Good morning and happy Thursday!  Never in over two years of cranking out these blogs have I  dared to publish one on Thursday.  Well, today is the day - I'm just bursting with team news and my heart rate is still up from 5 miles on the treadmill, so in the immortal words of the late, great Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On!

Saturday Ride

 The Punisher and I put our heads together and decided we'll do the Helotes to Castroville Ride Saturday morning.  We'll leave from Roger Soler's in Old Town Helotes with wheels up at 07:30 am and distances of 45 to 70 miles.

NOTE:  People often ask me, "Hef - why do these Saturday rides take place at different locations around the city each weekend?"  Well, I've been involved in the Bike Team biz in San Antonio for many years, and one thing I've learned is that people on the team live all over town, and San Antonio is a BIG city.  This means that it doesn't matter where we start a ride, because someone is going to be inconvenienced and will have to travel a long way to the ride start.  With high gas prices, this can be a huge commitment both in time and money.  To spread the pain around, we start at different locations.  This also provides a lot of variety in routes and terrains for more experienced riders who need that sort of variety (you know who you are!).  So, over the last year or so we've settled on the formula of doing a number of rides from fixed locations on fixed days of the week (Family Friendly, HillFest, etc.), plus doing one or two longer, more varied rides each week.  Now if it would only quit raining so much so we can actually get more time on the road!

Tour de Valero

The Valero HQ Fitness Center is cranking up the Tour de Valero again!  This is a 30 day fitness challenge during the month of September to help Valero employees get ready for the Bike to the Beach.  As in years past, you'll get various points for all the different types of exercise (cycling, spinning, running, etc.) you do, and you'll win prizes if you get above the rec goal of 300 points or the competitive goal of 500 points.  Plus if you have more points than anyone else at the end of the challenge, you'll be crowned the King or Queen of the Tour, and you'll have braggin' rights for the rest of the year.  (Someone please beat Andrea this year!)  So, if you work at HQ, go down to the gym as soon as possible, sign on the dotted line, and start those workouts!    You'll thank me when it's Day 2 of the Bike to the Beach, and you're blasting into that headwind at 20 mph and not even breathing hard, and you're looking at that Harbor Bridge and saying, "Is that all you got????" 

The Tour de Valero starts on September 2nd.

Fundraising Update

Well, our Bike to the Beach fundraising numbers keep creeping up!  As of last night, we were up to 238 registered riders, and more importantly, we are up to $41,302, which is 21% of our target of 200 large.  We still have a number of you who haven't started your campaigns yet (168 to be exact, or 71% of our total) but I'm not worried - you are just late bloomers, and you'll get your game on soon.  These are great numbers, and I know, they will only get better.  To see our current fundraising totals, click here.  If you see someone you know on the list with a prodigious amount of fundraising, don't be bashful - ask them what they did to raise so much green, and I'm certain they'll be glad to share their secrets with you.  

 And, you always have Team Vice President and RoboFundraiser David Sloan to bounce any ideas off of. Give him a shout at david.sloan@valero.com if you need some encouragement.

...see ya' on the road!

- Peter