JBlog

52 miles at 20 mph.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/12082075

This morning’s ride started with around 15 riders, including a few who are racing tomorrow and dropped at the turnoff from Mahomet to Fisher.  Climbed some tough hills and fought headwinds that were almost straight out of the North at 10-15 mph.  Did some decent work up front, but tried to keep it to 2:00 or less per pull.  I nearly got dropped as we went over Rt 150 on Lake of the Woods Road but was able to do some work to get back on to the last slot in the left pace line.  I spent most of the trip to Fisher in the left pace line.

Outside of Fisher, right when the sprint began, my extra water bottle went flying out of my jersey.  Second bottle incident in the past two rides for me.  epon suggested that a smoother pedal stroke may help avoid bottle slippage.  I tend to agree, but also the fact that I was in the aero bars may have had something to do with it.

Once in Fisher, we took an extended break at the Casey’s and when we were finally ready to depart there was one bike left sitting against the wall.  Hmm … dilemma … do I leave the bike sitting there unattended and risk not being able to catch up or do I wait for its owner to get back to it.  I can’t imagine how I’d feel if someone made off with my steed so I decided to wait and was unable to catch up with the rest of the group.  That turned out to be just fine as it gave me an opportunity to do some extended solo work with the aero bars.  I’m really starting to like riding with them – not only because of the increased aerodynamics, but because it’s a totally different position to get into.  Laying out flat, or relatively flat, across the bike takes a lot of stress off the wrists and shoulders, which are two areas that always seem to fatigue on me.

I worked on some intervals on the way back, too, and wound up with some mild chest pain about halfway home.  It’s still lingering a bit, but not nearly as bad as it was a few weeks ago.  It seems as if the reduction in the Coreg intake is helping some with that.  I also wonder if it might be possible to move away from it altogether.  There’s probably only one way to find out if it’s safe for me to be off of the medication, and that’s to stop taking it.  If I start having palpitations again I can always go back on it.  It took several years for the arrhythmia to take its toll on my heart.  I think a few weeks or less – if it comes back without the Coreg – would be worth the risk to see if it’s time to stop taking the stuff.  I really hope so.  Whenever I can get in to see the new electrophysiologist at Carle I’ll bring it up to see what he has to say.

Tags: aero bars, Coreg, Fisher, Wild Card

Made it to Meadowbrook Park with a few minutes to spare and we were off.  The group was huge today.  We had over 20 riders – maybe close to 30.  There’s something great about the sound of almost 60 23mm tires.  I’m sure it’s not a great sight to see for cars who are trying to pass, though.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11695648

Our route went south to Old Church and east to Rising Road and then almost straight north to Fisher.  There was a pretty nasty headwind out of the NNW that was steady at 10-12 and gusted to almost 20.  Fortunately with so many riders, there wasn’t a lot of work for any one person to do on the front of the pack, so it was pretty easy getting to Fisher.  I did have to run off the road a little over half way there, though.  Guy in front of me got loose on some gravel in a corner and slowed leaving me with no other option but to make a straight line for a ditch, at the bottom of which was a sizable mudhole that added a good half pound of dirt to my tires.

We dropped 4-6 people on the way there, so the group that headed back to Champaign was a bit smaller.  We probably averaged 24 on the way back.  I seemed to be doing well until we hit a section where we headed east for a mile plus and were blasted by winds out of the north.  I was second in line then with a pull coming up shortly and I just ran out of steam and dropped.   That was OK as I wanted to do some interval training on the way back into town.

Ended up with 51.5 on the day with an average speed of 19.5 mph.  Felt a lot faster than that.  Overall it was a good ride and I really enjoyed the roads North of I-74.  Very hilly and lined with trees.

Chest pain showed up again about 5 miles from home on the return trip, though not as intense as a couple of weeks ago.  I still think it has something to do with the proximity in time to when I’ve most recently taken Coreg.

Tags: "group ride", Coreg, Fisher, Wild Card

Much more competitive, but still managed 21st overall and 2nd in my age group. Should have finished top 20 but I got confused about where I was supposed to exit the pool and ended up swimming about 20 yards past where I needed to go then had to backtrack to the actual pool exit. Placed an embarrassing 19th in the swim. The cycling was slightly better and I turned in the 16th fastest overall bike time. The overall grade out of Mattoon was slightly downhill but I had a tailwind and was able to maintain a 24-25 mph average. Of course this meant that coming back was a mostly uphill grade into a headwind and I slowed to a 17-18 mph average. The run was awful. I need work. Finished 60th in the run. Obviously if I can work on that leg I’ll improve my overall performance immensely. When I first started I thought I’d have to walk part of it but I somehow found some strength about halfway through the 3 mile run and finished stronger than I thought I could.

Got an enormous trophy for finishing 2nd in the 35-39 age group. Totall time was 1 hour, 11 minutes. Next bike purchase == aero bars.

Bought a belt for my running number so I wouldn’t have to wear a shirt. Pretty sure I’ll go shirtless from now on unless I’m swimming in cold water in which case I’ll probably want to look into a wetsuit of some kind. All in all pleased with the result.

I think some slight chest pain crept up on me toward the end of my run, but nothing like I had last Saturday. Also, today is the first day on my lower dosage of Coreg. Hopefully my heart rhythms stay as they’ve been since I began Coreg theraphy.

Tags: Coreg, Lytle Park, Triathlon

47 (actually 52 but I forgot to turn my Edge on until 5 miles into the ride) @ 20.6 mph.

Flatville

Did OK, I suppose. Somehow I was pulling again when the spring began and gassed myself right out of the gates, so I was probably third from last to pass the town sign. I have to figure out a way to get in the middle of the pack when the sprints begin. epon finished in the top few, I think. He rode strong tonight. I think he was trying to get me on his wheel when the attacks began about 5 miles out from Flatville but I was out of steam at that point and rode back with Dave and the dude on the Klein. Can’t remember Klein-rider’s name, but when I first started riding with Wild Card he was about as squirrelly as me on the bike. His bike handling skills seemed much better tonight.

The chest pain came back for a visit about 5 miles from home, but I also rode a lot harder tonight and haven’t taken the Coreg since around 6:00 this morning. It seems like the chest pain has some correlation to the last time I took the Coreg. Hopefully a reduction in dosage is just what I need to be able to put down sustained efforts without heart discomfort.

Martin suggested that I do the Lytle Park Sprint Triathlon this Saturday in Neoga. It’s a 300 meter pool swim, 12 mile bike and 5K run, so it should be pretty doable for me. I think I’m going to sign up for it as long as Cindy’s OK with it.

Tags: Coreg, Cycling, Flatville, Hammerfest, Lytle Park

Some time in early 2008 I decided to finally do something about my irregular heartbeat. An appointment with Carle’s cardiology department revealed that I had a worsening condition called cardiomyopathy, which is basically and enlarging and weakening of the heart wall. This was caused, it was surmised, by another condition called atrial fibrilation, which is:

a lack of coordination between the patches of muscle, which means that the whole chamber doesn’t contract at the same time. As a result, less blood is squeezed into the ventricle from the atrium. Because of this, blood can get backed up in the atrium, then into the blood vessel that leads into it, and, with time, even farther back throughout the rest of the body.

So I was prescribed two different medications, Coreg, a drug that helps to keep your heart from beating too rapidly and Lisinopril, a blood pressure medication. At the time the medicine was prescribed I was also pretty heavy, at around 250 pounds, so my cardiologist prescribed a fairly high dosage of 75 mg per day.

Even though my heart condition had nothing to do with my weight, I decided that it was enough of a wakeup call that I should consider doing something about it, so I began to exercise. I began with swimming, then added some cycling and a few months ago when I decided to sign up for the triathlon, I added running, too. So far I’ve been fine when swimming and running, but when cycling I’m typically out for 2-3 hours under sustained efforts, which causes my heart to work for long periods of time. I’ve been getting some chest pains as a result of this. I suspect that it may have something to do with the fact that I’m now, at 195 pounds, over 50 pounds lighter than I was when I began taking the high dosage of Coreg and I probably just don’t need as much to keep my heart in check. A call to my cardiologist’s nurse has helped to confirm this suspicion, and she made an appointment for me to see the department’s nurse practitioner who specializes in electrophysiology.

I have another group ride scheduled tonight. We’ll see how I hold up. I’ll go as long as I can and hopefully will not experience any chest pains. I have noticed that I tend to get them more on Saturday morning, which makes sense since my exercise takes place closer to the time I’ve last taken my Coreg. If I don’t get chest pains tonight, or at least as bad tonight, then I think it might make sense for me to back off the dosage. I really hope so, because I’d love to eventually be free of any prescription meds.

Tags: Coreg, Cycling, heart health