Train in the rain

Ride Ataxia II will begin March 15. During the month of march, the weather in California is unpredictable. In July, one can count on sunny skies from north to south. In January we will always see rain, fog, snow and cold temperatures (especially up north). However, in March the weather can go either way. With this in mind, our team is hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
On Sunday I had a drizzling training ride. I think it is important to try out all the gear to make sure you have everything you need to survive 50 miles in the rain for days on end. So I tried out my rain pants and jacket and my gloves. However, I forgot to reinstall my fenders and I ended up all wet after 12 miles.



The Good News: Thanks to Dirk my Physical Therapist (cycling-training.com) and Yoga classes, my knee is starting to shape up and is bothering me less and less.

The Not-So Good News: The rain will continue all week...Maybe the skies will dry up by March 15.

New Teammates

Check it out. If you look to the right hand column you will notice that we have added quite a few new teammates. We now have over 30 teammates. Some teammates are cycling for one day and some are cycling for all 13. We're going to have a lot of fun fighting this disease.

Team Training:
We are all on our own for day to day training but our preliminary goal is to be ready for our Team Training Ride, Feb 16 from Discovery Park to Folsom Lake and back. See a map of the 60+ mile route here: http://www.sacparks.net/our-parks/american-river-parkway/docs/Parkway.... We will start the training ride at 830am and we will try to treat it like a normal day on the road.

One more thing: Thanks to team members Linda and Andy Johnson, we have this sweet elevation profile of the route: http://www.lindaj.org/fa/bikeprofile.cfm. This map gives you a pretty good idea about what we are up against...

Training

I have not been training for the past couple of months because my knee has been acting up again (a dull pain underneath my kneecap that gradually gets worse as I ride). So I visited an orthopedic surgeon who performed my Dad's arthroscopic surgery just a month ago (Dad is recovering quickly and should be ready for the ride to Vegas). This doctor took some x-rays, poked around a bit, said everything looked fine and referred me to a physical therapist friend of his.

I visited the Physical therapist a week ago and he poked a bit more, adjusted my hip joints, watched me pedal on my trike and determined that the problem was that my kneecap is misaligned. The reason that the knee cap is off is that the outside portion of my left quadricep is more developed and tighter than the inside portion. The result is that when I flex my quad, the kneecap gets pulled more to the left than the right and it rubs on the other parts of my knee. Does this make sense?

The initial remedy was to tape my knee so the cap is skewed toward the inside. So he taped it and the tape immediately came off because my legs are too hairy. So he used even more tape which held but we both knew it wouldn't be for long. So he told me to "thin the forest" before our next visit. He told me to leave the tape on for at least 48 hours and try to ride 10 miles with the tape in place.

I was not able to get on the bike within 48 hours and when the tape became moist and stinky, I took it off (I also took off a hunk of the "forest"). So this weekend I decided to retape and try a short ride. However, experience told me that I should remove some of the hair on my knee before applying the tape:


I did not have any medical tape so I used old standby, Duct Tape:



Another part of the remedy is to strengthen and tighten one side of my quad and loosen and elongate the other side. Deep massage is the best way to loosen muscles so I use a foam roller to elongate the muscle in the left side of my quad:


All of this preparation just for an hour of stationary cycling in the garage. The weather wwas insane in Northern California this weekend so I had to settle for the garage:


The next day I took the trike outdoors for a 12 mile ride...The knee felt ok during the ride except for the fact that it was all taped up creating all sorts of strange pressure where there probably shouldn't be pressure. The day after that (Monday), my knee did not feel very well. It was painful just walking around.

So for the past couple of days I have been doing some strengthening exercises and working with the foam roller. I have another appointment with the physical therapist tomorrow, stay tuned...

In the meantime, please check out this article in the Grass Valley Union and no I am not in a wheelchair...yet:
http://www.theunion.com/article/20080107/NEWS/244210297

Meet The Team: Spinner

NAME: David Henry Jr.
RIDE ATAXIA ALIAS: Spinner
AGE: 43
RIDE ATAXIA ROLE: Cyclist
DAY JOB: Part-time front desk at Solana Health Club in West Lake, Texas (near the DWF airport)
CYCLING EXPERIENCE: It's my main transportation since I sold my truck last August, I rode with Kyle 400 miles of Ride Ataxia I
TRAINING PLANS: Like Tess, as much time in the seat as possible! In my cross-training I'll stick with just yoga (2-3 times per week) and Pilate's (with a personal trainer), a little weight-lifting (no free weights for me, machines please!), I love to swim ( OK - I walk more than I swim, at least I'm in there). Jogging, skiing & Basket-ball are not my thing, but a few hours per week on the stair-climber, elliptical, octane trainer and upper-body bike works for me.
LONGEST RIDE IN A DAY: I don't know - 75 miles?
TYPE OF ATAXIA: Undiagnosed

DAVID'S STORY:
FLASHING RED LIGHTS behind me - it was a Friday night, but I never touch the stuff. However; spending a night behind bars on a suspicion of DWI was the just eye opener I needed to convince me to go see a Dr. and see why I couldn't walk a straight line. The first was my Dads interest, he wasn't sure but came up with the diagnoses of cerebellar ataxia. He encouraged me to see a neurologist and confirm his diagnoses. Just so happens a good friend of our family is a neurologist and in a couple months I got on with. He knew moments after he saw me that I had a form of ataxia, some test were done to see if I had a curable type, no simple solutions were found, but I wasn't going to die from this either!

My 35 year old body was getting ... soft, so I had started a work-out routine. The harder I worked out, the easier it was for me to 'deal' with 'all' my symptoms (a couple of days/hours later depending on what I did). So I Bumped my workouts up a notch or two - if it was hard for me to do, I did MORE of that! I added Pilate's mat classes, they were a big challenge, but they seem to do me the most good.

A N.A.F member 'gave' me his older model trike - a Delta style Comfort Cycle. After a couple of years and many miles I have passed it on to anther in the North Texas Ataxia support group and have another recumbent trike. Green Speed GT5, in the two+ years I've had it, it's had three sets of tries, countless batteries (for the lights) and many different safety flags so you know it's get plenty of miles put on it. I've not let up on my work outs, I may have actually bumped them up again, I just get more of my cardio riding the 3,000-4,000 miles per year on the trike. During last years Ride Ataxia with Kyle, Mike and Steve my schedule allowed 400 miles, this year I plan to go the full 600+ miles with the team - it's going to be fun, but the best part by far is all the Awareness Ride Ataxia II is bringing to ataxia.

Meet the Team: Tess

Name: tess lili Kretschmann
Age: 26
Ride Ataxia Role: cyclist/board of directors
Day Job: civil engineer
Cycling Experience: errands around town (gym, grocery store, haircuts, etc), to work (25 mile round trip) as often as possible, and random scenic weekend and vacation rides (20 - 60 miles) around northern california and long island, ny
Training Plan: as much time on the bike as possible, cross-training with bikram hot yoga, weight-lifting, and swimming. will be jogging, skiing and playing basketball and tennis too - though those always seem hurt, more than help.
Longest ride in one day: 100 miles
Type of Ataxia: N/A

Tess' Story:
Because of a very inspirational young man Kyle Bryant, I am part of the Ride Ataxia team. Kyle is my training buddy, my colleague, a former roommate, my sometime-nemesis, and always friend. He reminds me that too many chocolate-covered raisins will make me sick, that a person never can have too much gum, and really really that life can feel as good as i decide - and why would i want it to be anything but awesome?! I believe in him, and as an athlete with lots of experience in therapeutic recreation (Special Olympics), I believe in adaptive cycling. The research currently being conducted on Ataxia is progressing, and with increased awareness and additional resources, I'm sure greater strides can be made in more effectively and efficiently diagnosing and treating Ataxia. I want to support these efforts - for Kyle, for the other Ataxians I've since met and befriended, and for all the friends and family who believe in them.

Thanks for joining the Ride Ataxia team. You already have just by visiting this site and becoming informed. I appreciate your support.

Meet The Team: Kyle

Name: Kyle Bryant
Age: 26
Ride Ataxia Role: Cyclist/Founder
Day Job: Civil Engineer
Cycling Experience: 2,400 miles during Ride Ataxia I, To work and back (25 mile round trip) two to three times a week weather permitting
Longest ride in one day: 100 miles
Type of Ataxia: Friedreich’s


Kyle's Story:
Kyle was diagnosed with FA when he was about 17 years old. It was loss of coordination in sports, specifically baseball that led him and his family to seek a diagnosis. From the first doctor’s visit, it took almost a year to find an answer.

Kyle started cycling when it became a pain in the butt to balance on an upright bike. So he searched the world over to find a vehicle that would get him from here to there without the headache. The answer was not far away. Chico, CA is where Kyle found his trike at a place called Peregrine Bike Works. The owner, Hugh Kern hooked Kyle up with a pimp ride.

Kyle began to cycle on the weekends 5 to 10 miles at a time. He was amazed when he reached 25 miles in a day and started cycling to and from work. Then he participated in the Tour De Cure a fundraising event for the American Diabetes Association. 100 miles was his goal. The ride took 9.5 hours from start to finish and he was the last one on the course but HE FINISHED!

With a century on his cycling resume and determination in his heart, Ride Ataxia was born!

With the strong support of friends and family, a year of planning was played out in 60 days when he and his Dad rode 2400 miles from San Diego to Memphis ending at the National Ataxia Foundation annual membership meeting. However, the success did not stop there. Kyle worked with the National Ataxia Foundation and the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance to establish the $100,000 Kyle Bryant Translational Research Award which was awarded to a research team led by Dr. Nuri Gueven at Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia. The research team is making progress and the outlook is promising.

The story is not over…please stay tuned as Kyle and his teammates cross more milestones on their way to VEGAS during Ride Ataxia II. The trail to a cure continues…

Participant Information

Finally, we've got the information you have all been waiting for! Check out these two pdf's:

Cyclist Information

Cyclist Application

The application and deposit is due January 15, so check it out and send it in. We can't wait to hear from you!