Team in Training

TNT Buddy Ride
Originally uploaded by jenworth.

See that photo?

It's weird for me to look at it. If you'd told me not long ago that I'd be on a road bike cycling in the rain, I would have told you were nuts. A road bike?! No way! Give me a mountain bike any day. Riding in the rain? Hiking is one thing, but skinny tires on wet pavement? Pavement, period? All of those things surprise me.

So why the hell am I doing this?

I joined Team in Training, an endurance sports training program which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
I'm training for "The World's Most Beautiful Bike Ride", AKA the Tahoe Century. It's as the name suggests, a 100 mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe.

I haven't ridden a road bike since an accident in 1988, when I was living and riding in NYC and my skinny tire went down into a drainage grating. Un-fun. But I decided to conquer this fear and raise money for a good cause. Both of those are good reasons, but in a way, my primary reason was to honor my friend Mary who lost her husband, John, to leukemia a couple years ago. John was a wonderful man, and to see the family go through what they did was heartwrenching. Cancer can touch any person, any family, and I wanted to help, in some small way, from another family having to go through what Mary has.

So I got a road bike (Thank you, REI employee discount!) and joined Team in Training (TNT).

You'll be hearing more about this on my blog, for sure. The ride is June 5, 2005. For those of you close to me, you'll probably be hit up to sponsor me. But for now, enjoy the photo above. This was our "buddy ride" this morning; it was a 19 mile ride out along the Carquinez Strait. Some of the ride was in the rain.

If I hadn't ridden with the group, I would have blown off riding today because of the weather, but somehow riding with a bunch of people I don't know, but we constitute a team, I had the energy to do it...and enjoy it!

I'm looking forward to a good season of riding, re-learning cycling, meeting new people and raising money for a great cause.
Stay tuned for the adventures....