home. so up at 5:30, depart at 6:30 and wheels to the road at 8 a.m. but before the rubber meeting the road, our coaches always round us up to provide insight into the days training and perspective and motivation of our goals - to stop blood cancers. today it was taken a step further and and alumni of the TEAM and a 5 year cancer survivor was there speaking. he was a middle-aged gentleman there with his wife, and was still choked up to this day about how excited he is to be alive, and riding with the team to accomplish raising money for the cause that helped him to kick his cancer. WOW. unbelievable and strong. and just like us - it could happen to anyone, and he chose to fight and kick his cancer. he was humble, strong, and amazingly appreciative of what we do. now that is motivation!

so lets talk about this training, today...

32 mile ride - 3 mile run. gorgeous rolling hills, and a lot of cows. dorothy - we are not in kansas anymore. dogs sleep in the middle of the roads here - this is country. but what a beautiful country it was.

the morning started off overcast and a comfortable temperature, but of course that did not last too log, afterall - we are in georgia in august. so in past blogs, i have discussed my hill training - the pain...and yes, i am still training on that hill that kicked my butt so i can kick it - and am getting better and each time i ride it i become more familiar with myself and the bike. but it was not until today, that i realized how much my hill training has helped me begin to be a better rider on the flats, easily spinning at at 20 mph speed, and hitting the peaks and valleys with ease and a better understanding. and the best part was the last 6 miles when there were not curves in the road, and it just opened up and there were about 10 bikers . i consistently held a 22-24 mph speed on the flats today. that was a first, and it felt great. problem was- i had to run afterwards, and ideally you don't want to grind your legs to that capacity at that point so close to your run...but it felt so good (until the run).

the run was, as you can imagine from my ride, not as strong -and now being 11:30 it was extremely HOT! i could have heated a large room. and to top it off - the water cooler that is placed on the side of the road serves as our turnaround point had been stollen...so ran much further that i needed to, so there was some walking involved. and rolling my ankle twice did not help either.

another thing that was experienced today on my run was cramping in the very top of my quad, just above my knees. it was a very strange feeling the did not initially feel like a cramp, just a wierd flutter. i kept running through it, and the right one stopped - but the left kept getting a strange feeling it it, so i stopped to look at it and saw my knee cap jumping by itself, and my muscle moving on its own like there was a gremlin in it. so i was beginning to cramp. now - was it from pushing and grinding too hard at the end of my ride, or my new experimentation with nutrition? too tired to figure it out today! nutrition experimentation is a whole new topic, and a story that goes on forever, because i still don't have the answer. maybe another day.

train using the attitude of our survivor, today; with strength & exuberance

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