Cycling 220 km's in a single day????

One of the things about committing to an event like the Wellspring Ride...is that I have officially become a 'cyclist'. It means that a bunch of us 'cyclists' ride our bikes regularly and we also sign up to participate in other biking events.

One such event is the Ottawa GranFondo. It is taking place on July 20th...and a few of us have decided to take on the challenge of riding a crazy 220 kms in a single day. To pull this off, we somehow need to find the time to 'train up' to minimize the risk of completely falling apart and hitting a wall before the finish line. It is like training for a marathon - ramping up total riding distance on a weekly basis to get 'close' to the total event distance. This training also helps prepare us for the ride to Texas.

With the fantastic weather today...we were able to complete a large 130 km loop from Markham up along the south shore of Lake Simcoe and back. Fantastic ride. Here's a photo around the halfway point near Jackson's Point (Yes...I have learned the skill of taking photos with my iphone while riding).




On a separate note...here's a video of Mya practicing her school speech this year...she had to pick the topic on her own and do her own research....and she decided to choose Wellspring! It's actually a pretty good summary if you want to find out a bit more about the charity and why we are doing this ride to Texas:

http://youtu.be/t29M542bIY4

Thanks for everyone's support so far - your generosity is amazing!

www.wellspring.ca/billyc

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Better cycling weather is finally here? NOT really!

Well....sort of....here's how bundled up we have been during the past 5 weeks of outdoor training...yes that is snow....am I'm pretty sure I saw some more today!







I am pleased to let everyone know that we are well on our way to a successful event for 2013! Thank you to everyone who has donated so far towards my personal fundraising - I'm closing in on the $4,000 mark with about 5 more months to go. Lots more work to do and we have planned a number of fundraising activities over the summer.

If anyone is interested, we have an awesome event coming up called 'Wine & Wellspring' - email or call me for details!

In terms of riders and volunteers, we have a number of people returning from last year's ride, along with many new faces. In total, we have 29 dedicated cyclists and almost our full complement of support vehicle drivers. We are still in need of a few more support vehicle volunteers (preferably with first aid training). Let me know if anyone is interested - volunteers don't incur any expenses and it's a great way to actively get involved and be a part of the adventure.

Some additional photos of 'happenings' so far...as you can see...it's been busy!

Another tea related fundraiser planned by Gail - supported by Patti Thompson from Steeped Tea who donated all proceeds from the sales!







We had the opportunity to be on the Rogers Daytime TV program - Julie from Wellspring and Steve Bourne, one of our new riders, joined me on the live show - unfortunately there's no online video for those who missed it:




Some of the riders and volunteers had an opportunity to get aquatinted at the first Orientation Meeting:




And most recently this past Saturday, we held of first official group ride - it was a bit colder and windier than we would have liked, however still a great morning out!










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