Happy holidays!

Happy holidays everyone!

The excitement and anticipation was running very high in the weeks/months leading up to these past couple of weeks where all 3 girls have been home at the same time. It’s been fun having some hustle and bustle around the house and we even managed to squeeze in what has become somewhat of a holiday tradition where we venture into Manhattan for a show. This year we saw Avenue Q and had a lot of fun before/after walking around the city.

Although I hope to get on the spin bike later today it looks like my nearly 2 month streak of weekend rides has been broken. I’m not very happy about that but I guess that’s what happens when busy holiday weekends roll around. My last two rides were each 46-mile rides and I’m hoping to push for a 50-miler the next time out. One of my 2012 resolutions, like so many people, is to get back into a regular exercise schedule. Prior to my personal “adventure” I had been enjoying a routine where I’d get to the gym 4 or 5 times a week. I miss it terribly, both physically and mentally. The intermittent bike rides have been fantastic but I need more.

I received an email this past week with a video of physicians from Sloan-Kettering thanking Cycle for Survival for making the financial difference that allowed for their respective research projects. Please take a minute to view the video by clicking here. It will be great for those of you that have generously supported my participation in Cycle for Survival to see the tangible benefit of your donation as well as for those of you that may be still contemplating a donation… PLEASE DONATE TO THIS TERRIFIC CAUSE! Click here to donate. Not to bombard you with videos but here's another one that I just came across that is a tribute to Jennifer Goodman Linn, the co-founder of Cycle for Survival, that will help you to know why I support this cause. Click here to view the video (if you look quickly at minute 4:02 of the video you will see me at the far left on the stage in my yellow Mintz's Mentschen jersey).

Cycle for Survival on CBS TV News

This morning while watching CBS TV news Amy and I were surprised when a story regarding Cycle for Survival came on. The link below is a video of the piece that very clearly spells out why I'll be participating in this event for the second time. Please persevere through the 15 second advertisement that precedes the video.

Cycle For Survival: Fundraiser Takes On Rare Forms Of Cancer: For the past several years the fundraiser "Cycle For Awareness" has been raising money and awareness for rare forms of cancer. CBS2's Cindy Hsu has more.

Chemo vacation... making the best of it

It’s funny when I stop to think that I had a chemo treatment only 4 and a half weeks ago. But when the PET/CT came through with good news only one week after that treatment it was almost as if that treatment was completely erased from my mind. I’ve been on chemo vacation and I’m doing as much as I can while I can.

I rode my bike twice that weekend and for the 3 weeks since then the weather has been dry and I’ve been on the road and trying to aggressively push the miles and effort so that I can regain some fitness as quickly as possible.

I had two multi-ride weekends in a row followed by last weekend where I rode a solo 37-miler. I enjoyed that ride but it was mostly flat so while I was happy to be adding mileage I knew very well that my training was just getting started and I didn’t rush to make a blog post about it. However, the ride that I did today with Dan Nies has me quite happy and it’s time for a bit of chest thumping. For those that are local or who are on our Mintz’s Mentschen team and know these roads, we left my house and headed out through Princeton into Hopewell and hit the Sourlands. Up Lindbergh Rd to Peacock’s for a hot chocolate break and then back over the mountain on a slightly more forgiving route that still included a good amount of climbing. And then, with my gas tank approaching “E” we had some rollers and few smaller climbs to get back to my house. When we turned onto my street and the mileage turned to 40.0 I was thrilled with what I had managed to do.

Of course the effort had me reclining (and sleeping) on the couch for most of the afternoon. I managed to move a little as dinner time approached and I’m sure that I’ll be feeling it for the next couple of days at least. But I’m happy to know that I’m rapidly nearing readiness for our as yet unscheduled Tour de Hot Chocolate. The tour will be in the vicinity of a metric century (100 Kilometers, 62 miles).

Donations for my participation in the Cycle for Survival spinning event to benefit Memorial Sloan-Kettering continue to come in. For those of you that have been able to make a donation please accept my heartfelt thanks and appreciation. For anyone that is in a position to consider a donation of any size please click here to go to my fundraising web page for the event.

The holiday season will be starting to kick into gear over the next few weeks as Bailey, Sasha, and Erin each make their way home. They’ll all be here together for a week at the end of December. I can’t remember the last time when they were all home at the same time.

Happy holidays everyone!