more team training torture

Dear Friends,

I am sorry for missing last week’s newsletter. I have been trying to ride twice a week and we are only one week from our Online Game Development Conference which has been keeping me rather busy. If it wasn’t for my Saturday rides I don’t know what I would do. Riding has been a great way to get rid me of the weekly stress. So, I thank you all again for your support!

Since a couple of you called over the past couple weeks to let me know that you didn’t receive the weekly team torture newsletters I figured I better send you all out an update. I must admit I was worried that you might be getting sick of receiving my updates as I did have one person ask me to remove them from my mailing list.

After the April 14 ride I scheduled a buddy ride with a couple of teammates.

Jeanine and Ken work for the gambling commission and were going to be working in Fife so we agreed to meet near the casino so we could car pool to a safe starting point once they finished the work day. So we met up at 3 pm.

We started our ride at Meeker Mansion and rode down to the Van Lierop Bulb Farm, for those of you that would like a quick history lesson I included a link for you with a little history on Puyallup and the bulb farm.

Once at the bulb farm we hopped on the bike trail. The sky was dark and it was a bit windy we could hear a bit of thunder overhead. Should we turn around and go back? Ken commented quickly and without even thinking,” Josh can’t decide when he goes in for Chemo therapy treatment.” For those of you that are new to these letters Josh is a fantastic, courageous, bald nine year old with a fantastic sense of humor that happens to have Leukemia. Josh will often have his parents drive him out to cheer us on as we start our Saturday rides. Needless to say we continue the ride.

We talk as we ride and we discuss how we can meet our fundraising goals. We pass other cyclist that are riding the trail with local a bike club and we discuss the benefits of riding with team in training verses a local bike group. For the non athlete (me) it is much easier riding with team training because you know people are counting on you to reach your goals and everyone is so supportive!

This is a trail ride that is nice and flat and the scenery was not half bad. I recommend this ride for families with small children as you can start in Orting and not have to worry about traffic.

We rode through Sumner and Orting and up into South Praire. I was behind my teammates as always. We rode 17 miles each direction which made for a total of 32 miles. No dogs, no falls, and the weather wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t bad either.





Saturday April 21

I am going to give you the condensed version of this weeks ride because I didn’t realize I was so far behind. I started to skip to April 28th! WHICH I DIDN’T SURVIVE!

60 miles is the goal for this weeks ride, I can’t believe I almost forgot to write about this ride. It is so far my favorite! We started in Carnation and we made our way through Redmond, Duval, and Monroe and up to Sultan.

My regular riding buddies are home sick this week so I am with a new group of riders. Today ride is for Margie! Margie has been free of Leukemia for 3 years and she is my riding partner today! As we ride we talk we talk about what it was like for her to be diagnosed and her personal journey to help others. Margie is amazing and before she was diagnosed with Leukemia 5 years ago she had rode the Seattle to Portland 5 times each time in one day. More amazing Margie is 60 and she started riding at 45 (my age) there is still hope!

Only one really bad hill on this ride! I have found that if I have to stop on a hill I stop. I don’t walk .Walking is bad and in the stupid shoes it’s actually much harder than riding. I drink and then keep peddling. Drinking on the bike still isn’t something I have mastered. So I have to stop and drink. I have lost count of how many water bottles I have dropped on the rides. Unfortunately my team mates are keeping track for me! It’s something you might consider buying stock in, water bottles or helmets both good investments! When I stop I am actually now able to unclamp my shoes from the peddles and I no longer fall over. This means I might be able to wear shorts this summer after all.

So besides my coach I was the only person on my team to not walk the killer hill! I stopped twice and drank 2 large bottles of Gatorade but I made it! I think it was Margie’s words of encouragement that got me to the top of the hill. Thank you Margie!

Not far from any killer hill there seems to always be a bakery and the bakeries are always filled with bicyclists. The bakery in Sultan is actually worth the 30 mile ride. Homemade bread and for those of you that like meatloaf I was told it is made fresh daily. I had a half a sandwich and it was more than enough. The 30 miles back was un eventful at least compared to some of my other rides.

I can tell you that I am not sure where it came from maybe something in the sandwich but I got sudden burst of energy and I kept thinking that at this pace I am never going to finish Tahoe in a day so I picked up my pace from 12.8 mph and rode the back half at 16 mph I passed the middle group and finished far from last!

Once back at the parking lot I was asked what happened and I just laughed and said, I guess I am finished coming in last!

I will try to get you the week I didn’t survive shortly!

Thanks again

Cynthia