Hellooooo - anybody out there?

Where is everybody...anything interesting going on?

Woo Hoo!

Attention all Team Charlie riders (and blog readers)....as of this morning, we are officially OVER OUR MINIMUM GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!! I sent out another donation email last night, and the first response took us over $7,000. Hey Polly, I now pass the fundraising baton to you. We'll tag team it!

Do you think we'll get to $10,000?

Final Training Push

How's everyone doing in these last few weeks before the ride?

Here's a digest about our past week of training.

Last Sunday we took a ride down in the Brandywine Creek area. The book we found the ride in rated it "moderate to difficult". But we thought, "hey, I'm sure they're gearing this for recreational cyclists... it shouldn't be too challenging for us!"

Well... actually it was pretty difficult. It had hill after hill - and big hills. By the last leg, we were swearing every time we came to another hill. Below is just one of the many hills.
















On the good side, the ride had it's pretty moments, like this charming covered bridge we passed through - oh and a nice little place to stop and have some lunch too










(these are gratuitous eating shots for you snacking riders - or should I say riding snackers!).

And while we aren't ashamed to say we walked up a few of those hills, we did ride up more than we walked and we averaged 11.49 mph despite many stops to check the directions and of course... the hills.

During the past week we did a few shorter rides including some hill training on our favorite local hill - Wayne Ave and a loop around the Art Museum.

Our plan was to do our last long ride today of 45 mi - 75% of the miles we'll do on the Memory Ride. Since we had done such a hilly ride last week, we thought we would stick to a flat ride today. So, we once again set out on the Schuylkill River Trail . This time, we did not take the spur that goes from the trail to the Valley Forge Park. Instead we kept on the main trail until we actually met up with the Perkiomen Trail, which we had done a few weeks ago. So, we now have a better understanding of how those two trails connect!

We had a good ride - kept our energy up pretty well (except for me getting cranky less than a mile from home) and averaged 12.7 mph. Although we were tired this afternoon, we were not wasted and were actually able to do a little weeding in the garden.

So, our plan for the remainder of the training period is to continue with shorter sprint-type rides and do a 20 mile ride next weekend just to keep the muscles working.

We can't wait to see everyone in two weeks! Go Team Charlie!

Clipping In

O.K. guys, so I know this is not, like, huge news. But it's been a week since we had a posting and while we wait for the "scouting party" to show us the goods, I figured I'd tell you all about the "fitting" I had today at Back Bay Bicycles with BBB general manager Tim Libby.

My bike--which rides like fresh butter melting over a stack of Hootie's blueberry pancakes--had a couple of interesting issues. First, it was custom adjusted to fit the previous owner, David, who's not tall but has a long torso and extremely long arms. This meant that in order for me to reach the bars and the brakes, my back was extending over too far, causing strain during longer rides. Second, it had "Look" clipless pedals that were difficult for me to unclip from, given my wonky leg situation.

Tim helped me a lot with the fit: he fine-tuned the position of my saddle, adjusted the angle of my handlebars to a more upward position, switched out my "stem" to a shorter one and added some "spacers" to my "headset," all to create a much greater level of comfort for a long ride. He also helped me overcome my fear of clipping in by installing those shimano pedals (pictures above) and putting the new cleats on my new shoes. Then, he let me practice on the trainer until I achieved a basic "muscle memory" of how to get in and out of the clips. What a difference it made!

Also, I should tell you that I invested in a new pair of shoes after trial and error with another pair. There are a lot of nice cycling shoes out there, but what no one told me was that the ones they call "road" shoes (as opposed to "mtn" shoes) tend to have very little or no traction built into the sole. Who cares? Well, as I discovered after trying to ride Rte. 16 to Lynn last weekend, trying to step off your bike in traffic and put your foot on the pavement with shiny-smooth hard plastic on the soles of your feet can be kinda scary--at least for this novice. My new shoes are more of the "mtn" variety and have plenty of tread to help me not slip and slide around like a fool.

This has been a learning process but now I feel like I'm better equipped for this Memory Ride and for thousands of miles to come...hopefully.

(for a complete guide to all the gear-head bike jargon contained in this post, check out the diagram below or go to: http://www.casanovasadventures.com/catalog/bike/p2016.htm)

delayed report of our last 40 miler

OK, so Ellie says I'm a loser for not posting a blog in about a million years....so here goes. Today we went on a relatively short and ho hum ride (ie: no ice cream, or lobster rolls, or drinks, or anything interesting) -- our usual loop down along the Wissahickon creek and along the river drives (by the Art museum and back). Nothing to report there, except the goslings are all getting really big and now understand about staying OUT OF THE WAY. We did note all the police, fire and ambulance crews' preparation for the fireworks tonight.

Anyway, I wanted to tell about our 40 mile ride along the Perkiommen Creek (I know I didn't spell that right, but it's as hard as Schuylkill) that we did before we went down to Florida last week. It was a beautiful mostly paved path through woods and along the creek. Along the backside of a couple of towns. We would definitely do it again, except for one thing. There was a really steep grade that required warning...I thought, "Yeah right, sure, ha ha ha"

But they weren't kdding! Here's me trying to get up that grade....OMG that was a really steep climb. I really don't think that clip pedals even would have helped. So, aside from that grade, it was a very pleasant ride that I'd highly recommend. Luckily, at the top of the grade, a friendly neighbor along the path had put out oxygen and a water container the size of a keg, with some cups. I tell you, those suburbanites are really nice.

So, we're planning another 40 miler Sunday. We'll let you know how that goes. Maybe we can stop for bbq and brewskies around the half way mark. I think Ellie picked a nice route out in the Brandywine Valley/river area. TTFN.

Takin' it to the bank

In keeping with my company's green policy, I try to do my shorter errands on my bike. I routinely ride to the Post Office to collect our company mail and even ride to a client's office in nearby Mount Airy.

However, I hadn't tried riding to my bank (only a few miles away) yet because it sits atop a quite significant hill (one of the highest points in Philadelphia, in fact).

Today I finally gave it a go . Not including a short break part way up the hill, I made it! And coming down the hill was "wicked pissah", to borrow a phrase.

Here's a comparison of the hill on the way to the bank with one of the steeper hills on the Memory Ride.



It helps a lot that I just had my bike tuned up and now have sleek new tires that are much less road resistant than my old tires (much more mountain-bikey).

Oh, and by the way this ride makes 558 miles logged for me. So I think I am just a little better than you Marge ;)

Day off

53.41 miles in 4h 9m 30s, 12.84mph. Along the way, I...

A) skinned my knee on the BU bridge

B) completed a personal record for the Minuteman bike path (8.54 miles in 33m30s, or 15.2mph)

C) helped Felice Pomeranz of Sudbury--a concert and jazz harpist who's Felice Pomeranz Jazz Quartet is playing tonight at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum--change a flat front tire on her bike (though inflating it properly was a bit beyond either of us)

D) drank a milkshake at the Dairy Joy on Rte 117 (getting to be a habit)

E) Now completed 507 miles of training (including work commutes) and feeling like I just might be ready for the ride by the end of the month. Knock on wood!