This afternoon for lunch I went on a little neighborhood ride…my goal was to only ride the secondary neighborhood streets and stay off the main roads. I managed to make a descent 25 mile ride that included some of the Queen Creek pathways.

Today was one of those rides that just felt good. It was fun to be on the bike. I could have hit the mountains but with a road bike at my beckon call I went for road. Crazy to think that I would ever choose road over MTB…I couldn’t resist a little dirt though and went ‘cross for a few hundred yards to get to a different subdivision…

I peg today’s ride as a conditioning ride to get myself ready for my 100 miles on the mountain bike. I’m at 38 miles so far with my Livestrong fund raising. A BIG thanks to all those who have donated. If you want to see me attempt 100 miles in one day, get donating to my Livestrong page! I need to see $500 before the weekend…

Seville-AppleSoss-Hawes at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Travel Community

Today is LiveStrong Day. To celebrate, visit my Team Fatty LiveStrong page and donate five dollars to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

For every 5 dollars donated I have pledged to ride my mountain bike 1 mile. My goal is to ride 100 miles. LAF needs 410 more dollars for me to reach that goal.

Please donate to support Team Fatty and raise money to fight cancer.

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noodle/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

UPDATE: As of today, October 19th, $190 has been donated at my LiveStrong page. I am committed to riding 38 miles. It’s not 100, but it’s still a lot. I’ll make sure it’s a tough 38 miles. Definitely singletrack. Thanks to all those who donated!

My pledge: I will ride my mountain bike
100 miles in one day…

But it’s up to you how many miles I actually ride…For every donation of 5 dollars at my LivesStrong page in support of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, I will ride 1 mile, up to a whopping 100 miles. That means I need 100 people to each donate 5 bucks or one person to donate $500.

Bottom line: $500 donated at http://austin09.livestrong.org/arizona = 100 miles of dirt under my wheels.

Team Fatty Austin is just short of our goal of $175,000. We’ve got just over a month to close that gap. Please donate and tell your friends. I will document my 100 mile ride and share the adventure here.

FAQ:

Why are you doing this? I am taking the LiveStrong Challenge. As a member of Team Fatty Austin. I am raising money to fight cancer. My grandmother died of cancer when I was 8. Cancer has afflicted family and friends of mine: Lorin, David, Jackee, Lisa, Scott, Truman, and Jimmy. I ride for them. I ride to fight cancer.

When will you ride? In October, before the Austin Livestrong Challenge on October 24th and 25th. I will post more details as the miles add up.

Where will you ride? On the Mogollon Rim. Elevations 7000 plus, but cooler temps than Phoenix. Proposed route:

View 100 Mountain Miles to Fight Cancer in a larger map

What kind of trail will you ride? Mostly forest roads and ATV trails (and perhaps a bit of singletrack). I have not scouted this road, but it looks good on paper. The last time I rode 20 miles of singletrack on the rim it took me six hours. Hopefully forest roads are kinder. I could be in for quite an adventure.

Have you ever ridden 100 miles in one day on your mountain bike before? No. The last time I did a big ride was back in 1995. I rode 63 miles. Before that I rode 30. Earlier this year I rode two 30 mile rides.

Will riding 100 miles in one day on your mountain bike kill you? No. But it will hurt. I guarantee that. I will suffer. But only until 100 miles are logged. It could take up to 14 hours (I sure hope I am faster than that though). No amount of my suffering will even equal a drop of the suffering that is caused by cancer.

Please donate to my LiveStrong page and give me these 100 miles.

Lance chats with an eight year old climbing the Col du Columbiere. Very cool video, very cool of Lance.

Team Fatty Seattle has raised a boatload of money for the LAF. Above is Team Fatty Captain, Elden Nelson’s, video that he made for the awards ceremony tonight. Watch it. It is awesome.

I’ve raised a measly 5 dollars so far. I feel this small. –>|.|<-- Help me raise my share for Team Fatty Austin by visiting my donation page and making a donation to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Fight Cancer! Win Susan!

The LIVESTRONG Challenge is on. I’ve joined Team Fatty Austin and am accepting donations at:

http://austin09.livestrong.org/arizona

I’ve made the commitment to call on my family, friends, fellow Arizonan bikers (roadie and mountain) as well as all readers of this blog to dig deep into their couch cushions and donate to Team Fat Cyclist: Fighting for Susan. The goal is to raise $500,000. I think we can raise twice that.

Donations of as little as 5 dollars can be made. Please take some time to read about the Livestrong Challenge and donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. If you’d like to do more than just donate, join Team Fatty! There are four Teams to choose from:

Seattle | San Jose | Philly | Austin

Keep up with how we are doing by visiting my Livestrong Challenge page.

Someone, please make the first donation! I can’t stand seeing that big “I’ve raised $0″ over there on the right.