36 days - pain

This week was difficult and challenging. In sticking to the Carmichael (Lance's coach) program, I noticed that my left knee started to hurt a little bit. After the Tour de Lance, it really hurt, just on the inside. "Something must be wrong" was definitely the thought, but what?

I checked out the internet and found that position of the toes pointed in or out could make the difference. In a decent long distance ride, a cyclist can pedal over 5,000 times. So even tiny misalignments of the cycle can add up to over stressing certain body parts. In my case, I simply moved my left foot in a little bit on the pedal cleat, and that seemed to immediately help.

This weekend are two long rides. Tomorrow I'll ride an hour and a half, then on Sunday will be a 40 mile ride in Round Rick, sponsored by the Austin Cycling Association. We'll see if the pain goes down or away.

I also had been experiencing seat pain. I noticed that I had been cheating forward on the seat a little bit, on to the beak of the seat, because I "reach" for the handlebars to try to stay more upright. I fixed that posture problem, and the pain down there seems to be better.

This past week also saw the kick off for the Tour de Cure San Antonion to Austin ride, which I attended. I learned the tour had about 600 riders rode last year. Compare this with the MS 150, which has 13,000 registered riders. Given the number of people suffering from diabetes vs. MS, you'd think the numbers would be reversed, no offense meant to anyone of course. But wow.

So I have raised my pledge goal to $3,000 and I am really going to try to make it. I asked to be made into a team captain, so now I have to recruit team members. Going to be tricky that, as I don't really know many cyclists at all. We'll see how that goes.

Oh, and because of my experience in the rain in the Tour de Lance, I've called the team "The Rain Gods" until I figure out a better name. Anyone who has a good idea for a team name, let me know!

Cheers boys, good luck on your tests!