Racing to Save Lives

September 19, 2009

A week ago as planned, Orri and Opher rode the Civil War metric century. It was a gray day, and rain threatened from first to last, but ultimately it turned out to be a safe and dry ride. The training rides we'd had before and especially the 68 mile ride the weekend prior, prepared us well enough that this ride was not much of a stretch. Just a few weeks earlier, riding 100 km had seemed inconceivable. Now, completing even a 100 mile ride seems (almost) a given.

We woke up around 5:30 AM, which in retrospect was the most difficult part of the day. The drive to Thurmont, MD was uneventful, and after registering, we rode out at 8:15. The cue sheet was excellent, except that it used cryptic marks, such as "R@SS", "L@SS," and most confusing, "S@SS." No, these are not RASS, LASS, and SASS (what would those be, anyway?). Those were shorthand for "right at stop sign," "left at stop sign," and no, not "stop at stop sign" (c'mon guys, you're supposed to stop at all stop signs). That last meant "straight at stop sign." Unfortunately, it was only after the ride that we noticed at the bottom of the sheet the two lines where these were cleary defined. So, when Opher reached the first "S@SS" point, he stopped, then proceeded to make the right turn mentioned on the next line, extending his ride from from 62 to 64 miles by the time a friendly stranger with a nav system got him back on track.

The three rest stations at about 15 mile intervals were crewed by large and enthusiastic groups of volunteers who handed out with a will cut fruit, tomato sandwiches, granola bars, etc. Water and Gatorade was to be had at each stop as well. Alas, along with the volunteers, a large crowd of bees also populated each rest stop, making the stops a mite less restful.

The metric century had the kind of relatively mild climbs we'd trained on so far, making the ride comparable or even a bit easier than we'd gotten used to, except for one moderately more difficult hill. The same was most definitely not the case for the 75 mile and full century rides. These had three or four mountains to climb respectively (implying also wet and cold due to the higher elevations) with total climbs of 6400 and 7400 feet! The TNT coach rode the 75 miler. Maybe in another year or two we'll consider trying one of those too. For now, the mileage is challenge enough. Tomorrow's training ride will be just over 75 miles, though with just the usual hills. Even without mountains, that'll be another record-breaking ride for both members of Team Ganel.

Our generous supporters have now boosted us over the $4k minimum, to $4380. Getting to our ultimate goal of $8k now requires only $3620 more. Remember, 100% of funds above $4k go to support the mission. The TNT campaign manager told us yesterday we can raise funds until two months after the ride. However, once the event is over, I suspect writing these updates will not be nearly so entertaining. Reading them may become tedious too. Thus, we're counting on only 4 more weeks (you, the guy in the back, yes you, no cheering the end of fund-raising please, at least not where we can see). This means we need your help to raise another $905/week, or just under $130/day for the next four weeks.

If you haven't yet made a donation, please consider doing so right now, while you're here. Just fill in the amount you wish to donate and hit the purple "DONATE TO TEAM" button to the right of the photo (if you prefer donating via check or Paypal, please email opher.ganel@gmail.com to make arrangements). Remember, your donation, added to everyone else's will save many lives. If you have made a donation, please ask your friends and family to consider donating too. You never know whose life will be saved down the road by research you help LLS fund.

September 7, 2009

Good news! Yesterday Orri and Opher rode 68 miles and are both still alive and breathing!

We arrived at our starting point at 7 AM, and 30 minutes later, along with the coach and three other riders, off we went. Opher was riding his new used road bike. Three things were significantly lighter this time around. Opher, Opher's bike, and Opher's wallet (road bikes are not cheap – even used ones)!

Last week we mentioned a good way to get G-d to laugh was to tell him your plans. Well, Opher replaced the perfectly good tires on his bike with Hard-Case tires which are reinforced to reduce the risk of flats. Uh-huh. Guess what? That's right! Give the woman snickering in the back a prize! The first flat tire of the season, not for Opher alone, but for the entire Howard County team occurred, that's right, to one of Opher's brand spanking new Hard-Case tires. Oh well. Several of us got an unintended rest stop where repairing Opher's flat tire was the main attraction.

Some of you may be wondering if the new bike made it any easier for Opher to keep up with Orri. No? None of you were wondering that? Really? Well, we'll tell you anyway. Opher on a road bike still has a hard time keeping up with Orri, but instead of waiting 10 minutes at each rest stop, now Orri only has to wait a minute or so. In fact, for a few short stretches of the ride Opher even managed to snatch the lead (ok, very very short stretches, but it still counts!). With the new bike there's actually a decent chance that Opher will be able to make it to the Seagull Century finish line before they take down the tents and call it a day :).

Before then, we still have the Civil War Metric Century ride next Saturday. Hopefully having ridden 68 miles this week, we'll find the 62.5 mile Metric Century a breeze (or at least survivable).

Our fund-raising is also proceeding apace, and we're almost, almost at the $4k minimum fund-raising amount. We're hoping for at least one or two donations today to help us break that barrier before the end of the first week of September (that's right, we're making Labor Day an honorary member of the first week of September, just so we can get past that dang $4k before the second week of September starts!).

August 31, 2009

This past weekend was another off-weekend from the official training. Orri planned a ride from College Park to Georgetown and back. Unfortunately, 10 miles in he was caught in a rain storm, and at one of the turns his bike slid and he went down. No broken bones or loss of motivation, just some nasty cuts and bruises.

Opher rode yesterday around the BWI Airport loop (18 miles), immediately followed by a ride to the Annapolis waterfront and back. This 47 mile ride was much easier than previous training rides for a combination of reasons. First, the terrain was less hilly than the Howard County roads we usually ride on. Second, this ride had an ulterior motive which made it much much easier.

In a recent email we informed you that Opher learned (among other things) that his low-end hybrid bike is not designed for long rides. To put it less gently, serious cyclists, seeing that bike being ridden over 50 miles would split into two main groups. The more empathic ones would quietly shake thair heads, and possibly make a gentle suggestion to consider upgrading to a road bike. The second group, made up of less restrained individuals, would crack up laughing.

Opher, being Opher, resolutely refused to consider buying another bike, saying that if he continues training on a hybrid, it will just make the conditioning that much more effective. More head shakes, along with resigned sighs from those in the know. Finally, after finding himself as "tail-end charlie" on one ride too many, Opher vowed that once he lost 10 lbs off his own body weight, he'd shave 10 lbs off his bike weight too, not expecting this to happen very soon.

You know what they say about making G-d laugh - just tell Him your plans. Sure enough, Opher's weight loss reached 12 lbs less than a week after making that vow, which brings us back to yesterday's ride. Opher was testing a high-end road bike (used, but in great condition). The result - speed on level ground went up from about 14 mph to about 18 mph. On the few hills of the Annapolis ride, Opher never had to shift lower than the middle of the gear range. Now Opher understands why people laughed at his hybrid bike.

Opher is now looking forward to getting the new/used bike tomorrow evening and using it for future training rides, as well as the upcoming Metric Century. If all goes well, using this bike might shave an hour or more off the full Seagull Century. Maybe with Opher on this bike, Orri will still be visible in the distance crossing the finish line far ahead of Opher. On further consideration, nah, he'll probably already be off celebrating by the time Opher is close enough to see the finish line.

Another milestone coming up is the $4k minimum fund-raising amount. With the help of many generous donors we've now reached $3503 (some of the checks are not yet registered so the amount shown is not fully up to date). We were hoping to make the $4k by today, but if we can get there by the end of this week, that will still be very respectable and will allow us to then concentrate on our next goal. $8k by the time fund-raising is over. The significance, as mentioned before, is that while 75% of the first $4k goes towards the mission, once past the $4k minimum, that fraction goes up to 100%. Not many charities are that efficient with the funds they raise.

August 24, 2009

Yesterday we rode another record-breaker - 56 miles, and are fast approaching the 62.5 miles mark. At first glance you might think that's a strange mark to track. However, it is an important one because 62.5 miles is equal to 100 km, also known as a "metric century." If you've been keeping up with us, you know we're registered to ride the Civil War metric century on September 12 near Gettysburg, PA. Incredibly, riding 100 km that weekend will actually be a respite for us. Our TNT training plan calls for an 80 mile ride that weekend, so 62.5 miles should be a relative breeze.

Returning to yesterday's ride, we didn't really know until the last minute if we'd ride or not. The weather forecast called for scattered showers that morning, and especially for relative novices like Opher, riding in the rain, or even on wet pavement, is not as safe as one would want. Just imagine, Opher riding down a steep hill, gravity gets his speed up to a respectable 40 mph, at the bottom of the hill is a sharp curve, wet asphalt, and... well, you get the painful picture. Thankfully, the showers scattered themselves elsewhere, and Opher (and Orri) managed to make all turns safely.

Speaking of turns and Orri in one sentence reminds us of something else. It seems Orri is intent on adding extra mileage to every ride. Being a strong rider Orri leaves Opher (and even the coach, who needs to ride back periodically to make sure Opher and the others are still alive) in his dust. Unfortunately, without anyone to follow, Orri has been having a hard time following the cue sheets. Either that, or he's been missing turns on purpose and concealing that it's intentional. Yesterday he added only 0.7 miles to his ride, which is as nothing compared to the 6 miles of "oh my gosh" hills of a few weeks back. Hopefully the extra miles will stand him in good stead during the Seagull Century ride.

Moving on to Opher, the coach has been heard saying Opher is very good about pacing himself on the steep climbs and avoiding over-exertion. Who is he kidding? What he sees as avoiding over-exertion is just about flat-out effort. It just seems to be prudent pacing due to the fact that a moderately healthy adult would be able to walk up those hills faster than Opher rides them. Yesterday on one of the hills Opher's pace dropped below 3 mph. Ouch. It's a good thing the Seagull Century course is about as flat as can be. Otherwise Opher might not need a hotel room the night after the ride. He'd still be riding 24 hours later.

The 56 mile ride yesterday was something of a stretch. The final miles seemed to creep by slowwwwwwwly, especially since they were on an almost continuous upgrade. That long effort is a good metaphor for our fund-raising. We're now up to 63% of our minimum fund-raising target of $4000, which if this were a 100 mile ride would have us at mile 63 with 37 miles to go. We now have less than 7 weeks to raise the remainder. That breaks down to a minimum rate of a $100 donation at least twice a week, a $50 donation four times a week, or a $32 donation every day.

August 17, 2009

This week is the alternate "off-week" in our training, which means there was no official team training ride. This doesn't mean we don't ride. Getting someone like Opher in condition for a 100 mile bike ride does not happen by itself, or even with once in a couple of weeks riding.

Yesterday the temperature was a much more livable 84F compared to last Sunday. That made the 46 miles Opher rode with the coach and two others, and the 51 miles Orri rode on his own, less strenuous by comparison with last week's ride.

Opher is learning several things in these rides.

1. A $350 hybrid bike is not designed for 100 mile rides (or even 46 mile ones).

2. Power-to-body-weight ratio favors the slender when climbing hills. It is easier for the more calorically-challenged among us to keep up with the slender on flat terrain. Down-hill is even easier as long as you can keep your cross-section small enough to reduce wind resistance.

3. Every down-hill you speed down is a predictor of an upcoming up-hill. The problem is that your speed down-hill is much higher than your speed up-hill, so all other things being equal, your misery far outlasts the exhilaration.

Another thing we're learning is how many people are impacted by blood cancers, whether personally, or though a loved one. One person, hearing about our fund-raising told us his dad recently died of lymphoma. Another had a grandfather die of lymphoma, and his father is currently battling leukemia. A third said his wife has leukemia. A retiree met at a gas station convenience store pulled out a $5 bill and asked to put it toward the mission - "I wish I had more to give" he said.