Snow, snow, snow

Hi Y'all!

I was all excited because I thought the weather was going to be nice enough to ride outside a lot this week. And now we are in the middle of a snowstorm! Argh! Even the highways are covered right now. Don't worry, I'll keep up the inside riding, but I really need to start logging some 30-50 mile days outside.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
www.SharingOurDays.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

Training Update

Hi Y'all!

Alright, I haven't been able to make time for a 75-mile ride for two weeks (remember, it takes eight hours) but my daily riding is going well. My stamina continues to improve and I'm consistently averaging a little over 15 miles per hour for two hours (my goal is to do 12 miles per hour on the actual ride). It also looks like the weather should be decent this week; if it is, I'll get in as much outside biking as possible.

More later.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
www.SharingOurDays.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

Mayor of Columbia

Hi Y'all!

I've explained that my plan is to pursue the domino theory of organizing -- "accomplish a big thing by knocking over one little thing at a time." Seems obvious, but it is amazing how many times people forego trying big things because they overlook this approach.

Anyway, I knocked over a great first domino yesterday. The second stop on my route is Columbia, Missouri (where I went to college, by the way). Yesterday I spoke with the current mayor of Columbia, Darwin Hindman. He's been mayor for 12 years and is running for his fourth term. Long ago, though, I helped a bit with his very first run for the office, so it was a pretty easy call to make.

The end of the story is that Darwin is going to headline my event in Columbia. This will make it much easier for me to get the support of a few other people there in Columbia involved, as well as a media outlet or two. Darwin is beloved there in Columbia(won his last race with 71%) and is a huge cycling advocate, so the fit is perfect.

This will also make it easier for me to secure the involvement of other public officials and notables. It is a relatively small step but an important one. Now on to the next step.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
www.SharingOurDays.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

The long road

Hi Y'all!

Can I take a moment to vent just a bit? I've been training for about two months now and am feeling pretty proud of myself. I'm riding at least five days a week and can do a full 75 miles. I'm on track to get this done and I could not be more excited.

But can I tell you that it gets really old sometimes? I'm not a work-out guy at all. Heck, I haven't even lost any weight because I've been eating so darned much. The biking is the only thing that has kept me from gaining 20 pounds over the last two months.

That's a little off-track, though. My real point is that it gets very, very boring sometimes. Every morning I think about how easy it would be to blow off that day's training -- and then some morning I do blow it off. But most mornings I ride the two hours. That's really the lesson I'm trying I'm trying to take away from this experience. Just keep going.

Stay tuned to see if the lesson sticks.

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
www.SharingOurDays.com
seanspence@earthlink.net

Events

Hi Y'all!

Today I'm going to start getting serious about moving forward with the events along the route. I'm going to write a little plan for them, which will be posted tomorrow here at MissouriToManhattan.

I'm also going to start making some calls. For each event, I figure there are two critical elements to get started. One is the involvement of at least one media outlet and the other is a "known" person who can be and MC or organizer. Yes, there are other ways to start building the events, but I think this is how I want to proceed in this case.

The approach will be my version of the domino theory -- "one success begets another success." So I'm going to start working on areas of the country where I think I can have the quickest success. Columbia, MO is probably the best place, followed by Kansas City, followed by St. Louis, followed by Columbus. After that, I run out of high-level personal contacts along the route, so I'll be counting on the momentum of the overall event and personal persuasiveness to get the job done (some days the "personal persuasiveness" works for me, others not so much).

If you ever have suggestions for people who can be helpful along the route (Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York) please let me know.

Have a great day!

- sean

Sean Spence
MS Advocate
www.MissouriToManhattan.com
www.SharingOurDays.com
seanspence@earthlink.net