Guts, Glory and a Roll

Great ride for distance today - 100+ miles. What a beautiful, beautiful ride north on A1A from Boca Raton, Florida to Palm Beach...it was stunning enough that I lifted my head a few times to catch a glimpse of the ocean views. The sound of it is still one of the best sounds ears can capture. I had plenty of power and speed to spare and am starting to gain confidence that the 24 hour track record can be broken. After the glory - a pothole, a quick turn into the curb and I went up and over it. I left some of my real estate behind and took some with me. It's been 25 years since I took a spill like that, but it had to happen. So, now, it's out of the way. Onwards tomorrow...

You Tube, Facebook!

Despite the howling from my daughters, we're going to launch the ride with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Lots of fun videos and pictures to share...and, we'll be starting something new callede, 'The Race'. Stay tuned!

Training is clicking along well. I'm now moving from high intensity workouts with increased duration to longer rides to start testing the edge of my endurance. 10 hours this weekend. I'm learning lots of new routes in Florida on the weekends...A1A is beautiful in some places and well, not so nice in others: I always thought A1A had premium views everywhere. Not! Drivers in Florida are very different than NY especially for bike riders. Actually, they're more aware and more careful which has been more than a shock.

Getting prepped for the support side of this attempt...sponsorships, figuring out the mechanical side, getting licensed by USA Cycling, making sure the bike fits the requirements and started working on the public relations. Very exciting! Remember this over the next few weeks -- "The Race" -- there will be more to come on this. Training is going pretty well this week. It's a new kind of Recovery week. Instead of 45-1 hour rides, we're using 2 hour endurance rides to keep building stamina. This weekend? Brutal. 4 1-hour rides at 75% of maximum effort. Ouch and yikes, combined.

The Transition

Wow, it's been a while since I've stopped to update you on the latest in my training ventures. But, first....Christmas and New Years were great. What terrific friends, family and supporters we have in this venture. Aside from my mother, mother-in-law, kids, Grandma, the deli guy at 73rd/Columbus in NYC telling me to eat more, training has most definitely begun to push out roughly 30 years of "20 extra pounds" (my Dad used to tell me just to chop off my head to lose those ugly pounds) so that's been helping, too. At Christmas, training was indoors because of the variety of freezing cold days, heavy winds, snow, etc, so I had time for lots of intensity and power training. Now that I'm straddling NY and FL, I'm finding that those early mornings and late nights of various power intervals has helped my endurance and ability to sustain difficult speeds for long durations. Over New Year's Eve, New Year's and last weekend, I amped up my time in the saddle to 3, 3.5, 4 and 4.5 hours. Gatorade and Redbull, mixed, provides quite the extra boost as the miles pile on. Oh, and ears full of Pat Metheny, Bucky Pizzarelli, Stevie Wonder and even Beethoven keeps the groove on. Getting to A1A along the southeastern coast of FL is worth the 20 mile ride to get there - wow, it has to be one of the most beautiful rides in the country. With the help of a p/r person from the Life without Lupus organization, we're about to get the word out more, so be on the lookout. For anyone who reads this, if you see anything in the press, anywhere, pass it on. The Lupus community and my daughter are all going to benefit from this journey. One more note of thanks to friends Elissa and Alan - a huge thanks for including this organization in your wedding gift list. Thanks to all!