MS 150 Bike Ride

This last weekend I participated in my 4th MS 150 bike ride. The course seems to change some from year to year but a couple things remained constant. The ride offers three ride lengths (60,75,100) and runs Waukesha to White Water on Saturday then White Water to Madison on Sunday.

My intension for this weekend was to use the ride as training for the lotoja in September. However after my knee surgery I was somewhat worried about how well this weekend would go, especially with my original plan of two back to back centuries.

A few days before my ride I found out there where about 20 people from Baraboo who where on the same team as I was. I had just enough time to meet and plan on car pooling into Madison with some of them. Between car pooling and the bus ride to Milwaukee I was able to get to know Tim, Bill, and Kay better.

Over the weekend our small group ended up being a great pairing. It seemed that each of us peeked at different times, which in turn motivated the rest of us to pick up the speed to keep up. The first day we did the full century and I was feeling great until the 85 mile mark. It was about that point, after racing up a hill, that I realized my tank was about on empty. We finished up as a group without any major troubles other than feeling a little tired in the energy department.

Sunday we set out to try another century, however the organizers had other ideas. That morning a thunderstorm had come through and it looked like there was a second storm front coming in. They decided to shut down the century and urge everyone to do the 60 mile option so they could clear the course as soon as possible. All of us agreed that if they where taking away our century they sure as heck where not going to stop us from doing the 75.

The storm never hit, however after a long ride in the hot weather I can say it was probably a good thing we only did the 75. After our last stop my body had decided it was shot, and I had to spin up hills instead of going my normal pace. We finished out the ride to the cheers of the crowd. As a special treat to everyone our group of four stopped about 10 feet from the finish line, jumped off our bikes and ran through carrying them on our shoulders. Though we got plenty of cheers and laughs we decided that our bikes had done such a great job carrying us for 175 miles that the least we could do was carry them for the last 10 feet.

The high point for me on the ride was crossing the finish line knowing Shannon and the kids where there to cheer me through. Now to keep the momentum going for September and my biggest ride yet.

Down With My Own Sickness

Dan had an interesting post on his blog the other day labeled "Down with the Sickness". In that post he discusses some of the amazing / foolish things we do to punish our bodies.

I couldn't help but think of that post today as I got back on my bike after almost a month off. Pretty sad huh? I can't believe it has been a month, it feels... Wrong! My ride consisted of riding down a block and back, and it was still painful, but it felt great to get back on the bike especially after having a bunch of work done on it. The bike that is, well I suppose my knee too ;)

So what made me think about Dan's post. Well it was the fact that I met with the PT Friday and she informed me due to the unplanned "Lateral Adjustment" of my kneecap that I am looking at a lot longer recovery period. She hinted that there was a good chance that my knee will not be ready for the Utah ride in September and that I may be months away from total recovery. This was quite the blow to my moral.

Friday I was still relying on crutches and was told to stay on them until I no longer limp. Well the limp is still here but I have been free of crutches since Saturday. I may not be the wisest when it comes to listening to instructions, but I am starting to feel that I need to push my body if I want to recover. Actually all the pushing I have done has made a remarkable difference in the pain and flexibility I have now. I told Shannon that I want to do a light ride this Wednesday (about 8 miles). The reason is two fold, I want get back on the bike and I also want to ride to my PT appointment. I suppose that is a mixture of being stubborn and stupid but I am willing to do whatever it takes to get through this. I really want to meet my goal!

So that is where I am today. I will keep everyone posted on my progress and hopefully I will be back to somewhat normal in the not to distant future. Well keep your fingers crossed for me!

Knee Surgery

Well the day finally came. This Wednesday I went in for surgery. The experience was not the most enjoyable, and I have come to terms with the fact that the surgeon misled me. I am very sore, very unable to move, and wondering how long I will need to use these damn crutches. I am quite worried about my biking, however I have heard a number of people who say the beginning of recovery is the worst and you recover quick after that. I definitely hope so!!! It is now officially day two and I feel worse than ever and can barely stand up. So here is to recovering quickly and getting to use my bike again!

Cheers!

Staying ahead of the peloton

Before I get into my full story of todays bike ride, I just wanted to add another life / physics lesson. "Objects with greater mass win. Always!" Not only do they win but they win spectacularly. I was riding into work today which unfortunately includes about a 7 mile stretch where I ride the shoulder of a four lane highway. The highpoint of the ride comes at the top of Springfield hill, the hill itself is not very steep but it does rise for about a mile and a half. Why I call it the high point (pun intended) is that when you make it to the crest the actual bike path begins. Unfortunately the path is on the other side of the four lane. Every day for the last few years I have always waited for an opening in traffic, merged over to the turning lane and turned onto the side road that connects to the bike path.

Today things went different. I merged as planned with plenty of room, in fact traffic was at least a half mile back. I reached the far right lane a little ways before the turn lane began and held my arm out signaling my intentions. Normally I figured this gives traffic a heads up and they have plenty of time to switch lanes before they reach me. Of course today about 10 feet from the turn lane my whole peripheral vision was dominated by a large red pickup truck no more than two feet from my side. Sharing the road with traffic is scary enough at times but this was compounded by the fact that he was doing 55 and happens to be towing a boat. It scared the crap out of me, almost bad enough that I wanted to stop and check my pants :)

Another unfortunate for me was the fact that I was hugging the shoulder on the left side and was next to the rumble strip which didn't look inviting seeing I was doing about 35+ at the time. But the good news is all went well, I was a bit confused why he never moved over seeing there where no cars in the other lane.

For the next few miles I contemplated whether it was due to me thinking I had a right to share the road, a previous biker that upset him in the past, or just his hatred for us spandex wearers. Maybe it was nothing of the sort and he just noticed me at the last minute and didn't feel safe quickly changing lanes with a boat, either way I learned something. I will no longer merge into traffic, from now on I will go to the intersection on the right shoulder and cross the street when there is an opening.

Now back to the reason I am posting. When I joined up with the bike path I went by a group of cyclist who where going the opposite direction. These are the serious bikers who are very trim, have their team jerseys, and are operating more expensive bikes than I will ever will. They where coming to the end of the trail and turning around to go my direction.

Before I continue... ***Flashback***. It is Monday of this week and I am sitting in the clinic waiting to see the doctor for my preop appointment. In case you are wondering check out my earlier post where I mention my knee. I am sitting in the waiting room and like most people, I pick up a magazine to pass the time. I happen to grab some running magazine and flip to an article talking about pushing yourself when it becomes unbearable. I found the story very interesting in which the author talks about his first race and performing better than he ever had during training. He goes on to talk about how scientists are starting to think there might be something genetic that causes some people to have certain chemical boosts that occur when the going gets tough. He mentions that when a athlete is feeling the burn and struggling to keep going, some will go "Wow that was great! I am doing that again" where others are more prone to say that was horrible, I felt like crap and am never doing that again. The question is why the two different reactions, and it is looking like it might have something to do with the way our bodies respond to pain. I have always been one to love competition, and put myself in with the group who perform better because it forces me to be better myself.

Back to the story, two things occurred to me when I realized this group of in shape bikers hard turned around and was now following me. One, that my legs are recovering quicker now that I am biking all the time and two that I am ahead of the peloton and want to stay ahead! For those of you who are not familiar with cycling it is very common for sprinters to take off ahead of the peloton (main body / group of racers) and try to stay ahead to get points for crossing checkpoints first. However there is one thing most people who don't ride in groups never learn. That thing is drafting and it makes a huge difference even on a bike. A group of riders can maintain a faster pace for the entire ride by drafting. One person gets in front and holds a fast pace while everyone drafts / recovers, once the guy in front gets tired he falls to the back of the line and the next person takes a turn in front. That is why a single rider can not out run the pack for the whole race.

But I was determined to push myself. So I kicked it down into a low gear and pushed hard. It wasn't until I was down the road another five miles that I realized they still hadn't caught up. I looked back and saw they where still back there but not once did they gain ground on me. I felt the burn and when I finally got to the city limits and had to stop for the red light, I watched the gap close quickly. When the light changed to green I hit it hard again and eventually lost them all together in town. I was proud of myself! Of course I can't say for certain that they where even trying hard to catch up, but in my mind they where :)

I got to work somewhere in the ball park of 1hr 15 min. I cannot say reliably how long it took or how fast my pace was. The reason for this goes back to the truck giving me the cold shoulder. While crossing the rumble strip I felt something hit my leg, but didn't notice what it was so gave it little thought. It wasn't until later that I realized it was my cyclocomputer. Doh! Of course I usually don't worry too much about that because I rely more heavily on my GPS. But as luck would have it my GPS notified me two miles into the trip that it was shutting down due to lack of battery power. So I have no logs on the trip, other than knowing the total miles are just shy of 25.

Now I that I am at work, I get to look forward to the ride home :)

Biking to Work

I have finally ramped up my biking schedule and am starting to feel it :) Today the wind was a bit brutal and caused my ride in to take about an extra half hour. When I hit Madison the first thing I noticed was the smell of mammoth muffins coming from Perkins. I thought about what Dan would do if he was in my shoes and then quickly decided that was a bad road to go down :) So I fought off the temptation and kept biking down the path. Maybe when I catch up to Dan's weight I can stop and give in to the Dark side!

Trek 100

This weekend Shaun and I rode in the Trek 100 for the MACC fund (Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer). There where a couple of cool things about the weekend, one was that Lance Armstrong was there and saw us off. Well actually we saw him off, after speaking a few words he and a number of trek reps got on their bikes and started the ride. After they left the rest of us where released.

Though we where rained on twice through the day, the weather could not have been nicer. It was somewhere in the 70s, which I think is about perfect! Cool enough to not overheat and not too cold that you freeze on the bike. Also there was almost no wind so you could keep a good clip going.

Shaun and I selected the 100k ride (62 miles). We got off to a good start keeping our speed between 17 and 24 mph. For the most part Shaun and I stuck together for the ride, there where a few times when I didn't realize I had left him behind, but we quickly caught up at the next wayside stop. It wasn't until the end when Shaun was feeling the burn that I told him I wanted to go all out to the finish and would catch up with him at the car. I took off feeling like I needed to push myself all out and was able to keep the speed up in the 20s. I finished feeling great. I was a bit worried that the lack of miles last month would catch up with me, however keeping active with other sports seemed to help quite a bit. I felt great after the ride other than a little cramped up in the joints from staying in the biking position for so long.

Also I am now setting myself up to ride into work every day. I will still look at driving during Thunderstorms or bad weather. Outside of that I plan to ride from Sauk City which would equate to about 23 miles one way. My next organized ride is the 17th in Chicago and will be 124 miles. That should be a good gauge for how in shape I am :)

Here is the elevation map, not quite as spectacular as Dan's mountain rides ;)