All posts by Mike

This morning went so much better than expected

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

I wasn’t sure how this morning was going to go, first day back on my “real” bike, not an ebike, on the regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride. Last week I did do the regular Tuesday/Thursday ride, but on Kevin’s ebike, because with my two broken ribs (which may not be broken after all?) it was way too painful and simply impossible to be riding my regular bike. The ebike allowed me to limit the depth of my breathing, which limited the depths of my pain. I was figuring Sunday would be my first “real” ride, but then Friday I got hit, hard, with a short bout of some variant of the flu (not a good thing when it feels like your ribs are trying to kill you if you cough!). I was alive Sunday, but it felt like riding was just not a wise idea. Strange thoughts coming from me!

But yesterday morning I felt way way WAY better, well enough that I was able to keep an appointment to have blood drawn to see if I’ve developed the appropriate antibodies and spike-protein response to the Covid vaccine. It’s part of a study to see how my peeps (those with various types of blood cancers) have reacted to the vaccine; apparently some types of cancers, or the treatments for them, render the vaccines ineffective. It’s a first for me, actually volunteering to to have blood drawn! I had concern that the weight I’d lost, from dehydration, would make it difficult, but I drank a lot beforehand and had no issues. I’ll post the results when they become available.

But this morning, as soon as I actually got on the bike and started heading up over Jefferson, I felt pretty ok. Almost normal. Not what I expected. I had no problem holding Kevin’s wheel heading up over Jefferson, and while my ribs let me know they were there, they didn’t tell really crimp my style. We had both Kevins today; the ex-pilot had just returned from a month or two in Switzerland and wasn’t scared off by my warning that we’d be riding slow. It would have been nice if he’d texted me how warm it was up on Skyline (where he lives) though; we didn’t have to dress nearly as warmly as we did!

Kevin (younger) decided he wanted to charge up the hill, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. He hadn’t been on his bike for a week, but I guess when you’re younger, you can do that. I rode with him as far as the park entrance before easing back a bit, surprised at how quickly we’d covered that distance. Maybe that 6 pounds I lost from getting sick had a small silver lining? I drifted back to ex-pilot and we rode at a reasonably-decent pace the rest of the way up the hill.

It was a super-pleasant morning to ride; hopefully Thursday will be similar and we can dispense with base layers, leg warmers and long-fingered gloves!

I already want to go back. Unfinished business, in so many ways

Personal stuff, Tdf trip planning

Is it any wonder I want to go back?
That picture, taken from the train as we were leaving Lourdes, says it all. Look at those mountains in the background. They go on, and on, and on. You ride 12.5 miles down a beautiful separated bike path (runs along a former rail line) and you have mountains to ride in front of you, mountains to ride to the right of you, mountains to ride to the left.

You think it’s nice in the Bay Area that we don’t have to worry about rain from May through October, but we also have to deal with air that’s not nearly so clean and a lack of running water everywhere. You know how we look forward to Tunitas Creek actually having running water in it? If it were in the Pyrenees, it would be gushing during the summer.

And all the little roads going anywhere and everywhere. You can visit 10 times and still find new places to ride.

Unfortunately my plans got cut short this year when I broke my ribs with 3 solid riding days still to go, including our own “Queen” stage that had been planned for the day following, heading from Lourdes (by bike, no train shortcut this time) all the way to the Col de Portet, two big climbs, 80+ miles, and I felt like I was ready for it.

Will I go back? Heck yes. If for no other reason than to try and get a similar, better photo of Lourdes, not taken through a dirty window on a moving train.

Nevertheless this trip did have a lot of high points, even after breaking my ribs. Kevin getting to do the Luz Ardiden day/stage on his own was definitely up there. That final night dinner in Paris was great. And this was the first trip where Kevin thought it would be nice to stay longer; he’s usually ready to leave before the end. There would have been some real benefits to staying longer too; when Kevin and I got back, we came down with some weird flu variant that knocked him flat first, then me. Didn’t even get to ride today because I’m still recovering from dehydration. And before that I had to do the regular Tuesday & Thursday-morning rides on Kevin’s e-bike, to keep from causing too much trouble with my broken ribs.

And about those ribs. When I got back from France I had Kaiser get some new x-rays to see how things were doing. I think it was Wednesday, two days after we got back, and I hand the x-ray tech the originals from France and he tells me, no, we don’t need to see them. OK… no biggie I guess. And the next day I get a report back from a doctor who reviewed the x-rays, saying there were no acute fractures. Despite the x-rays from France showing two highly-visible breaks. Still waiting to hear back on that one; the Kaiser doc who reviewed the x-rays had checked a box that didn’t allow me to reply. More on that soon.