From Nate Barnes, Bike Tour Participant

Hi lisa and.....help!!! Read your blog ...wow you are some accomplished athlete. I bow to your unyielding endurance. Right now I am writing to you and eating a reece's peanut butter cup x2 ...probably not the best nutritional supplement hunh...oh well I've been craving chocolate like crazy since I quit smoking in January. Any way enough stream of consciousness blabber. I need some help. My partner Chris Courage (ALA NH director of event planning) said to check out your blog as a resource for training. Training tips you wrote were super. Should be a big help. My big problem is I want what you've got......endurance. I am working on it but man is it slow going. I have been hitting the gym averaging about 30 minutes of cardio i.e. treadmill, elyptical and recumpant bike approx. 3x wkly and doing some light weight training. I just don't seem to have a lot of stamina. I can run almost 3miles on the treadmill but when I get outside....kersplat!! I hit the wall before I get to 2 miles. I'm really getting nervous about the bike thing because as you said I will be using a lot of different muscle groups. When I get on the bike at the gym my butt is seriously kicked after 20 minutes. Yikes. I have been working soooo hard, I think but maybe not hard enough. I know I am kinda throwing a ton at you but I am really excited about this bike tour and I don't want to make an ass out of myself because I can't finish. Any input you might have would be great! Talk to you soon I hope. Sincerely, Nate Barnes