Weekly Fundraising and Training Update

This week's update is training-centric, with little fundraising news to report. We got in some nice bike rides - including the year's first trip up to Bogus Basin ski area. Details after the jump...

Good news first...I finally feel like I'm getting into a good rhythm of cycling training this year. I've gotten in about 170 miles so far in May (as of May 13th). This may sound like a lot, but you might recall that Bike MS is 175 miles in TWO DAYS! So, it feels good to be ramping up - but there is a lot of work to do still.

Last week included the first ride up to the Bogus Basin ski area! This is one of those foundational rides in Boise, especially if you need to work on your climbing fitness. If I do a round-trip from my house to the parking lot of the ski area, I'll get in 43.5 miles with 3,990 feet of climbing. The real climb (from the base of the mountain to the parking lot) is 15 miles one-way, with 3,268 of climbing.

Bogus Basin is a ride I'd expect to complete at least a dozen times this year. To prepare for the California Death Ride in July, we've been told that we should be able to climb Bogus twice, consecutively, without too much duress. I'm certainly not there yet!

I've no pictures to share from last week's training activities, but my friend Jan did upload some pictures he took in Bend, OR the weekend of May 3rd. I wrote a little bit about that trip in last week's update. Jan had a GoPro camera mounted to his bike, so I thought I'd share a few of those shots...

This first picture is a random shot from a ride we did on Friday, May 3rd - from downtown Bend out on Shevlin Park Rd. I think Jan's camera has a filter on it that makes my butt look extra large, but that's okay. I really like how his mounted camera captures his shadow on the road here...

Shevlin Park / Tumalo Warm-Up Ride

Next up is a shot from our mountain bike ride on Saturday, May 4th. Not sure exactly where this is, but I think it was on our descent. I like how Jan's rear wheel gives a sense of motion here.

MTB in Bend

This last shot was taken on our last ride in Bend, to McKenzie Pass and the Dee Wright Observatory. I wrote a bit about this ride last week. I really like the perspective that Jan captured on this photo. You can also look at the road and see how much snow was melting off at the time. I wonder if that snow is completely gone now, 8 days after the ride, given the hot weather we've had in the area.

McKenzie Pass, Sisters OR

This weekend will see my last running event of the season - the Famous Potato marathon. I haven't run since the Weiser River Trail 50K on April 27th, so it's anyone's guess as to how the marathon will go. Speaking of the WRT 50K, one of the volunteer photographers took a nice shot of my friends and I approaching the 2nd checkpoint (about 13 miles into the race, I think)...

From left: Me, Craig, and Mike on the Weiser River Trail

Mentally, I have shifted over to cycling - so my focus for this upcoming marathon has not been good. I suppose I'll just show up, grind it out, and see how it goes...and then get on with the cycling!

Well, now that the good news is out of the way, I'm sorry to report that last week was a shutout for fundraising. I think this is a tough time of year to fund raise here in Boise. Here are just a few of the recent activities vying for donor attention...

• Walk MS Boise (3 weeks ago)
• Susan Komen walk for the cure (last weekend)
• Idaho Gives Day (last week)

I also helped out the Idaho Foodbank for National Stamp Out Hunger Day on Saturday, their largest food drive of the year.

Given all of this activity in the Spring, I shouldn't be too surprised that donations are not flowing in like they did last year - when the bulk of my fundraising efforts took place in June, July, and August. Experience tells me that there will be a huge spike in donations as we get closer to Bike MS in late June, so probably no need to panic quite yet!

As always - thanks for reading, and please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or feedback!