Sure it was sunny on Saturday, that wasn’t our team training day. What’s worse than training in the cold? How about training in the cold, wet and dreary. These are the days of early spring in the Pittsburgh area. You can see a short video of our ride Sunday by clicking here, or view the embedded one at the bottom of this post.

I guess training in the winter is worse, but I don’t even think of going outside at that time – too much good work can be done indoors to endure the outside ride just so I can say I did it. Props to the “mudders” out there, but really, I like my warm studio ☺

The winds along the river were also intense this Sunday. We all train with heart monitors (don’t want to say who until I get them to sponsor us though ☺ ), and our heart rates would drop by as much as 10 to 20 bpm depending on the strength of the wind during our “turn at the front”. Yes, we all took turns, with pulls of no less than probably 3 minutes, and no more than 10 – but most averaged 4 to 5. The only reason to stay longer is if you needed more time in the higher heart zones according to your training plan for the week.

What we endure though, does not scratch the surface of the ones we are riding for. Two our cancer survivors, one man and one woman, are also dedicated cyclists, and were just diagnosed this year with their respective diseases. Both have also just finished with their treatment plans, and are now training indoors to get ready for the riding season; they are undaunted. And so must we be!

Not only are they getting back to 2 wheels as soon as they were cleared by their docs, but they plan on riding the charity rides they have done for so many years in the past. They still want to give back to others, even while they join the rank of “the others”. Gina and Wayne are not takers, they are givers, and now Cancer wants to take something more from them. That’s why it’s clobberin’ time in my opinion. It’s time to do whatever we can to fight this relentless disease, and not stop till have beat it into submission.

As you can see, we only have a few in our pace line on the road, but there is unlimited space to add riders – especially cancer survivor riders – to our team. Please log on to Cycling Fusion, and show your support for our friends, this cause, the worldwide fight against this disease. Everyone needs to take a turn at the front.

After clicking play, you can click the HD button to view in HD!