Despite nearly 3 months of taking nasty stuff for my mild bone marrow cancer, my cycling really hasn’t suffered. Today’s solo ride (Kevin turned out to have a slight fracture after Tuesday-morning’s crash so he’s off the bike for a couple more weeks) didn’t go badly at all. My heart rate still responds appropriately with effort, my legs can still push the pedals on a climb, and the nasty, really nasty itching the medication causes? It’s simply non-existent when I’m riding. There’s no question that I lose a bit of alertness at the end of the day (bed-time is shortly after 11pm now, while it used to be midnight), but right now, I don’t have too much to complain about.

Old LaHonda was just under 23 minutes, with the most-important metric being that I stayed over the 1000 VAM target (meaning a climb rate of 1000 meters/hour). Pretty much the same VAM on Haskins, followed by pretty much the same VAM yet again on Stage Road. I can live with that!

Of course, by the time I got to Tunitas, I was beginning to feel it and was happy to finish in 49 minutes. No, that’s really not true; I was hoping for 47-something, but there’s only so much in the tank and doing it solo, no wheel to draft on the lower flanks, means you’re putting in a bit more work earlier.

Tomorrow’s going to be an interesting day; first follow-up visit with the Hematologist/Oncologist following my late-May diagnosis. I’m hoping she’ll be OK with the current results (blood test lab data, not cycling!) and not add a new med that is known to cause heart issues. My condition is something that wouldn’t be taken seriously at all if I were under 60, but since I’m on the wrong side of that arbitrary number, they treat me as if I’m going to have a heart attack or stroke if my platelets are high. We’ll see how it goes. –MikeJ