On the Road

It's been a busy June for work travel. New Jersey, Sacramento, San Francisco, and currently Minneapolis. While I'm not getting in as many local miles as I would otherwise, I'm trying my best get get some time in the saddle on the road.

This past weekend, Ian joined me in San Francisco for a long weekend. We rented bikes and rode through the City, across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it. The headwinds made it a challenge but the views made it all worthwhile. That's us above on the iconic bridge!

This week, I'm in Minneapolis for work. Usually I travel for meetings, but this time I'm working with a National Park in Minnesota doing bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure assessments. The pic below is of me and my colleague/friend Ben on one of our site visits. The Twin Cities' Nice Ride bikeshare system is getting us around the area.

I'm back in Beantown on Friday, and I fully intend on rampin up my training in preparation for my ride in 5 weeks. Have you made your cancer-fighting donation yet? You still have time, but it's getting close! Click here to give. Thank you!

Training

Since my first training ride of the season in mid-April, I've logged 230 miles in the saddle(s).* I'm 88 miles ahead of my training from last year at this date, but I still have a ways to go to be ready for the PMC in less than 8 weeks. The 51-mile ride I did this past weekend was great training, but I need to get stronger to be able to get to Provincetown without cramping up in Brewster!

Summer isn't just training season for me - it's my busy travel season at work. I've already been to South Dakota and New Jersey since late May, and I have trips planned for California, Minnesota, and Georgia all before the PMC. These are weekday-only trips (except for California, where I'll spend the weekend in San Francisco!), but they still limit my availability for training rides. I'm also going on vacation in Provincetown (home of the PMC's finish line!) in mid-July, but I'll be bringing my bike for training rides. Where better to train than on the actual route?!

The weather forecast for this weekend looks great. See you on the road! And please consider making your donation today.


*I bought a new bike (no, that's not mine in the photo above, but it's nice too)! I'll still be riding my trusty Specialized bike, which has been my PMC companion since 2007, in August. I sold my hybrid (which got me to Provincetown in 2004-2006...slowly) and purchased a Salsa Vaya 3, a touring bike. It's a slick, solid bike that will someday carry me across the United States (ending with the two days of the PMC, of course!). I don't know when I'll be doing it, but  I WILL do it! :)