It's Official!

Hey everyone, it's official. You now will be able to follow our progress day by day simply by clicking on the "SPOT us" hyperlink. We have purchased a SPOT personal GPS tracking system and it is now online. With this device we can send a signal as often as we need or want simply by pressing the OK button. When we send the signal it contacts our chosen contact people and tells them we are alright and also marks our location on an Online map powered by Google Earth. So that means that all of you can check in on our progress daily. This device also gives us the opportunity to contact emergency help and rescue if needed by simply hitting the 911 or HELP button. As for us and our training we continue to work out regularly and ride as often as the weather allows us. We are just tying up some loose ends here in St. Cloud over the next week and then it will be Kelly's Graduation and then just getting the last bit organized and we will be on the road! We're so excited! Thanks again for all of your support!

A Windy Night

So we went on our overnight training session and it went very well. We didn't ride far since Kelly had to teach till 3pm and we had to be back in St. Cloud early in the morning so we could get ready for a wedding we had to attend in the afternoon. So we road to Mill Stream Park in St. Joseph and set up camp and then played a quick round of disc golf. After we had finished with our game we tried out our new stove and we are sure glad it came with a wind shield because it was extra windy. After dinner it cooled off very quickly so we went into our tent and settled in for an early night. The first night in our tent went well. It had just enough room for the two of us and a little gear inside but vestibules kept the rest of our gear dry from the little rain we got. Unfortunately we didn't choose the most ideal spot and we were slightly on a slant and ended up sleeping closer together then we both may have wanted. Along with the slanted sleeping arrangement we were met with a bright lamp by the latrine and a gale force wind that lasted much of the night good deal our tent is plenty sturdy! All in all we would have to label this a success and a good warm-up. Thanks again for all your support and we will keep you up to date as we get closer to our big day!

What's goin on as the "DAY" grows nearer....?

Hey everyone, well here's what we have been up to. Our lives are getting very busy as Kelly is getting ready to graduate and we are both packing our stuff to move back to our parents' houses. We have been go go go for the last few weeks trying to get rides in when ever we can. The weekends have been pretty full and unfortunately we don't have a bike rack so we can't take our bikes with us to ride. So we are getting our miles in how ever we can, mostly commuting from work to home and to the grocery store and so on. Unfortunately we had our first incident last Wednesday morning as we were riding to Kelly's school. A car pulled forward into the cross walk as we had a green light and the lady wasn't looking and ran into Kelly, knocking her down and leaving her with a few nice bruises on her right leg and a cut on her hand. Yes, Kelly was hit by a car, but she is alright and back riding her bike. Last weekend we were down in the Twin Cities, we bought most of our remaining items for our trip. I was playing in a disc golf tournament, I took 5th place. We also went out to dinner with Kelly's family for her little brothers 21st birthday!! This week we are continuing to ride as often as possible and are planning on riding tonight and then tomorrow, Thursday the 23rd we are going to ride and then camp and ride back home in the morning before we have to go to a wedding in Litchfield MN. That is correct our first overnight bike ride and we are both pumped!! We plan to ride 30miles or so Thursday and then set up camp and get up in the morning and ride back to St. Cloud. Then the rest of the weekend we will be back in the Cities for yet another of Kelly's siblings birthdays. This time it's her older sisters birthday! Thanks again for your support and we will be keeping you posted on our progress as we continue to ramp up our training!!

The First Big Tester!

Hey everyone as I'm sure that you all know, at least if you have been following our blog, that Kelly and I were planning to ride from St. Cloud to St. Paul for Easter. Well we did it. It was a success, but let me tell you 87miles and 11hours in the saddle riding against a head wind the whole way can really take a toll on your body but we decided that it takes the biggest toll on your mind. It takes a strong will to continue riding when your quads are burning and you look down at the GPS and it says you are only going 10.4 mph when you're use to ride closer to 15mph, but we just kept trucking on remembering why we are doing this. It's for all the people with cancer, the people we have lost and the people that believe in us, but when we arrived at Kelly's parents doorstep we were completely wiped out. There was one point close to the end, probably only 3miles or so before the end that we had to stop and evaluate the options. We could either do two shorter steeper hills or one long and gradual one. We ended up taking the long and gradual one and it turned out alright. Kelly didn't last long after the ride. We arrived at 6.30pm and ate and Kelly was out about 9, but my second wind hit and there was some of Kelly's parents' friends over and they wanted to hear all about the ride so I stayed up and spoke with them. Easter was good, legs were a little sore but there was lots of great food and more people that wanted to talk about our ride. That night Kelly's legs were a little more sore, so we decided that it would probably be better if we got a ride part of the way since we both had to work all day the next day and didn't know if we would be able to walk. So we got a ride from her mom to Maple Grove and road our bikes from there. The ride on Monday went a lot better we had the wind at our back and we knocked out that 5o miles in about three and a half hours.
Over all this week has been a very successful training week for us. We made our first ride completely loaded to Clearwater and back that was about 25miles and then we road to the Twin Cities and back successfully. Proving to our self that we can ride that far and can be in the saddle for a complete day if we need to. We ended the week totaling 190 miles of riding. Prior to this week we have only ridden a total of 155miles since we got our new bikes. So we are really psyched about our accomplishments and are planning a few more shorter over night rides for the next few weeks to come. Thanks for all your continued support!!

Kelly Won

Hey everyone, well we have been riding everyday this week trying to get ready for tomorrow. The weather is looking like it will be great for riding. They are saying that we could get into the 60s! We couldn’t ask for anything more. The rides are going great, we are definitely getting better shape. Neither one of us is sore after our rides, but we will see how our butts will feel after 85miles in the saddle. I am going to go with a bit sore, haha. Well on our last ride Kelly won, she became the first victim to get a flat so I had to give her a crash course on the side of the road on how to change a tire. So we will have to see next time if she learned anything. Thanks again for your support and stay tuned as we will keep you updated on how our first real tester goes.

It's Been Awhile!

Well we thought as the weather improved we would get out and begin to build our legs and stamina. On Sunday March 29th we went on a 35mile ride from St. Cloud to Avon MN. The ride went well, we paced at about 12miles an hour which is what our goal for the trip is. The rest of the week was a bit crappy and we were unable to do too many long rides. Now as the weather has began to warm we have gone a few longer rides. So far we have not topped the 40mile mark but we have been riding more often and consistently. We slowly build our strength up. Our first big test will be this weekend. We are planning on riding to Kelly's parents house in Woodbury MN for Easter. We will be riding down HWY75 on Saturday and riding back to St. Cloud on Monday. We are estimating the ride will take about 8hrs one way. We are both very excited to get out and test our legs on a long distance ride fully loaded. We would both like to thank everyone who donated items for our silent auction and benefit that was held on Monday, also thanks so much for those that came out and supported us and our cause the benefit was an absolute success!! Now that the funding aspect is more or less out of the way, we can concentrate completely on our riding! Also for everyone that missed the event we still have t-shirts for sale, only $15 all proceeds will go to the ACS! Thanks again for all your support!