February 2009 News!

No news is good news! We haven't heard from Angela since her latest and greatest news that the Blue Cross Blue Shield has finally agreed to cover her liver transplant and special previous experimental treatments. So she must still be celebrating, sipping champagne!

Keeping motivated to stay in the saddle this month came a little harder, and receiving the rain we desperately needed in January -- all in the month of February -- made it even more difficult. That said -- I still managed to log 567 miles for the month of February. Not bad for a rainy and short month! Though short of my monthly goal, I'm still ahead of schedule, with an average of 723 miles per month since the beginning of 2009 -- 79 miles ahead per month. I've achieved almost 20% toward my 7,500 mileage goal for the year!

I had one very memorable long ride in February, the Tour de Palm Springs, shared with three GREAT Team in Training buddies -- Mark, Steve and Jody. We headed down via car and met up with torrential rain -- and SNOW -- the entire 10-hour ride down and we were all very nervous that we'd have a bad-weather day for the ride. But the sun gods came through for us! We had a gorgeous crisp day with blue sky all day long. Good friends, good first-century ride of the year, and friendly fellow cyclists! Still, although considered a relative "flat" century, I was tired at the end.

This month, I also helped form a new team -- Team Revolution -- which will ride the Tour of Colorado in June 2009. Over 29,000' of elevation gain and 530 miles in one week! This will take some heavy-duty training, and plenty of knowledge about how to counteract the symptoms of altitude sickness. I wonder if the SAG wagon will be busy transporting Californians over the Continental Divide!

That's it for now. More coming next month! Thanks for checking in.

Barb

DONATIONS WILL BE RETURNED TO CONTRIBUTORS!

We've just discovered that Technology Credit Union does not keep records of the checks they receive to accounts, just those that are written. So, I am in the process now of contacting my friends and contacts to see if they contributed so that I can return their generous donations.

I can't tell you how excited Angela was to tell me about the letter she received from BCBS. AND, she expressed to me how grateful she was for the effort I was going through to raise money on her behalf. So, THANK YOU from the depths of her and my hearts!

Just for the record, I completed the month of January exceeding my own mileage goal, with a total of 879.2 miles ridden, 36% beyond my expectations! I actually wasn't sure I'd ever be able to ride this much during any one month, but I was definitely motivated. Plus, we had an incredibly mild month with very little precipitation. It made it easy to get out and ride, and I had lots of cycle friends along with me to keep me going.

I may still keep the mileage goal if for no other reason than to see if I can achieve it. I just returned from 4 days of cycling in the Solvang area and will be riding my second century for 2009 next weekend at the Tour de Palm Springs. After that, I will attempt to do a challenging 90-mile ride over Morgan Territory in late February, all in preparation for some serious climbing later in the year.

Thank you all for checking in on Team Cholangela and for your donations and pledges. It has meant the world to me.