I am excited to have Jason Kamps from Woof Designs as a new gold level sponsor. He will help create the "Leo's Legacy" cycling jersey for my 50 day trip. The jersey will also serve as the new team jersey for the annual Trek Across Maine. Logos from all my corporate, platinum, and gold sponsors will be included as well as my Trek Across America logo, the American Lung Association logo, and a nice photo of my father-in-law, Leo Lambert. I expect a few other design additions too. Woof Designs helped design and produce the team jersey for the Baltimore Bicycling Club.
Bruce Katz also joined the gold sponsor ranks with a generous personal donation. Bruce was a few years ahead of me at Stoughton High School. He is a committed cyclist (more of a mountain bike guy) and dad, and works in the IT field with IBM. A big thanks to Bruce and Jason.
Individual Bronze donations are still my bread and butter. Thanks to Nancy Okun-Silverman, Patrick Cushing, and Adam Driscoll for helping push me over the $8,000 mark. Nancy is a good friend of my sister, Amy. Patrick is another road cyclist who will be participating in the Tri-State Trek from Boston to New York on July 23rd through July 25th. His Trek is is a fundraiser to end amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS took my brother-in-law's brother, Stephen Phillips. Another great cause being helped through cycling. Adam is another big cycling story. He is the capatin of my local racing team, Adventures for the Cure (AFC) and has Type 1 diabetes (I have type 2). He and another AFC member, Patrick Blair, won the Race Across America 2-man team competition in 2009. They also went cross country in 2006 on fixed gear bikes and made a great documentary on it. In May, I will ride with AFC at the Tour de Cure to benefit the American Diabetes Association.
On the training front, rest and work (need to pay the bills) kept me off the bike on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday saw a nice 40+ mile day to Catonsville that included some hill work in Oella and Lawyers Hill in Elkridge. Oella dates to the early 1800's and was a mill town for the Union Manufacturing Company. It housed one of the earliest and most extensive cotton factories in the United States and used water-powered looms as early as 1819. Today, the Oella Historic District is undergoing a nice restoration and includes numerous 19th century worker houses.
On Thursday I headed to Marriottsville and West Friendship for another 40+ miles with a return trip via Glenelg and Tridelphia Mill Road ... rolling hills are the order of the day on these roads. Friday was a flatter 36 miles to the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. House guests arrived ... my mother-in-law, Jane, and sister-in-law Kathy (from Alaska). The weather turned wet on Saturday, so I headed to the basement, for what should be my last spin session for awhile (18 miles in HR Zones 2 and 3). My brother-in-law, Dave, came up on Saturday night. Karen and I had a nice night out at the Archbishop Spalding High School “Bella Italia” auction to benefit the school's technology and arts initiatives. On Sunday, Dave and I headed out for a brisk 55 mile ride to Lisbon. A fast first half (always the case when I "chase" Dave) was followed by an extremely windy and slower return trip. Drafting helped perserve some of our power.
I hope to continue at around 200 miles per week for the month of April and bump it up some in May. One update down, three to go.
