Thursday, April 19, 2012

Support My Ride to Montauk with Team Viscardi!

Hi Friends and Family!

On June 16th I will be participating in this year’s Ride to Montauk as a member of Team Viscardi. This is the second year that Team Viscardi, a group of colleagues, friends, family and neighbors, has come together for the benefit of the children at the Henry Viscardi School. My wife Ahmee is an occupational therapist at the school and knows firsthand the many benefits of a school like Henry Viscardi.

The Henry Viscardi School serves nearly 200 children in grades pre-K through 12 with severe physical disabilities including cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, as well as rare diseases that require constant medical attention. The needs of our children grow each year, as these recent statistics demonstrate:

• 4 full-time nurses provide approximately 100 medical procedures each day
• 46 students need augmentative communication devices to speak
• Students come from 47 Long Island school districts, as well as Westchester and all five NYC boroughs
• 50% of HVS students are involved in after-school adaptive sports programs, such as wheelchair basketball

Aside from my commitment to complete the 100 mile bike ride, my goal is to raise $500 for the Henry Viscardi School. I hope you will join me in bringing smiles to the children of the School by donating what you can. All funds raised will benefit the programs at HVS and are 100% tax deductible.

Want to support? You can:

(1) make a pledge (and sponsor me!), click here: http://www.abilitiesonline.org/pledgeform.aspx

(2) make a general donation to support Team Viscardi and the School (be sure to select “Team Viscardi/Ride to Montauk” on the Restricted Gifts drop down menu): https://npo1.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=5560

Or to learn more about the School and Team Viscardi’s Ride to Montauk: http://www.abilitiesonline.org/ride.aspx

Questions? Comments? Email me at: benjamin.c.huang@gmail.com

Thank you for your support! GO TEAM VISCARDI!



Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Meet, Scarlett (the second)

Major development boys and girls! I've finally purchased a legit road bike to further my Triathlon aspirations. I present to you, "Scarlett".  The reason for "(the second)" in the title for those who dont know, Scarlett (yes, after Scarlett Johansson) was the name of my beloved Scion tC, which I lost in 2010 due to a freak tornado that hit the city. In any case, here she is!


My new Scarlett
It's a Trek 1.2, which I purchased from Brickwell. I chose this over a Cannondale CAAD8. For me, The Trek just felt smoother and more sturdy, but generally the difference was not huge. Honestly, price may have been a bigger factor! Haven't had a chance to take it out for a true ride yet, hoping to do that soon.

Well, the past few weeks have been a challenge, training wise. Took two weeks off after the RnR DC Half.  I was only going to take one week, but life got in the way (I was moving!). Then I finally got back into it with a 3 run week, taking it really easy though, only totaling less than 10 miles for the week. But then the next week, I was having some serious discomfort in my back, and was advised by my Chiro to take it easy. So instead of doing another 3 runs last week, it was only one run on Friday, but I did do the 5 mile loop in a sub 10min-mile pace, which actually surprised me a bit.

So I'm hoping to get back into it with 2 runs this week and a ride or 2 to get the bike broken in. I'll also have to renew my FMCP Aquatic Center membership and get back in the pool. The Rev3 Tri in Maine is not until the end of August, but the NYRR Sprint Tri is at the end of June, and though I havent registered, now that I have the bike, I think I will.

And finally, an events update. Despite all the shenanigans that went on during the RnR Vegas Half, they have listed a number of improvements they are making in response to everyone's feedback. On paper, it looks good, but we will have to see how well it is executed. But given that, and they offered last year's runners' a discount, the sucker that I am.....REGISTERED again. So that'll be my second half for the year. I was hoping to do another RnR event to get the "heavy medal", so here is my chance. Such a sucker for deals and free stuff! Thats it for now, until next time!