Foxy's Century

Today I rode a metric century (100km) (60 mi) with the guy (Matt) that I met on the bike trail a couple of weeks ago. This is two weeks in a row that included nice long rides on the weekend. I rode with some handcyclists who really impressed me. They ride with the power of their upper body and they keep a pretty good pace. The world champion handcyclist was there, Alejandro Abore, he kicked our butts but it was great to meet him. Here I am with Matt, Rick, Patty, Alejandro, and Steve:



I rode with Steve and we made a pretty good team drafting behind each other. We had an average speed of 14 mph compared to the near 20 mph of Alejandro.

I had a great time riding with these guys and will definitely do it again soon.

Next weekend: Sacramento to San Francisco=> 85 miles on Saturday and 85 on Sunday...this will be quite a test...

Harsh Ride

Andy and I rode 60 miles today. From downtown Sac to Folsom Lake and Back. It was a great day and a great ride. However I can barely walk right now. I noticed a small pain in my hip at about mile 30, I rode through it for 30 more miles. I sat down when I got home and then I could barely get up to walk across the room. I think it is just very sore, nothing a couple of IBU profens won't fix. Gonna drive to work tomorrow just to be safe.

Some totally sweet shots at the 30 mile mark (Folsom Lake):


Extreme close-up (in a van) down by the river:

My sandwich was falling apart:

So I fed some to the squirrell and he didn't have to eat that cigarette BUTT:

B-Day

Today was my birthday...

We got up at 6 to ride to breakfast. Andy and Tess and I rode to Lyons right by our office, the food could have been better, but the company was great.

Some of my co-workers took me out to lunch to this little hole-in-the wall Mexican place. The waitresses and some other random employees came out and sang happy birthday. Right afterward, this old Mexican guy came over with two shots of tequila and shoved one in my face and took the other for himself. What could I do, I had to take it. Needless to say, it was a very unproductive afternoon at the office.

Tonight I was surprized by many friends that came over wearing stylish vests. Tess had organized a vest party because she knows that I have an unhealthy love for denim vests. We had a nice pot luck barbq and bullshat for a couple hours (my favorite). This was a good photo op (notice all the reflective safety vests):

Road Rash

So, today I had to take my truck in for an oil change. So I dropped it off at the dealership and rode in to work.

I left work at 5 pm thinking that I would have more than enough time to take a good hard ride and get to the dealership before it closed at 7. So I took a detour on my way there. I went up a pretty good hill in Fair Oaks (its hard to find hills in Sacramento) and then I got back on the trail. I was getting close to the dealership when I passed a guy going the other way, he was riding a hand-bike and I thought I knew who he was so I flagged him down and talked with him for a while. He ended up not being the guy I thaught he was but he invited me to ride with him and a group of friends on October 15, they are going to do a metric century (approximately 62 miles) on hand-bikes (a trike but arm powered), so I am going to join them, you will hear about that afterward...

Anyway, back to the point of the story. It was about 6:38 and the dealership closed at 7 so I started hauling butt toward the Toyota dealership. I was about a half mile away on a flat stretch going about 21 mph and it was getting dark so I reached up to turn my headlight on (mistake). My hand hit the handle which turned my wheels sharp left, I tried to correct, but I lost it and flipped. I skidded about 15 feet and came to a hault. I was nice and scraped up but I had to keep truckin' so I could pick up my truck...I finally arrived at the dealership at 6:55, threw my trike in the back and took an uncomfortable ride home. I think I will rest tomorrow...but not for long because I have a metric century ride on the 15th.

Check out the sweet road rash...and my uvula...

Lots of Riding

I have been riding to work a lot lately. I have been doing about 70 miles or more per week. That is a piece of cake compared to the 60 miles a day that I will be riding during my trip, but its a start. Also I will not be working during the ride (obviously), so I think I will be able to manage 6o miles a day.

On friday, I rode with Tess and we met a few co-workers for breakfast. I ate way too much (huge omlet, potatoes, biscuits and gravy, sooooooo good) and I was very unproductive at work for the rest of the day, but it was so good.

I have been riding with my friend (since first grade) Andy quite a bit lately. Here is a picture of us by the American River with the sunrise in the background. We asked a lone runner to take this pic, she was happy to break her stride and help us out:


It is rad to see the sunrise every morning, Tess says it is good for our soul.

Ride Ataxia Events: International Ataxia Awareness Day

Today was International Ataxia Awareness Day. We had two fundraising events, at two different places. One event was held at Round Table Pizza in Grass Valley (Lake of the Pines), and one in Martinez. My cousin, Angela organized the event in Martinez.

We had a great turnout at both locations, raising about $1,500 at each location. The line for ordering Pizza was out the door for about an hour. I will total up all the donations up to this point to see where we are at, I think we should be close to half way to $30,000.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support the cause, it was a good night.

In the spirit of International Ataxia Awareness Day, check out this article on the promising new Friedreich's Ataxia Research:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/sri-srt082106.php

Lots Going On....

It has been a while...Since the last post we have had a few meetings, A poker tournament, a trip to Alaska, a couple weddings, lots of work...and not much riding. But things are changing. I rode to work three times last week for a total of about 65 miles during the week. However I was very sluggish because I had not been on the trike for about 4 weeks. This week I am finding all sorts of excuses not to ride but hopefully I will make it at least 2 days.

A few weeks ago, my friend Lindsey came over to help us get organized. Lindsey is in grad school in rganizational Studies so she helped us get all our ideas out and on paper, then we assigned specific tasks. It was great to get all the stuff out of our heads where everybody on our team (Me, Mom and Dad) could see. By the end of the night we had covered the entire dining room in butcher paper.


The Ride Ataxia Poker tournament at Brown and Caldwell, Sacramento was a blast. We had about 20 participants and raised over $600. It was more successful than anticipated. Look at those intense Poker faces:


The day after the poker tournament, My Dad, My Brother and I left for Alaska for a week of fishing. It was a killer trip to the middle of nowhere. We did not catch as many fish as we thought we would, but we caught the biggest fish I had ever seen in person, I layed down next to it for some perspective:


International Ataxia awareness Day is coming up. We are having pizza night in two locations that night(September 25). Obviously I cannot be in both places, so yesterday I filmed a video to send to Martinez so they can pretend I am really there. Hopefully the video will turn out good, I am sure it will because we have the best in the business (Matt Pegler of Brown and Caldwell) doing the editing.

Thats all for now, I would like to update more often and I will have some details about the actual ride soon. Don't forget International Ataxia Awareness Day September 25!