Just registered for the Markleeville Death Ride…

…or rather, submitted my application to register.  Sometime in March they’ll do a random drawing and select 2800 people to ride.  Hopefully my name will be on the list; if not, I’ll have to wait until later and purchase a ticket from someone who isn’t riding.

I have mixed feelings about the Death Ride this year.  I don’t have much time to prepare, due to my Ghana trip, it’s a huge time commitment, and (more importantly) the ride is at altitude…I get altitude sickness starting at around 7,000 feet and the Death Ride mostly takes place between 6,000 and 8,000 feet.  This makes me wonder seriously if I’ll be able to do it, even if I’m physically ready otherwise.

The main reason I haven’t scratched from it is that I’m already committed to doing this year’s AIDS Ride…and this year will most likely be my last AIDS Ride, so if I attempted the Death Ride next year I’d have to do all that training over again.

(Why will this likely be my last AIDS Ride?  Mostly because it’s a huge time commitment – it’s six months of training for a week of fun – and also because this will be my fifth ride; there’s not much new for me and my interest has been waning.  I still think AIDS is one of the biggest issues for our generation, but there are other, less time-consuming ways of fighting it, and I’ll probably take one of those.)

I will definitely hire a cycling coach once I return in mid-February, either Curtis Cramblett or Lorri Lee Lown.

Mostly I’ve taken the last nine weeks off, so I’m probably in pretty poor shape.  Lorri and I are hopefully going riding on January 7th, so we can see whether we mesh well together and also for her to get an assessment of how I’m doing – I also intend to start getting serious about training, which means riding both weekend days and also doing some time on the trainer (or in spin classes) during the week.  As well as weightlifting, of course.

All this is going to take time, and that’s just a fact of life.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to work on the book and on weaving at the same time, but I’m certainly going to try.