At the base of Sugarloaf mountain, Probably mid-90s. A hot day to ride 52 miles, after being sick all week, but being with friends made all the difference, I'm in the teal jersey BTW :)

Taking a break to cool off in the shade before climbing Sugarloaf mountain.

T

Photo from the Fletcher Flyer finish, now to start training for Moab Utah!

Update:

Recently, Team in Training made us an offer that I've decided to accept: I'll ride a second 100 mile event with TNT in Moab Utah this September and keep training with the team until then, and in exchange, I have promised to raise a total of $5600 for both events. With some hard work and with your help, I know I can reach both goals.

This is what teammates look like after 76 miles in the rain:

Thanks for coming to my Team in Training webpage,

Can you really have too much of a good thing? Too rich? Too beautiful? Too much chocolate? Well, maybe. At the very least, it bears thinking about, but here's an easy one: too much money to support our friends (and all the other brave people) who have cancer. Looking at the next couple of years of research funding, I think we're squarely in the "not enough funding at all" territory, and so I'm asking for you to be my Team in Training teammate again this year.

My teammates and I are going to bike 100 miles on June 5th and hundreds more this spring (and winter!) with the hope of inspiring you to donate to a really worthwhile cause. We're raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives and to help out those who are fighting these cancers in any way we can. I'm riding in honor of all my friends who are battling cancer, who have faught cancer and won, and in memory of those who are no longer with us. All I have to do is just keep pedaling, they're the real heroes.

This year's endurance ride will be in Asheville North Caroline, it's called Fletcher Flyer and it's only 4044 vertical feet of climbing over 100 miles (gulp). Some of you may remember the ride I did last year in Lake Tahoe - if you never checked out my blog you might want to take a peek at the June 30, 2010 entry "The best 100 miles I ever rode" (note: also the only 100 miles I ever rode). It was an incredible experience. The picture at the top is my teammate Carrie and I right after we finished - one of the proudest moments of my life. We high fived our way accross the finish line after 8 1/2 hours and were cheered by the crowd like we were rock stars (note: this does not happen all the time in my life, surprisingly).

The ride was very rewarding but what was REALLY satisfying and what made me the most proud, was that I raised nearly $5000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. You all came through for me, and I exceeded the fundraising minimum by a lot. We helped a lot of people who are very very grateful. I know it's a small thing, but thank you from the bottom of my heart. You crossed the finish line with me - in my thoughts and on my jersey where I wrote the names of everyone who was able to donate $50 or more.

So how about it? I'll wake up early every Saturday and bike hundreds of training miles if you'll make a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. Seem fair? I hope so, because so many things in life aren't fair (like getting cancer) and here's a way to balance things out just a little bit.

If you want to follow along, I'll be keeping a blog again this year http://seephyllisbiketocurecancer.blogspot.com . I promise it will still be lots of pictures and not too much of me rambling on about 10 percent grades, double chain rings and power bars...

Thank you seems insufficient, but until we find a better term, thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping out a really worthy cause.

See you soon,

Phyllis