C.Cal.Shoot Photos and Cycling Stuff: 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 - End of Year Cycling Stats

2011 - End of Year Cycling Stats

Statistics for the year (some data incomplete due to only getting the Garmin in April - hence the graph doesn't show rides from Jan-Mar, but I do have distance/time data from those months)
-- 150 bike rides
-- 3123.65 miles ridden
-- Over 209 hours on the bike
-- Over 93 thousand feet climbed
-- Over 93 thousand calories burned
-- Average ride was 20.82 miles at 76RPM, 14.9MPH, with 733 feet climbed, at 135bpm
-- Max speed hit was 43MPH (downhill of course!), max distance, 70.04 miles

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Shaving Day

Well, the day finally came - time to shave off the beard!! As many of you know, I have been fundraising for Levi Leipheimer's Gran Fondo charity bike ride. I had set my goal at raising $1500. In order to encourage people to donate, I offered up the incentive of shaving my beard off - something I haven't done in something like 16 or 17 years. In addition, the person giving the most could come and do the shaving! Well, I hit my goal a while back, and an old college buddy, Bill was the lucky winner, donating $250 to the cause.

After I hit $1500 - I readjusted my fundraising goal to $2100 (the next incentive level). I am $150 short of that goal. If you are reading this, and would like to help out - the deadline is Tuesday Sept 20!! So please donate quickly!! Go here to donate... http://www.levisgranfondo.com/fundraising/portal/?user=ccallana
The charities the ride supports are great - Livestrong cancer research, the Forget-me-not farm for at risk kids, lots of local Santa Rosa charities.... It would be great to stay in the top 10 donors, so please consider helping out if you can.

So we worked out with Bill to come up from the Bay Area to take care of his prize - they came up this weekend, and unbeknownst to me, had been conspiring with my wife to do something a bit different. Instead of shaving at home, we went to a local barbershop for a professional shave.

They chose a new place in town, Lucky's - which happens to be in the local bowling alley :) Very different barbershop than I have seen before - the barbers were all young guys with tatoos and piercings and such. We were directed to Joe for the afternoon's hair removal process.

For those of you who already forgot what I looked like, here is the 'before' picture

As the clippers started knocking the beard off, the boys seemed a bit concerned

The guys decided to have a little fun, and create a "new" look - Not sure I like this one....

So he finished up with the clippers, and moved on to the actually shaving - straight razor style. Got the hot towel treatment and everything

After a bit of relaxing with the towel, the shaving cream and razor came out....

The rest of the family wasn't quite sure this was such a good idea.......

But after the beard came off, they - meaning everybody in the whole place - convinced me that I should basically shave my head too. Well, really a size 1/2 (that's 'half') guard on the clippers....

When everything was all said and done - the 'after' picture

Needless to say, I don't really even recognize myself. I have never cut my hair this short - ever. And of course, it's been so many years that I have had the beard - I forgot what it looks like underneath! But if it is weird for me, it is even stranger for the kids. They have spent a lot of time touching my head and face

If they had not been there to see it - they may not have even known it was me :)

So here we are - my boys, me, and man who made this possible.

A huge thanks goes out to all of you who donated - this wouldn't have happened without you. I'm sure the folks at Bike Monkey thank you too :) Big thanks to Bill as well for such an entertaining way to bring this to fruition. And of course, thanks to my family for being supportive and encouraging.

The open question everyone keeps asking - how long am I going to leave it like this. Honestly I don't know. I will likely grow my hair out a bit longer - it is barely more than stubble right now. I hate shaving, so I'm not sure how long I can keep it up - but we'll see....

Not sure what incentive I'll be able to come up with next year to get ya'll to donate, but I'm guessing it is going to have to be pretty good to top this one!!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

USA Grand Tour

So we all know that cycling is not interesting to most in America - plenty already written about why that might be. But we do now have 3 pretty strong 1 week races in California, Utah and Colorado. Perhaps a joining of the 3 into a single Title might be interesting.

First of all, we have to rename the Colorado race - calling it "USA" anything, and keeping it limited to 1 state just doesn't make any sense. Tour of Colorado is already taken of course, but something with Colorado in the name might be helpful, eh? Then take the USA Pro Cycling Challenge name, and use it as an over-arching title for the 3 US 1 week races. Create a combined points scheme and award something interesting at the end of the 3rd race (currently Colorado on the schedule).

Seems this would give incentive to riders to attend all 3 and create longer term interest from fans of each of the 3 races.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Last Request (hopefully!)

Friends and Family - I reached my original goal of raising $1500 - The beard *will* be coming off at some point. Congrats to Bill Merrill for providing the largest donation - he gets to come out and do the trimming! :) A huge thanks to all who have contributed so far!!

I am making 1 last ditch effort to get to the next incentive step - at $2100. I currently have $1800 (including some off-line donations not in the system yet) - so I am only $300 short! You can help me reach that step! The deadline is coming up soon at the end of the month so don't wait!! The Charities listed below will benefit greatly from your donation. If your budget doesn't allow for any more charitable giving this year - no problem! Cheer really loud Saturday morning October 1 :) See below for the original email and information on the charities.

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As many of you know, on October 1, I am doing a Metric Century (62 Miles or so) ride near Santa Rosa as part of Levi Leipheimer's GranFondo. This is a charity event, and as such I am attempting to raise $1500(Updated to $2100) for the charities the event supports. I have included the list of charities at the bottom of this email.

I am writing to ask you for your help in reaching my goal. There are 3 incentives for you to donate (besides helping some worthy charities!):

--If you donate $100 or more, the event folks will send you some sort of a gift.

--If I hit my goal, I will shave my beard (which I haven't done in over 15 years) - I'll even make a video of it!! :)

--If you are the highest donor, I will let you participate in the shaving if you so wish! :) (Highest donor $250 - Thanks Bill!!)

There is a deadline of August 30 to meet the fundraising goals, so please don't wait! :)

If you would like to help out, please click here to donate by credit/debit card. http://www.levisgranfondo.com/fundraising/portal/?user=ccallana

You can donate by check as well if you are more comfortable doing that - send them to me, made out to VeloStreet, Inc. - just make sure to send them soon so I can send them off to Santa Rosa before the end of the month!! :)

VeloStreet is a Non-Profit - all donations are tax deductible.

Your support is greatly appreciated - Please forward to anyone who you think may be willing to help out.

Thanks for your consideration!!

--Chris

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Supported charities

http://www.levisgranfondo.com/p/fundraise/cause/

LIVESTRONG

Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong and based in Austin, Texas, LIVESTRONG fights for the 28 million people around the world living with cancer today. LIVESTRONG connects individuals to the support they need, leverages funding and resources to spur innovation and engages communities and leaders to drive social change. Known for the iconic yellow wristband, LIVESTRONG’s mission is to inspire and empower anyone affected by cancer. For more information visit www.livestrong.org.

VeloStreet’s Cycling Initiatives Program

VeloStreet, the non-profit arm of the GranFondo, has a series of hands-on initiatives that aim to directly improving cycling resources in the communities in which the GranFondo operates and throughout California. The current program is made of the following promising initiatives:

Ongoing planing and scoping for the construction of the first Sonoma County Velodrome in Santa Rosa
A cycling-specific signage program for favored bicycle routes throughout Sonoma County to facilitate lawful cycling for tourists and to increase awareness amongst local residents.
A competitive grant program to fund cycling infrastructure and education in California and beyond.

Forget Me Not Farm

Since its inception in 1992, Forget Me Not Farm has helped thousands of at-risk children and youth break the cycle of abuse. Located on the grounds of the Humane Society & SPCA of Sonoma County, the Farm offers animal-assisted and horticultural therapeutic activities that provide a haven for children, plants and animals to bond, learn, and heal with one another.

Community Giving

Much of the GranFondo course traverses beautiful rural scenery with little to no development. Looks can be deceiving however, for there are folks living in these fine stretches of country with kids that need as good a dose of learning as their city dwelling brethren. Problem is, much of these school districts have to spend more money to educate fewer students across these widely spread areas. On top of that, since there are less kids in the classroom, less money comes down from local, state, and federal coffers. The GranFondo is working with schools along the route to identify needs and support this community as we enjoy the views and terrain in their backyards. Additionally, this gets these kids excited about cycling at a young age and in a time where childhood obesity and nutrition are major problems for developing children.

This same geographic and financial situation extends to emergency services and other community services, not just schools. The GranFondo supports these vital local resources so that folks who make their life in further flung areas of the county can continue to have the same opportunities as their urban comrades.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

You did it!! Y'all gave enough to reach my original goal of $1500 raised for Levi's charities!! So the beard is coming off sometime this fall. Current high bidder is $250 - so if you want to help shave, you'll have to step up big time!!!

I'm only $300 away from the next incentive step (free helmet!) - so please consider donating!!!

Thank you to all who contributed!! Much Appreciated!!!

http://www.levisgranfondo.com/fundraising/portal/?user=ccallana

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Friends and Family - Only a few weeks left to help out - I am only $300 short of my goal!!!. The donation deadline is the end of this month! :) Big thanks to all those who have already contributed!! Traci is really excited about the possibility of me taking the beard off, so anything you can do to help will make her *very* happy! :) If you can't contribute, that's ok too... just scream real loud on October 1st for me to ride strong and not die on the Cat2 climb :)

As many of you know, on October 1, I am doing a Metric Century (62 Miles or so) ride near Santa Rosa as part of Levi Leipheimer's GranFondo. This is a charity event, and as such I am attempting to raise $1500 for the charities the event supports. I have included the list of charities at the bottom of this email.