I've Lost My Groove!

Okay, so I realized today that I've been watching a bit too much Nickelodeon with the kids. As I was riding against what were (according to our good friends at weather.com) gusts up to 20mph from the west I had the realization that due to many considerations I've Lost My Groove. What's this got to do with Nickelodeon? Well, the first thing that popped into my mind after realizing I was off my groove was the episode where King Julian ticks off the baboon sisters and they steal his groove and put it in a jar. See it here at http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/out-of-the-groove-clip.html

As this image was playing in my head (yes, I'm still trying to have my Thornton Wilderesque moments but its hard when your groove is in a jar) I realized that as of right now I have only commuted about 300 miles since the first of the year. Usually by this time I've logged closer to 800 commute miles and another 200 for fun miles. Its been a rough year between the snowmageddons and Amy's surgery. Add to that the stress of the show this year (it wasn't stressful by itself, just added to the administration degree, trying to take care of the house, and all the other usual stresses) I didn't get on the bike as much as I would have liked. I love doing the show and this year was an incredible success for the kids. They did an outstanding job (and yes, this year's high school musical was High School Musical) and they had a great set of audiences, selling out two of the four performances.

However, (back to the business of the bike) since I'm trying to get into shape for the April 18 Victory Ride I need to log a lot more mileage. Today was the beginning of that. Of course, I won't be able to ride tomorrow unless I ride in the dark at 7:00 - actually it might be worth it. It could be fun and something I haven't done in a while so I might give it a shot.

So, the bottome line is I watch too much television and don't ride enough - so the only way I'm getting my groove out of the jar is to get off my baboon backside and open the jar! If anyone wants to join me, just drop me an e-mail and I'll meet you for a spirited ride -- even better, come join me on April 18 and see if I did get my groove back.


See ya on the road.

With Respects to Thornton Wilder

In the play Our Town the character Emily says, "Oh, earth you're too beautiful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?" I pondered these words as I commuted on my bike to work today and the meaning (or I should say in my oxygen deprived state, multiple meanings) started to turn over in my head to the rythm of my crankset.

First of all, you have to know that at the tender age of ten my daughter Sarah is a die-hard environmentalist. She has held "Save the Earth" parties for her birthday and she is raising money to replant the trees that have been chopped down on Main Street in the town where we live (see her website projectlemonaid.org for more on that). She is working on a project in her class to "adopt" a polar bear and track it. The joke around our house is whenever we see someone has left the lights on we say, " is killing the polar bears!" to indicate the waste of energy and the contribution to global warming.

That being said, this being the first truly warm commute morning of the season I was basking in the warmth that was coming down from above. Plants are starting to bud and even though there is ice on the ground (and in the pond I pass on the Stillwell climb) there is the sense of the earth waking up again after our bouts with "Snowmageddon". I found myself wondering, do people actually get to experience this when they're in their cars? Of course I know the obvious answer but as I kept pedaling along I found myself noticing the little things that so often go unnoticed.

I saw the squirrels running in the distance (of course I kept a wary eye out for them since I've heard too many drive-by squirreling stories) and the sound the leaves made as they rustled. I saw the dappling of the sun through the leaves. I saw the faint "thumbnail" of the moon that still glowed as I cranked up the slopes of Stillwell and I tried my hardest to take it all in. As much as I was focusing on my cadence (spinning up the slope, nice and smooth, high rpm, yada yada) I also tried to really SEE my ride for a change.

This got me to thinking. I (like many of you reading this) have logged many, many miles on my faithful steed. I see all sorts of things but I sort of let them wash over me in my zeal to pedal faster or more efficiently. I think as cyclists we sometimes get a little "blindered" to what's going on around us and we forget that the way we travel puts us more in tune with the earth than our metal clad brethren (or sistren) and we should take a moment or two on every ride we do - no matter the conditions or the purpose - to try to fully and consciously acknowledge that. Even if its just to acknowledge a rider going the other direction with a simple raise of the hand.

I will be riding this year to help the children at Sunrise Day Camp have the opportunity to attend camp for the summer. I know there will be times that some of them will be very weak from their treatments and won't be able to physically do a lot of the things they love to do - like ride their bikes. So for now, when I ride I will think about them and ride for those who can't now ride or ride in the future. And every time I ride I'm going to try to find the time to truly and really enjoy that moment of the ride without thinking about tactics, cadence, rpm, heart rate or any of the other competitive parts of riding. Just ride, just feel, just realize in honor of those kids who can't.

Through Connorsarmy.org we've already started registering riders for the Third Annual Victory Ride to help these kids, so if you haven't already, register to join us - even if you do it in the comfort of your environs. Whatever you do, when you ride for those kids try to enjoy it - "every, every minute".

Stay well and well see you on the road.

Back inthe Saddle Again

Okay, so I have fallen off the blog wagon in a very hard (and very prolonged) way. I looked back over my archive and realized that its been FIFTEEN (15!) months since I last composed a blog. To be honest, I really didn't have a reason to.

You see, after the last Victory Ride didn't happen on January 1, 2009 (due to the massive ice storm the night before) I was bummed. We tried to figure out how to make it happen later that spring but the logistics were just never in our favor. For the original Jan. 1 date we had 10 of us willing to go and we even e-mailed back and forth that morning but I ultimately had to check the road conditions and cancel. It was really a let down, especially since Channel 12 News had actually decided to film us taking off and coming back that day.

Well after 15 months of soul-searching and thinking we're ecstatic to announce that THE VICTORY RIDE IS HAPPENING AGAIN!

You see, another reason why I've been silent is that I wasn't really as excited about posting since I didn't feel as if I was raising money for the cancer community. In my head I guess I thought that no one would be interested in following this blog anymore since I wasn't doing my year long fundraising commute. I've still been riding and logging 3,000 miles in commuting miles in 2009 but I just haven't been keeping up with the blogging aspect. Another reason is that the way we had it set up before, it was more difficult to update the blog. But, now as you see, I've joined the cyber community of blogspot.com and now I have no excuses for being able to update my blogs since I can do it from virtually any computer.

However, the biggest impetus in this new post is the reason the Victory Ride is returning. In the past fifteen months (and a lot of soul searching) I have found another cause for which to raise funds and that is Sunrise Day Camp. I really believe in their mission and I know the monies we raise will be appreciated. So this year, the Victory Ride will happen again and it will happen on April 18, 2010 and it will happen to benefit Sunrise Day Camp. You can find out more about them at www.sunrisedaycamp.org. I'm excited about this new opportunity to help the cancer community in a way that is meaningful and will touch the lives of some of the youngest members of the cancer community in ways that we the riders can only imagine.

Another Year, Another 2K!

Okay, so I know that I’ve been trying to keep on top of the blog this year and I said I would try to post every Sunday. Well, its not every Sunday but at least its only been a few weeks since my last posting. I am getting better. I actually wrote about this to a friend of mine recently, the fact that since middle school I’ve tried at various moments (mostly for my acting classes) to keep a journal of some sort and I’ve usually failed pretty dismally. I would keep it going for about six months or so and then other things in my life would take over and I wouldn’t make time for the writing that needed to be done.

So, the last few weeks have been interesting to say the least. Just last week I reached 2,000 miles commuting again this year. That doesn’t count the extra miles I logged either commuting to my summer job (about 600), the Gold Coast century (which I actually finished this year, read my previous post), or the club rides (however infrequent they’ve been this year – sorry guys), the most recent of which was a bit unsettling.

For the last three years I've started doing this 50 mile ride the day after Thanksgiving with some guys from the bike club. Its the "AA" ride which means its the more experienced guys in the club and we normally average about 18-20 miles an hour. The guys who ride in this group and on this ride have all been riding for years and I'm probably one of the younger and newer guys who does it. This year there were only four us who were able to make it and as we were riding out of Cold Spring Harbor on 25A heading towards Syosset one of the riders (actually the ride leader) had a crash. We were doing about 22 miles an hour (I was pulling in the front along with another rider) and Mel hit something. I heard a "crunch" and then turned my head to see him flipping end over end in the road. Scott, who was following behind Mel, hit him and then landed hard on his elbow. When we got to him I had to disentangle Mel from his bike because he was all tangled up in what was left of his bike and he was moaning softly as he was lying on his side. Fortunately, there was a volunteer fireman just two cars behind us and we were only ¼ mile from the Cold Spring Harbor fire station so the EMTs were there in a manner of minutes and they rushed him to the hospital. The three of us headed back to the start and once I got changed I headed over to the hospital to see Mel. He ended up with only a fractured collar bone but that image of him going end over end is still in my head. I got back on the bike two days later just to “get back on the horse” so to speak but I still find myself getting a bit more nervous than before about riding these days. I stopped by my LBS a few days later and found that Mel had dropped his wheel off. Apparently, he found out that Mel thinks he may have clipped a piece of the brunch I had pointed out and it flipped up into his wheel which would explain why six of the spokes were broken, his steering tube snapped, and why he flipped over. Like the time I got hit by the van, it just makes me more conscious of being aware of everything around me on the road.

Okay, I've given you enough to read for one session. However, one of my biggest "gratefuls" this year (its a tradition that we do every night but really big on T-day when the whole family is together) is for my family – that after the few years we’ve had of healthy scares, they are all healthy and happy. My other gratefuls were for my job, good friends and the Dallas Cowboys winning a football game - hey you can take the boy out of Texas..... Of course, they didn’t do so well last week, but there is always next week – with the Giants!


Stay well and I'll see you on the road!

Back on the Road Again

For those of you who have been reading these blogs you’ll notice that I’ve been far too long silent. In my own defense, all I can say is that I have at various times in my life tried to keep a journal or a diary and I have always failed dismally. The actual process of sitting down and regularly jotting down my thoughts has always eluded me. I’ve always found that there were always other things that distracted me from my goal. Last year’s blogging was for me a very difficult task trying to keep up with at least two a month. Once we reached our goal for the Connor’s Army Commute I lost the impetus to write. I felt as if no one wanted to hear about the day to day. However, the other day I actually ran into someone who asked what was going on since none of my blogs was current. That let me know that at least one person out there was periodically checking up on our website, so I decided that I needed to get back into the habit of keeping you all updated. My goal now is to try to post an update each Sunday just to let you all know what is going on with Connor’s Army, the fight against cancer, and life in general.

First of all THERE WILL BE A SECOND ANNUAL VICTORY RIDE! We are planning to do the same basic route (with a few “safer” modifications) and add a 15-mile loop through Syosset to make the distance a little more challenging for the truly intrepid among us. The Farmer’s Almanac (remember how well it served us last year?) is forecasting “fair and cold” weather for that week – whatever that means. I’m hoping to find sponsors who will once again donate (or sell at a discount) refreshments and supplies for the ride. Once again we’ll ride from St. Phillip’s to Syosset High School where hot drinks and food will be waiting. For those doing the original 25 mile course they will turn around and head on back. For the rest of us, we’ll loop around back to Syosset High School, refuel and then head back to Northport where more hot beverages and food will be waiting for us. We won’t be throwing the same big party that we did last year, we’ll just have some fun music playing and people will come in at their own pace. We may ask people just to check in so we know everyone made it back safely. Our original goal last year was for a hundred riders. Now that we know the realities, we’re hoping just to double our number of riders from last year – so if we can get 20 riders to actually start and finish we’re ahead of the game. Whatever the turnout, this is a ride we’re hoping will grow and continue year after year to be a way we “normal” riders can help put back the money for cancer research that the government is slowly taking away.

On the personal front, my family is doing well, both immediate and extended. My mom has recovered well from the melanoma and she’s showing no signs of it coming back. Tamara is pregnant with her second baby and Angela just celebrated two years of being cancer free. Sarah is thriving in fourth grade and had a great fall as the only girl out of twenty 3rd to 5th graders who attended a baseball skills clinic. It was really cool to see her out there mixing it up with her pink bat, pink batting helmet (with the pony tail cutout) and pink glove – girls rule! The dynamic duo of William and James are in kindergarten (eeks) and they are having a blast – although we do occasionally deal with the “I don’t want to go to school” – just wait until they’re teenagers!

Amy has continued to be involved in local theater productions, becoming a fairly regular swing at the John Engeman Theater at Northport. She is currently starring as Adelaide in Plaza Theatricals production of Guys and Dolls and I will just have to say here she is the best thing in the show (what else would you expect?)! I actually had a turn on stage this summer playing a character named “Teech” in an original play entitled Theatre Games playing – are you ready for this – a high school theater teacher. It was a real stretch I tell you. It was good to get back on stage and “practice what I preach”. It reminded me that I am teaching usable skills to all my young, budding thespians. Of course, one of my most nerve wracking performances was the one when I had twelve of my students in the audience – my only hope was that I wouldn’t black out onstage. It was a lot of work and very stress inducing for my first foray back but I really had a great time when it was all said and done.

On another personal note, I completed my first century! This summer I rode the Huntington Bicycle Club’s Gold Coast Century and I made it all the way through in five hours and forty-five minutes! I tried to hook up with various people but it didn’t work out this year so I just decided to go solo and left out of the parking lot at 7:00 in the morning. I ended hooking up with a triathelete who was a bit older than me but we rode together. We had a few people join us and drop off periodically but it was basically the two of us all the way through. I had actually left my inhaler (for my asthma) at home and at the big rest stop in Roslyn park I was told to wait because someone was bringing it to me. I didn’t realize it had dropped out of my pocket at home, I thought I dropped at the start and someone recognized my name on it and was bringing it from the start. It turned out that it was Amy who was trying to get it to me and she had been “shadowing” me the entire route trying to catch up with me. I actually saw her on the road and the irony is, I didn’t need it the entire ride! I didn’t latch onto the Kreb’s Cycling peloton but I did finish and I averaged 17+ mph! I was a happy man.

On a more somber note, my beloved Cowboys faltered after going 13-3 and I had to live through the ignominy of seeing the Giants win the Super Bowl! And this season looks dire as well. Ah well, there’s always next year.

Stay well and I'll see you on the road!