week 11=fundraising events

only 6 weeks left until my century ride on June 6th.

I sacrificed my saturday training to raise money by holding a garage sale. Coincidentally, my neighborhood was holding a community garage sale so I didn't have to do any of the promotion. It turned out to be a worthwhile sacrifice since I made $400. This puts me at $2500. You can still help me raise $1400 more to reach my goal.

On monday night, my team organized a fundraising event at a restaurant with a silent auction. Our honored teammate, Laura shared her story. She is such an inspirational person because of her positive outlook in life. Though she's only in her late 40's, she has the body of an 85 year old woman after intensive chemotherapy and radiation. She was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia and was given a poor prognosis of 6 months to live. She obviously beat the odds and was able to witness one of her daughters walk down the aisle. She continues to fight daily and continues to have a smile on her face. She reminded us the reason we were all gathered that evening to fight saving lives.

week 10, Malibu, 60 miles

I hesitated to join the faster group after Coach Charlie talked about the challenges ahead of us. I made the conscious decision to move up a ladder last week, so there's no turning back now.

Malibu is one of the most beautiful rides we have done because of its serenity and beauty. Our climb to Encinal canyon was meditative and peaceful. Since we can go on our own pace with climbs, it was just me and the mountain. I could hear the birds chirping, my huffing and puffing, my heart beating 100 miles a minute, and my pedaling. I look around from time to time to distract me from the numbness on my buttocks or the soreness from my shoulders. I kept at my own steady pace. I never felt I had to push really hard like I did at an 11% grade the last time we did Malibu. There were several elite riders passing me by who made the climb look as if they were going downhill. They pedaled smoothly with ease. It made me feel like a wimp but it also motivated me to keep going. One of the riders stroke up a conversation with me, "Are you with Team In Training also?" I proudly responded, "Yes, I am." He said, "You guys are doing a great job." That was definitely a pat on the back. There were also riders coming downhill and I received smiles or a thumbs up.

Mission moment this week: a story was shared about an 8 year old girl who wished to shave her head for the sake of her classmate who was teased in school. Her classmate lost his hair due chemotherapy for his battle with Leukemia. Her and 6 other classmates joined this self-sacrifice. That story carried with me during my climb in Encinal Canyon and I actually became emotional and got choked up about it.

Assistant Coach Scott commented after our ride, "You were on fire!" I was 3rd place out of 9 in my middle group.

One of our teammates just had an inguinal hernia repair a few weeks ago and she already started training again. Her willpower is amazing and her comeback is incredible.

week 9, Long Beach, 55miles

Our team met in El Dorado Park at 7:30am for our route from Long Beach to Irvine and back. For the last 2 weeks, I have pondered over taking my training to the next level by joining the faster group. I felt excited to challenge myself and nervous about being able to hang with the pace. I was ecstatic I did because I loved every second of it! The group was very encouraging, supportive, and welcoming. Today was the perfect transition to step it up since our route wasn't as hilly and I was familiar with the area.

Coach Charlie met up with us on the road with his dance music blasting from his bike. He has a sports bottle which also functions as a speaker for an ipod. It was one of the coolest things I had seen today. In addition, one of the mentors from our group has a computer bike which is also a GPS. We actually missed a turn during our route so the computer bike came in really handy.

The weather was really windy especially during our ride back to the park; of course the sun came out when our route was almost over. Luckily, today's bike path was the friendliest bike route of all the trainings we have done since there was a bike lane 90% of the time. Overall, our group did 57 miles in 4 hours, 56 minutes averaging 15 miles per hour. The time includes 2 SAG (Support And Gear which is refueling our bodies and taking potty breaks) stops, stop signs, and street lights. Go Team!

week 8, Griffifth Park, 50 miles

We are halfway there with our training. This was my favorite ride because there were several rolling hills so that meant a lot of downhills too. I got really comfortable cycling downhill and I lost my fear of losing control; I just enjoyed the moment. I received pretty nifty compliments from my coach, assistant coach, and mentor. My coach said that it's pretty common for a light rider to be good at climbing hills but not as common to see light riders do well going downhill because not many pedal. The assistant coach said to my coach, "I have created a speed demon." My top speed was 32 miles per hour. Freedom but tiring too! Surprisingly, I didn't feel as sore anymore as I usually do the next two days after a long training.

The highlight of the day for me was carpooling with my buddy, Joyce, who is training for a marathon. It was great to catch up with old times. The reason we were able to carpool was because TNT's marathoners (26.2 miles or 13.1 miles), hikers (18 miles to Yosemite), triathletes, and cyclists all came together for a social event after our training. Here is an update of our fundraising efforts. I have raised ~$1500, my cycling team have raised $25,000, our Great LA Chapter have raised $700,000. What a great progress! Thank you to all those who have donated.