hills… a metaphor or a workout
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
On one hand battling cancer is a hilly ride, on the other hills can be a brutal but important part of training on the bike.