Join me as I bike Sea to Sea

I am very excited about this summer (and nervous, but let's not talk about that)! I think about biking all day at work, and then when I get home I go biking all evening it seems.

Training is going good. I'm trying to bike 200 miles a week, but I am mostly constrained by time. It's hard to work 8 hours than bike for three hours and still have time to do other things.

Last Thursday I crafted the best cycling route around the city. It was going to be a long night (especially after working for eight hours), so I started right from work. Here is where I went.

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At the start, I not only got to bike along the river enjoying the vibrant lush green plants and trees, but I followed Chris on his way home. The roads were quiet and the temperature was pleasant.

I recently bought new shoes (Sidi Zeta), pedals (Shimano A530), and a saddle (Brooks B17 Narrow) so I have been slowly adjusting it to the perfect position. I snapped this pic while stopping at a church for fine tuning my shoes.

One of the reason I love biking is because it can feel like you're flying at times. And who doesn't want to be able to fly? This picture shows what it feels like at times! (Also, I purchased a new camera, a Canon SD750, so I'm enjoying taking lots of pictures!)

I stopped at Creekside park for a quick bite to eat while I enjoyed a quick snack/dinner and watched a couple minutes of a girls little league game. After leaving and heading into farm country I almost was sliced and diced by this machine. Trust me, it's a lot lot bigger than it looks. And a lot more scary when you're on a bike!

I have bought a lot of important items in the last month (memory card for my camera (HP 8gb), a hat (De Marchi Countrour Skull Cap), gloves (Pearl Izumi Attachk Glove), 2 pairs of shorts, backup sunglasses (Nashbar No Frame Sunglasses), Rain Jacket (Canari Eclipse), Rain Pants (Novara Express Pants), and a travel towel (MSR PackTowl UltraLite Towel).

I feel torn as I try to be careful to only buy the bare minimal of what I need, but also I need to be prepared for this summer. If I'm not, any problems can really set me back as we have a pretty intense schedule.

Also, a group of us got together mid-April and biked down in Dorr Township. I was going to write about it, but one of the other cyclists did here.

I hope to be blogging more and more, but with more pictures and less words as I'm spending a lot of time make sure everything is ready for June 28th when I leave!

Two of my co-workers helped me with my fundraising through organizing a bake sale at work. The first time it was Amber's bags of delectable cookies and brownies shown below, in pretty bags. We also gave away a Sea to Sea bracelet with bag as an extra incentive!

Second, Karen brought in tasty lemon cupcakes and snack bags with lots of goodies, including pretzels, raisins, dried cherries, cashews and more.

We raised more than we expected and it also served as a great tool to tell more people about this summer. Thanks again to both of you for your initiative and help!

This summer will be truly amazing! Stay tuned in the next couple of days for a full fledged update on preparations.

Lots of exciting things are happening or changing.

First, my spinning class ended last week. I know that I have greatly enhanced both my endurance and my strength. At the beginning I was easily out of breath and had a very high heart rate. Now I have to work a lot harder to get out of breath. But I have to transition the technique and stamina to riding on the road.

And now that the weather is better I will be biking outside more. For the last couple of weeks I've gotten out twice a week. But now I'm going to start biking at least 5 times a week. I'm no where near my initial training schedule, but I'm finding out a was a little ambitious in the amount of time I was expected to devout each week.

This last Sunday about 15 of the Sea to Sea cyclists met up at Riverside Park and biked up to Rockford. It was great to meet some new people, but I've already started to learn names of most of the people there. I look forward to doing this again! Here are some pictures from the ride.

Also, I have been focusing this week on deciding what gear I need and what I'm going to take. The only thing is that biking equipment is expensive. So the main items I'm deciding on are: digital camera, shoes, sleeping mat, new parts for my bike, and rain gear.

So only 78 days left till all the cyclists leave! It's seems it was only a little while ago that it was 200 days.

Image used courtesy of Countryboy1949. Some rights reserved.