Sunday, May 17, 2009

Death Ride training

Well, after reading my friend Steve's latest blog post (it's not about the back!) I realized that I've been horribly lax in updating my own cycling blog. So here's the latest and greatest:

TnT team

This season we are training in a combined team with the Redwood/Wine Country TnT team. This has been a fantastic experience, as we've met new folks, trained with some new coaches and done some rides in an area I don't get to visit anywhere near often enough. We've spent some time on some familiar training hills (Mt. Diablo, the Oakland Hills, Mt. Hamilton, Sierra Road) and we got to ride in the Wine Country Double Metric Century (124 miles for those of you keeping track).

The season has been a lot of fun, and for the first time I've felt prepared for each of the team rides (more on that below). Of course, it can't all be fun and games - after a few days of unusual stiffness, my back went out on Sierra Road - one of the most difficult Bay Area climbs. The 100 degree weather wasn't helping, but my back has been a source of ongoing concern in my riding, so this was a step backwards. It feels better today, so hopefully I'll be back on my bike for an easy week in a few days.

Coach Kim

As some of you know, I've hired Coach Kim Collier to help me get in better cycling shape and lose some weight. The weight loss has been slow but steady (I think she's more frustrated by my progress in this area than I am), and I've definitely gotten to be a noticeably stronger rider on the climbs. Yesterday, on the back of Mt. Hamilton (a notoriously tough local climb, and rated HC for the pros in the Tour of California) I was able to climb it almost entirely in heartrate zone 3, but still going faster and stronger than I did last time I tried it. For those of you who are old fashioned, heart rate zone 3 meant I was still in my aerobic training zone (ie, I didn't go anaerobic). While I wouldn't want to ride at that level of effort for a full century, it is a sustainable pace for me on these long, tough climbs. My coach likes to call it a tempo climb. I'm more realistic - it's still a darned slow tempo climb.

Margie and leukemia

Early in the year, a good friend told me that she had just been diagnosed with CML, a form of leukemia. She is responding well so far to the chemo, which has consisted of a drug developed under grants from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This has taken the fund raising that I've been doing with Team in Training to a far more personal level.

I met Margie through some volunteer work I was doing. She is an energetic, vital and driven woman - and someone making a huge difference for our kids. I've always admired the passion and energy she brings to her work - now I also admire how she's taken on this new challenge head on.

Fund Raising

That brings me to one of the big reasons I got involved with Team in Training in the first place - a chance to make a difference. The money raised is donated directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and helps to fund the development of new treatments while also helping to directly ease the financial burden of patients. Please consider supporting me and the Leukemia & Lympoma Society for this year's season: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/TourAlps09/jbuckley

Special thanks to Joy and Alan Brooks, who were able to take care of my kids during yesterday's unbelievably long training ride!

JB

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