Update

We are quite busy making the final preparations for the ride. It is going to be quite an adventure with more than 30 participants for the first day. We invite you to join us as we take off on March 15 from the southwest corner of the CA state capitol building (Corner of 10th and N). We will be taking off at 9am sharp so plan accordingly. We hope to have a LARGE cheering section as we take off. We are also hoping for press coverage that morning, we have a few things in the works.

Fundraising:

We have already shattered our fundraising goal of $50,000. To date, our fundraising total is $63,700 and the total is growing everyday. I do not wish to discourage any donations by letting you know that we are over our original goal. On the contrary, I hope this encourages you to make your donation big or small. Every penny that is given in honor of Ride Ataxia to either the National Ataxia Foundation or the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance will fund the collaborative research projects of these two organizations. Ride Ataxia has requested that this effort be focused on translational research that will help bring treatments from the lab to patients like me and many others. The collaboration of these two organizations will bring forth the most promising research in the world. To make your donation please visit http://firstgiving.com/rideataxia and follow the "instructions for donors" or just respond to this email and I will hook you up.

Press:

Please check out these links. This first one is a short video that will air locally here in Sacramento 5 or 6 times on PBS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGeALpTeSZM

This one is an article about the efforts of our Friends Andy and Linda Johnson. The Johnsons are the breakout story of the year for Ride Ataxia. The Johnsons have already raised over $16,000 and have drawn a lot of press attention in their hometown:
http://www.syracuse.com/articles/madison/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1204192722319080.xml&coll=1

Thats all for now. I hope to see you all on March 15. 2 WEEKS UNTIL GO TIME!


On The Side:
I have to let you know about this new article written by my good friend Matt Strugar-Fritsch. This article is about disabled whitewater sports and will appear in the March issue of Sports and Spokes which features Matt on the cover! This article has nothing to do with the ride but it I am a huge fan of Matt's writing and I hope you like it too:
http://www.pvamagazines.com/sns/magazine/article.php?art=2397

Fun, Outreach, Training

Fun:
Last tuesday the Tour of California came through Sacramento. Their day ended at the capitol building downtown (the site of the send-off for Ride Ataxia II). So I took a few hours off work to check it out. I had never been to a cycling race of this caliber before (I was somewhere in Texas at this time last year). I secured a spot about 200 meters from the finish line.
The peleton took three laps around capitol park before they sprinted to the finish so I got to see them four times. I waited for two hours before they first arrived and it was well worth the wait. These guys were crazy. They were going over 20 mph and there was not more than a couple of inches between cyclists in the pack. When they passed me for the fourth time, it was an all out sprint. The peleton quickly changed shape as each cyclist jockeyed for position, cutting each other off, I'm sure there was some language in the group that my mother would not approve of. Finally, Tom Boonen crossed the line first and was awarede first place for stage two.


Outreach:
On Friday I gave a presentation at my elementary alma mater, Pleasant Ridge School. I spoke in front of 250 rad kids and I saw some teachers whose classes I was in a long time ago (like 17 years), I had a lot of fun. At the end, the student council gave me a donation for research, a Pleasant Ridge Roadrunners t-shirt, and a cookbook that was put together by parents. Thanks Roadrunners, its great to have support from my roots!



Training:
First, let me introduce you to a friend of mine. This introduction is long overdue. This guy has been a huge part of Ride Ataxia II. This is Sean Baumstark:

(Sean is on the right)

Sean has been a huge part of the vision and execution of Ride Ataxia II. Sean always seems to know what we need and how to get it. He is on my speed dial, anytime I need to make a decision I talk to Sean and things get done.
Sean was Diagnosed with FA about 8 months ago and is driven to find a cure. Here is how I first met Sean:
"I just stumbled onto your story, and your website. I'm 25 and was diagnosed with FA last week. I'm also a resident of Sacramento. In fact, if you work in Rancho Cordova, our foot or drive patterns have probably crossed. Uncertain that this email will find you, I won't waste a lot of key strokes. If possible, I'd like the opportunity to meet you, and possibly work on any future fundraising visions you may have, or may come up with in the future."
We had lunch a few days later and we have been working together ever since. Sean jumped right in with huge support from his Family, Friends and Coworkers.

Sean and I along with 11 other teammates geared up and met for a training ride on Saturday. Our goal was to put in a bunch of miles to test ourselves and our equipment to see how much it will take to be ready on March 15. We started the ride with 13 team members and finished with four. I will spare some details but I want to give you some high lights.
It was pretty darn cold and it was threatening to rain the entire time. So we all met at Discovery Park and geared up with our gloves and ear warmers, little booties that fit over our cycling shoes and plenty of lycra.

Sean, Travis, Doug, Glenn, Mike M., Collin, John, "That Guy", Roberto, Neal, Libby, Mike B., Diane, Me (in front)

Doug and Mike B. turned around after about 10 miles which means they ended up with 20 miles. Neal and Libby turned around at 15 miles and reached 30 miles on the day. The rest of us continued on to Nimbus Dam which is at mile 23. We all wanted to grab at least 50 miles so we continued around Lake Natoma, which added about 12 miles. When we got back to Nimbus Dam, we were on the home stretch. We were at mile 34 with 23 miles remaining. Sean had a flat so we accompanied him while he installed a new tube. A couple of us (including myself) were feeling the effects of the long miles so we left before everyone else figuring that they would catch us pretty easily. About 15 miles later, Sean, Mike M. and Travis still hadn't caught up so we pulled over to give them a call.

It turned out that Sean's tire went flat again. He replaced the tube once again and stuffed the old tube into the front pocket of his jacket. As he continued down the trail, the tube fell out of his pocket and got caught in his chain. The tube hit his derailer, gummed it all up and the force of his pedal stroke snapped the derailer clean off. Crazy, who knew that was even possible? You couldn't try to do that. So Travis accompanied Sean to a location where they could be picked up and Mike M. cycled on. Mike M. met up with us with about 15 miles left. I was really feeling it and it would have taken me a long time and a considerable amount of agony to make it to the end so I split off and rode to my house with 50 miles under my belt for the day. Collin, Mike M., John and Roberto finished the 57 miles before the heavy rain started.

Overall it was a very successful day. We learned how much more training it will take before we are ready and we learned not to carry a spent tube in an unzipped front pocket.

Team Training

Yesterday morning 6 Ride Ataxia Team Cyclists met for a training ride.


Left to Right: Jina, Collin, Angela, Tess, Me, Mike
Notice the bright sun, smiling faces, and tight clothing.

We started at my house in East Sacramento and headed toward the American River Parkway bike trail. The trail is only about a mile away and once we hit the trail, there is no reason to worry about vehicle traffic. It is really nice to just ride with no worries. Also the trail is 30 miles one way so you can enjoy a nice long ride entirely on the trail.

We went about 17 miles before we had lunch at the fish hatchery and turned around.


This is the "before" picture, there will be no spare tires at the end of the ride. Collin, I think perhaps Buford might be able to stick it out and hang on(Collin calls his gut Buford). However, I hope you will be able to carry on if he decides to leave.

It was a nice ride and a beautiful day. The most improved teammate award goes to Angela Lacativo-Greene who had never ridden much past the end of the block before this ride. Despite an unfamiliar bike and a sore rear end, Angela powered through and we are all confident that she is going to be a great asset to our team on the road come March 15.

Ride Ataxia Events: Truckee Fundraiser

It is Super Bowl Sunday, that upset was pretty sweet. Before I tell you about the amazing event in Truckee last night, lets reflect back to this day last year: http://rideataxia.blogspot.com/2007/02/superbowl-sunday.html.

Last night, I was in Truckee, CA at a fundraiser that was hosted by my uncle Neal and aunt Libby Lacativo. I was planning on skiing on Saturday at the Disabled Sports Ski School at Alpine Meadows. However, on Friday I woke up with a fever which forced me to cancel my lessons. This unexpected cancellation may have worked in my favor because it was an absolute blizzard in Truckee this weekend and Saturday may not have been a good time to re-learn how to ski after five years of inactive ski seasons.

So I stayed home from work on Friday and Headed up to Truckee on Saturday morning. We (me and my parents) headed up the hill against the advice of friends and weathermen. We took a less travelled route which allowed us to avoid crowds but presented rougher roads.

Traffic and conditions from the drive up.

Before we were halfway there, we passed a truck that was on its roof in the middle of the lane. CalTrans was taking care of it, nice work guys.

WE arrived in good time and began helping with the set up. I was amazed at the variety and quality of the raffle and silent auction items. There were 59 items all together and some of the standout items were: Ski Lessons, lift tickets, airline tickets, an ipod, framed photos, wine etc.

A few of the items.

The most wanted item in the silent auction was a set of 8 origami figures folded with one dollar bills and placed in a museum style frame. This item was crafted and donated by Gladys Lacativo (my grandmother) people loved it so much that the winning bid was $150 and Grandma is being asked to make another one for another $150.

When all was said and done, the event raised $3,900 and despite the insane amounts of snow, we had an overwhelming turnout and we all had a lot of fun. Good friends, good food and good fun for a good cause.

There were a bunch of people that made this night run smoothly including my cousin Angela who busted her tail to balance the books at the end of the night.

Angela and Neal drawing raffle winners.

Thank you to Libby and Neal for organizing this event. Libby spent many late nights following up with donors and making sure the displays for the items looked truly professional.

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