Our group or 47 volunteers from Lewinsville Presbyterian Church in Mclean, VA made the 5 1/2 hour drive down today. Tomorrow work begins.

We’ll be uploading photos throughout the week to document our adventures. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lewinsville/collections/72157620013940340/

For kicks I thought I’d keep a running diary of the experience.

New York (ET)

6/9, 12:19pm – And so the adventure begins. Waiting for the 1 train to take me to Penn Station. Ah, here it is.

Washington, DC (ET)

6/9, 4:30pm – Quick stop at our DC office for a 30 minute meeting.

6/9, 6:00pm – Grab my passport and throw my suit and some travel clothes in my carry-on.

6/9, 8:21pm – Check in at United desk at Dulles and upgrade to Economy Plus. 5 extra inches of legroom and an aisle seat. It’s a 13 hour flight so that’s a big score.

In The Air Over Iraq

6/10, 9:01am ET – Have woken up from a restless but decent 9 hours of sleep. Thank you prescription sleeping pills. Our flight route has taken us over the UK, Germany, Eastern Europe and now Iraq as we head further southeast for Dubai. Just under 3 hours until we land.

Dubai (ET + 8 Hours)

6/10, 8:30pm – Check-in at hotel with time to shower and clean-up before meeting up with our Head of Client Services, David, who flew in from NYC.

6/10, 9:30pm – Meet with David to prep for pitch.

6/10, 11:00pm – Dinner at “The Thai Restaurant” in the hotel. Great meal from the tasting menu – something akin to tapas. Shrimp, fish, noodles, rice, curry. All very good.

6/11, 2am – Bed Time. It’s only 6pm on the east coast. Looking back I’m not sure how I was able to fall asleep.

6/11, 7:45am – Wake up and shower. Weird that I had to set my alarm for 11:45pm ET.

6/11, 8:30am – Meet David and partner firm for breakfast for more meeting prep. Eggs (scrambled, good) and chicken sausage (bad) for breakfast.

6/11, 9:45am – Final presentation run through with David back at his room.

6/11, 10:30am – Depart for the meeting.

6/11, 1pm – Wrap an excellent presentation and head to lunch with partner firm and prospective client. Enjoy Chinese Noodles and some less than appropriate conversation for lunch.

6/11, 3pm – Return to hotel to change. Work is done for the day.

6/11, 4pm – Depart on 1 hour tour of Dubai by cab. See Burj Dubai, world’s tallest building upon completion in September, and head down to the beach to stick my feet in the Persian Gulf.

6/11, 5pm – Return to the hotel and enjoy a beer with David at one of the hotel bars just off the water.

6/11, 5:30pm – Grab my bags and head to the airport.

6/11, 6:45pm – Sit down at airport restaurant for dinner which was absolutely empty but good time to relax. Had nasi goreng with beef & chicken satay with an egg.

6/11, 8:15pm – Board my Emirates flight to Kuwait. Best airline I’ve experienced aside from maybe Virgin America. Power plugs in economy, plenty of movies & TV as well as cameras that show the view in front of and below the plane.

6/11, 9:30pm – Flight takes off an hour late due to “Electrical Problems”. Shouldn’t be a problem catching my United connection, right?

Kuwait (ET + 7 hours)

6/11, 10:30pm – Land in Kuwait and the airport is an absolute madhouse. People everywhere and I struggle to even get away from our arrival gate. Horrible signage leads me to believe I need to clear customs and come back in. After waiting in two lengthy lines (one to fill out a medical form) and a brief panic attack that I would miss my connecting flight, a friendly Kuwaiti customs official points me in the direction of the transfer desk.

6/11, 10:45pm – Check-in and to my disappointment, no seat upgrades available on a packed flight.

6/11, 11:35pm – Board the flight and luck into an aisle seat.

6/12, 2am – Fall asleep somewhere over Turkey.

Over the US

6/12, 4am ET – 9 hours later, I wake up over Maine. Sleeping pills rock.

Washington, DC

6/12, 6am – Land at Dulles

6/12, 7am – Arrive home, hop in the shower and head straight into the office.

What a whirlwind trip.

Much training remains to get us in proper shape for the race in August but we’ll shoot for 40 this coming Saturday and again look for more hilly terrain to get us to where we need to be.

Session Distance:  35.24 miles
Avg Speed: 14.9 mph
Top Speed:  33.1 mph

Total Training Distance: 158.54 miles

I am really excited with how comfortable I have become on my bike as of late.  I genuinely look forward to my rides, the uphills are barely painful, and I’m rarely sore at all now that I have the padded shorts.  With 10 weeks to go until the race, I feel somewhat confident that I’ll be able to finish the race.  I know it will still be very difficult, but I am not as intimidated by the 70 miles as I was initially.

Over the next few weeks I will look to push past 40 miles in my longer rides and start looking for more challenging terrain.  While I love the W&OD, I know I need to find trails with more hills.

Congratulations on reaching your fundraising goal! We admire your determination and your commitment to the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s mission to inspire and empower people who have been impacted by cancer.

Please extend our gratitude to your donors and let them know that every dollar counts – together, we are improving the lives of people affected by cancer. Thanks again, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

The LIVESTRONG Challenge Team

Thanks to all who donated!

If you are still interested in making a donation, you can do so online here:
http://philly09.livestrong.org/dascentral

The ride started out nice and easy as we headed west towards Ashburn.  Not sure if it was the bacon and eggs I had in the morning or if this section of the trail was particularly flat, but I had tons of energy at the start.  This also was a new section of the W&OD for me so I was excited to have some new scenery for the ride.  I let Mike start out in the lead so he could set a pace that he was comfortable with.  I didn’t want to hop in front and wear him out too quick.  This is actually easier for me since Mike takes the brunt of the wind and I get to draft like a NASCAR driver.  We decided to take turns leading and agreed on switching at 5 mile intervals.

As we neared the end of our first 5 mile interval, Mike and I approached a rare juntion on the trail where a small path coming from a nearby parking lot on our left met with the main trail.  As we neared the junction, 5 or 6 riders were coming onto the main trail and heading in the opposite direction causing Mike and I to slow down a bit.  On the path ahead of us at this point was a solo rider moving at a fairly leisurely pace.  As soon as the group of 5/6 passed, Mike and I moved out to the left to pass the rider ahead of us.  Mike passes without problem but before I can enter this guy’s peripheral vision, he makes a sharp left turn to head down the side trail and to the parking lot.  The horrible timing of his turn left me with no option but to plow into him.  I didn’t have time to hit my brakes, swerve left, fall over… anything.  I smashed right into him, our bikes tangled and we went down.

I know I’m still a bit of a rookie at this point but do know that first and foremost when geting into a crash, check to make sure everyone’s okay.  We checked each other out and thankfully the worst of it was a scrape on my knee and elbow.  No broken bones.  Plenty of broken pride.  The guy rightfully chastises both Mike and I for not announcing our pass with a standard “On the left” notice and rides away.

As I recovered from the shock and embarrassment of the crash, I checked out my bike to find a busted wheel and some damage done to the front fork.  Fast forward a couple hours to Revolution Cycles in Clarendon and I find out that both the wheel and fork will need to be replaced.  After tax and installation fees, I’m looking at repair costs that equal about 1/3 of the cost of the bike.  A very sad Saturday for me and my wallet.

As I’ve told this story to several friends already since the crash, I realize and acknowledge that I am primarily at fault.  Sure, Mike should have said “on the left” or even better “2 riders on the left” before passing and sure, the guy should have a) signaled a left turn and b) looked over his shoulder, but ultimately it is on me to also announce “on the left”.  I think the rules are the same as if I was snowboarding.  On the mountain it’s up to me to stay under control and afford the right of way to anyone ahead of me.  If I plow into them, it’s my fault regardless of what ridiculous turn they may have made.  I think it’s the same on the bike trail.

So for any new riders out there, learn from my very expensive lesson and always announce when you need to pass.

My bike is in the shop for a week so it looks like it’s into the gym to get acquainted with the stationary bike.

Completely unacceptable.

There’s always a reason to miss a training ride whether it be work, errands or a friend who’s come to town that you haven’t seen in ages. (All happened.)  However training doesn’t mean going out for a little bike ride when you feel like it.  It means riding on a regular basis and pushing yourself beyond your limits.  That being the case, I made an effort over Memorial Day weekend to dedicate myself to legitimate training.

On Saturday I rode 30 painful miles.  A bowl of cereal was all I had in the morning leaving me with very little energy throughout the ride.  I felt nauseous at times and struggled to recover to full strength until a few hours after finishing.

Sunday I took a break from biking but went to the gym to for a cardio and ab workout.  I’m trying to do everything I can to combat back pain so mixing in a core workout at least once a week is key.

Monday brought quite a bit of rain but I was able to find a 90 minute pocket of sunshine to complete another 20 mile ride.  Thanks to a hearty lunch and a well planned stop during the ride for Powerbar nutrition, I was able to finish this ride with ease.

Feeling a little better about my effort, I found resources on the LIVESTRONG race website offering up a 12 week training program.  I now sit 13 weeks away from race day.  Despite being quite intimidated by the course map, I have faith that I’ll be make it through if I stick to the program.

Tomorrow I look forward to some eggs and bacon before another 30 mile ride.  However this time I’ll be joined by my Northern Virginia training partner, Mike.  An old college friend of mine, he’s known Gerald since they were very young.  Looking forward to the company.

Gerald (our seasoned pro) referred to it as “omninous”.  I am now officially scared.

Pictured above is the new Trek 2.3 road bike that I recently purchased from Revolution Cycles in Clarendon. Thankfully tax time brought me a bit of a refund and if I was going to do this race, I wanted to have a somewhat legitimate bike to ride. I went the full nine by getting clipless pedals. These are the kind that lock you into the bike providing much more efficient movements by allowing your legs to both push and pull as you pedal. I’ve been warned that very embarrassing 0 mph falls are inevitable as I get used to clipping in and out of the pedals at stop lights, road crossings, etc. I’m prepared to take my lumps.

This past weekend I took the new bike out on my first training run. My condo is located about a block from the W&OD trail which runs pretty flat from east to west. It makes for a good beginners course. I made it about 12.5 miles all the way out past the Reston Town Center before deciding to turn around and head home for a total of just over 25 miles for my first ride. Overall, not a bad start.

A few quick observations from training session #1:

• My legs felt fine during and after the ride. This is a great sign.
• My rear end is just now recovering. I need shorts with some padding as well as a softer seat.
• My lower back has been sore since. (One soccer and two softball games haven’t helped.) This worries me. I’ve had lower back pain on and off for the better part of 12 years. Regular chiropractor visits helped a bit but I haven’t been in a while since insurance no longer covers it. Not sure how to handle this yet.
• I hate going uphill. Hate it. Borderline depression while I’m riding uphill. I need to learn to enjoy the ride and push myself a bit as the Philly course is described as “challenging”.
• I need to take some food with me on rides. When I turned around in Reston I realized I was pretty hungry and could have used an energy boost.

This weekend I’m headed back out for training session #2 with 30 miles as the goal.

Session Miles: 25
Avg Session Speed: 15.7 mph
Total Miles: 25
0 mph Falls: 0

In June 2008, my friend Gerald was diagnosed with a rare form of head & neck cancer called Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma. As must be the case with every cancer treatment, Gerald has had his share of ups and downs, good news and bad. Surgery and radiation treatment have made the past year a challenging one but thankfully as of late, his tests have come back clear and he seems to feel pretty good. (At least that’s what telling us.)

A few months ago, Gerald signed up for the 2009 Philadelphia LIVESTRONG Challenge that will take place this August. He and a few friends will be participating in a 70 mile bike race to help raise awareness for cancer and money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Within Gerald’s email asking for support, came a good-natured invitation for anyone to join his team if they were so inclined. Originally I was content with supporting Gerald from only a financial perspective but the more and more I thought about it, the more I wanted to share the experience with him. I have had but a few visits with Gerald since his diagnosis and missed out on the lone group trip down to North Carolina with some old baseball teammates to see him. Aside from all of the positives associated with this race and cause, signing up to participate would selfishly give me some quality time with an old friend that I just don’t get to see enough.

Last week, my buddy Mike signed up giving me a potential northern Virginia training partner and the nudge I needed to commit. So with all of that being said, I just completed registration for the race in Philly joining Gerald’s “Wannabe Riders Against Cancer” team.

My current goal is to raise $250. A small amount in comparison to the $5000+ that Gerald has already raised. If you are interested in supporting the cause, donations can be made online here: http://philly09.livestrong.org/dascentral. Any amount you give, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated.

I find I do much better with this blog when I have a purpose (e.g. SE Asia trip) so I’ll do my best to keep you up to date with training and events leading up to the race.