47 days

So the last few days have also had a lot of travel, so my exercising has been aerobic. I've done treadmill, and hiking out of doors here in New Mexico, where I am spending a few days with my friends, Mark and Susan, before I head to Colorado Springs to see my kids (yay!).

The hiking here is very steep, and the altitude very high. We start at 9,000 ft and go up from there!

Simply walking at a decent pace nets a heart rate of 140+. Compare this with using the bike trainer, doing 80 RPM and getting 122-130. Tough stuff, altitude.

50 days

Had to travel on business the last few days, and it rained all the while, so now workouts for me. Today I plan to ride, although it is cold, for about an hour.

53 days

Got in a good, though short workout today. I feel much, much better. I'm adjusting to the bike still. The bike must be a space-time bender, as my neighborhood has suddenly become much, much smaller.

Speaking of space-time, I got a notice that the Diabetes Tour de Cure kick off party will be on March 9 after work. What does this have to do with space-time you ask? Barnes & Noble have Brian Greene in town for book signings, he is the famous Columbia University Physics professor who is the champion of String Theory, an attempt to unify the laws of physics. Well, his book signing is at the same darn time on March 9th, so I can't make it. Unless of course, Prof. Greene can manipulate space-time for me :)

Hmph!

Study hard kids!

54 days - missed workout

Man, what a day, no riding at all.

Couldn't get a moment aside to work out, even though it should have been a day off for Pres. Day. And the weather was perfect too.

Web programming for a customer took up a huge chunk of the day, as well as some necessary house/furniture oriented work.

And then the guy who was supposed to sub for me at the next jazz concert called in sick with the flu for the rehearsal (bummer), so I had to go to rehearsal anyway, and then there was also a new lead trumpet player, so then I had to work on arranging the books and folders for two players, instead of one and THEN I had to play all at the same time. Hmph! (ok, ok, so I am being a whiner - what's a blog for anyway?)

Oh well, I still had fun playing jazz, even though I didn't get to ride. And in truth, I am still not 100% from being sick, and I overdid the riding and working out yesterday, so it's a good darn thing I got to "rest" (this is the definition of the word "rest" that means "working your butt off to make enough $$$ while still claiming you are not violating Doctor's orders to cool it").

Sorry I didn't call you tonight boys, I will call tomorrow. Sweet dreams.

55 days

Still not feeling 100%, so only a light spin around the block. Of course since I live in the Texas "Hill Country", that's not necessarily an easy thing :)

I got my Tour de Cure registration package today, including a T-shirt - woo-hoo! So now I must ask all my friends and relatives to contribute to Diabetes research (I've already met my goals for fund raising the MS 150). There are prizes for the riders depending on how much you raise, nice things like a riding Jersey etc. I think that's really nice.

Speaking of diabetes, I took a crucial diabetes test recently, called the HbA1C, which tells a person how their glucose control has been over the last 3 to 4 months. It tells you the percentage of your hemoglobin that's been affected by having too much glucose in the blood. My reading was 7.2%, which is good, but could use improvement. A normal reading will be at or below 7%. A terrific reading is 6%. A reading of 8% puts you into drug or insulin treatment, so in reality, there is not much room for screwing up. The bike riding exercise towards the MS 150 and the Tour de Cure should really help this number go down.

Well, the HbA1C tale will be told in another 30 days.

Cheers boys!

56 days - forced downtime

I was very sick last night and it rained today - no workouts with new bike. That figures.

Likely same story tomorrow. Bleah!

57 days - I got my bicycle!

I got my bike today! It works really well and I am still amazed at how light it is.

I went through a process called "fitting", where a bicycle mechanic measured all sorts of things while I pedaled on the bike to make sure I was perfectly set up for the seat height, seat slide handlebar height. Pretty cool. Apparently, if you don't get these things done, you will have sore spots or be really hurting after a long ride (and long rides are the point of this whole exercise).

Today was an "off" training day, which is just as well. It was a very long week both working and training and I feel really beat up. I guess that's why they give you one day off :) Still, my blood glucose before dinner was 91, which is awesome! So now I am understanding that the good effects of exercise on insulin sensitivity can last as long as 72 hours after exercise. It sure helped today.

Saturday and Sunday I have two tough rides ahead of me, so I will be studying routes to use. The first is a normal ride, the second ride has to be hilly - argh. I think both rides are "zone 2", where I have to keep my heart rate up to 65-70% of maximum for an hour and an hour and a half respectively. This will be a hard one. I will probably go later in the day towards dusk.

Hmmm...I'd better make sure I am wearing highly visible clothing.

My Dad called and told me he has his heart monitor if I need to borrow it, that will help.

Good night boys!

58 days

Today I trained for an hour on the stationary bicycle trainer, keeping up a pretty good pace. I kept a cadence of about 80 RPM with a heart rate of 120, which is pretty good for a first hour. My legs didn't hurt at the end, my hands did. Hmph. Lost lots of water, a reminder to drink regularly on the real tour days. The really good news...my blood glucose was 99 after exercise and rest - solidly in the good range.

Speaking of blood sugar, yesterday I found out a close friend has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and has been put on insulin immediately. Bummer. So the Tour de Cure is a big one for both of us now. Go to the Sponsor a Rider web page for the Tour de Cure and sponsor me!

Didn't get my bike today, hope to get it tomorrow, but it may be the weekend until I see the thing together.

59 days

Rode a light workout before lunch, that helped the legs recover from yesterday.

Now I need to find a place in Austin that has a flat 3 mile stretch I can measure to do my fitness test. The fitness test is needed in the training program to help decide what I can realistically accomplish in training. The problem is finding 3 miles of FLAT roads anywhere near here (!) Especially ones without traffic. I guess I'll ask other riders where they go.

If I can finish 3 miles in less than 10 minutes, then I am a "beginner intermediate". No big shakes one way or the other (beginner vs. advanced), but it helps put limits on how much I can try to do without overdoing it and hurting myself. The part that's a little scary is the test procedure. An excerpt from Lance's training guide:

Step six: Feel the burn. Settle into a steady rhythm of breathing. From here on, it's going to hurt. If it isn't hard and painful at this point, you need to pedal harder and faster.

Hmmmmm...

So I got an email today that the MS 150 has closed it's registration at 13,000 cyclists. Holy Cow! That's a lot of people. Imagine this: if each bike were 5 feet long and they were set nose-to-tail, tire-to-tire, that line of bicycles would be over 12 miles long. This is a record for the fastest registration of cyclists, fastest in 21 years.

Tomorrow I get to see the bike put together. Should be pretty cool. I think.

Off to bed for that needed rest. Goodnight boys!

60 days

Got some training in today on the bike stand - a metal triangle gizmo that lifts the rear wheel of the bike off the ground. I borrowed a bike to do the training.

So I rode 1/2 hour at a CADENCE of 90 RPM to reach THR of 138. Cadence? THR? RPM? What's all THAT mean?

CADENCE in bike lingo means how-many-times-I-pedal-per-minute. By setting a cadence low, you don't work very hard. A low cadence is around 60 RPM, or Revolutions Per Minute, or about one time around for your right leg for every second. Riding fast means a cadence of 90. Then you are really moving along, and you really work your heart harder.

Your heart is the engine driving you - you are just a machine. The faster you need to go, the faster your heart needs to run, just like a car, just like a plane or a boat - your body is just an organic machine. The CADENCE RPM simply tells a cyclist how hard they are stepping on the accelerator.

The THR is the Target Heart Rate, how many beats-per-second your heart runs. Every person is different, so every person has a different THR. For example, for me to pedal at a CADENCE RPM of 90 takes a THR of 138 beats-per-minute. WOW! My heart is beating faster than two times every second!!! However, for an athlete who is in top shape, the THR could be much lower, say 110 beats-per-minute, because the athlete keeps the machine in tip-top shape. They have a stronger heart that delivers more blood and oxygen per beat than an out of shape person (like me) can.

One of the things I will learn over the next 60 days is how my THR changes as my body gets into better and better shape. Perhaps by the time of the first race, my THR for the same 1/2 hour at cadence 90 will be 120 or less. That would be a great achievement.

Oh yeah, it's now about an hour after the exercise, let's see what my blood glucose is. Hope it's low.

(be right back)

Excellent! It's 122. Within 2 hours after a meal, glucose should be less than 140 according to new ACE guidelines (American College of Endocrinologists), so 122 is a great number. (The American Diabetes Association has recommendations on this as well).

Off to bed. Lance's program calls for at least 8 hours of sleep to let the body recharge.

Goodnight K&J.

61 days left

Well, 61 days to go and things are not quite looking good.

I've had no on-the-bike training as yet, as I'm still trying to get the bike fixed. There are problems with cable routings through the frame of the bike, and it may take the shop to fix them. I've had two strong swimming sessions and some good track running work, so there is some headway. Still, 150 miles in two days on a bike - man that is coming up awfully fast.

Spending time in Houston working at a customer every week has also made getting training in difficult. Losing two days on the the road each week will eat all the time up in a hurry. So it looks like a daily schedule change is in order, with early morning workouts the only way to go. My friend Bob in Houston takes me swimming or running when I am in town, a very big help.

I got a Lance Armstrong training guide, which has a 7 week, high intensity training plan. Well, I've got 8 weeks, so if I can get that plan working, I've got a good chance to finish the ride healthy. I am amazed at how simple the program is, and how much he depends on a heart monitor and meal planning. He and his coach absolutely manage his training program as if he were a machine. No lie.

Meanwhile, I've started talking with friends about the real meaning of the ride, raising funds for research to combat MS and Diabetes. Just starting to get some responses. Hopefully will see more soon.

Happy Valentine's Day boys!


Postscript:

Spent time today and got the cables routed. Kim used a clever sewing trick to fish threads through the holes. Neat! You can see orange ribbons runnning in and out of the frame holes in this photo:

Now the bike shop is working on rebuilding and tuning it all. These bikes are more complicated than cars - yeesh.

Game on!

I have signed up to ride a bicycle 150 miles in the MS 150, a benefit for the Multiple Sclerosis charity. This ride goes over two days from Houston to Austin in mid-April. I also signed up for the Tour de Cure, a similar ride for the Diabetes charity, riding over two days from San Antonio to Austin in mid May.

Seeing as I have never ridden a bicycle over 20 miles anywhere in my entire life, this is quite the challenge, and I've only got 3 months to get ready.

And I am 43 years old, and type 2 diabetic.

So I've started this blog to let my sons, and anyone else, look into what it's going to take to make this happen. One of the side effects I hope to see is to understand my own diabetes better, and perhaps find a way to eating and exercising that eliminates my type 2 diabetes. That would be, well, sweet :)

Hi Boys!!!

So this is the third day of the effort. Three days ago, I signed up for the MS 150 and the Tour de Cure online. I have gotten wonderful support from my friends for signing up. Very, very cool.

Two days ago I went to a "spinning" class at a local YMCA. Evalyn, the wonderful spinning instructor, showed me how to use the spinning exercise bike. After about 25 minutes at only a modest pace, I was pouring sweat and couldn't go another minute. And man did my bottom hurt from the seat. I guess this ride is really going to be a lot harder than I thought. So each day I should expect to do 6 hours on the bike, huh? Uh oh.

Today I picked up a bike donated by one of my clients, a great road bike that everyone tells me will really make a huge difference. It doesn't fit (he's 6 foot tall, I am only 5' 6"), but I am hoping to get some replacement parts, maybe even a whole frame, to help make it my size. A quick look at the bike, and I can tell I have not ridden in forever. This thing has better materials on it than the space shuttle. Man, it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to change gears. Amazing -- the difference from the 70's bicycle technology.