Getting ready for another adventure

I have always had a passion for fitness. It started at an early age. We had track and field in grade school. My mother was of Finnish heritage. She told me of the great Finnish running tradition when she was a young girl and how the runners would tour the Finnish communities in the US. That sparked an interest in long distance running for me. If I could run injury-free now, I would still be running. But cycling is a great substitute.

In order to keep up an interest in fitness, I have to set goals. This year, I will be riding from New Orleans to Minneapolis beginning on May 11 and ending June 4. The ride basically follows the Mississippi River. It should be a great ride. There are only 13 riders on the tour. My roommate will be John Hicks, who I have been with on two previous tours. John lives in Northern Ireland and with the current embargo on air travel from Europe due to the volcanic ash plume, I am really praying that he will be able to come to America.

I will pass 2,000 training miles for the year on today's ride. I think that I am as fit as I have been for any of the tours in the past 6 years. I adopted a different approach this year. It is more structured with harder efforts and seems to have paid off with better fitness.

Cheers,

Tom