07.28.08
Posted in blog, cycling at 9:59 pm by 1speeder
Sunday was our third weekend in a row riding at 6 Mile Run. Maybe we should call it “6 Mile Fun” instead. We did about 22 miles. While it was dry, it rained two days before, which made the trails just perfectly grippy in the tight, fast pine sections where traction has been slightly skittish and dry before. This time I brought my old Cannondale M2000, which was geared at 32×20, and is the perfect weapon for tight eastern woods. Johan brought Jennifer this time, who rode her 16″ Karate Monkey 29er, which I test rode later on (after squeezing into her cycling shoes). Nice bike. Another pre-ride “mechanical” plagued Johan before we hit the dirt, requiring removal of his front brake pads, then the disc rotor a couple of miles after nearly driving me insane with all the noise. Later, we hooked up with Darren and Christine, who dropped in from the other side of the park. On the way back to the cars, we ran into Norm and his wife just heading out onto the trails.
Stripped Of Badge For Shoving Cyclist - “A New York City police officer was stripped of his gun and badge Monday after he was caught on video slamming a cyclist in motion to the ground.” Here’s the video on YouTube.
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07.26.08
Posted in blog, cycling at 6:55 pm by 1speeder
Now that the NYC Century is coming up, I reconverted the Zion SS back to the slicked road training machine that it is. But instead of the 36×16 gear that I used last year in the century, and what I’ll probably put on eventually for this year’s ride as well, I used 36×15, which is a tad taller and closer to the 46×18 that’s on my IRO.
So, this morning I took the Zion out for a 32 mile test spin, which included a Princeton loop. I made a B-line to the top of Washington Road in the heart of Princeton University, which took me just under 42 minutes. (Actually, this was not the most direct route, ie. it’s the safer route.) The bike felt good, except for a slight annoying ticking, which I think was from the inside rear disc pad on the rotor. From Nassau Street, I took a breather while I headed towards Harrison Street and checked out Faculty Road and Carnegie Lake. The parking lot at Carnegie Lake was blocked off to cars but I went in and found a dirt path that ran parallel to Faculty Road back towards Harrison Street right along the lake. An old dog that was wet from the body down and carrying a big log in his mouth came up towards me, then a little while later an old man followed. The path was narrow, so I pulled off to the side to let him pass (always yield to peds and hikers).
I explored a bit and found a gravel road with what seemed like a bike impound area that was fenced off. There were hundreds of bikes there, some very old, some new but rusted up. There’s more exploring to do and things to check out next time.
I wanted to see how my skin would fare in the late morning sun. Of course, before the ride I used sunscreen. On the way back I took some long open roads without any trees specifically to expose myself. I guess I fared pretty well.
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07.25.08
Posted in blog, cycling, gvhd at 11:22 am by 1speeder
This week I began the next phase in my training, which is basically a ramp up in intensity in everything. Because of my cGvHD issues, which restricts every aspect of my training, I couldn’t progress to this next phase until I was sure I wouldn’t cause damage or illness to myself, not to mention just being able to get to the point where I can get to the “starting line” where everyone else is already. The extreme tightness in my fascia and muscles was a huge impediment and it took me over two months just to get past that, but it required a high dose of prednisone, which I’m still on, and that in itself hinders my progress going forward.
So, what is this so-called next phase? Basically, I do all my solo fixedgear rides like time trials as I bump up my miles. No stopping (I don’t usually stop for training rides less than 50 miles anyway). Just good old leg burning at the fastest pace I can push throughout the whole ride. My ride yesterday started at 6:30 pm and I was able to push a 17.5 mph average pace for the 21-mile loop on the IRO. My typical pace up to this point was 15-16.5 mph. I had some calf cramping midway through, but I didn’t get off the bike to stretch either. On-bike stretching, particularly stretching any part of the legs, isn’t very easy on a fixedgear, since you can’t freewheel.
One issue I started to encounter this week is not being able to ride when it’s darker outside. Since I can’t ride during the afternoon when the sun’s rays are most harmful, I have to ride when it gets darker in the evening. The issue is that I need to wear my Panoptx glasses or else my eyes instantly dry out and start to hurt from abrasion. But the lenses in these glasses are somewhat dark, so it gets difficult to see. Night riding is just not possible for me right now. Fortunately, I’m going back to JHH next week, so I can stop by the Harley shop to pick up some lenses that change with varying light levels. This will also be good for mountain biking, because the woods are always darker than the open road.
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07.23.08
Posted in blog, gvhd at 1:14 pm by 1speeder
Yesterday I had my 2-month follow-up with my opthalmologist. Since starting Restasis two months ago, she needed to check on my progress to determine whether or not it was having any affect. It was, but I expressed my concern that perhaps the slight decrease in dryness of my eyes might be due to my daily dose of 70 mg of prednisone, which is a pretty high dose. In any event, whatever affect either of the two drugs is having on my eyes, they are operating under different mechanisms. Basically, my lacrimal glands don’t work very well, so my eyes are dry. Restasis employs cyclosporine to reduce inflammation on the surface of the eye to invoke the lacrimal gland to produce tears. (I think that’s what it’s supposed to do.)
The Schirmer test, which determines how well the eyes produce tears, was 3 & 2 versus 2 & 2 from two months ago. I think that’s on a scale from 1 (driest) to 10 (teariest) and measured in millimeters on the test strip. So, my eyes still don’t tear well at all, but they didn’t tear less than last time. My last two visits showed a lot of abrasion on the cornea of both eyes due to dryness. But this time, the abrasion was much decreased. I could tell that my eyes felt better and were not as dry this past month because it no longer hurts when I blink. When my eyes were very dry, it took more effort for my eyelids to close over my eyeballs and the speed at which my eyelids blinked was much slower. Using my Panoptx glasses when I rode my bike helped a lot in keeping my eyes from instantly drying out as soon as hit the road.
Prednisone is also known to cause cataracts and increase pressure in the eye. The pressure test showed no evidence of pressure and I still don’t have cataracts. Cataracts are also a potential side effect of the total-body irradiation that I had right before my BMT. I’m partially expecting to have cataracts as I grow older, however.
Viraf came over last night to hold focus mitts and thai pads for me. I haven’t done any real martial arts training involving pads for several years now. With my body always recovering from these severe cancer treatments every year, the fear of damaging myself from martial arts training has always been a deterrent for me. The training involves a lot of impact and high intensity. So, I decided to give it a go, initially keeping in mind that I need to take it slow and easy, which I promptly forgot once we got started. But Viraf was there to constantly remind me to slow down and go easy. Several rounds of focus mitts and thai pads was just what I needed. Today, my entire back, arms, and legs are fairly sore, but not as bad as I anticipated. I feel like I’d have no problem going for a bike ride tonight. I have to remain aware that I can’t work myself too hard to overburden my immune system, which is being suppressed right now to deal with cGvHD, to the point where I get sick. It doesn’t take much to get me sick these days. Slow, steady patience, and keeping the eye on the prize (longevity) is the key to success.
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07.21.08
Posted in blog, cycling, gvhd at 3:04 pm by 1speeder
It’s been hot again. Mid-90s hot. Even before my extreme intolerance of heat, tempertures over 80º made me very uncomfortable, especially if that was combined with any humidity. Needless to say, summers for the past several years have been barely tolerable. Summer has always been my least favorite season anyway.
An unusual thing happened on Friday - I forgot to take all my morning meds, which is pretty much the crux of my meds. I don’t know how that happened. That morning, however, while I was watching part of that day’s Tour stage, I just felt “off”. I figured it was just due to being overworked from the ride the day before, as it usually takes me a day to recover from even “easy” rides these days. I should have had the sense to check my daily pill box. It wasn’t until Saturday morning that I saw all of Friday’s pills still in the pill box. Since prednisone is the major med that I take (or rather, didn’t take that day), a moment of horror quickly flashed through my mind. I even considered emailing Viki, my GvHD nurse at JHH, to let her know, but figured there was nothing I could really do to make up the deficit or that it would be too harmful.
The ride on Saturday morning was going to be difficult for me. Temperatures of 96º were expected. I knew I’d have to load up with water and sport drink just to not die on such a short and local ride so close to home. Johan, Rogelio, Norm, and I met up at Six Mile Run at 9am. Due to pre-ride mechanical issues (Johan’s bike - two tube changes, a broken valve stem, broken tire lever), we didn’t get moving until closer to 10am. The night before I was thinking I’d swap the 700c back on with the 32×18 gearing, but I just left the fat 26″ wheels on with the 21T cog. I knew I’d be spinning too much with that gear, but I’d deter cramping in the heat on the hills. As it turned out, it’s a good thing I left that gear on because midway through the ride I felt like I was slogging my fixie up the hills.
The heat really got to me. I was fading. Respite came when we cruised through the woods at faster speeds. At one point, I started feeling the chills, in the 90+ degree heat. Goosebumps appeared all over my arms. I was over shooting turns, braking too late, running off the trail at every turn. My mind wasn’t reacting quickly enough to the fast, twisty terrain. This wasn’t good. I was riding behind every one else. Norm was ahead of me and I heard him yell up to Johan that I was getting tired and dropping away. I had to back off the pace. Rogelio and Johan were pushing what would normally be a fun pace, but I was starting to get delirious and cold and needed to back off and drink more water. Also, my arms were trembling. Trembling hands and arms are another side affect that occur (to me) when I’m on prednisone. And I’m pretty sure it’s a different side affect than the trembling caused by muscle weakness due to prednisone. While some people don’t associate arm strength with cycling, there is actually quite a bit of arm strength needed to ride a SS MTB.
We paused for a breather and I recovered after a while. The guys from the north needed to get back home and were running late, but they took some time so I could recover and not die on them. We ended up with about 20 miles and had a blast as usual. I hadn’t seen Norm since two years ago and Rogelio since last year. Both were on newer bikes. We all rode SS, of course. Riding anything other than a SS there just wouldn’t be as fun.
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07.17.08
Posted in blog, cycling, gvhd at 10:46 pm by 1speeder
Since my first chemo treatment in 2004, dizziness from dehydration has been a fact of life for me. It’s a weird thing to experience and something that never affected me before cancer. During the hot summer months, it’s more common. And it usually happens when I’m not outside and in the heat, which is the ironic thing. (There are a lot of ironic, counterintuitive things that afflict me that would cause some people to suspect me of making things up.)
My blood pressure is normally on the low side. So is my normal heart rate. What’s this have to do with dehydration? When they take your blood pressure, they first take a reading while you are seated. Then, another reading after standing up. If they differ significantly, you’re probably dehydrated. The dizziness spells go kind of like this: I’d be sitting at the computer for any length of time or just sitting in a chair or sofa, then I get up to go do something. After several steps, I feel dizzy and start to lose control of my balance. If I feel like I’m about to pass out, I lie down on the floor just to avoid injury in case I hit the deck. This type of episode would occur several times a day, especially after a hard workout in the summer. I have never completely passed out, though, during one of these episodes. I have, in the past, passed out with complete unconsciousness, and not due to imbibing, I might add. I have to admit that it is rather unsettling to awake from being unconscious and seeing something from an angle (ie. an ant’s eye view) that you would never usually see as a bipedal homo sapien and wonder why you are in this position.
This morning I took the SS to Clayton and decided to try to keep a fast pace. (Usually, this is called “hammering”, but in all honesty, with my slow, out of condition, weak body, cramping legs, and bulging stomach getting in the way of gasping for oxygen, I have a hard time justifying applying the term “hammering” to what I do on a bike these days.) I ended up with a 10 mph average pace for an hour of riding before it just got too hot to stay out. And I was totally kaput. My legs had nothing left. When I got home, I didn’t feel too good. I had a headache and my eyelids felt heavy. My calves were tight. I had to nap, right after I ate a huge chunk of Melissa’s awesome banana bread and a Gatorade.
Dehydration is the athlete’s nemesis in summer. Not only am I on high dose prednisone, but also antibiotics, and penicillin (yes, I have been on all this stuff all this time). My daily prescription intake right now is six different meds, one of which is Restasis for my eyes. By the way, people on antibiotics should avoid sun exposure. Sure, there ways of exercising comfortably in the comfort of one’s own home (just turn on the TV and you’re bound to see a commercial for one of those get-fit-without-doing-any-exercise-at-all machines), but Homey don’t play that!
From The best places in the world to have cancer, check out the global interactive map of cancer survival rates.
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07.14.08
Posted in blog, cycling at 10:32 am by 1speeder
Here’s another incident in CA where a motorist, a doctor, tried to kill cyclists on the road by getting ahead of them then slamming on his brakes. Read more at L.A. incident rallies cycling community.
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07.12.08
Posted in blog, cycling at 6:54 pm by 1speeder
Today’s ride with Greg and Johan was one of those ear-to-ear-grin rides that doesn’t come my way that often. After riding north from Rocky Hill on the towpath, we ventured into Six Mile Run. None of us has ridden there before and the only thing we knew about it was that it had two ridable (on bikes) loops that were each less than 4 miles long, it was tight and twisty, and not that hilly. We figured it was worth it at least to check out, but we weren’t expecting what we found. It was a total blast. Tight, twisty, swoopy singletrack that just didn’t let up. It was bigger than we expected. Besides the 13 miles of towpath riding to get to and from the park, we did about 17 miles inside 6MR with probably less a half mile of riding any sections of the same trail twice. I was riding my Zion SS geared at 32×18 on 700×40 ‘cross tires (I actually geared down from my normal 36×17 towpath gear not knowing what to expect on these trails). There was just the top of one hill that I needed to walk up. The rest of the ride was fine in that gear. Johan was on his Raleigh XXIX, which looked to be way more beat up than when I saw it last time. Greg was on his Voodoo Dambala. Both 29ers. My Zion is a typical 26″ tire frame that I ride with 700c wheels, hence the ‘cross tires. A fat rear 29er tire will not clear the rear brake cantilever bridge nor the chainstays on a bike designed for 26″ fat tires.
Since the trails are pretty fast and twisty and fairly flat, with a skinny ‘cross tire that doesn’t give much of a contact patch, my rear tire was doing a little skidding as I braked for the numerous tight turns, although I was skilled enough to be able to minimize the skidding with good bike handling technique. Typically, skidding causes a certain amount of trail damage and it shows an amateurish ability to judge and execute turns. Skidding results in a momentary loss of total control of the rear tire’s contact to the ground, so there are practical reasons to avoid skidding. Also, with my tires pumped to nearly 70 psi (I do this for efficient pedaling on the towpath), they are less grippy for more technical mountain bike riding. Still, the Mythos tires did well for the quick pace we were riding. We were having way too much fun. This is my new favorite local ride.
We started out from Rocky Hill at 8:00 and by mid-morning, it was hot, at least to me. Fortunately for me, most of the trails at 6MR are shaded by the woods. The sun was beating down hard and I was still very protected by my Blue Lizard sunscreen. I only reapplied it once, when we left 6MR to get back onto the towpath towards Rocky Hill. With just a tad under 30 miles for the day and riding the Zion with that gearing, I felt pretty good. The ride was not technical or painful by any means, but I was starting to feel the onset on cramping in my legs near the end of the ride. The heat always makes the cramping come on stronger and sooner, and I forgot to bring a bottle of sport drink with me.
Like I mentioned before, this was one of those rides. For the past five years as I’ve constantly had to rehab myself every year back from harsh cancer treatments, I’ve focused my ride time more towards the road. The road is just a great way to get oneself back from the brink, but when it comes to feeling that elation and joy, you can’t beat a great mountain bike ride. Rarely on the road bike do you hear people say, “Let’s ride that section again!” For me, riding on the road serves its purpose, which is to help build my endurance and easily quantify my progress, especially in the early part of my rehab when progress is slow. I can honestly say that while riding on the road I have never felt the urge to scream out, “Yeehah!” like I do when I’m having a blast on great trail. And since summer is full on oppressive for us cGvHD sufferers, riding out on the open road is just too detrimental in terms of UV exposure, heat and humidity, so getting under the trees just makes more sense anyway.
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07.11.08
Posted in blog, cycling, gvhd at 1:28 am by 1speeder
I think the Restasis is working, a little. My eyes are not as terribly chronically dry as when my flare-up first started, but then again, I’ve been on prednisone for a while now too. Many other people who have cGvHD far worse than I do don’t seem to think that Restasis has helped them at all, or that it’s benefits outweigh the cost of the prescription. I’m still giving it a chance to work, which is supposed to take several months.
Tonight I did a casual townie ride throughout Hightstown starting at 8:00. It’s fun just to hop on a bike and ride around town and see what’s going on. As cyclists, we get caught up in cycling as sport, the cycling being the focus of the activity, and we forget what it was like when we were kids when cycling wasn’t a sport or training method or a healthy exercise to lose weight. It was just a mode of transportation back then. The mission was to get somewhere or do something that didn’t have anything to do with exercise or being on a bike. That’s when you feel the freedom of being on a bike, when the bike has nothing to do with why you’re on the bike in the first place.
There are a lot of people out on summer nights in town. There were three fire trucks and cops out blocking traffic while rescuing someone from a house that didn’t seem to be on fire. People fishing in the lake, families strolling around holding hands (OK, that seemed a bit odd), guys hanging out of car windows giving me the thumbs-up (I’m not sure what that was about either, but that happens a lot, for some reason - maybe people like my bike because there’s nothing special about the rider). So anyway, being that the sun wasn’t bright at 8pm, I didn’t wear my Panoptx glasses, which prevent my chronically dry eyes from drying out when I ride. I wore regular cycling glasses and that was a mistake. My eyes instantly burned and dried out, but I was too lazy to turn back and switch glasses. My eyes hurt for the rest of the night, despite using artificial tears.
My nightly (or nearly almost nightly) stretches have helped limber me up from being the stiff board that I was in the Spring. I still don’t consider myself to be any where near the normal flexibility I would typically have if I didn’t suffer from cGvHD, but it’s better than being one step up from rigor mortis. However, despite all the stretching and the prednisone, there are still areas of my fascia that have resisted getting flexible. The worst areas are my wrists and inner forearms, my inner thighs, and just outside of my abs. They’re getting better, ever so slowly.
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07.09.08
Posted in blog, cycling, gvhd at 12:52 pm by 1speeder
For some reason, my appetite has kicked up noticeably in the past two weeks. I spend several hours a day now just eating. And increasing my waistline. Typically, I don’t like to waste time eating. Eating is for nutrition. It’s never been an event to me for its own sake, much like how refueling at a gas station isn’t anything special. So, while I eat I also catch up on Tour coverage. It’s the prednisone that is responsible for my appetite. I haven’t been riding much, especially on hot and humid days. I’m also noticing that weekends have really been wiping me out. And my weekends are pretty lame, even by sedentarian standards (I think I just made up a new word). I’m often tired on Mondays and Tuesdays, even requiring naps. On a positive note, my average sleep time has increased from four hours a night to about six hours a night, which is actually normal for me.
My last couple of rides have been rain or drizzle rides, which are great because, for me, that means less sun and lower temperatures and humidity. With the prednisone comes a drastic inability for my muscles to recover from day to day. Maintaining a regular strength training regimen is required for me just to not lose muscle every day. My focus since my BMT has not been on cycling, but rather on trying to keep my whole body functioning at a normal level. I’m trying to get to the point where I’m able to defend myself in a street fight. For me, being able to do that has always been very important, but then again, I’ve always been a bit paranoid.
On today’s ride, I felt fat. When I feel fat on the bike, it’s usually because my stomach gets in the way of my legs, which are trying to pedal, and my lungs, which are trying to fill with oxygen. Needless to say, I don’t like feeling this way. On a positive note, since my BMT, I don’t seem to be lactose intolerant anymore, which bodes well for eating a lot of ice cream and other fatty dairy products.
Disciplinary eating has never been one of my strong points. I’ve never been on a diet or had to count calories. Eating has always been about playing calorie catch-up, to replace lost calories. So, whenever I’m forced to be on high doses of prednisone, my metabolism gets wacked out of balance, and because of the cGvHD, I can’t do the physical activities I usually do which keep my metabolism in check. Either I live with this situation, which is temporary as long as I deal with prednisone and cGvHD, or I have to employ disciplinary measures regarding my eating habits.
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