June 2006
All entries and daily links from June 2006.
A Good Night of Sleep
Friday, June 23, 2006 at 3:06pm 0 comments
I sleep on a futon mat, or rather I sleep restlessly on a futon mat. Years ago when I realized I slept better on the futon guest bed than my own bed and I made the switch.
I've always told myself I'd get a real bed someday, but never seemed to get around to it, until a few months ago when I was walking out of the house with my roommate Walter and we ran into the neighbors who's son had just moved up from a crib to his first real bed.
Walter said someday maybe I would move up to a big boy bed.
I'd already been eyeing a platform bed I'd found at Room & Board and after my AIDS/LifeCycle medical adventures (which you can read more about if you're interested: part 1, part 2) I decided I'd been through enough and it was time I just went ahead and bought it.
My new mattress and industrial looking, hand welded frame should arrive next weekend.
Placed on Hold
Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at 4:06pm 5 comments
Picking up on my previous entry I woke up Day 3 of the AIDS/LifeCycle sick to my stomach. I threw up my breakfast in behind a bush, but even still I tried to get on my bike that day.
I only made it a few yards from bike parking when I started stretching with friends and got dizzy. I wanted to ride every single mile, but knew I wasn't going to make it 80 miles if I couldn't even get past stretching so I put my bike back on the rack and headed to the medical tent.
The first question they asked was if I'd eaten at the water stop the day before. They'd had an outbreak of food poisoning and I seemed to be the latest victim of the bacteria. I got worse before I got better that morning, at one point covered from head to toes with heat packs to keep me from shivering and by the evening the heat packs were replaced with ice packs. I took three bags of fluid that day via an IV, but the next morning my vitals were back to normal and they cleared me to ride.
It didn't work out so well, the heat and dehydration started getting to me.
At the halfway point my inner bitch was coming out and I started getting slower and slower as it was getting warmer. Around mile 45 I started feeling light-headed and I realized I wasn't going to make it through the day, and just hoped to make it to lunch so I wouldn't have to stop on the side of the rode.
I found friends at the lunch stop, but was knew I was suffering dehydration and heat exhaustion and didn't get out much more than "can't eat... medical..." though I think that might have come out as just a grunt and a nod at the medical tent.
That's when I got a second IV and the nurse told me I would be on a medical hold (not allowed to ride) Day 5 and probably Day 6 as well, though while I was upset for only getting 50 miles that day, he seemed impressed I'd made it that far and was nuts to think I was going to ride 100 miles sick.
I rode around with a roadie friend on Day 5 and when I woke up Day 6 I put on my cycling kit (I was corrected on this last year: it's a kit, not an outfit) hoping I'd get cleared to ride, but even having a light breakfast it wasn't sitting well and I wasn't cleared to ride, though I was given the permission slip to ride into LA on day 7 that morning.
Walking through camp that morning, with cargo shorts over cycling shorts, more than a couple people said I looked a little sad kited out and not able to ride. I don't think they knew just how down I really was.
There was a catch to riding the last day though. Walking across the grass at Camp 6, I stepped on a rock hidden in the grass and set off the tendentious in my left foot, I got taped up by sports medicine and barely felt the pain riding that day, though as soon as I got off my bike I was limping around.
I'd probably be a lot more upset over all this, had I not already ridden every mile the year before. On the plus side, I did get to see an entirely different side of the ride with the roadies who spend the week taking care of us, largely behind the scenes and I like going behind the scenes.
Every Mile I Could Ride
Friday, June 16, 2006 at 5:06pm 3 comments
I meant to write something as soon as I returned from LA, where the AIDS/LifeCycle ends, but it's taken me a couple days to recover from what turned out more challenging than just riding a bike seven days in a row to LA.
The day before the ride, registration day, I was getting cold feet. I'd trained enough, and this was my second year so I knew what to expect, but a few weeks before I'd been put on a medication which I reacted badly to and ended up loosing five pounds and got pretty sick before me or my doctor realized what was going on.
Going into this ride I was still a little sick and had lost five pounds in the previous week, but the first day (85 miles from SF to Santa Cruz) didn't even feel like a challenge and Day 2 (105 miles from Santa Cruz to King City) was a lot of fun (this year I stopped at the skinny dipping spot and when my bike computer ticked over to 100 miles got to tell a girl I was riding with she'd just made her ever century.
That night I started to get sick though, waking up several times in the night with a pain in my stomach. I felt uneasy, but went to breakfast just after 5:00am, skipping the eggs and sausage, but a short while later I lost my breakfast in some bushes behind a porta-potty.
I got back to my tent and consulted with the "team doctor" (it's very handy to have an MD camped right next to you) and she said to drink an entire bottle of gatorade and just lie down for an hour. An hour later, still in just as much pain I packed up my gear and the tent and started to cry in a friends arms because I knew I wouldn't make it through the entire day, no matter how determined I was to ride every mile.
I spent most the day in medical, with an IV in my arm, but I'll have to finish the story later.
I'll be Back in a Week
Saturday, June 3, 2006 at 6:06pm
Today was check in for AIDS/LifeCycle 5, which starts tomorrow morning.
I stood in a lot of lines, got my tent, checked my bike in, signed a lot of forms, watched a badly made safety video, and I got a nice incentive jersey for having pass $5,000 in fundraising thanks to the help of everyone who's supported AIDS services by sponsoring me.
I hope it's just because it was check in, but my heart wasn't really in it today. I was tired, run down and whenever someone I ran into asked if I was excited I wanted to just tell them, no, I wish I had another couple weeks to get ready, but made nice and said, sure anyway. I really hope I get excited again when we ride out tomorrow morning.
Back in a week.
