Reason No. 15 to Ride

Reason number 15 to ride is you make a difference to people like Virginia Garner and others like her.

Virginia Garner is a blood cancer patient who became part of the LLS family when she was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).  She is now a First Connection volunteer, a vocal member of her local CML Support Group, active in the Light The Night Walk “CML BUSTERS”, a mentor through Team In Training, involved in presentations through the School & Youth program and just an incredible resource!  Here is a recent note from Virginia:

Ten years ago today (April 19, 2009) I sat in an examination room at UCLA as a participant in a clinical trial where I swallowed my first Gleevec pills.  It’s hard to believe that all that time has passed.  I remember having the pills in one hand and a cup of water in the other and chatting with Dr. Sawyers, Ginny the nurse, Van my husband, and Connie my sister-in-law until they lost patience and demanded that I swallow the pills.  When I did, there was a hush in the room that I’ll never forget.  I interpreted it as everyone there wondering what would happen next:  Would my eyeballs fall out?  Would my arms fall off?  Would I descend into uncontrollable fits of coughing?  Of course, what did happen was absolutely nothing, except that I walked out of that room armed with a new hope and on the road to complete molecular remission of the CML that had ravaged my body.  That’s a pretty big nothing, huh?

For over two years now, my follow up tests have come back showing no detectable cancer cells, and I live a full and productive life full of energy and joie de vivre.  These days I gratefully dedicate my time to others going through cancer treatment, whether it is by sharing my story with patients or fundraising for cancer research.  I have the hope that one day all cancers will be obliterated, and more people can live a satisfying and full existence like me.  Life is good!

To learn more about LLS, please visit www.LLS.org.

One more offspring joins Team US Cares

For the last two years, since I returned to the saddle, my son had been asking to join one of our teams working towards a Century ride. Because he was so young (12 now) LLS would not allow it and poor Josh got stuck standing in the sun working SAG with his dad or just sitting in the car waiting until his sister and I finished a training ride. So not fun for a kid.

This season is a little different. With the Tour de Cure I am a ride leader that offers weekly training for my own team (Team US Cares) and anyone else who wishes to join in. Its not a ADA thing like Team in Training was, so I can bring my son.

I have to admit, I went into this with the typical mom view of lets-see-if-it-will-stick. I really didn’t expect him to give up Saturdays with friends or attempt putting mid week rides into his already full after school schedule. But he is doing wonderfully. He has even added biking to and from school to his daily routine so that he gets in more hills!

Day One Continues – On the Road with The Ride to Conquer Cancer

We took off and it was glorious. A force of yellow and wheels wielding its way through Toronto. I was all giggles and excitement. Not being from the area, I have no idea what to expect, when we would leave city streets, etc.

I had been nervous that there were no route slips printed out (a wonderful booklet did give us a map the night before) and no arrows painted on the street itself. There was no reason to worry. The event was wonderfully organized. Clearly marked signs along the way and volunteers at every intersection. If you think about the sheer distance of the ride and how many intersections that must be, it is boggling.

I had my first understanding of how much this meant to everyone as we rode. There were people all along the route cheering us on. I’ve seen crowds at the start and a few block up but never an entire event route. I think my favorite sign was “Go Brit! Ride your fanny for your granny!”

There were about 5 or six stops a day, about every 20 km (12.5 miles) this both slowed me down and kept me going. For many people this was their first event and a two day one at that, the rest and hydration they provided was excellent. Unfortunately I was in the early pack to get to the first stop. That meant everyone was surprised and just slammed to a stop at the driveway. No one called out, many of us could not clip out in time and down I went in the midst of a domino effect. It must have looked awful, for two days everyone around me was trying to send me off to the medic tent, but honestly, I went right away, they cleaned me up and I was fine. The hardest part was the band-aid pulling at my skin, so I took that off and continued on.

Once again I need to thank Coach Ramon and Team in Training. All the times he took me out on the PCH and made me tackle those hills in baby steps really paid off. My mentor, Jayne Ramos certainly did her share too. As we hit the hills, people were walking in herds. I lost momentum and I am not a strong enough rider to recover from that so there were times when I had to walk but would get back on the bike as soon as I could. We had one hard turn to a hill that stopped everyone. Coming around a blind curve like that and into a stopped pack is pretty unnerving, I can tell you. I saw one gentleman who made the curve, past the stopped pack but couldn’t recover – he toppled over and could not get out of his clips.

The screw in my handbars were stripped. Every time I hit a bump they would tip down and I would pull them back up. Surprisingly, this did not awake the tumor in my hand. For a change it was quiet and behaved nicely all weekend. Because of the handlebars I walked ALL of a really scary downhill. I still have trouble with my fear of down hill but thankfully not as much as before. This time it was more of a safety about being able to grab the brakes evenly with the bars moving as I rode.

We had been hearing about the BIG HILL since prior to the event. Everyone was pretty worked up about it. It really wasn’t bad, just long. I have to admit I did walk a small part of it. I got to the top and felt a bit dehydrated so I sat on a wall with a few other folk, drank up and had some beef jerky for the salt. I’m not sure, but I actually think I napped sitting up for a while.

After that, there was about 10 km if I recall, to the camp ground. Yay! The route that day was fairly easy compared to our terrain, there was no Encinal Cyn in sight and it certainly wasn’t Solvang. Of course 100+ km of anything isn’t that easy but it was the harder of the two days so I felt pretty secure.

Oy, timing is everything.

Last year I had the pleasure of my first Team In Training season by training for 4 months with coaches, mentors and other cyclists working towards what would have been my first Century Ride in Honolulu. The day before our warm up event (Cool Breeze Century), I had to fly to Mexico for the start of 6 months of being all things to all people. I not only missed Cool Breeze but Honolulu as well. Some of you have already heard the sad saga.

My daughter also had a disappointment at Honolulu. She got about 16 miles in and went “endo”, in addition to bounce, slide and roll, taking her and a few layers of skin out of the event.

We consoled ourselves by saying we would tackle Honolulu in 2008. We took on another TNT season and did Solvang 2008 to make sure we stayed focused on our training and signed up for other events along the way. Sign up time for Honolulu is around the bend. *drumroll*

I was floored to find that we would still be on the plane as the sun set and Erev Rosh Hashannah would be starting. There would be no way that I could have family together and start the holiday that begins our year together. We’ve spent a lot of time as a family working on our goals to make a difference to others. It is not just the fund raising but the hours that Dave has spent driving Rachael and I to training and standing in parking lots with Josh until we returned. The days he has run SAG or that Josh could not play with his friends because it would mean that there would be no one to pick him up because Rae and Mommy are cat 5s and generally in later then others, plus other sacrifices that we willingly made. But to give up Rosh Hashannah and perhaps one of the final ones that my parents may be able to join us for.. I just wasn’t ready for that.

So I’m bummed. Add that to next year’s plans, the year of The Great Bar Mitzvah and I’ve come to the realization that I won’t be doing the Honolulu Century until 2010. I had hoped to be a TNT mentor by that year but I don’t think I’ll have enough time with them under my belt. I’ve already learned it is what they see that makes the difference, so being away may really hurt me there.

None of this means I am giving up my other events. I’ll still be in Toronto for the 200 Km event to benefit the Princess Margaret Hospital, among others.

Solvang Century tips just in time.

My coach and good pal from my last TNT season, Ramon, sent me an email today with his tips for a fabulous ride this coming Saturday in Solvang.

Ramon’s tips:

The ride starts with small hills that slowly get bigger, leading to a fun descent into Lompoc and SAG 1.

Foxen Canyon (mile 90): False flat, easy to over-do it.  It kicks up at the end, so don’t burn out!  Stay at a comfortable pace and don’t feel like you are “pushing” yourself.

SAG 5 (Firestone Winery @ mile 96): definitely keep your stop short, so your legs don’t get cold–there’s a climb immediately.  It’s not as hard as it looks, but easy to psyche yourself out since it you can see people climb it at the SAG.

Crossing Hwy 54 (mile 101).  Short but steep climb just after the highway.  A couple of downhill curves, then a long, gradual descent (yeah!).  A few short climbs, and then back to town.  Easy to be mentally tired, but watch for traffic.  Cross the finish line and celebrate!

Stay hydrated, stay fueled, be safe, chat and have fun.

Reason No. 7 to Ride

Reason No. 7 to ride is that you are an inspiration to others.

I was stopped at a light, wearing my very impressive 100 miles for Hope cycling jersey when someone congratulated me on my efforts and said that if I could do it (aging, overweight and grandma, remember?) there was no reason they shouldn’t get going in the same way.

I agree, time for all of us to get out there and help someone else – after all, cycling a 100 miles is a whole lot easier than chemotherapy!

What’s working?

•    Training
•    Incremental Goals
•    Nutrition, Hydration
•    Sleep

I once went to a presentation by BNI’s Founder, Dr. Ivan Misner; in it he asked “What’s working?”.  The presentation discussed a business consultant that listened to all the problems in a failing business, but continued to focus on what’s working. While the business owner was aghast, assuming that the consult had gone mad by not addressing the problems, the business started to flourish by putting what was working first. This struck a cord with me during my solo ride on the Pacific Coast Highway last Sunday.

Training  – On that Sunday, I had ridden 3 days in a row, each day just a little more than the last. Team in Training puts us on an awesome training schedule of 4 to 5 months, depending on the season length. The schedule is an incremental one. Every Saturday is an incremental increase over the previous week, getting you ready for your Century Ride, with mid week rides to keep muscle memory. Muscle Memory is important in sports as well as physical therapy. It is based on the premise that the more often you do a certain muscular activity, the more likely you are to do it as needed, when needed.

Incremental Goals - My coach last season, Ramone Ocampo, had taught me to ignore the hill, ignore the total miles, ignore it all and just work baby steps. I hated it. He would ask me if I could get as far as the next intersection, the next driveway, the next whatever, pushing me like a sheep dog. This season, I’ve had to ride alone a great deal and I would hear his voice pointing out little goals as I went along. I have no idea when it changed, but during our week 18 of training for Solvang, I heard myself asking the very same things. By week 19 I was gleefully pointing things out that I had passed, “Driveway! Latigo Cyn Road! Mailbox! Grass Clump!” and so on. Might not be the incremental goals of the typical endurance athlete, but it sure helped during the amazing headwinds we tackled on Los Posas yesterday.

Nutrition, Hydration – This might be a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious), but the better set you are in both nutrition and hydration the better off you are. This is not just carbo loading (which I can’t do btw), but its watching your proteins and water intake before, during and after your rides. Everyone gives you the advice to drink and eat before you are hungry or thirsty. I haven’t been able to figure when that meant, until I recently realized that when is always (another BFO). What I’ve started doing is a little celebration of the miles. Every mile I take a drink, every 5 miles I get the big reward of Clif Bar nibbles.

Sleep - Sleep is the gas your body car needs to be at top performance. I have a terrible habit of napping and having shorter sleep cycles then adding up the days naps/sleep claiming to have had 8 hours rest. That was just not working well. I say well because it seemed to work, until I switched to hitting the hay on a real schedule in hopes of getting to sleep before my husband started snoring. It didn’t work in terms of avoiding the snoring by I did notice that my performance improved and my first 10 minutes of waking didn’t seem so groggy or clumsy. Just to prove my point to myself, I tried this over the last two weeks straight and continued to see that it should go on my list of “what’s working”.

Go Rae Go!

We need YOUR help in making a difference. Like all of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives.

Each one of us going to Solvang has a fundraising commitment. The event is less than 2 weeks away and Rachael is $1,800 short of her commitment. Since she stopped working on Saturday’s to be sure she had time for training, she has lost income and now the job, so there is no way for her to make this up before March 8th, the day of the Solvang Century ride.

After 5 months of training it hardly seems right not to help her raise money for all individuals who are battling blood cancers.

Please click to help her and others cross the finish line against this terrible disease.

Week 17, just a few more to go ’til Solvang!

(this should have been posted 2 weeks ago)

Training had us back on the PCH, my personal fave. We started at Malibu Bluffs, headed north up the coast, past Leo Carillo, towards Las Posas, over to Freedom Park in Camarillo, winding our way back to the coast by way of Ventura Blvd.

I rode a bit of it alone, after leaving my mentor/ride partner who seemed to want to be alone – not really sure. I spent most of it smiling, knowing how much I love the PCH and enjoying the route, and the hills! I did a little reflecting on how hard this was in the past but mostly just worked my way along the coast. I caught up to Rae who had gone ahead while I was waiting for Kim.

We rode Las Posas to Freedom Park, the wind was kicking our butts and I can honestly tell you it felt great. I got a high five from another rider who was impressed that we had come that far. I took it!

Heading back my leg cramps kicked in but not enough to stop me. I have no idea what is going on, I’ve had cramps for almost two weeks now that move and dance all over my legs at the oddest times. I’m willingly seeking advice on this, btw

The tumour in my hand had been acting up so much that I pretty much rode without holding the handle bar on that side unless I really had to. I hit a bump and smacked it hard right on the bump. I saw stars and squeezed back the tears. Since there was a light I took a moment to pull off my gloves and look at it – I have no idea what I thought I would see but I noticed that it was still attached and human looking so we pressed on.

Unfortunately, I noticed that I had a flat. It had to have happened when I hit that bump, I don’t know. What I also didn’t know is how to change a tire, so I was screwed. Called Dave the SAG man and headed back. I did 50 good miles though and felt great – its good to leave feeling like you can do more.

Traveling with my bike.

I’m no different than anyone else with a bike. We’ve all spent a chunk of change on our ride. Taking care of it becomes a time challenge among other things. I am terrible about cleaning my bike, degreasing it, etc. Fortunately, I have an extremely knowledgeable daughter who is willing to take care of mine when she cleans hers. Of course mom has to pay the going rate.

We travel for various events – not just biking but golfing in new and exciting places too – which meant we needed a new car to handle the bikes in a way that would keep them from getting banged up like they did with the rack on the back, allow us to have room for luggage AND 3 golf bags, plus let us pop an extra rack on the back in case we needed to SAG. It was quite a site watching me open car trunks, throw in my clubs and see if I could lift a bike to the roof of the car. I refused to test drive or listen to a sales pitch before I was sure it would suit our needs. I should point out here, that I have a very supportive husband who does not ride a bike … ever.

It didn’t stop there. With me getting ready to start working on the June Ride to Conquer Cancer in Toronto, I’ll be traveling there to get to know the routes and spend some time training with my cycling partner there. (very nice guy who is a cat 1 paired with me, a cat 5). I started to worry about my bike on the plane. The airlines helped me get a bike safely to Calgary in a cardboard box but I wanted something more for this bike. This week I bought a Trico Sports Iron Case from Helen’s Cycles with my super Team in Training discount!

I’m pretty impressed with this purchase. It not only is much more secure for my bike than the cardboard box but also a bit shorter in length. This will help me in getting a cab. The wheels on the bottom are small in my opinion but they do work well and the case does not tip to the side when pulling like some rolling bags.

The only thing that might make me happier is getting it out of my living room and into the garage until I am ready to use it!