Matthew Coles

Saturday Patrick drove up this way and we went for a nice 40-45 mile ride into Snohomish and on the Centennial Trail.  It was a great ride, great conversation, and some simple climbing at the very end.  It was nice to climb just a little since we were both fighting off head congestion.

However, the powerful part of the ride was the individual for whom I was riding.  Matthew Coles passed away in December of 2010.  He fought brain cancer and was alive to experience the birth of his third son.  A fellow parishioner was great friends of Matt and told me that Matt was the biggest influence in his life.  Chris was raised Catholic, but it wasn't until he met Matt that he truly embraced his faith in a new light and transformed his life.  Chris said of Matt, "He's the most devoted Catholic I've personally known and a true friend."  Below is a prayer that Matt wrote about 2 years ago:

"Vivre d'Amour" (To live in love)
To live your life, oh Christ - here, now, and with my whole being.
To give every one of my days to You, and with each of my actions to live in Your presence.
To put others before myself - and to give myself for them.
To focus on taking care of myself only insofar as it is an act of love towards you, Lord and towards others - especially Lucy and our family.
To love without measure and without fear.
To be misunderstood by this world, and to love you all the more!

The Bernsteins

There have been so many incredible people that we have met through our time at Blessed Sacrament - hence the reason to drive the added miles to church every weekend.  One of these families are the Bernsteins.  They are a family with 2 little girls, a little boy, and another on the way.  As odd as it sounds they are partially to thank for the miracle that Gabriella is in our lives.  Michael and Monica teach the NFP class and Blessed Sacrament and it was through that course that my eyes and heart were completely opened to NFP.  Sarah planted the idea in my head which I had never thought of as a "normal opportunity" in the past and it has been one of the best realities in our life.  So without going into all of the detail (this is a cycling blog and all) the understanding of Natural Family Planning is to understand your body and get to know it in terms of when you are fertile and when you are not.  This knowledge helps you to achieve pregnancy or avoid depending on what God is calling you to do.  Men... well we are always fertile, but it is very interesting to get to know your wife on a very different intimate level.  Well, because of those courses and their shared knowledge, when we were diagnosed we had a much greater likelihood of conceiving a child because of NFP.  For this and many other reasons, the Bernsteins have a special place in our hearts.

One weekend after mass Michael shared with us 2 very contrasting things.  They were pregnant and could use our prayers during the earlier times, and also that Michael's mother was rediagnosed with breast cancer.  They were blessed to find out that the cancer was at stage 0 but still, surgery was recommended.  Last we heard, Mrs. Bernstein was doing well, but still never a thing someone wants to go through.

The family also made a very generous donation to our fundraising efforts and so this last weekend when we were out for our ride, I wanted to ride for their family.  We did a ride over the north end of Lake Washington, up Juanita hill, through Kirkland and Bellevue and over the windy I-90 bridge before re-entering hilly Seattle.  It was a victorious 45 miles and I was very happy with the added energy I had after pounding through those hills.  Great to be improving as a climber!

LIVESTRONG

More Scheduled Rides

The LIVESTRONG Seattle team (unofficially) has added another ride to our schedule - the Seattle Century.  Wooptido, another 100 miles.  I know that is what you are thinking.  Although I also know that some of you can't even fathom riding 100 miles on a bike.  I'm excited for my first century.  At times I can't even believe that I haven't actually ridden a century yet.  I was hopeful during the Livestrong Challenge, but the rain made the 70 miles that much more appealing.  I know I could do it though.  That was 2 months after chemo and I did 70.  100 miles would be a challenge but mostly mental.  I'm not worried.

So why does the Seattle Century seem all that much more crazy.  The Seattle Century is on July 30.  Still not sure?  Let me put this into a bit more of a perspective...

• Flying Wheels Summer Century - beginning of June
• STP - July 9-10 - 203 miles
• Tour des Chutes - July 16 - 100 miles
• Echelon Gran Fondo - July 23 - 100 miles
• Seattle Century - July 30 - 100 miles

Make a little bit more sense now?  That is right, 503 miles of "organized/scheduled" rides for the month of July.  I've been doing a lot of research for training during that month along with the prep in May and June.  I can NOT let my legs sit stagnant at any point.  Gotta keep the blood moving in those muscles so that they dont seize.  That means that, being July, the weather should be nice which means that I'll be riding about 30 miles a day for commuting.  And depending on how my legs are feeling I might need to get out for a walk or easy spin on my lunch.  30 x 5 = 150.  150 miles between the weeks of STP until Seattle Century means ~450.  

As I've told people joking, I'm either going to be in the best shape that I've been in, since high school basketball, or potentially in my life - or I'll need to find an old person to lend me their donut (pillowed seat with a hole in it) and wheelchair.  

I'm vowing for the great shape.  I can already tell that my legs are feeling more efficient and have trimmed out.  Some stuff to come in the future will hopefully lead to an increased metabolism and weight loss (more to come after the fact).  

To note, yesterday I had a GREAT ride home.  I'm on a new route these days, and in the first half of my ride (before the hills is important to note) I was at an average of over 20mph and spinning at a cadence of 105-112.  Felt great.  

As I've said before, and I like it, I'm addicted to cycling!!!

Well over 200 miles...

So as I've mentioned before I've been tracking every donation that I get to make sure that I ride enough miles in honor of the people who my donors ask me to ride for.  In fact, I know that I've covered enough miles for every dollar donated so far (reading between the lines that means I unfortunately haven't gotten any donations in February), however, I'm still saving one ride for a sunny day away from work.  So far my largest donor was my cousin Adam Sutton and I owe him 50 miles.  Making such a financial commitment that he did, I do not want to repay those in 12 mile increments of commuting or leisure rides.

That being said, I'm well beyond the other 202 miles that I owed you, but far behind on documenting any of it here on the blog.  That being said, I'm really sorry but I promise I will be better in the future.  Especially since my beautiful bride called me out on it - and in all seriousness, you are donating your hard earned money for such a great cause and deserve the recognition that I promised.

We have had one of the coldest February's on record and the beginning of March hasn't been much better.  Last year the average low temp for Jan-Feb was 41 degrees.  This year the average high for the same period was 40 for our area.  ZOIKS.  But with the gas prices the way that they are, I told Sarah that if gas gets anywhere near $4.50 (let alone $5 like they are saying for the summer) I will be investing in some more cold/wet weather gear and plan to bike commute 99% of the time.  No sense in paying that type of cents for gas.  (Pathetic pun and play on words I know).

That being said, I've gotten some good riding in these days.  Especially the past few weekends when we have seen some breaks in the weather.  Actually, Sarah helped me recently with some photos when I got back from a training ride because I needed to submit some for a few different reasons.  Firstly, there was an Alumni Spotlight article done about my battle and fundraising in our Sigma-Xi newsletter for TKE.  I tried to pass on some info to Nationals but no luck.  Secondly, my friend Ford works for the YMCA and at his Y they are running the Livestrong at the Y program and wanted to interview a cancer survivor.  I'll have to see if anything was posted about me there.  Anyway, here are 2 pictures.

I love this family pic!

Rather than rambling too much on here, I'll give a quick foreshadowing to come (and hold myself accountable to blog more).  I have updated and also added some organized rides to my summer.  Also, some fundraising updates other than targeting family and friends is underway.  See what you could do to help us!

Now to catch up on those miles:  Thank you very much to those who donated, especially to push me over $1000 for the month of January.  Here is who I've been riding for...

My friend from high school and college, Chris, made a donation in honor of his father.  Chris's dad is still around and a cyclist himself.  He wishes there were rides like these in the Midwest because Chris knows that his dad would want to get involved.  

Cosmo is a girl I knew from college.  She sent me an extremely compelling story about her Uncle Jim.  His cancer was bound and determined to get the best of him and Cosmo knew that all she could do was pray.  She said that thinking of our story and all that we are doing now really gave her hope.  Well, the last I heard, her Uncle Jim was doing well and the tests were providing the results that they wanted.  I really need to check in with her.

A gal that I indirectly met during my cancer experience named Monica has such a huge heart.  Her dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 the week after me.  So everything that we did with treatment, they did right afterward.  It was great to keep in touch with her and hear how her dad was doing, and we developed a great friendship though such an ugly experience - just another way to show how much good can come from cancer.  The rat will never get us.  Well, unfortunately, at his 3 month check-up, her dad did not have the same message from the doctor that I had.  His HL was back...and in full force.  Back to the drawing board they went and the medical team hit him with ICE - a very strong chemo.  Now all of the tests are underway and they are going through with a BMT.  I pray that everything goes well for them and when I dont have miles to dedicate, I will often be thinking of their family.  

Natasha is another girl I met in college and is currently a flight attendant.  Keeping up with what is going on through social media is how she keeps up with friends.  Well, one day she saw a post that I made asking people what they could do - in fact it was Cancer Awareness Day.  She made a donation in honor of her Grandpa who passed away not too long ago.  In fact, I recall when she posted on Facebook that he passed away and that she knew she would feel his presents when she was flying the friendly skies.

Several others have made donations and have told me that I should just ride for what we are doing.  I'm extremely grateful for all of these individuals no matter how large or small the donation was.  They include my beautiful bride, Topher (co-worker at Camp Gray), Queenie Knox-Oates from TKE at SNC, Jill Boyle, Uncle Scott, Emily, M&M Vega, Mr. & Mrs. Dougherty, and my parents.  

I'm looking for more donors and more reasons to ride.  Do you have one?  What can you do to help?  Every $5 helps.

LIVESTRONG

Chris Horner's Jersey

Unfortunately, some viewers of this blog don't know who Chris Horner is.  Chris is currently a member of Team Radio Shack and previously was on Lance's team when he was with Astana as well.  Chris is originally from Bend, OR.  As you may recall, one of the rides on our list for the year is the Tour des Chutes in Bend OR.  Gary, the organizer of the ride and fellow cancer survivor, posted in the last week of February that the first person to register for the ride would win a Chris Horner autographed TRS jersey.

Registration opened on March 1 so I put a calendar reminder on my phone for the 28th and then set my alarm for the morning.  With registration opening at 9 EST on March 1, that meant that I had to be ready to go by 6.  Up at 540 I got the computer and my credit card and just kept hitting refresh on 2 different sessions of Chrome. Promptly at 6:00 I was able to get in, I sprinted through registration, and then it was the waiting game.

I received an email yesterday from Gary letting me know that I was the winner and he was interested to hear that I too was a survivor.  I asked if he could ask Chris if I could get one of his Madone's instead of the jersey, but I'm guessing it will be the jersey in the mail.  Not sure if he will be around based on the summer season schedule, but it would be pretty neat to meet Horner at the ride.  He likely wont be there since his sponsored ride is a few weeks later in Bend, but we wont be heading for that.

I'll post a picture of the jersey when it comes in.  Thanks again Gary and Tour des Chutes.

LIVESTRONG!