I’ve returned from vacation to find the weather in Seattle better for riding a bike than when I left. It’s good to be back and I was excited to hop on my bike for some commuting under the sun.
Right now Team Bear is #4 in fundraising for the Seattle LIVESTRONG challenge. Special mention is deserved for Paul and Kevin who have both surpassed the 4-figure mark. The fundraise-o-meter to the right shows us close to our goal, but nothing says we stop when we get there!
What a great weekend! Fabulous ride up Whidbey Island from Clinton, through Langley along Saratoga Passage back down to SR 20 and up to Admirals Cove near the Keystone Ferry. 33.9 miles in all with a reported 1500 of climbing (Mapmyride map here). The weather was great, not to warm (still needed the knee warmers and a windblock vest), and very little wind throughout the ride. Whidbey turns out to be a great place to ride as the shoulders of SR 20 are pretty wide and the backroads/sideroads are really quiet.
We also had a SUPER FABULOUS weekend at Hilary’s family’s place in Admirals Cove. A few friends, lots of great food, great weather for a few hikes and a pretty hilarious game of Cranium! Everyone had a really hard time breaking up the party and heading home.
Beth, Hilary and I didn’t hit the road until almost 7 pm as we had to swing by Toby’s for some mussels and fries. The waitstaff spilled a little tartar on my shoe so she gave us one of their huge brownies, although after eating something like 15 pans of Jared’s brownies over the weekend, we had to box it up and bring it home….
The picture here is from a hike we went on Sunday afternoon on the bluffs near the Fort Ebey Battery. Great sunny day! Wonderful time sitting and staring out at the straits and the San Juan Islands.
I just got back from a short ride, long run with my friend Corrie. Because it was a combo ride run, I thought I would try to be crafty with MapMy-Whatever. I thought MapMyFitness would allow you to put in multiple activities, but I can’t figure out how to do it.
Here’s the route. It’s a beautiful day here, sunny and slightly warm. There was still snow on the trail we ran on and two massive avalanches from this winter on Blue Lake road. One avalanche site completely blocks two roads, one accessing the campground and Beaver Lake Trail, the other blocking Blue Lake Damn access. Snapped tree trunks and rock debris gives you the sense of it’s force. Yikes! Keep running.
Mom is back! Pete and I took advantage of Grandma’s 1/2 mile proximity and dumped the kids for dinner and a movie while we went for a long(er) ride.
I have been doing rides with Anan while Kobi is in school. I pull him in the bike cart with food, beverages, toys, books and ample snuggly blankets to encourage sleeping. It’s about 50lbs. of kid and stuff. With Anan in the cart I mostly stay on paved roads for his comfort.
In order to get in a longer ride I have few options. I can ride 14 miles from one end of town to the other on our main road that is paved, for a total of 28 miles. The other option is to ride 7 miles to the end of the paved road and then continue on a gravel road to the fish hatchery and Green Lake hydroelectric power station. This is the route Pete and I rode. I have ridden most of it on my own, but it’s a little creepy. It’s spring and the bears will soon start to wander out looking for food. I am sure they don’t want me for food, but flying down some of the hills and rounding blind corners just says traffic jam to me. I have visions of literally running into a ball of brown fur and being projected from my bike into the thorny Devils Club branches. It’s unlikely and irrational, but… Riding with someone else makes it more unlikely anyway. We’re usually forewarned that the bears have arrived with piles of scat amongst the potholes. The road was clear, so they must be sleeping still.
Average speed 11.3, Slowest Speed 2.7, Fastest 29.5
Tried to go visit the kids in Magnolia today but no one was there… other than the barking dogs at Max’s house. Forgot that Max and his folks were in Hawaii and not sure where the Peterman family was. I didn’t actually knock there as both cars were gone and the house seemed pretty quiet.
The ride was great! First ride this year with just shorts and a jersey. No need for knee warmers and jacket that is for sure!
Put in 27.1 miles, 15.8 mph average in 1 hour 42 minutes. Today’s Map. I think I will be ready for my planned ride on Friday to catch up with Beth and others on Whidbey. Will jump on the ferry then head up the hill out of Clinton and maybe swing through Langley then head to our friend’s place in Admirals Bay. Looking at about 32 miles with lots of hills! Here’s the Map. Have to remember to bring my iPod for some motivational music!
Beth is doing fine today. She put in a few hours working from home, which went fine although she is frustrated with the slow typing. We have tentative plans to go see Kobi, Anan in May and we are excited about that. Fingers crossed that Beth’s blood counts stay strong, so far so good.
Such a great day for a ride compared to the last post! This time I put in two laps around Boeing Field. 13.4 miles (stretched the usual lap to the south a little), 19.4 mph average (calm winds helped this) and completed the circuits in a little over 41 minutes (didn’t have to stop for a single red light either so a constant 41 plus minutes of spinning!) Here’s a link to the ride map.
On another note, Team Bear is growing! We have one new member added so far and may have 4 or 5 more here soon. Welcome to Marc Fendel, a friend of Beth and mine, and another West Seattle neighbor. Thanks Marc for joining us and I look forward to getting in a ride soon!
For anyone who would like, a few of us are going to gather up at the Beveridge Place Pub for a Sunday evening out, just a short one as I will have been up since 4:15am… I am planning on being there around 7:00. Hope you can join us.
OKAY, that was going to be a much longer ride but I was SO wet after lap one that I couldn’t make myself turn the corner for another one! Feels kind of lame, boy from SE Alaska and all, I have gotten a little soft!
Well at least I got one lap in… 5.9 miles, 17.5 mph average.
Like I wrote in my last post, this week has been a metaphorical hill workout. Beth started a new treatment yesterday called BCNU or Carmustine. BCNU is in the same group of alkylating agents that some of the other therapies that she has done already. This one however has a slightly different mechanism of disrupting cell division. It’s goal being one of putting mutated cells into a “programed death” faster than other cells, as well as disrupting their ability to replicate.
A little cancerous cell 101…
Cancerous cells are different than normal cells due to several factors including unchecked or controled cell division. Cancerous cells lose the ability known as inhibition (“Normal” cells stop dividing when in contact with like cells), a normal process in the cell lifecycle. The cell cycle goes from the resting phase, through active growing phases, and then to mitosis (division).
The ability of chemotherapy to kill cancer cells depends on its ability to halt cell division. BCNU works by damaging the DNA that tells the cell how to copy itself in division. By disrupting this process the cells are unable to divide, and they die. The faster the cells are dividing, and often times cancer cells divide at higher rates than normal tissue, the more likely it is that chemotherapy will kill the cells, causing the tumor to shrink. They also induce cell suicide (or apoptosis).
Chemotherapy is most effective at killing cells that are rapidly dividing. Unfortunately, chemotherapy does not know the difference between the cancerous cells and the normal cells. With BCNU some of the side effects are from this lack of targeting, so keeping an eye on Beth’s blood counts (white cells and platelet counts) is important.
Each month we expect to see a “dip” in her blood counts, but as long as we see a recovery, and the counts don’t go so low that she would risk a serious infection things should be fine. After 6 weeks Beth will go back in for an MRI scan to see how the therapy is working and we will re-evaluate the next round of treatment.
While what any of us would go through for recovery from a big ride, or a short “hilly” training ride is no where near what Beth’s body has to go through after her treatments. I am reminded by both that taking a little time is important to our recovery. One step in front of the other, or one peddle stroke at a time…
Finally headed out for a ride today. Wasn’t really feeling it but new that I needed to get out on the bike. Without realizing it I was doing a lap around West Seattle, tackling some big hills. Metaphors are becoming more common in my life, or I am just aware of them more often.
As some know, we have been tackling a couple of hills in Beth’s treatment regimen as of late. It was determined that her previous treatment wasn’t working as required to continue using that protocol (Avastin and Carboplatin- see post on Feb 14). After a lot of research and a false start on a possible clinical trial, we have decided on a chemotherapy called BCNU or Carmustine. We will be in at the hospital once every 6 weeks to the infusion clinic for a couple of hours for the administration. That part of it doesn’t seem so bad, specially as our two choices were. The part that we don’t know much about yet are the fatigue and blood count side effects. So for that we will just have to wait and see.
So for the ride I found myself climbing Highland Park Dr down near the Duwamish, going almost 3/4 of the way up and being overwhelmed by the climb and the cars powering up past me. I turned around, coasted down hill and once at the bottom decided to try again. If you take a look at the map and view the elevation you will notice that the last 1/4 looks to be around an 8% grade. I pushed myself over that piece, looking down at one point to see that my speed was right around 4.5 mph! My legs screaming, but my mind looking ahead.
Arriving home. 12.7 miles, 56 minutes, 13.6mph average
Kevin and I got in a good ride on Mercer island today. About 45 miles averaging 15 mph and around 2400 ft of climbing. The map below is for my ride, Kevin’s is about the same but he heads south from Safeco where I head north. I did not have my cadence sensor on but I normally average 95-105 rpm, which at 2:58 means the cranks went around a little under 17,000 times.
View Larger Map
I got a good look at Kevin riding away a few times, I’ll need to reel that in on the next group ride.
