Rachel participated in this year’s MS150. She changed teams this year and rode with the Sewell Lexus team and had a great time. Sunday was the day she took to the course and did a great job.
Feels great to help raise money for a cure for MS. At the end of the ride, Rachel was able to visit with just one of the folks that this ride seeks to benefit. Putting a name and a face on the disease really drives home the importance of helping out.
For the last few years I’ve yearned for HD to come to the Tour de France. That day has finally arrived.
Just think about it… Some of the most beautiful parts of the world whirling by the world’s greatest cyclists all in high definition. Perfect.
After watching the Confederation Cup in HD, I love that high def is finally hitting some of the “smaller” sports like cycling and soccer.
Despite some set backs along the way including:
The Team Type 1 Race Across America team won and set a new time record riding 3021 miles in 5 days, 9 hours, and 5 minutes.
All eight members of the team are type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetics proving the diabetes doesn’t have to limit one from achieving great physical accomplishments.
I’m not a big bicycle stunt guy, but this is pretty amazing stuff.
I repeat… I can do all of these things on my bike. Really. Really, I can.
“If you think you’re too small to have an impact,try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.”
-Johan Bruyneel, Team Astana Manager (aka… Lance Armstrong’s manager)
The day finally came…
My wife commutes to work on her bike 2-3 days a week when the weather cooperates. From my perspective, I love it. She loves to ride and this is an easy way for her to get some miles on the bike. At the same time, she is usually riding six miles in the darkness of Dallas and sometimes my imagination gets the better of me.
There have been days she rides that I begin to worry when I don’t hear from her after several hours. I start to create pictures of her having bike troubles or worse. You just never know.
This week brought one of those pictures to life for her. Apparently it was an eventful morning filled with fire trucks racing past and strange cars pulling out in front of her. But, this day included some “people” who decided to throw a filled plastic container (She is thinking a McDonald’s parfait) at her while passing closely in their “big, juicy van”.
Obviously shaken, she pulled over and composed herself. Quite thankful that she didn’t fall or anything like that. She felt her side, which now sported a rather nice bruise from the incident. My wife took a few more moments and then continued on with her ride.
Why? This seems to be obvious the question, but unfortunately there probably isn’t a very good answer. Just a bunch of idiots out causing havoc is the best guess. The incident was unprovoked. She was just riding along minding her business. The whole situation leaves you just kind of shaking your head at the actions of some people.
She is fine. No lasting damage, except for a pretty good bruise on her side. Yet, the whole incident leaves us with a bitter taste in our mouths. I’m sure it won’t deter her from riding in the future, but still it makes us wonder – and, a little more cautious.
Rough ride this past Monday. I am having some serious knee pain this past week. The ride only made things worse for me. At times, the muscle in my knee would lock up. Going to have to get in for a bike fit pretty quick or the MS might be a very long day.
Ride Information:
No problems with insulin levels. Steady 110-125 through the ride.
Here is a great article on Phil Southerland, founder of Team Type 1 cycling team. This guy has taken on a huge task in forming a type-1 diabetic cycling team. If you’ve never heard of him, this article is a great introduction.
Interview with Phil Southerland from Team Type 1.
Amy from Diabetes Mine does a great job bringing some of the issues related to cycling with diabetes to light in this interview. She is a great resource for type-1 diabetics. Enjoy!
Tuesday night is becoming the riding night with the other MS150 nutcases. We have been meeting at 6:45pm each Tuesday to get some miles in preparation for the MS150 on May2-3.
This week’s ride went well. I wasn’t really in the mood for the ride, but once out of the bike I felt great and enjoyed the ride. Once the sun went down, I found that the motivation waned and I was ready to be done. Something about riding in the dark just doesn’t appeal to me for some reason. Maybe it is the lack of looking at stuff. I don’t know…
Ride Stats:
Diabetes Information:
As you can see, I repeated the crazy Snickers and Gatorade routine to start the ride. For whatever reason, it is working. After the ride, my levels rose quite a bit. It didn’t help that I was tired and didn’t stay up to watch them and awoke quite high in the middle of the night. Other than that, the blood sugar was pretty good after a high start.
Nice ride this past Tuesday. Met up with a few other friends and knocked out some more miles on the bike. The weather was perfect – a little cold near the end – but a beautiful day.
Ride Details:
Diabetes Info:
While I think taking in 60 carbs before the ride is a little crazy, it worked. Great day on the bike with regards to the diabetes.
Off I Go by Greg Laswell