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.