Wednesday – Hump Day!

Wouldn’t you know it. I picked up another class with 24Hr Fitness and have started teaching Tuesday nights as well. I hate to admit to this but I was glad when Spinning Nation was over. You see, typically, I announce weekend rides and the MS ride after my drills and as we start to cool down. Well, for the last month or so I’ve been announcing only Spinning Nation in hopes of getting the word out. Well, that was last weekend. SO, I was back to the MS ride and upcoming t-shirt rallies. I was ECSTATIC to hear “yeahs!” when I announced the Bike MS ride last night. It turns out I had members from Team Texas Tough and Team Bikemart in my classes. I, of course, acknowledged their presence, let the class know that we were trying to get 3,500 riders this year and announced that all three of our teams could use more riders. I even asked the team members to let me know how many riders each of them had. So Bike MS was well-represented in my class last night! YEAH!! (Shoutout to Edwin of Team Texas Tough. I didn’t get the rider’s name from Team Bikemart as she was busy trying to recruit a fellow spinner for her team. I love it!)

I got to speak to Edwin for a while after class. Turns out he’s been riding in the Bike MS event for about 3 years. The other lady has been active in MS rides for 6 years! I proceeded to tell him about the MS Ambassador program and how he could go onto my blog (as well as the other four ambassadors’ blogs) to get inspiration to get others to join. When I told him that I represented a non-traditional rider (as a MOM), his eyes widened in amazement. {OK, this made me blush, glad the lights were still dimmed}. He said he couldn’t believe that I was a mom (while motioning to my stomach). He said he loved the team name and the way I promoted the team (So I said I was captain of Team Dangerous Curves and then said to the class “I’ll give you one guess as to why we are named that” while wiggling on my spinner bike. I was embarrassed to do that but all in good fun and for the Society – gotta take one for the team, right?). We exchanged information and I directed him to my blog where I hope he will write in and say he had tons of fun in my spin class and that he’s ready for some more hill intervals sprint drills! : ))

So, we have about 57 days left for the ride. So many things coming up with practice rides and fundraising. There’s t-shirt rallies to pay for and friends to bother about donations! I’m still working on my fundraising. It is hard. People are starting to avoid me. I’ve posted up my pledge form in my office and carry one in my cycle binder for classes. While I never publicly ask for donations, I hope that one day someone will come up and ask “how can I help” so that I can pull it out and ask for any donation they feel is acceptable to give. I’m only $25 away from the minimum $300 because a great friend of mine whose wife has MS (and for whom I ride for) graciously gave me a big donation! He lives in Pennsylvania now and did his first MS Walk last year for his wife. But still, feeling that connection with him and his wife has kept me going all these years. Regardless of the distance/miles between us, I hold both of them close to my heart.

So fundraising. I received an e-mail from Team VIP’s coordinator (or team captain) asking if I could blog about their upcoming GIANT fundraiser. All teams are welcome and trust me when I say – they may get higher fundraising amounts, but it all goes to the same bucket – to the same desire we all have – to rid this world of MS! And so, come out and support an end to MS and support Team VIP on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 7 pm. See below link or contact Ms. Jillian Prado at jillian@psstyling.com for additional information. They have tons of great prizes from what I’ve heard, raffles, silent auctions, drinks, and a live band! $25 gets you in the door and raffle tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20. Sidenote: They are raffling off two bikes – a Trek Road bike and a Beach Cruiser! Here is the link to their event page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=17100045&ref=nf#!/event.php?eid=336760139496
So come out and support them!

No drinking for me though. Got a long team practice ride on Saturday AND Sunday morning and hope to get about 65 to 75 miles covered for the team (45/50 miles on Saturday and 25 miles Sunday). It’ll be another busy weekend, but as you know, there’s no different type of weekend for me!! And for those of you reading my blog, thinking about coming to my spin class, come on in, enjoy the ride, and leave me some comments! I’d love to hear from you. We tackle more hills and sprints Thursday night including a Cris Carmichael drill used for Lance’s pedal power on climbs! Woo Hoo! Bring it on!!