Opening & Closing Ceremonies

If you are interested in attending Opening or Closing Ceremonies for the AIDS/ Lifecycle 5. Click on the link below for details. Thank you and hope to see you there.
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/ceremonies.html

Site Updates During My Ride

Well, time is ticking away... and it is almost time for me to head up to San Francisco to start my ride down the coast. I am all packed and ready to go. The nerves have kicked in and I am getting very anxious. I have been talking with my fellow cyclists and we are all feeling the same way. The ALC-LA staff have made their trek up to SF today and my tent mate, Tsufit, has left Tel Aviv, Israel and is heading to LAX as I type this. I have met her on IM, but we will meet for the first time face to face in SF (she is a good friend of my Cycle Buddy Kerry). Tsufit, will be a Roadie (she was one last year too). For the rest of us, it is a waiting game, counting down the hours to our departure.

I have good news! I will be able to update my site http://www.go-girl.blogsite.com/ while on my ride. I will try and update it (either via my cell phone, via my Mom or both) each night. You can also follow the event at http://experience.aidslifecycle.org/ . The Experience the Ride link will show written travelogues, audio podcasts, event photos, and other blogs of our event. At this link you can even send me a message as well. So make sure to check back each night starting Saturday, June 3rd to see what is happening on my ride to help end AIDS/ HIV.

Please note that if I use my cell phone the messages will be rather small. I need to conserve battery life, since I will not be able to charge my phone.

Past Ride Photo Update

Check out my Tour of Two Rivers and Simi Ojai Century Ride blogs below. I've added some pictures from those 2 rides. Enjoy!

Santa Monica Bike Attack Celebration 11.? miles

In a week I'll be in San Francisco... Can you believe it? Today I rode the Santa Monica Bike Attack Celebration Ride. It was a celebration of the end of months training. Dave and Sarah, our cycle leaders, were so good to us. We all got little goodie bags that contained some very valuable goodies that we can use on our big ride. A big suprise was my Cycle Buddy Kerry and the ALC Assistant Director Sheri rode along with us as well. It was great to see Scott, Stephen, Keith, Sonia, Kim, Heather and Drew again. Sonia brought her two boys and her oldest Tyler (12yrs) got to ride with us. There were many others that rode that were such a pleasure to meet too. After our quick ride to the marina and back it was off to brunch. We all sat together sharing stories of past training rides, fears about the upcoming ride, where we are staying and how we are getting up to SF. It was so much fun. We really have become like family.





Left, the Bike Attack boys....











Left, Sonia and I

Details on my Departure

My wonderful Cycle Buddy Kerry hooked me up with her Posse and so I will be going up to San Francisco via car on Friday, June 2nd at approximately 8:00 am. Yay!! I can’t believe that the ride is almost here. I have spent the whole of 2006 up to this point preparing for this ride. I am excited, nervous, anxious and scared. I’ll have so many stories to tell and I can’t wait to tell them.

Santa Susanna Pass

Well, today I drove all the way to Ventura to find that the Ventura to Carpentaria was canceled. I didn’t let that stop me from riding. I knew that I needed to practice my hill climbing (hills are by far my weakness). I remember that Bob Mohme, my angel from the Simi Ojai Century Ride, assigned hill climbing for my homework. Well, Bob, mission accomplished. I climbed the Santa Susanna Pass today. The Santa Susanna Pass is a road that goes up, over and cuts through the mountains between Simi Valley and the West San Fernando Valley. Yay, I felt very good after I climbed over, down and then turned around and did it all over again in reverse.

Next week I do plan on doing at least one more ride, then it is off to San Francisco.

Nutrition & Hydration

On Wednesday, May 17 I had my last ALC workshop. I learned and was reminded that I need to take better care of myself with what I put in. I definitely need to drink more water and eat better. Time to start home cooking more again too. The workshop was very motivational and I learned that chocolate milk is a great recovery drink after a hard ride. Who would have thought?

Farewell to ALC Staff…Sniff..sniff

It was a bit of a sad night for me. I took this night as being the last night that I would see the staff this year. They are usually working so diligently behind the scenes during the ride that we never see them the whole week. The “fab” four as they are known, Pam, Kerry, Sheri and Sarah have all made such a difference in my life and my ride. Each one has helped to sculpt me and give me the tools and skills I need in order to successfully do this ride. A huge thank you to them all!

Pam, made me see the true reason for the ride, the cause, how bad the Aids/ HIV epidemic was and her true compassion for it. Her cute cheers and smiles at the holiday and kick off party and her joyful energy and charisma was just so contagious. After being around her and hearing her stories I could wait to get on my bike and ride.

Kerry, my wonderful Cycle Buddy and mentour was my compass. She lead me into the directions that I needed to go and helped to prepare me phyically. She told me where to go for everything from equipment to rides to advice about life. She took me under her wing, showing me what Aids Lifecycle was all about and introduced me to her friends and continued to check in on me weekly to here how my week and training had gone. She taught me never to purchase anything at full price. She also acted as my sound board hearing all of the challenges I was faces both on and off the bike.

Sheri’s, big smile and soft voice was my confirmation when I was in question or in doubt about the ride. She encouraged me and calmed my nerves about the 585 miles that were ahead of me. Just seeing her familiar face was comforting.

Sarah, oddly one of the staff that I had the least contact with had the biggest impact. She taught me the heart and attitude of the ride...by her example. I swear I could listen to her talk all day, and have recently loved reading her blogs (check them out at www.aidslifecycle.org/7). Her heart is so big and she is so genuine. I had given up hope that people like her still existed. Her attitude from the first day I met her, set an example to me of how an ALCers should act and be. She is very knowledgeable and her thirst and compassion for the cause and for people is truly inspiring and has been a huge motivator for me. One of the few regrets that I have had being involved with the ALC, is that I didn’t get to know her better. I feel that there is so much more to learn from her. That is why it was perfect that my last workshop was lead by her.

I'm going to miss the staff tremendously.

Bike Fit

I finally got a proper bike fit, thanks to Jaime at I Martin. Yay!! It was about time. I had my seat raised and had the stem on my handlebars switched out. My handle bars are closer to me now. I now have a better range in my peddle stroke as well.

Night Ride

Just went for a quick little 14 mile night ride with a friend last night (5-15-06) through the valley (on a bike path). I love riding at night. I am starting to wind down from my training so that I can give my body a chance to get stronger for the ride.

A lot of us can’t wait for the ride. We are so excited, nervous, anxious and terrified all at the same time. Only 18 days until I leave for San Francisco. Tonight I have a bike fit with one of our sponsors I Martin. My knees have been hurting me, so hopefully they will make some adjustments to my bike so that there are no more problems. Tomorrow I have a seminar and I’ll be doing another ride on Sunday though…so check back for all the deets.

Tour of Two Rivers – 117.5 miles

I joined team Different Spokes for the Tour of Two Rivers ride on Sunday, May 14th. It was so good to see familiar faces, such as Heather, Tye, Katie and Stephen. There were about 15 of us total. It was suppose to be 97.6 miles. We all met in Azusa and headed out in hopes of seeing Huntington Beach and having lunch at near the pier.

All was well until we got to Fullerton and realized that we could not find a street called Wilshire, so we ended up flagging down a Police Officer to get directions after cycling around for a while in search of the street. We found ourselves back on the correct route, but were realizing that the route map was wrong yet again, when the bike path we were suppose to take the rest of the way towards the ocean ended (I think we were in Anaheim). We flagged down yet another Police Officer where he was attending to a car accident, got directions and were back on the correct path again, until the bike path split into 2 directions. With several people on the phone and others scouting out the options, Timmy (a former Boys Scout) recommended that we following the current of the river which he believed would lead us to the ocean. Ahh, Timmy was correct and we reached PCH. But once on PCH, we did not know which way to turn to find Main Street. Luckily Tye had been in the area before and thought that we should turn right. He was correct and we headed on PCH towards Main Street.

During some indecisive route options we lost a few people from the group, but luckily our tummies think a like (we were starving & there were tons of resturants) and we ran into a few of them at the restaurant that we picked to eat at. We had not seen Katie or Stephen for the longest time and I began to worry. Funny thing as we were putting our bikes on PCH to head back (A different way from the way we came) up came riding Katie and Stephen. I was so happy to see them. We got them some water and we were together on our way back.

We were planning to ride PCH to the bike path and ride it all the way back. Simple right? Wrong! The bike path ended before we came anywhere near our ending point. Again a bunch of us got on the phones, while others scouted out the area. I called my dad (who was in Arizona with a friend who lived in a nearby city) to see if they could help us. They told us to head north and so we did. Just when we thought that we were home free, we had trouble finding the Arrow Hwy exit from the bike path (the bike path ran along a river). We were off by one street but were still able to find the main street that lead to the parking lot that we were all parked at.

When we rolled in, we heard the park ranger announcing that the park was closing in 2 minutes. Talk about cutting it close! We all rushed to get out bikes and gear packed up. What a day, I am calling this ride the Tale of Two Rivers. It was awesome to bond with my fellow cyclists. We had a blast, stuck together, and worked together as a team to get ourselves home, no arguing, no tempers, no drama. It was fun! I hope that I get to ride with these people in June.

ALC 101

On Saturday May 13th I attended ALC 101 at Griffith Park lead by my Cycle Buddy, Kerry Castillo and Assistant Director-LA Sheri Lunn. They answered questions and told us what to bring and what not to pack, information about orientation day (June 3rd), etc. Kerry even showed me some tricks on how to put up and take down a tent. It is amazing how tight she can fold a tent. She makes it look like it just came out of a brand new box. Many notes were made that day.

Back from Florida

I survived my business trip and it was a work hard play hard trip. I had never been to Florida, so when I wasn’t working I was venturing out to many part of Florida. I figured I could sleep when I got back to So Cal. I got to get to know some of my co-workers real well and had a blast. We went to South Beach, Miami, Ft Lauderdale (saw part of an air and sea show & the Blue Angels), Pompano Beach, The Everglades (rode on an air boat), The Keys, including Key West, and lots more. Oh, and we saw Shaquile O’Neal—saw where Madanna, Rosie O’Donnel, P Diddy, Shaq, etc have their houses. One of my co-workers has a boat and took us from South Miami to the heart of Miami. That was so much fun. So now I am trying to catch up on sleep.