I just wanted to thank everyone for making this the best fund raising event of the five that I've participated in. My total as of today is nearly $5,700, which makes the five year total approximately $27,000. What an amazing result. Thanks to everyone for your financial and emotional support. The bikes headed out to Tahoe on Saturday, the team flies out this Friday, and the ride is Sunday, June 5th. Check back for a few pictures of the event.

Thanks again from the bottom of my heart,

John

A Picture from 2010 - Here's hoping that the weather is as wonderful this year as last.

Here's the team stopping at about mile 45 at Devil's Hop Yard State Park. The support we've gotten from various folks all year who help out on the long rides providing all of the team members with fluids and food to keep us going on those long days is very much appreciated. The sign was a special contribution by the niece of a team member. Everyone had a very solid 80 mile ride and we are ready for Tahoe. Now if we can just get a nice day. It was 28 degrees and snowing in Tahoe this past weekend, so we're hoping for something a little nicer for June 5th. Thanks to everyone who has supported me. We've more than made my goal, which is a fantastic result. Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Okay, last week we completed our last so called “corner stone” rides. They’re called the corner stone rides because they are the rides which most prepare you for the terrain at Tahoe. Last week we did the famous “Cookie ride”. It is a 65 mile ride with just under 4,000 feet of climbing. It is a challenging ride that takes you from Farmington out to Torrington on to Riverton up and around the reservoir to East Hartland before returning to Farmington. They tell me that there was an old shop in the center of Riverton, just before you began the climb up to East Hartland where they sold homemade cookies, I don’t know it was closed by the time I did this ride. I think it’s more likely that it’s called the cookie ride because of the potential for loosing you cookies at the top of the 2nd climb. Whatever the origination of the name, it’s quite a challenging ride, and the country around the reservoir is spectacular. Nearly as beautiful as Tahoe in a New England type of way. Two years ago I had an eagle fly out of the trees and above the road over my head for about 30 yards before he went back into the trees. Amazing! This year, it was a very large black bear. Just as I crested the final climb, the bear crossed the road behind me. I saw him in my little rear view mirror and had to do a double take to believe what I saw. I was very glad that the bear took no interest in me at all and just sauntered across the road. Sorry, the camera wasn't on the bike so there's no picture. You'll just have to take my word for it.

We’re down to the last couple of training weeks and that means fund raising has almost reached an end. Please make a contribution if you haven’t already, and thanks for all your support.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on training progress, and just thought I would catch folks up. Two weeks ago we did a very difficult ride from Southbury, CT. It was cold and overcast as its been all spring and we were planning on 55 miles of very hilly riding. It was a key ride in preparation for Tahoe. I had heard a lot of complaining about this ride last year, but I missed it and was therefore a bit nervous to see just how difficult it really was. Well 20 or so miles into the ride, I realized that it was one of the most difficult rides I had ever done. I had decided ahead of time to ride within myself and not overdue it early on. After the third 12+% grade I was pretty glad that I had, because I was already pretty cooked and we were only about halfway through the ride. Ron and I got separated from the others in our group and made a couple of wrong turns. Long story short, we ended up doing 62 miles and finishing just before the rains came down. What a tough ride!

That night, after dinner at friends and ½ a bottle of wine, I could hardly keep my eyes open by 11:30 when we finally got to bed. By then the rain and wind were in full swing with 40 mph gusts of wind driving the 3+ inches of rain from the southwest against the bedroom windows. At 12:45AM, Sharon woke me saying something about water dripping into the bed. Sure enough the roof was leaking and water was actually dripping onto us from the air-conditioning duct above the bed. I tried to get her to just put a pail under the drip and come back to bed, but Nooooo, she insisted that we move the furniture and actually secure the room before heading for the guest bedroom to go back to sleep. It took me at least 10 minutes to actually wake up enough to get out of bed and take care of the room. Wow, was I tired. I had all I could do to get up and move the bed and other furniture to take care of the leak. I think that maybe I got just a tiny taste of the type of fatigue chemo creates. I don’t know for sure and I’d just as soon not find out, but I do know several people who have much too much personal knowledge of what it means to fight cancer. We need to reduce the numbers of folks impacted. Please help out if you haven’t already and make a contribution to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Thanks, and if you can put in a good word to help out on the riding weather this spring, I’d appreciate that also.

So we had a cold windy April morning to start our serious hill work. Temps were only in the low 40's with strong winds out of the northwest, but there was a good sized group that attended the training session as you can see from the picture. As always, the climb up Route 219 was more challenging than it seems like it should be, some combination of the temperature, the time of year and the extra weight I was carrying due to cloths and winter snacking. Anyway, we all survived and even thrived a bit as we got a nice tail wind heading east on Route 44 back toward Farmington. Overall it was a good day, with about 45 miles under our belt and the 219 climb behind us. Next week looking for about 50 miles. Hoping for a bit more warmth in the coming weeks without any 80 degree killers. Stay tuned, I'll have some pics from on the road during the next training ride.