Blog Y » AIDS LifeCycle

Ride is on! ride on!

vidurgupta — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:35:00 +0000

The AIDS LifeCycle got on the way on the 1st of June, 2008. Even though I am not riding, I am following the progress & reading experiences of the riders & roadies. You can be part of the experience too @ http://aidslifecycle.typepad.com/

Goooooooo riders

ALC Open Letter

vidurgupta — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:51:00 +0000

Hey folks,

Over the last few months I have blogged about my training and fund-raising efforts for the AIDS LifeCycle. It has been a great experience and I met a lot of wonderful people + made a bunch of new friends.

So, I am a bit disappointed to tell you that I won’t be riding this year due to personal reason (a good one). I take immense pride in having raised more that $2,300 and trained over 700 miles in less than 6 months but life beckons & need to move-on.

I thank you all for your support and encouragement.

And good luck to all those on the ride.

Thanks, Vidur

First half century

vidurgupta — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:14:00 +0000

This past weekend I completed my first half-century ride, a grand 50 miles ride. We started out from Palo Alto and went through the Astradero Preserve, Portola, Woodside up to the entrance of Sawyer Camp Trail via Canada Road. We then rode back to Palo Alto, pretty much the same route. It was a great feeling to complete 50 miles. + it helped that it was a beautiful day.

This was also, the last ride in CAT-I series out of Palo Alto. My thanks to all the TRL: Jeanne, Russ, Kerwin, Lynn, Cindy and all the others (whose names elude me at this early hour).

I did a small 10 miles ride on 03/06, through the streets of Fremont. It has been a some time since I have ridden alone, so it was a little fun. I pushed for small distances and then took it easy.

And on 01/08: we did the, last but one, ride of the Palo Alto CAT-I series. A 47 miler with route similar to the 50 mile ride.

I can’t believe how far I have come in terms of distance + none of these rides are flat. As the series progressed, I am stopping less often and feeling less tired at the end of the ride.

[TOTAL MILES: 760.3]
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/1489

Rider(s) in the Storm

vidurgupta — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:24:00 +0000

Not exactly More like riders before the storm.

This past Saturday (02/23) we gathered in Palo Alto for our training ride. A big storm was expected to hit Bay Area, so at the beginning of the ride TRL weren’t sure if we would be going. I hate to ride in the rain, mostly because you have to cleanup the bike really well if it gets wet. Okay, back to the ride! We took our chances and went out. The word was that we can turn back at anytime we think it is gonna rain. It was pretty windy but we caught a lucky break. The skies cleared up for a while and we managed to pull a 25 mile ride against the originally planned 43. Something is better than nothing, right?

The Saturday before last (02/16) the weather was much better and we rode for 39 miles. I think I need to start carrying my camera around. I saw some really nice places in the Bay Area on this ride.

As some of you know, I am from India and we use the metric system to measure distance. So, I reached an important milestone since I last posted: 1000 km + I crossed 50% mark of my fund raising goal Thanks to all for your support and don’t forgot to send in your contribution. Every dollar counts!

[TOTAL MILES: 653.7]
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/1489

Cycle Buddy ride, The Three Bears and TRAs

vidurgupta — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:25:00 +0000

On 2/2/08, we went on a Cycle Buddy ride. Cycle Buddy are folks who help riders through various aspects of rides. You can ask them the dumbest question and they’ll have answer with no complains. Each rider has a cycle buddy assigned and mine is Kari Boatner. Some how she is always around with words of encouragement & tips. Well, I got to finally meet her on this ride. The ride in itself was a 25 mile, mostly flat but it got really windy & with the head winds it felt more like going up a hill.

Speaking of hills, this past Sunday I met the three bears. Boy, I don’t like that fairytale any more. Three Bears is a cluster of hills with 3 main climbs. As in Goldilocks and the 3 bears, there is Papa bear, Mama bear and the Baby bear. So, for about 8 miles you are either climbing or descending. The total ride was 33 miles.

And I was able to make through the ride thanks for TRAs a.k.a. training ride angels The rest of the world knows them as TRL. I was taught how to eat, drink and rest on the long climb. I was given a nice stretch when I started cramping. Thanks from the bottom of my heart & legs

[TOTAL MILES: 589]
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/1489

East Bay Cat2 Series Rides

vidurgupta — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:01:00 +0000

It has been sometime since I have posted about my training rides. Don’t worry, I am on it The few weeks have been a little wet in the Bay Area but I reached a important milestone in my training. I now have over 500 miles of training under by belt. Also, I have raised $950 as funds; $1,550 more to go!

The other important event is the beginning of AIDS Lifecyle training ride series. These are a series of once a week rides with increasing distance & difficulty every week. The first ride in the east bay CAT 2, avg. speeds of 10-12 mph, was last Sunday (01/20/2007). It was 21 mile ride with rolling hills. I did ok for most of the ride, except for a part where we had a long climb which got steep at the end.

The second ride was today; a 26 mile with rolling hills. There was no steep climb today and I think I did quite okay. I certainly didn’t feel as exhausted as last week. There was bit of rain today, so had some practice on that front too.

Just for the record, I did a 17.5 mile ride around Fremont on 01/12/2007. The good part about the ride was that there was no flat road; always going up or down.

[TOTAL MILES: 529]
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/1489

What goes up. comes down! And sometimes that is good

vidurgupta — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:53:00 +0000

This is what I learned on last week’s training ride and loved it. On 12/29/2007, my last ride of 2007, we went on a 29 mile ride from Palo Alto down Foothill Expressway; I should say up the Foothill exwy and for the first time I felt climbing was a pain in the butt, the legs and everywhere. I was ready to give up but Lynn, the training ride leader, kept me company, taught me how to tackle rolling hills and that it was okay to walk up some climbs. It took sometime but we made to the end of the climb & then it was all down hill. That was some fun. I need to focus a bit more on climbing

This weekend was washed out by the winter storms hitting California.

[TOTAL MILES: 463]
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/1489

Another way to donate

vidurgupta — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:47:00 +0000

Many of us buy stuff at Amazon. There is a simple way by which you can continue to shop as you did at Amazon and contribute to my ALC fund-raising. Instead of going to Amazon, go to my website (http://vidur.name/alc/). It has an amazon search tool you can use to look up whatever you want.

I will donate all that earn from this site to Aids/Lifecyle.

A trip round the South Bay

vidurgupta — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:50:00 +0000

Last Saturday’s training ride took me on 44 mile long trip around the south bay. We started in Mountain View and rode through Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Newark, Fremont, Milpitas, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and back. This has been my longest ride ever and every part of my body hurt for sure but it was fun. A couple of photos from the ride; this is a rail crossing in Newark.

On 12/09/07 I had gone on a 26.7 mile ride on, the now familiar, Alameda Creek trail & Coyote Hills.

[TOTAL MILES: 413]

ALC 7: Donor Incentives

vidurgupta — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:39:00 +0000

As part of my fund raising, I pleased to announce a couple of incentives for my great & generous donors: -

Anyone who donates $75 or more gets a Limited Edition ALC 7 Donor T-shirt. (Note: T-shirts will come in around June’08).

You can get an Xbox 360. You need to donate a total of $150 or more till February 15, 2008 towards my goal to be eligible. One of the eligible donors will receive the Xbox 360. (This one is only for folks in US or India due to shipping issues).

Donations can be made online @ https://www.aidslifecycle.org/donate/form.cfm?n=1489 or you could download a donation form from the same location. And remember all donations are tax deductible in the USA.