I don’t know about you, but after a few hours on a bike I can’t handle just … one … more … Clif bar.

I mean, I like them alright. They even rotate special flavors seasonally which makes me look forward to the fall and other changes. Since I am a diabetic and limited on my choices, I have them in my jersey pocket, bento box and when traveling in my backpack. That’s a whole lotta Clif.

To alter my snackage (and meals when stuck in an airport over night), I supliment with nuts, mostly almonds. Trader Joes has tidy little packets of raw almonds all made up for your next Century at $4.99 a bag.

Yesterday, Trader Joes changed my Clif bar enhanced life. There it was, sitting unassuming on the shelf. The heavens did not part, and the angels did not sing, but I knew my cycling engery snackage would never be the same again … Wasabi Wow!

Made up of almonds, peanuts, cranberries and wasabi peas, it has just the right mix of everything I need – including just a bit of salt for that sweat replacement.

Reason number 14 to ride is you create scientific proof.

I saw this on another blog and thought they were spoofing, but when I clicked on the link I was stunned to find an actual study!

Strange but True: Helmets Attract Cars to Cyclists
Although you might not want to leave your protective gear at home, just know that if you do, drivers will be a lot more scared of hitting you…

Girl Meets Bike wrote an excellent list of “When I Bike, I Always Carry…” but I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I felt compelled to share with you my “must haves” and why.

1) Cash - now this isn’t new or earth shattering, but how many of you make sure you have a $20 bill to use as a shim? Not only is this a perfect liner between your tube and tire but it also means you have twenty bucks handy when you need to buy a new tire!

2) ID – make that ID attached to me. I have a shoe tag from Road ID as well as my ID in my Bento Box. If I go endo and separate from my bike I want to be sure that my contact and allergies are front and center. After all, just about every road rash cream has aloe in it – which, I am allergic to.

3) Cell phone – I learned this one from my favorite cyclist friend, Joe Felder. I carry an extra cell phone just for cycling. It has preloaded minutes and all my emergency contacts. If this one hits the pavement, I won’t panic the way I would if my Palm Treo (which contains my whole life) would and since it can only dial out as much as I’ve loaded funds into it, I won’t worry that someone is going to call Ethiopia on it

4) Mini pump - I used to love CO2 cartridges until I started flying with my bike in an Iron Case. Then I started to stress “Did I remember to get those cartridges off my bike? Will they explode in mid-flight? OMG, did I pack a pump?” Enough! Out with the single use CO2 cartridge and in with an environmentally friendly mini pump, nicely attached to my road bike.

Since I was a kid I’ve always been a fan of big dogs. I’m not sure how it started, maybe it was because our family poodle never wanted to be around me and even bit me when I was five. Or because that neurotic toy thing was later replaced with a loyal Shepard/Collie mix that my brother brilliantly brought home on my birthday much to my mother’s chagrin. If it wasn’t either of those reasons, it had to be my repetitive viewings of Old Yeller.

But then came Lance. Not some pound puppy, stray or offspring of a friend’s surprise litter. No, Lance was an addition to our family after a year of research of what dog would be small enough to take back and forth to Canada with me, to the office and of course spend his fluffy little Maltese days on the bike with me.

To locate the right cycling companion I read everything, contacted breeders and hung out at pet adoptions on weekends, lifting and sizing potential distance riders.

At less than 3 pounds, Lance came home with us and immediately turned 12 year old Duke back into a puppy. Every morning started with the two of them racing through the house while the cats looked for higher ground. Our Retriever mix had always hung out quietly under my desk or by my side where ever I went. Now I was forsaken as she became a partner in this rapid fire Mutt and Jeff scene.

Now came shopping! Lance would need all the doggie basics… a helmut, a portable water dish for our stops and a basket to ride in. I did resist the urge to get him a yellow doggy jersey.

The helmut was a guessing game to me. I knew how large he was at the moment but since he was a rapidly growing member of our family I had no idea how large his head would be. Lance was turning out to be just a wee bit bigger than the 4 to 5 pound baby Maltese the pet store had promised him to be. In fact, he has settled in at just a hair over 8 lbs. Bless his bow legged little heart!

I found a fabulous basket on ebay. Collaspible and light weight, plus it had a rain bonnet (just in case!). The basket became part of our sharing time together. I put it on the bed and petted Lance while he sat inside it while I watched TV or read (or truthfully spent too many hours playing solitaire on my cell phone.). I placed the basket on the floor next to my desk so Lance could hang there during the work day next to Duke would would squeeze under the desk between reams of paper and my feet. I even carried Lance around in the basket so he could get used to the motion of a soon to be basket on a bike.

What I never did was actually test the basket on the bike.

Uh oh. I couldn’t put the basket on the intended commuter bike, old Belle had her brakes in the way. No worries, at 40 years of well loved age, Belle didn’t ever shift out of 3rd or 4th gear anyways so I tended not to ride her much. Not to be diswayed I attempted to place the basket on my Trek (I will now admit to you what a geek I am and let you know that she is named Enterprise). Nope, didn’t fit here either. As I moved from one bike to another, I found that all 3 of my road bikes, from Belle to the WSD would not accept a basket of any sort at the handle bars!

I’m not comfortable with rambuncious Lance in a back pack, And believe it or not, I am too anal to handle the idea of one panier, making the bike lopsided in my mind. With the way I am about visual balance, I would have to get two dogs – and what if they didn’t match? Or worse yet, what if one was Lance and the other Lemond – would they get along? Yeah, he’s named after that Lance.

So here I am with my”bikey dog” still paying off a Madone 6.5 while looking at Beach Cruisers for the two of us.

You would think that as I approach this week end’s Tour de Cure, I would be preoccupied with training, nutrition and preparation. Not so much.

Part of my mental game plan is to go into this century ride for the American Diabetes Association with a happy, upbeat attitude. One large key in overcoming some of my obstacles has been to love what I am doing and find the happiness within.

While Tide may not be aware of how they are helping me across that finish line (and thus helping others) I thought I’d share with you something that has sent me into uncontrollable peals of laughter every time I look at it…

I went over to BeTheStain.com and upload my pic to their applet, making me the talking stain that you see in the commercial. Sure its dumb, but seriously, what sane person spends their day off biking 100 miles.. on purpose?

Reason number 12 to ride is so you don’t end up like this guy:

All that show, where ya gonna go?

Need I say more?

You have to admit, Rae puts herself and her bike through more physical challenges then some see in a life time. She is extremely careful in her actions but not timid about what those actions are to be. Grammar school gave us annual photos of her with the sling of the season on her arm and many years later our go getter has returned from Hawaii, or more recently with a little less skin and a little less bike then she started out with.

When we first started cycling, we needed new bikes. Our old trusty steeds were ill fitting, big heavy things that could get us to the bank and stuff but just weren’t going to be the easiest thing to ride a century on. In typical Rae fashion, she struck out on her own, did the research, found the bike shop she wanted to do business with and bought a 2007 Giant OCR 3 W.

Recently, she had a small falling out with a car on a rainy night and lost. Oh, and I might add after the night guy potato chipped her wheel he left and just might be the same car that ran over her glasses – we’ll never be sure on that one.

New glasses have been ordered, the bike is whole and home again, ready for Saturday’s training ride. Plus there is the extra bonus of having to be fit to a bike with a new fork. All is happy again, until the next time. *sigh*

Recently, I ordered the bike of my dreams as a birthday present to myself.

When I returned to cycling after a 30 year break, I purchased a good bike (Trek 1500), just a step or three above entry level, and one that would take me towards my goals. My previous bike had been my brother’s Peugot which was about 40 years old by now.

I don’t want to imply that the Trek 1500 is no longer of use. That could not be farther than the truth! While its still my baby (something only a bike geek could understand), I have bike envy. I also told myself that if I stuck with this for two years then I would buy a “forever bike”, one that would be around another 40 years.

Week after week, I continued to climb the stairs at Helen’s Cycles (where they keep the special bikes) and eye them like a hungry orphan watching the fat cats dine on meals just out of reach. Each time, I would tell myself that these are for the real cyclists and return to the bikes downstairs, the ones for the rest of us.

Then came my birthday, it was time. In the last two years I’ve cycled more miles than I ever thought any human could, least of all this human. I’ve signed on for more events and have organized a team. I very rarely drive any more, if at all. It was most definitely time for that forever bike.

Back to Helen’s I went. Right up to Tony, the Manager and announced which one I wanted. I was committed now! As we were doing the paperwork, I quietly joked/asked if this was too much bike for me. He replied “probably, but not by next year.” There it was, confirmation that by the time I was done paying it off, it would be the right thing to do.

A day later it hit me… I told my husband that I realized the bike was more cash than the very nice engagement ring I was wearing. He nodded, told me that he was well aware of it and that the ring had better be viewed as the “forever rock”. No worries, sweetie – I’m here for the long haul. But the diamond …

By now, you’ve most likely see it, the Powerade ad campaign that beautifies naked athletes. If you haven’t go there now. Run, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Rebecca Romero, a woman whose previous experience of cycling consisted of working in a bike shop as a teenager,  is one of the three nude Olympic athletes portrayed in this amazing display meant to sell another Coca Cola product, Powerade. To me, its an attest to what the human body can be.

Rebecca Romero - PowerAde Ad

The athlete, who modestly describes herself as ‘generally a lazy person’, beat Wendy Houvenhagel by about 2.5 seconds for the gold at this summer’s Olympics in Bejing. And so is confirmed as one of the few, if not only, Olympic medalist in 2 endurance sports.

It’s more than a month past the summer Olympics, so why am I touting her accomplishments now? Because the image stays with me. She is a fine tuned machine of muscle and dedication. She is no more and no less then anyone of us, getting on her bike day in and day out putting the miles behind her. There is no history of cycling since she could walk, just a love of the sport and maybe a little more ambition to take the gold then you or I have at this moment. Most importantly, she shows us what we can accomplish and I, for one, plan on keeping that in front of me as I continue to pedal towards my goals.

Oooh, I have another cause and a great ride ahead of me! Admittedly, the event is not until April 18th, 2009, but I am pretty excited about it.

I’m putting together a team of dedicated people who have and have not been on a bike for a distance event before.   Our goal is to fundraise and bring awareness to the American Diabetes Association during their Tour de Cure.

A few people have been surprised that this is not my “Cancer Thing” but since my goals are to make a difference in some small way, it works very well for me. Also, I will be wearing the designated Red Rider jersey to show myself as someone with type 2 diabetes.

Come join Team US Cares.