Uncle Dan's Space

 

The MS 150 is an incredible experience. It is not a race, and there are no official competitive aspects to the event. It is a chance to raise awareness about a debilitating disease, Multiple Sclerosis, that can strike anyone at anytime. So I am proud to be a part of this event. I hope that everyone who reads this will do what they can to support those who cannot ride. For those of you who can ride, just imagine what it would be like to have that joy taken away. Let that be an incentive for you to take part in some way at an MS 150 ride in your area. Not everyone can ride, but you might be able to fill water bottles, hand out bananas, direct traffic at an intersection, or cheer on riders at the finish. Trust me, the riders appreciate every little thing that all the volunteers do. It makes a huge difference. So get involved.

I will give you some stats from the day that will give you a snapshot experience from my point of view. Be forewarned. There are some disturbing elements:

1. Riders in the MS 150: Approx. 6,000 (That's a lot.)

2. Dollars raised for MS research: Over 4 Billion (That's just a drop in the bucket.)

3. Number of volunteers: over a 1,000. Awesome people!

4. People on Team Copaxone: 113

5. Dollars raised by Team Copaxone: 45, 500 and climbing

6. People wearing their helmet on backwards: At least one and two were questionable

7. Number of flats in the first ten miles: About forty or so. (Not my tires!)

8. People who looked like they were out for a winter ride: FAR TOO MANY!!!! It was 65 when we started and was 78 when we finished. Why on God's green earth would you need leg warmers, arm warmers, full finger gloves, skullcap, and shoe covers? I am amazed I didn't see any Bunsen burners. OK, rant over.

9. People with extremely scary multi-colored, neon shorts: 2 (I assume they were married, and that she talked him into it.)

10. Times that I passed recumbents (which are supposed to be far faster on the flats than bikes): 6

11. Times that a recumbent passed me: 1 And he was old. Really old. I think I need to ride more.

12. My average speed: 17.3 mph

13. Miles I rode: 183

14. Times I said "On your left!": 789,384,120,983,495,727 (Not really, but after a couple hours of this, it became, "Left!")

15. Times I said "On your left!" last year: 14 (I was too out of breath after that.)

16. People who drafted off me: I dunno, I got tired of looking.

17. Chipmunks that almost died: 1

18. Guys who pedaled 45 or more miles with their arms: 2 (Absolutely incredible.)

19. People with antler-like appendages on their helmets: about 40 (My bike club. Now you know why I ride with Team Copaxone.)

20. People dressed like Robin Hood: 1

21. People on tandem bikes: 6x2

22. People on a triple: 3 Duh!

23. Sombreros worn: 1 (Not by me. Too much wind resistance.)

24. Time on the bike: 10 hours 40 minutes

25. Calories burned: 15,000

26. Pounds lost: Apparently none.

27. Times I almost got hit by crazy drivers: 1

28. Bridges that I wish would disappear from the route: 2

29. People with stereo systems hooked to their bikes: 4

30. Amazing Asian lady who rides every year --75 miles!--in a dress and high heels: 1 (I think she turned 82 this year.)

31. Bottles of Gatorade that I drank: 4

32.Bottles of water: 20

I started the day by waking up late, getting lost on the way, arriving an hour later than I wanted to, getting started on the ride an hour later than I wanted to, missing a turn and adding 4 extra miles, and still having a blast! I look forward to doing it all again next year. Thanks to all those who supported me and encouraging me as I prepared for this event.

 

The ride is less than a week away! I am planning to ride both days for a total of approximately 185 miles. I have logged well over two thousand miles this year in preparation for this ride. Last year at this time, I weighed 45 pounds more than I do now (269 by the way). I averaged 15 miles an hour and could only manage the 80 mile ride to the shore. This year I am shooting for an 18 mile an hour average and want to complete the ride. I have raised $420 so far for Multiple Sclerosis research and patient programs and would like to reach my goal of $500. So if you want to support something useful just follow the MS 150 link over on the side. People who have MS will definitely appreciate your support!

 

This was my first time doing an organized ride in a downpour. This was my first time to crash on my bike. This was the first time I bailed out on doing the whole available ride when I had intended to do the whole thing. And I don't even feel guilty.

 

This was a tough ride. Eventually, I will figure out what the total elevation gain was on this ride. All I know is that it was A LOT! The funny thing is that I actually kept up with a couple of guys who were a lot smaller than me, and by keeping up, I mean that I was able to keep them in sight. I look for the small victories. I know the one guy does some racing so he is no slouch on the bike. I can't really say for the other guy. Of course, they were probably taking it easy and waiting for the fat guy who kept passing them on the downhills. Like I said, small victories.

 

I decided to do the 75 mile option after the 55 mile rest stop. I consulted the cue sheet and the final 25 miles of the 100 mile route would have taken me through quite a bit more climbing and needless pain. Did I mention that I crashed for the first time on this ride? The road rash was not bad at all since I went down on a wet wood bridge. There was a spray-painted "SLOW" about 20 feet before said bridge which came about a 100 feet after a very quick downhill. The unfortunate bit was the hard left immediately after the bridge that prompted me to grab a bit of brake. Wet brakes, wet rubber, and wet wood make for a quick landing on one's backside. Which is exactly what I did.

 

So the hip is bruised. I got a few scratches out of the deal and a nice hole in my new bib shorts. Hopefully, my sister will be able to patch them up. The shorts that is.

 

Oh, yeah. The bike is just fine. I lost the cap out of the handlebar, but otherwise there is not a scratch on the bike.

 

I managed to squeak out a 14.3 mph average, which is about 1 mph better than I did on the River to River Century. I think riding with those two gentlemen really helped me keep my spirits up. Thanks, guys.

 

The next few days will be filled with a lot of miles and, ideally, several pages of final papers for school. I get to enjoy a short little vacation until next Tuesday!

I went out on Saturday morning and put in 74 miles at an average of 17 mph. Once again, my low back caused me to call it quits because of the pain. And once again I had a fellow rider suggest that I raise my seat about a half inch or so. He said I looked cramped up on the bike. I had to agree since I FELT cramped up. At that point I had put in about 70 miles and it was all I could do to keep turning the cranks over. I did manage to gut it out with him for a little while and paced with him for three miles at 21+. That's the ol' ego working there. I hate getting passed.

 

Sunday I decided to go out and do a little "loosen up" ride. I raised the seat a half inch and could still reach the pedals, so I thought, "This is good!" My low back felt much better after the ride. I did an easy fourteen miles and averaged a leisurely 14.5 mph.

 

On Monday, I decided to do my usual weekday route and leave it in the small ring the entire time. I covered 22 miles in 1.5 hours for a 14.6 mph average. I noticed that I had much more power in the final climb, which is about a mile of 4-5% (I think). Usually I am going about 9-10 mph here and yesterday I was rolling at 12-13 mph! So I thought that was cool. I am not sure whether it was the seat adjustment or the small ring use for this ride that made the difference. But it may be a tactic I will use during the Nockamixon century this Sunday.

 

The speed training that I did on the trainer over the last week or so seems to be making a difference, at least on the flats. I am getting a little better at spinning at a higher RPM. I am trying to get away from being a pounder, although I think I will always have it in me to spin the big ring.

I am sure you were all very worried. Anyway, I have been riding, but mostly on the trainer this week. Last week was about 50-50 road and trainer work. I have been working on increasing my RPM's so as to improve my average speeds a bit. I tend to be a pounder instead of a spinner. In the hills that translates to crawling. On long rides of over 50 miles, I have to check to make sure I am still actually moving forward. The turtles and snails have been very helpful in that regard.

My work has blocked access to MSN Spaces for "Dating/Personals". Interesting. So my posting is going to be limited to when my computer at home feels agreeable and will let me stay online long enough to keep you all updated. So my posts may be a little more infrequent and more "quick synopsis"-like.

Last week's miles were in the 113 range with about 60 of those out on the road on VERY hilly courses. My trainer time has been a lot of high speed work in the 90-110 RPM range, which translates to 27-33 mph for 30-45 minutes at a time. Burn, baby, burn! Hurts so good! I have only had a little time in the morning to get these workouts in since I have been working nights this week and my diurnal schedule is completely out of wack. I will try to be getting up early this Saturday and put in a quick 100. Should be interesting.

After 70 miles, this was the one thought going through my head. That, and where is that crummy rest stop??!?!?

 

The heat wave amplified just in time for my first century ride of the year. The morning tempurature was about 73 with the humidity sitting at 80%. Thankfully, as the temperature rose throughout the day, the humidity dropped. The heat index was reportedly between 110 and 115. That's hot. That means the pavement was in the near vicinity. I could hear the bubblewrap sound as I rode along. The oil in the roads actually starts to reach boiling point!

 

There was a lot more climbing than I expected. I did expect there to be a lot, but some of these climbs were downright brutal! Of course, for all those skinny little chicken-leg cyclists, it was no big deal, but for me it was like riding Everest. One of my legs weighs as much as some of those guys. If I had been thinking clearly (HA!), I would have taken note of the length of the climbs. I am thinking the longest was about three miles, but when you weigh 270+ and have already ridden 85, every climb seems like Alpe d'Huez. I will try to map out the route on G-Maps and see what the total climbs were. It had to be several thousand feet.

 

I rode a total of 104 miles (I got a couple extra when I missed a cue), drank about 100 ounces of Gatorade Endurance, another 160-200 ounces of water, ate a turkey sandwich, pasta salad, four cookies, a bagel, peach, banana, grapes, and one gel. I still lost 10.5 pounds. Have I made you proud, Caloi? By the next morning I had lost another 1.5 pounds to put me at 269. I am back up a bit, but not too much. The next few days will be 100 degrees around here, so I will sweat out a few more pounds I am sure.

 

Overall, I was pretty happy with my performance. I averaged 14.5 mph for the first fifty miles and 13.5 mph for the day. Considering all the climbing, I am pretty happy with that. I know I need to get serious about the weight loss if I want to see better speed. With the Nockamixon Century just around the corner (August 27), I have plenty of motivation to get the weight down. That ride is supposed to be tougher than the River to River Challenge!

So I started off the week with a nice little 23 mile jaunt around the neighborhood Monday night, and followed that up with a 50 mile slog through Valley Forge National Park and the trail down to Philly. After having a week off the bike, this was surprisingly difficult. You would think that the rest would have been beneficial, but sitting in front of the computer for eight hours a day at work and then another few hours at the computer at home for school projects and the ol' body starts to tighten right up. Riding 70+ miles was like a sucker punch to my legs! So now I am trying my best to speed recovery and stay loose for a hilly century that I am doing on Saturday. If I am able to drag myself up the stairs to the computer, I should have a report on how that went.

Feel free to hum along if you wish! That is pretty much what I felt like since I was unable to ride at all last week. I had too much schoolwork, too much rain, heat and humidity and got very distracted with the Tour de France. I just want you all to know that I picked Floyd Landis to win, by the way. Not that it makes me special or anything.

 

So I finally got back on the bike yesterday, and did it feel great to be rolling again! I did a variation of one of my regular routes. Yeah, I wimped out and avoided a few of the tougher climbs. I knew that after a week of sitting in front of the computer, my legs would not be ready for anything to serious. And I was right. Of course, it didn't help that my tires were a little low--like 45 psi low. Yeah, that will make you drag a little. That is what happens when you pump up very hot tires with a hot pump on a hot day. Things get a little sketchy. When I initially pumped up the tires they read 125 psi. So I thought, "Great!" I thought they felt a little soft during the ride, and when I got home, they read about 80 psi. (Learning experience!)

 

Then I came upon a road that had some new blacktop put down. The blacktop did a better job sticking to my tires than to the road, so I had to spend about 30 minutes scraping that off with a key. GRRRR! So this ride ended up being a real workout. I still managed to cover 23.5 miles at a 14 mph average in spite of the low tires and extra traction. I could corner like nobody's business yesterday, though!

 

I am planning to ride a good chunk of miles tonight, since I have a hilly century ahead of me on Saturday. I need to get my legs back in shape! It is amazing what one lousy week off the bike can do.

And this was coming from his support group!