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ABOVE: Larry Goldberg at the start of the ride.
ABOUT THE RIDE
My husband and I participated in the Lauren Katzenstein Celebration Ride on Sunday, June 29th. This was the 6th annual Lauren Katzenstein Celebration Ride.
On April 26th of 2003, Lauren and her father were participating in a charity bike ride in Miami, FL (the MS150). During the ride Lauren was hit and killed by a reckless driver. This ride is to “Celebrate” Lauren’s brief life. The money raised goes to the local MADD Chapter for their education fund to help prevent future, senseless tragedies.
RIDE OPTIONS
There were 62, 40, 22 and 10 mile options. Rob and I did the full 62 mile option. We averaged 18.1 MPH - not bad for a couple of old folks! Due to construction detours, we ended up dong 64.32 miles.
I burned 3,650 calories during the ride, Rob, being a big guy, burned 4,800 calories. WOO-HOO!!! We got IHOP to go later in the day - Rob got the meat lovers omlette with regular pancakes and I got the chicken Florentine crepes with harvest nut & grain pancakes - YUMMY! Always nice when you don’t have to worry about counting calories for a change.
WELL ORGANIZED RIDE
It was a well organized ride. 4 rest stops along the way, with the last one being at the halfway point at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Due to road construction the ride had to be detoured from E. Ocean Ave. in Lantana, west to US1 then south to Ocean Ave. in Ocean Ridge, to get back to A1A.
The rest stops were well staffed and had water, gatorade, cookies, bananas and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches available. We forgot to bring and gel packs with us, I was starting to slow down a bit with 15 miles left to go, a gel pack would have been nice to have - but we both forgot to bring any with us.
We got stuck at 3 drawbridges along the ride, which slowed us down a bit. We caught the draw bridge both coming and going at the Hillsboro Inlet. And we caught the draw bridge at Camino Real. Oh well, I guess we could use a quick rest stop and it allowed us time to say HELLO! to our fellow bike riders.
TEAM IN TRAINING
Rob and I rode with our friend David, from Team in Training. And I was happy to see some of our new riders from Team in Training showed up and did the 40 mile option - this was their first long distance cycling event - GO TEAM!!!! Larry, and his friend Mary, Charlie, and his wife Lori, Angie, Tracy and Marjie - you guys all did FANTASTIC!!! And this was after doing a 40 mile training ride the day before. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!
The ride start/end location was at the pier in Lake Worth. Lots of food available for riders before and after the ride. We hung out under the pavilion, after the ride, with our Team in Training friends. Rob and I wore our Office Depot Foundation team jerseys and rode with a few of our ODF team mates that we did the MS150 ride with in May.
ABOVE: Waiting for the draw bridge to go back up. That’s Rob and I in the red/black/white Office Depot jerseys.
TOUR DE CURE IS COMING TO SOUTH FLORIDA
I just spent an hour today with Katie Hawken, the Manager of the south Florida American Diabetes Association. She saw my Bike Diva blog and asked if I could meet with her to talk about starting a charity bike ride, to benefit the society, in the south Florida area.
TOUR DE CURE IN BROWARD COUNTY
The American Diabetes Society is trying to bring a Tour de Cure ride down to the south Florida area next year. Right now they are looking at the first weekend in March. But Katie will let me know when she has a definite date. The other locations of the Tour de Cure in Florida are Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando and Sarasota. They are looking to start the south Florida ride somewhere in Broward County, that way they hope to attract riders from the Miami/Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County areas.
Katie is looking for feedback/ideas from cyclists familiar with biking in the south Florida area. Once she has a tentative route for the ride mapped out, she is looking for a few cyclists to actually go out and ride the route, or at least part of it, to let her know if it is a good or bad route to ride.
Rob and I were thinking about doing the Tour de Cure in Orlando for the past two years, but just never made it up there. I’m not sure of the exact miles, but I was just looking at the Sarasota Tour de Cure which has 100, 62, 35 and 15 mile options. Fund raising minimum is $150 per person. Proceeds benefit the American Diabetes Association. You can register for the ride as an individual or form a team.
DIABETES PREVENTION
I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with my daughter which puts me at risk for getting adult onset diabetes. Both my sister-in-law and father-in-law have diabetes. So I will definitely be doing this ride in order to support the American Diabetes Association. The societies mission is “to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.”
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Katie is also looking for volunteers that would like to be part of the committee that will actually be planning the ride. The American Diabetes Association is a non-profit organization and needs all the help they can get to help make this a really terrific ride. You can contact Katie my emailing her at khawken@diabetes.org.
I’ll post up more information when it becomes available.
Take care,
Lynn AKA the Bike Diva
When
Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 7:30 AM
Where
Barton Park @ Lake Worth
10 South Ocean Drive
Lake Worth , FL 33460
Ride Route
This ride starts at Barton Park (SW corner of Lake Worth Municipal Beach lower parking lot). It goes south on A1A to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in Broward County and then goes back to Barton Park. There are 4 rest stops along the way and SAG support.
Why
Help support a good cause while participating in a wonderful road biking event. Choose from 10, 22, 40 or 62 mile ride options. My husband Rob and I plan on doing the metric century (62 mile) ride.
Details
On April 26th of 2003, Lauren and her father were participating in a charity bike ride in Miami, FL (the MS150). During the ride Lauren was hit and killed by a reckless driver. This ride is to “Celebrate” Lauren’s brief life. The money raised goes to the local MADD Chapter for their education fund to help prevent future, senseless tragedies.
Entry Fee: $35.00
Online Registration Closes:
06/23/08 05:00 PM
Register online at Active.com:Lauren Katzenstein Celebration Ride
Official Lauren Katzenstein Website
Additional Details:
Registration begins on race day at 6:30 AM
Start time of race: 7:30 AM
Four distances to choose from: 10, 22, 40 or 62 Miles
Here’s three photos taken by our coaches wife. Our coach for the Office Depot Team was Alan Kurtz, AKA Captain Sprocket. He was a great coach and made training for the ride a lot of fun.
Mingling with the crowd at 7 AM.
Finally at the start line. That’s me behind the “S” of stop.
End of the ride on day one at John Pennekamp State Park. I’ve never been happier to have a chicken sandwich and popsicle in my entire life.
Here’s a few photos my husband took during the first day of the MS150 ride.
Start of ride. Around 7 AM, still a bit dark.
Top of Card Sound Bridge, waiting for the rest of the Office Depot Team to catch up so we can take a team photo.
Taking a much needed rest stop.
And here are a few more photos from one of the official MS150 photographers.
Office Depot chicks Deb, Victoria and Lynn.
My husband Rob.
Riding with the pack.
My husband and I rode in the MS150 this weekend. Two days, 75 miles each day. Got up at 4:30 AM Saturday morning to drive 60 miles south to Coral Gables where the ride started. We were part of the 90 member Office Depot Foundation Team.
WINDY RIDE
Boy am I freaking tired after riding 150 miles on my bike this weekend. Wasn’t supposed to have a headwind but we had a headwind both days - DANG. Pretty bad when you can only get up to 26 MPH going down Card Sound Bridge. Pretty steep bridge, should have been doing close to 40 MPH, but dang if that wind wasn’t trying to push us back up the bridge!!!
ABOVE: Card Sound Bridge - 65 feet high, no shoulders.
ABOUT THE RIDE
Approximately 2,700 bikers participated in the MS150. They started the ride in waves, letting around ?50-100 bikers start at a time. Took us an hour after the “official” ride start before we actually crossed the starting line. Day 2 we got closer to the start line - only took us 1/2 hour to get across the starting line.
RIDER DOWN
On the first day, only 1.25 miles into the ride we came across the first of many ambulances we would see during the 2 days of riding. There were a bunch of round-a-bouts at the beginning of the ride. Someone rode right into the r-a-b, hit the curb with their front tire and crashed their bike. The biker was still lying on the side of the ground when we rode by - not the kind of thing you want to see at the beginning of a 150 mile ride.
RIDE THE RACE TRACK
On day two, at the halfway point we had a rest stop at the Homestead Miami Speedway. Got to do a lap on the extremely steep, banked race track - could you hear me screaming!?! Thought I was going to slide down the freaking side of the track, so I pointed the front of the bike back down and flew down to the flat part. Then I noticed everyone else was doing the same thing - AAAAIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!
The rest stop portion, with all the food and drinks, was setup in pit row, you know, where the race cars stop to get refueled/new tires. It was pretty cool. I just visited the Speedway’s official website, I was curious as to how steep the track actually is: banking in turns - 18-20 degree variable banking. Yikes!!! Try riding that on a BICYCLE and see if that doesn’t get your heart thumping!!!
I think I was more scared getting into and back out of the track. Had to go down this steep, unlit tunnel which had metal speed bumps. Coming back out we were in a huge group of bikers, whoever was at the front started screaming so we all started screaming going through the tunnel, which echoed, it was hilarious.
WELL ORGANIZED EVENT
Well organized ride, lots of great food at the beginning of the ride, at all the rest stops and at the end of the ride at John Pennekamp State Park. Left our bikes at the park, picked up our luggage and took the shuttle 3 miles to our hotel. Stayed at the Holiday Inn Key Largo, poolside room. Very nice, 2 pools, jacuzzi, Tiki Bar, right next to Coconuts Seafood Restaurant. We took a nap before eating dinner. I had a HUGE bowl of angel hair pasta with scallops - nice not having to count calories. I burned around 8,300 calories during the 2 days - food is my friend. Think we were back in our room by 7:30 and fell asleep by around 9 PM. Got up at 5:30 AM to do it all in reverse on Sunday morning.
RIDING WITH OUR TEAM
On Saturday we rode with some of our Office Depot team members for most of the day. Saw a lot of our other biking friends that were also doing the ride. Headwinds were a bit stronger on Sunday, or maybe I was just in a lot of pain and really TIRED. But the groups were spread out a lot more on Sunday, kind of hard to get the full benefits of drafting when you’re only riding with 2 other bikers for the last 30 miles or so. My average speed for both days was pretty close, but Saturday we rode at a pretty consistent speed. On Sunday it was a lot of too fast riding along with a lot of too slow riding.
MY STATISTICS
Here’s my statistics from my 2 days of riding from my Garmin Edge 305 cycling computer. My husband says his computer showed we did 150.5 miles, not sure why mine says only 147.07. I think my heart rate monitor was also messed up a bit. It kept going on and off during the day, so I’m not sure how accurate the overall readings are.
MS150 Statistics
| Miles |
Time |
Avergae Speed |
Max Speed |
Calories Burned |
Avg Heart Rate |
Max Heart Rate |
Total Ascent |
Total Descent |
Day |
| 147.07 |
8:24:38 |
17.5 |
36.2 |
8293 |
153 |
182 |
2144 |
2142 |
2 Day Total |
| 75:04 |
4:14:03 |
17.7 |
26.5 |
4205 |
158 |
182 |
1484 |
1484 |
Saturday |
| 72:03 |
4:10:03 |
17.2 |
36.2 |
4088 |
148 |
182 |
660 |
659 |
Sunday |
I rode 150 miles this weekend and all I got was a stupid t-shirt and a dorky medal!!! There were a couple of official photography points along the ride. If I can find any photos of Rob and I online I’ll add them to this blog post - unless we look like total dorks, which is a pretty good possibility.
UPDATE: I just found 4 pictures of Rob and I on one of the official MS photographers websites. Here they are - the good, the bad, the “I’m too tired to pedal anymore.” The photos show Rob and I coming down off the Card Sound Bridge, on the first day of the ride, and going around the Homestead Speedway on the second day of the ride. I look REALLY tired going around that race track!
Take care,
Lynn
AKA the Bike Diva
Rob and I had a chance to visit the Palm Beach office of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society today. We met with TNT Campaign Coordinator Jill Kieta to go over Rob’s responsibilities as a coach and my duties as a mentor.
We are looking forward to starting to train the Palm Beach County cycle team while getting ready for the Intracoastal Waterway Century Ride. This 100 mile road bike ride takes place on Saturday, October 26th in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
Here is a link to our fundraising page. Please consider making a donation to support our participation in Team In Training and help advance the Society’s mission.
I hope you’ll visit our web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see our progress. I will be updating the Bike Diva site with details of our training program and fundraising efforts.
Thank you for your support!
Rob Smythe - Palm Beach TNT Cycle Coach
Lynn Smythe - Palm Beach TNT Cycle Mentor
2007 Palm Beach Cycle Team
My husband, Rob, and I are in the southeast edition of the April 2008 Competitor magazine! My husbands friend, Carlos G., saw us in the magazine and brought a copy of the magazine to Rob the other day. Thanks Carlos!
On the bottom half of page 44 there is a large, full color ad for the Leukemia Societies Team in Training Program. The middle picture shows Rob and I, along with 3 of our Tucson cycle team members, getting ready to start the El Tour de Tucson ride.
At the top of this post is the picture that was included in the magazine ad. From the left is Shannon Cash, Larry Goldberg, Coach Dennis Harkins, Rob Smythe and Lynn Smythe. Those funny looking things attached to the top of our helmets are palm trees. Each Team in Training team attaches something representative of the area they come from to their helmets.
The Las Vegas team had a cool mini neon sign with LCD lights. Other teams had pig snouts, shark fins, pink flamingos - I have to remember to take pictures at this years ride. It’s too funny to see a bunch of hard core cyclists, getting ready to do a 100 mile bike ride with these strange icons attached to the top of their helmets.
Too cool, we are famous! 
No autographs, please. 
Cocoa Beach Century Ride
As some of you might remember, last year Rob and I raised money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through their Team in Training program. The event we trained for was the 109 mile El Tour de Tucson, which took place on November 17th, 2007. We were the mentors for the Palm Beach County cycle team. It was a phenomenal experience, both the ride, and working towards raising money for such a worthy cause.
This year, Rob is going to be the coach, and I will be the mentor for the group training for the 2008 Intracoastal Waterway Century Ride. This 100 mile road bike ride takes place on October 26th in Cocoa Beach, FL. We are looking for people to participate as a member of the Palm Beach County TNT cycle team.
This is a great way to get the support and structure you need to get in shape, meet new cycling friends and achieve something many people haven’t - riding 100 miles on a bicycle in one day! The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is a charity that does much to further research towards cures, and ease the burden of those battling leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, lymphoma and myeloma along with improving the quality of life of patients and their families.
In exchange for the support and training, you commit to raising a certain amount of money. The participation minimum for this ride is $2100. This might seem like a large amount, but you’d be very surprised at how quickly and easily this amount of money can be raised. Last year Rob and I raised over $6,500!
ALL CYCLISTS WELCOME
Last year’s team had everyone from very athletic road bikers, to recreational cyclists, to diehard couch potatoes, to a 63/73 year old couple riding their tandem bicycle. EVERYONE is welcome, no matter what prior road biking experience you may have. The Palm Beach County cycle team will have a coach, and a mentor to help you out with your training and fundraising goals. Each training ride also includes a SAG vehicle, filled with snacks and goodies, that sweeps the ride route should anyone have a mechanical problem or any health issues.
INFORMATION MEETINGS
Information meetings will be starting in Palm Beach County over the next few weeks. Rob and I will be attending most of these meetings, and will spend a few minutes at each meeting talking about our experience with the Team in Training program.
BOYNTON BEACH - Monday, April 14 - 6 pm - West Boynton Beach Library
JUPITER - Monday, April 14 - 6 pm - Jupiter Community Center
WEST BOCA RATON - Wednesday, April 16- 6 pm - Fleet Feet Sports Boca
EAST BOCA RATON - Monday, April 21- 6 pm - East Boca Community Center
ROYAL PALM BEACH - Tuesday, April 22- 6 pm - Royal Palm Beach Library
WEST PALM BEACH - Thursday, April 24- 6 pm - South Florida Water Mgmt District
PALM BEACH GARDENS - Saturday, April 26- 9 am - NIKE Women, The Gardens Mall
WEST PALM BEACH - Saturday, May 3- 9:30 am - The National Croquet Center. This is also the Fall Season Kickoff for all TNT events including the Accenture Chicago Triathlon, The Nation’s Triathlon, The Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Nike’s Women’s Marathon and the 20th Annual Intracoastal Waterway Century Road Bike Ride.
If you are interested in joining the TNT program, know someone who might be, or would like more information, please drop me a note.
Lynn Smythe
Team in Training Cycle Mentor
Thebikediva@yahoo.com
www.bikediva.net
For more information about Team In Training and the Palm Beach Area Chapter, visit their website at www.teamintraining.org/pb or give them a call at 561-775-9954.
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