National MS Awareness Week

I'm a single parent  for a few days this week since Golden is at a 3 day workshop in Raleigh. For the first time in almost two years, I drove to work today after dropping Owen off at daycare. It was a weird experience and made me feel way more anxious than riding to work ever does. There is a certain feedback loop involved in running late as a bike commuter. You can stress and pummel yourself into going faster, or you can relax and realize you'll get there sooner than you think.

This situation also means that getting my mile a day in will be a little tricky, but doable. I'm well ahead of the 10 mile a day average I need to cover 3,650 miles this year. As of yesterday (day 73), I have completed 912 miles about 18 days ahead of schedule. It's funny how the one week that meshes perfectly with the goals of the MS 365 Project is the week that it will be the most difficult for me to meet the project's goals!

Jeff and I went for a long road ride on Sunday. In an effort to rediscover the climber I was as a kid, I suggested we ride from town to the top of Hwy. 181 at Jonas Ridge. 181 is about a 12 mile climb and is the most feared portion of the Bridge to Bridge Incredible Challenge that is held here every year. We rolled out of town in to a stiff headwind, trying to keep the pace moderately interesting while not totally burning all of our matches in the headwind. We made the turn on to 181 and both of us were immediately aware of how long it had been since we had made the climb. As we discussed it, we figured out it had been well over a year and possibly two since we had climbed Hwy. 181.

As we climbed, I felt good, really good. The first time I ever rode up Hwy. 181 I was 17 and had travelled to Hickory with some friends to do some climbing rides since all we had in Fayetteville that qualified as a climb were the highway overpasses. I rode up Hwy 181 in 1987 on a 6 speed, steel road bike with a low gear of 42 x 18. I was 17 and weighed 94 lbs. Now, I am working hard to get up with a low gear of 39 x 26. Oh, to be young again. But my mission this year is to rediscover that inner climber and ride strong in the mountains. I want to break the 6 hour mark for the Bridge to Bridge (my previous best time is 6:27).

I started to bonk a little and fell off the pace. When you have MS, sometimes you think that your problems are MS related instead of just being human related. I'm discovering that I'm not incapable of climbing long, sustained climbs due to MS, but that I'm not eating enough and bonking during the climb. Thanks to Jeff and my wife, I'm starting to recognize the difference.

Fortunately for us, we had a 20+ mph headwind as we climbed, which really made us earn every bit of the two or three thousand feet of elevation gain. Along the way though, you get to see stuff like this:

We got to the top, fueled up and then started down the ridge. Within moments, the now tailwind pushed us to ridiculously fast speeds. Jeff sat up on a straightaway saying, "We gotta watch it. I just hit 42 like it was nothing." We naturally starting pushing it to see how fast we could go down the curvy descent that is a favorite of sport bikes (but was being heavily patrolled by law enforcement, so they weren't really out in hordes like normal). The final high speed was 49 mph. The 1+ hour climb was a 20 minute balls out descent!

I'd like to accomplish a few things this MS Awareness Week. I want to encourage you to get out and do something, anything active no matter what the weather or your schedule is like. Share your experiences here or at the MS 365 Project facebook page. Help the Project hit 250 "likes" on facebook by the end of the week. Hopefully, more people will join the ride with me as I tackle the rest of the year's rides!

Next event on the race calendar: 6 Hours of Warrior Creek where Golden and I will try to better our Coed Duo 3rd place finish from last year. 

The grind

I've been grinding away at work. It is getting harder and harder to turn my bike into the school's driveway, especially when it is warm and sunny. A lot of my friends who don't have cushy public school teaching jobs are meeting up several days a week at 8 am to do 4 and 5 hour training rides. Seeing the emails going back and forth on the listserv as they set up times and routes is just killing me. That just means that I have to take advantage of every opportunity I get to ride in this beautiful weather!

My wife, Golden, and I got to go do a long mountain bike ride (thanks Mom and Dad for watching Owen) as we start to prepare for the coming 6 hours of Warrior Creek mountain bike race. We got to go ride for 3 hours off road, something we haven't done in a very long time. It felt great. I felt great.

During the ride, I came to a realization: I'm not nearly as paranoid or racked with self-doubt about my physical capabilities as I used to be. I've been in good physical health for a long time, but there was always a little paranoia about riding for a long time; of being "out there" where if I had a problem I would be in a difficult situation to get back. My paranoia was really unfounded, but I couldn't help but comment to Golden about this new confidence (or lack of self-doubt). I'm wondering if this is another effect of the Apoqoeurin supplement that I have been taking. Now granted, I don't know if I'm on a placebo or not, but I'm noticing all kinds of positive cognitive changes since taking the trial supplement and I am really hoping that there is a reason for all of it. Golden thinks I'm giving too much credit to the supplement, but I know how my brain feels and it is definitely different (and much better!).

I hit mile 750 this week. Right now, I am about 14 days ahead of the 10 miles a day average needed to cover 3,650 miles this year. My friend Eric made a per mile pledge through the Facebook link and has been harassing me about not riding TOO many miles! His bet is that I'll do 6000 miles this year. We'll see...

Outstanding

This weekend, the crocuses bloomed.

The red wing blackbirds arrived.

These guys are regulars since the wetland restoration in our neighborhood was completed.

That can mean only one thing:

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Sunkissed

Sunshine has been a much needed tonic for me. Through the winter, my morning and evening commutes have been dark, cold affairs that offered little comfort. The first glimmers of change came with fingers of pink and blue light streaking the sky on the morning commute and a slow realization that there was a golden glow not emanating from my headlight alone on my evening commute.

This week brought the fullness of Spring as the sun shone with an intent that it has not had this Winter as it barely dented the leaden skies, its warmth was felt by all of us out in it, and crocuses started stirring and raising themselves from long sleep underground. I've been kissed by the sun on several occasions this week, getting out to ride in shorts; my knees seeing daylight for the first time in months.

With the change in season I feel a change in mood. I want out. Out of school. Out of work. Out of life commitments. I want to live solely and exclusively for joy and wonder. I know this isn't realistic, but Spring is the time that reckless hopes and dreams can be put forth. Reality is a little less playful. I know that I will wake up and start the work week tomorrow, as sure as I know that the pre-Spring weather will snap back to the more seasonably appropriate chilly, windy and rainy that is sure to befall us this week. But the glimmer of change that the weather has brought to both my mind and my body will hopefully stick around long enough to make it to the full blossom of Spring in just a short time. I can last in the cold darkness just a little while longer knowing that the light at the end of the tunnel is near and approaching fast.

Keeping busy

It has been a busy few weeks. The start of a new semester of teaching, the start of a new semester of grad school and the roller coaster of owning a bike shop when the weather oscillates wildly between freezing cold and "here comes Spring!" nice has been a bit overwhelming. Riding every day has been a significant stress release and those few weekend days where the sun has been shining and the temperatures have been warm enough to allow for riding without a huge number of layers have made me feel content and that all is right with the world.

My health has been great and my cognitive and emotional states have been dramatically different since I started the Apeoquerin supplement trial. I don't know if I am a part of the placebo group or not, but I have noticed a marked improvement. I no longer feel a thick, fuzzy layer in my brain and I have noticed that I don't get as agitated in stressful situations in my classroom. Whatever the reason may be, I'm enjoying the effects.

The racing season starts in a month and a half, so training has taken on a little more prominence in my life. I don't have the time in the day to do longer bike rides, so I have added running to my training regimen. It has been a nice change of pace to start running again. I always forget how enjoyable it is to just put on some shoes and go. To my mix of targeted events this year I have added The Bear. A run from Linville, NC to the top of Grandfather Mtn. during the Highland Games. Add to that a few local 5k's and maybe, just maybe the offroad marathon at The Triple Lakes Challenge in September and this could be a pretty full season of riding and running.

I'm closing in on mile 500 this weekend. It seems like a lot, but I know that I don't really ride much, I just ride often right now. Once summer hits, I'm hoping to get seriously ahead of the goal of 3,650 miles and not look back. Maren from Can Do MS let me know that there have been many donations to them through the MS 365 Project link and I truly appreciate it. I will update you with the donation totals when I get them from her.

As Spring approaches, take advantage of every nice day by getting out and moving. You won't regret it.

Light me up

photo by Brapke (a)artwork

While I don't know if I am taking a supplement that has the light-emitting jellyfish protein or a placebo, I am feeling different. I just started noticing that I am remembering to do little tasks that people ask me to do without any mental effort on my part. I normally spend a great deal of mental time trying to remember things, either keeping it in my active memory, "Don't forget x. Don't forget x." over and over again, or "There was something I was supposed to do..." I often found myself apologizing to people for having completely forgotten to do what they had asked me to do. I don't like being undependable and not being able to remember things is a pretty big thing in the dependability department.

So when I remembered to do a small task that my wife had mentioned for me to do, and not just remembered, but remembered it easily and without effort, I took note.  If this stuff works, I'm all for it.

Grad school has kicked into gear, a new teaching semester has started and the bike shop is continuing with the normal stresses of running a small business in these difficult economic times. Having a clear head that isn't filled with fog is a nice change of pace through this. But a supplement alone isn't the magic answer. 

People I work with think that I ride my bike to school every day as some sort of green-ecostatement kind of thing. No one can fathom that it is exercise. I see teachers eating garbage food, working a stressful job, getting little exercise and gaining weight surely and steadily. Coworkers who don't know me very well are flabbergasted the first time they see me eat lunch, often commenting,"I didn't think you really ate that much!" I try to explain to them that by riding my bike 4 miles to school in the sub 20 degree morning, I probably burned more calories than they will burn all day, but that usually isn't the end of it.

Nothing beats having a tough and stressful day melt away on the ride home. Riding is stress release, exercise, and a workout of my nervous system that I am convinced does more to keep my MS almost completely in remission than anything else. I wouldn't mind some warmer weather though...

Ratcheting up

It's the time of year when lots of obligations and responsibilities ramp up in my life. As a teacher, the end of the semester is the time for state standardized tests, which this time around has been punctuated by school cancellations and delays due to snow and ice.  As a grad student, the new semester is upon me and I am finding out the projects and assignments that I will need to successfully accomplish this time around.  As a small business owner, the economic climate of our small town does not give any sense of comfort or predictability.  Of utmost importance is my wife and son.  It is imperative that I not let other responsibilities take away from my most important role as a father and husband.

It is a juggling act that is easy sometimes and incredibly difficult at others. Daily exercise helps ease the effects of stress, but it always lurks. The hardest part of it all is simply remembering what I should be doing, what I need to do, and about a million other things that I need to keep track of.  My memory- especially my short term memory, is getting worse and worse.  I'm trying to develop habits that help to counteract the effects of this cognitive deterioration, but I haven't struck a natural workflow that I can rely on.  Online calendars/to do lists, paper notebooks, paper calendars - none of these things has become habitual.

I've started a trial supplement study for Apoqueorin, a chemical derived from light-emitting jellyfish.  I don't know if I am taking the true supplement or a placebo this first go round, but I will definitely get the supplement in the second round trial.  Apoqueorin is being tested as a supplement to aid in cognition, fatigue and sleep quality in MS patients. It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on my personal cognitive issues.

What are your solutions to keeping track of your busy life?