Riding with Lance

Though Cash Cab is usually my (Mia's) chosen biking distraction, I changed things up yesterday when I realized the Tour of California was on. The race marked Lance Armstrong's return to competitive cycling, and I was lucky enough to catch most of his ride in a heated time trial. Just for fun, I tried to match my cadence to Lance's and whoa do I know how he got such beastly legs- it was intense! At least now I have a barometer by which to measure my progress:

Doh! I've got a ways to go! I was huffing and puffing 10 minutes in, and was a sweaty, breathless wreck by the time the hour was up.

In other news, we are less than 10 bucks away from being halfway to raising $3711! We have been blown away by everyone's generosity, so a HUGE thank you to all of you!

As for prepping for the logistics of the trip, Arik and I have about three days of camping experience between us, and the longest we've ever ridden in one go is 12 miles. So when it comes to preparing for a 3711 mile bike tour, during which we plan to camp 6 out of every 7 days, we're big newbies. Plus we're having to equip ourselves from scratch, since we don't have years of accumulated camping/biking supplies to draw from, and those few haphazard supplies we do have are too bulky to carry on a bike. So we have a pretty extensive list of stuff we need to buy/borrow before the tour, and the order in which we've been getting it has been kinda funny.

So far we have:

2 bikes (these were pretty important)
2 insect repelling bandanas (obviously!)
2 sets of silverware
2 Camelbaks
1 waterproof jacket
Mini toilet paper rolls (courtesy of Arik's parents)
2 thermarests and stuff sacks (also courtesy of Arik's parents- they rock!)

Good thing we've covered the essentials- what more could we possibly need? :)

Be well,

Arik and Mia

http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots2009/ariknmiabike