Archive for June, 2012


Cowcreek Madness

Filed under: iRide News by iride4shiloh — Leave a comment
June 26, 2012

Saturday  was another bad day for me on the bike.  The day blasted off without a hitch and I have to say, it was a great start.  I rolled out the bed at 4 a.m. with no problem what so ever, however my rumblings in the kitchen woke up the baby who wanted to hang out.  So it was me and baby girl at 4:30 in the morning eating breakfast and watching Bubble Guppies.  I got out of the house on time and began my pre-ride icing routine.

It was sooo cold in the truck I started shivering…I’m thinking “imma ride the rubber off my bike today”.  Made it to the event and because I’d pre-registered, I sat back and chilled, literally.  For about 30 minutes I sat with ice on my back, neck, and torso ate some snacks and relaxed.  I rolled up to the start line with about 10 minutes to go.  I’m enjoying the moment thinking I’ve gotta use today as a max training ride because I’ve been so sick and haven’t been able to ride, I’m behind schedule.  I was feeling good, so good I was chatting it up with folks around me , which I never do before I ride an event.  Big shout out to Cindy, the triathlete who was using the event as training for an upcoming race.  We rolled the first 10 miles or so, then I got busy.

My HHH goal calls for me to average 20 mph for 100 miles factoring in two stops.  The warm-up has to be 30 minutes and I have to be anaerobic at the 25 minute mark.  The break-down is basically 10 miles every 30 minutes (warm-up not withstanding because I’m rolling 15-17 mph for 20 min or so).  Everything was going as planned.  The wind was behaving; it was about 82 degrees at 8 a.m.  The plan was to do 55 miles and be eating by 10:30.  Everything was going as planned with my 1st stop coming at the 20 mile mark.  I came across a couple of the fellas I rode with a few weeks ago on a Saturday morning training ride and we rolled together for a while.   That was good and bad.  It was nice to have some company, but I lost a little of my intensity because they were rolling a little bit off of my pace.

We arrived at the 1st aide station and low and behold…NO WATER!  How can you not have water at an outdoor event and then offer folks watered down Gatorade.  No worries, I’m good with my bottle until the next stop, or I thought.  The pitch of the climbs started to get steeper, and the heat started to pick-up.  I kid you not, within 45 minutes the temperature hit 92 and soon after 95 with a heat index of 102.  I started worrying about blowing up and decided I needed to slow the pace a little.  My two buds rode ahead and then disaster struck for me.  I think it was at mile 40 or 42 but my back started tightening up from the climbing, then my left leg started hurting, it wasn’t cramps, but a dull ache.  Next thing I know I have a blistering headache.  I stop at an aide station for some ice and pickle juice…NO PICKLE JUICE! Wow, I re-up my bottles and roll only to start seeing spots.  I turned around and headed back to the aide station to try and figure out what was up with me.

I didn’t look good and didn’t feel good and eventually had to SAG in.  I made it back to my truck loaded up and thought everything was good, but almost blew through an intersection because of blurred vision.  I don’t quite remember how I made it to the first aide trailer, but next thing I know I’m hooked up to an IV.  The last thing I wanted to do was tell Viv that I was getting an IV since she was worried about me and my health for the past couple of weeks.  Well, I made it back to the hacienda and didn’t catch too much flak, but I did promise to go back to the Dr. this week.  We’ll see what happens.

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A tale of 2 Dr’s

Filed under: Reflexion by iride4shiloh — 1 Comment
June 21, 2012

If there’s any lingering effect of my going through the insanity of losing my son in 2007, it’s the fact I literally can’t stand going to the Dr.  It’s not as if I don’t respect what they do.  I get that they go to school for a very long time and rack up a mountain load of debt to eventually be able to live a pretty quaint life.  But as I’m always reminded…it’s not called “practicing” medicine for no reason.  Nonetheless, the past few weeks for me have been medically horrific.  Not in a life is in danger kind of way, but more so, I feel like crap and can’t get it resolved.

The first deal was an upper respiratory issue.  That’s beside the point.  What’s significant is that the Doc told me I needed to get lots of fluids and stay off of my bike.  Ok, so….I don’t feel dehydrated, to my point he told me that because my body would be fighting the issue, blah, blah, yada, yada, whatever…I needed to take in lots of fluids to keep from becoming dehydrated.  Then the bottom hit the top.  He suggested drinking gatorade.  I told him I try to stay away from the stuff, he asked me what I drank when I was riding.  After telling him about “infinite” and why I drink it…he suggested I’d be better off drinking the sugar in the gatorade opposed to the sodium in the infinite.  Hmmm, very interesting I thought…especially since I was only in his office because my regular Doc couldn’t get me in on short notice and this Doc was recommended by my regular’s office.

Why is this so interesting?  Glad you asked.  My regular physician is a sports specific doctor.  He rails against drinking Gatorade especially during intense activity when you are losing a lot of electrolytes.  He checked out the formula for my infinite solution and outside of upping the potassium, deemed it ready to rock n roll.  Mr. fill in Doc, told me he was a runner, my regular Doc is a triathlete.  Not that this really makes a difference, but it does hold some value.  See, I’m certain the fill in was recounting many, many times when he was on a run and began to get tired…drank some Gatorade and BOOM! he was refreshed and replenished.  When in reality, his brain was reacting to the sugar (or HFCS) found in the gatorade and didn’t note that his system (muscles, etc) didn’t reboot with the Gatorade.  However, the sports Doc, being a triathlete discovered at some point that he needed something a little more than sugar to make sure his performance didn’t diminish over the course of the activity.

Don’t get me wrong, I drink Gatorade, but not to prevent dehydration and I really stay away from it when I’m simply sitting on my ass counting the ticks on a clock.  Oh, by the way, the fill in told me that it’s not good to supplement with sodium, and that we get all we need in our food (and gatorade) and chided me even after I told him that after long rides I can look like I took a salt bath from the dried sweat.  To my surprise, he said, “it’s good to be a heavy salter”.  Whatever…man!  Well, I’m trying to get back on the mend and hopefully, after taking this “getting in the way of my goals” break, I’ll be able to laugh out loud about my fill in Docs advice.

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Pledge Report 221

Filed under: iRide Miles by iride4shiloh — 1 Comment
June 7, 2012

Wow, it does not feel like we’ve been riding two months.  The temperature is starting to go north and all the days of riding up to this point will pay off.  Thanks again to everyone for your miles, smiles, and kind words.  I can’t wait to ride again.

Cady Tarver – 81 miles

Tim, Kristin, & Addison – 144 miles

Maggie Rodriguez – 96 miles

Elizabeth Windsor – 79 miles

Me & Shiloh – 150 miles

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Suffering…

Filed under: Reflexion by iride4shiloh — Leave a comment
June 7, 2012

Suffering.  We tend to think about what defines it, what causes one to suffer.  Yes, one could be addicted to searing lungs and numbing pain or the fascination of having tormented one’s mind or the insane game of testing one’s ability to survive extreme conditions.  My interest in suffering is not how I suffer, or what causes me to suffer, but instead it’s the small gleams of wisdom derived from suffering.  Over the past couple of years, I’ve constantly been hearing the phrase “the fundamentals are good”, and although it’s become a laughable and overused phrase, it does have some real meaning. 

Everyone will experience some degree of suffering because suffering is a fundamental order to moving forward (code word for getting old).  Suffering is not pleasant, but it’s a worthy act and without it, I know I’d become stagnant, indifferent, I’d almost venture to say….frozen.  In my mind, peace can only come through understanding who you are and what you want.  You don’t get to that point by not discovering.  I’d imagine the opposite of suffering is being comfortable and the opposite of going forward would be backwards, and if you don’t refuse the status quo, then you accept it.  This is why cycling is such an amazing act of living.  You must go forward, you must deal with the seat, you can’t escape the elements (okay, you can, but you get the point). 

 After being in the NICU for a couple of months, I began to take notice of how the place operated like an orchestra, and eventually concluded that the place was a grand opera.  The machines beep in a rhythm, people move with a sense of character, there’s drama, comedy, and the occasional flub.  There is no one who is without a role.  Sounds like being out on a group ride…and although suffering in the NICU is quite different from suffering on a bike, the opportunity is the same.  It’s the opportunity to learn something about yourself.  I think one disconnect non-cyclist have about cyclist is that we randomly select some stretch of road to become a nuisance to cars and trucks. 

 The reality is that every cyclist is out there searching…searching for clarity, looking for humility, praying for calmness.  Becoming fit is a byproduct of searching, but the bottom line is that we are choosing to suffer.  The NICU was a strange, weird place, not too dissimilar from the lifestyle of an avid, rabid, cyclist.  We suffer, we search, we discover, we learn.  Sounds too simple to be effective, but for me, simple is a good, great thing.

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Close Call

Filed under: iRide News by iride4shiloh — 1 Comment
June 6, 2012

One of my harebrain goals this year is to go from a bicycle rider to a cyclist.  Sounds odd, but it took me a while to kind of figure out the difference between the two.  Now, what’s less extreme, but significantly more difficult is the difference between being a recreational cyclist and competitive cyclist, but I’ll leave that madness for another day.  It’s through this transformation that I discovered that riding with a group is a very safe way to get back to your loved ones.  It’s hard to find the right group, but when it comes to getting home in one piece, there’s safety in numbers.

 This fact was hammered home this past weekend.  I joined the fellas and headed out to ride 50 miles of hills last Saturday.  The weather was great…the start time sucked, but the gentle breeze, clear skies, and quietness in the air was magical.  Well, we started out and after cussing all the way up the first hill, we settled into a nice little pace.  2 of the guys I’d never ridden with before and wondered early on if they were from the egotistical cycling DNA or the righteous cool cycling DNA.  You see, cyclists are a breed all to their own, there are the hipsters, the trendsetters, the classic rider, superficial, egotistical masher, and of course my bike cost more than yours group.  Again, another topic that needs it’s own headline.  I’m happy to report that they were very cool, easy to chat with, but also interested in riding hard.

 So, we did the 1st half of the ride with no problem.  Stopped at a gas station to refuel and then hit the road again.  Less than 2 miles after the stop, 1 of the regular riders has a flat, which normally is not a big thing.  But you’d rather have a front flat instead of rear and of course this was a rear tire.  6 grown men, a collection of at least $10,000.00 in bicycles and gear, and it takes 30 minutes to change the tire, somewhere, Hank Hill was laughing at us. 

Now we are rolling coming back and we run into some local, locals on bikes…they were giving us the 1..2.. about ways to get back faster, which roads loop versus the ones that are a dead-end, etc, etc.  Ok, this is the meat of the post so it’s time to pay attention.  We stop at a T intersection…we have the stop sign and traffic flows free left to right.  Our 6 riders, plus the 2 local, locals and we have a nice size group, a group that can easily be seen one would think. 

 Now picture this.  A large blue monster truck at least 20 ft high, laying rubber down on the road.  He’s making a right turn, exactly where we are stopped.  I’m on the outside with one rider to my right, 2 riders behind me with everyone else ahead of me.  The 2 local, locals see the monster truck is turning and they make a right hand turn waving good by; 1 of our guys then pedals to make a left turn assuming the MFMT will slow down….but NOOOOO! The idiot in the truck doesn’t and comes within inches of taking off my left leg.  No, I’m not embellishing here.  I literally had to lean 6″ to the right to get out of the way…I couldn’t move my bike because of the bikes next to me and ANY rational goat sniffer would recognize they needed to slow down.  I’m not one to get startled or panic and the fellas gave me a little grief about my leaning right move, but they all recognized that the dear hunter failed to drive with caution.  Me personally, I really think dude was trying to get as close to me as he could to send some dumb, stupid message that cyclist aren’t welcomed on the back roads of Maypearl Texas.  I’m happy I was riding in a group, otherwise, there might’ve been a hit and run!

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