Red Ribbon Ride 2013 fight AIDS HIV in MINNESOTA last big hill 101 degree heat

One week after Red Ribbon Ride 2013.

 It was a great ride this year, one of the hardest I have done. On day one we started out at a sultry 80 degrees and humid. Within an hour the heat went up and up and up by 2pm it was a heat index of 101! Day one is the century day for those who choose to partake and we had 20-30 mile an hour head winds much of the day, it was one of the harder days I have had over 7 years of the ride. 

Day 2 was not much easier it was hill day and we had the same head winds much if the day. It was about ten degrees cooler as we headed towards Rochester. The pain in my body stared to set in but so did the love and support of the Red Ribbon Ride.

By day three we were all pretty warn out but it was friends and family night.  We also had the last big hill, a symbol of beating tough challenges on the ride.  Next year there will be a new route so it really was the last big hill on the ride. 

 Then on to Northfield, my wife and kids joined me for dinner and an overnight in a 
hotel. The presenter for friends and family night was Andy, he showed us all the ways AIDS replicates in the human body and all the places we can stop the replication process. We all came away with a sense that we will stop AIDS in the next 10 years.

Day four I woke up to my kids all sleeping. I got up, slathered on sunscreen and had Angie drive me to camp where I had breakfast and got my bike ready for the day. It was nice and cool, I was flying through the last leg of the trip. That was until I encountered a thunder storm of black sky in Farmington. Sweep stopped us in a nest of pine trees and moved us to pit one. Across the street from the pit was the Farmington fire station, the ride director asked the firemen if we could shelter the storm in the fire station and they let us have full use of the facilities. The storm down poured on our bikes for what seemed like hours. Then the storm broke, the sky cleared and we finished the ride.

It was one of the hardest and most fulfilling rides I have ever done. Sometimes it's those of us who have been through hell who emerge with the road map to help others through. 

If my friend who has AIDS and was on chemo treatment for hep c can do the ride, I sure can to as well in support.

I have already signed up for another tour with he traveling bubble of love next year. Please consider joining me, it will change your life.

As always keep up the good work, and remember, we are doing this for ourselves and our kids.

http://beachbodycoach.com/esuite/home/GABRIELSKELLY

-Gabe

Red Ribbon Ride and losing weight as I age and have my 4th child!

So here we are a week out from the Red Ribbon Ride. I have not hit my weight loss goal and I am not happy about that. I have maintained pretty good shape below 265 and done a couple of good training rides. I biked 52 miles on the 4^th of July and 62 miles Sunday. I am also going to get in 70 miles tomorrow and 72 on Sunday on the Trail of Hope ride Joe Ede puts on. While I have not trained as much as I wanted to this spring and summer I feel I am up for the 300 miles for the ride. I will be about 15 pounds lighter than last year and I have stopped using almost all supplements. My goal for next year is going to do a lot more training. Should be fairly easy since I am not planning on having any surgeries.

I am also 2 months out from being a father of 4! Wow how life changes. I started this blog when I had 2 kids and was 330 pounds and just wanted to lose weight and live better and longer for my kids and myself. I would have never known then that I would be having 4 kids and would be successful at staying in the 260’s.  I remember how tired and depressed I was being heavy and how all I wanted to do was lose some weight that would not come off.

Well here we are 3 years later and I have to keep working. I commit to not a diet but a life style change and not a short term one. I have my downs and I put some weight on but I keep the goal in mind. I want to live an active life and be healthy as long as I can into old age while being here for my family.

What are your goals for losing weight and getting in shape? What are you doing to get to those goals? I find committing to something then telling all my friends is the best way to make sure I stay on track.  

I wish you the best in your life!