What a great way to end 2012 - one of my biking buddies, Mike, and I did what we call the "Easy Beach Ride" - it's just a simple ride of 26 miles that heads down to Capitola via Glen Canyon (from our start point in Scotts Valley). We headed out from Scotts Valley by going over Green Hills Road, which adds about 200 feet of climbing to the ride (instead of just coasting down Scotts Valley Drive to get over to Glen Canyon).
It was great biking weather (well, great from my perspective!) - cool and sunny - it was around 50 degrees out, with just a slight wind blowing. Mike and I just tooled along, heading down the familiar path through Santa Cruz to get over to Capitola Beach via East Cliff Drive - a wonderful scenic ride for cyclists!
When we were riding along East Cliff Drive, I happened to notice that our riding time was looking pretty good - in fact, I was a bit surprised, since we had just ridden a similar ride the day before - but that ride was what we call the "Classic Beach Ride" - it starts out the same way as the "Easy Beach Ride", but after leaving Capitola Beach, instead of taking the "easy" way back up to Scotts Valley (which means up Glen Canyon, the same road we take down into Santa Cruz from Scotts Valley at the beginning of the ride), we head back the "hard" way, which means going up Old San Jose Road and then doing the Laurel Glen climb, down Mountain View Road, down Branciforte, then climbing back up into Scotts Valley via Granite Creek. The "Classic Beach Ride" is close to 30 miles and does about 2000 feet of climbing. The "Easy Beach Ride" is more like 26 miles and only 1600 feet of climbing (and those climbing miles are easier because they aren't as steep).
In any case, on yesterday's "Classic Beach Ride", we got down to Capitola Beach in just under one hour, which was a new post heart surgery record for me. What surprised me about today's ride was that it looked like we were going to get to Capitola Beach even faster than yesterday's record ride! In fact, that is exactly what we did - we got to Capitola Beach in just 55 minutes - woohoo! That was an average speed of 15.6 mph for that leg of the ride - very cool!
Then we headed back home and bumped into another cycling friend of ours, Brett - he was returning to Scotts Valley and joined us for the return ride. I felt pretty good - and ended up shaving 2 minutes off my time up Glen Canyon (from 23 minutes down to 21 minutes) - it's still a far cry from my record time of 14 minutes for that climb - but hey! - I have a good solid year to chip at that time and get it back down close to my record 14 minutes.
As we finished the climb up Glen Canyon and entered the outskirts of Scotts Valley, I looked at our riding time and saw that we had a chance to get back from the ride in under 2 hours, which would have been 12 minutes faster than my previous ride (from 3 weeks ago), when we did that ride in 2:12. And, we easily broke 2 hours - we got back in just 1:58 - 14 minutes faster than 3 weeks ago - woohoo!!!
In any case, it was nice to end 2012 with such a positive ride! I just know that 2013 is going to be a good year for me - I plan on riding consistently - and s-l-o-w-l-y grind my way back into decent cycling shape - that's the plan!
Hope everyone had a great 2012 - and let's keep riding as we slide into 2013, the New Year!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Looking Forward to 2013 !!!
Well, it's been an interesting year, 2012 - got myself a fixed-up heart and I'm feeling pretty good these days - need to still lose a few pounds (well, maybe more than just a few) - but since I started riding again on November 3 (about 2 months after my heart surgery I had on September 10), I've done about 14 rides - only half the number I wanted to do - but hey! - it's a start, anyway... :)
My most recent ride (today) was with a couple of my old riding buddies, Mike and Ed - it was fun doing the ride with them - and they very graciously stayed with me on those tortuously s-l-o-w climbs on today's ride (Laurel Glen and then Granite Creek). I started to bonk a bit on those 2 climbs to get back up into Scotts Valley - but it was my longest ride since the heart surgery (29+ miles) and close to 2000 feet of climbing! Nothing to write home about - but it was a good accomplishment for me - we basically did what we used to call the "Classic Beach Ride" - leaving Scotts Valley, getting down to Santa Cruz via Glen Canyon, then over to Capitola via East Cliff - and then returning the "hard way" - up Old San Jose Road, then up the Laurel Glen climb - down Mountain View to Branciforte - and finally, up the Granite Creek climb to get back into Scotts Valley - here's my Strava recording of the ride:
http://app.strava.com/activities/34842755
All in all, a nice way to finish off 2012 (even though I just might head out for a final New Year's Eve ride tomorrow - just for fun!) ... It's very, very slowly coming back - but my enthusiasm for riding is gradually returning - as I lose some more weight and get back into better cycling shape, I know the enthusiasm will return in full - and that is why I am SO looking forward to 2013 - it's going to be my "comeback year", in many more ways than one!
Keep on riding!
My most recent ride (today) was with a couple of my old riding buddies, Mike and Ed - it was fun doing the ride with them - and they very graciously stayed with me on those tortuously s-l-o-w climbs on today's ride (Laurel Glen and then Granite Creek). I started to bonk a bit on those 2 climbs to get back up into Scotts Valley - but it was my longest ride since the heart surgery (29+ miles) and close to 2000 feet of climbing! Nothing to write home about - but it was a good accomplishment for me - we basically did what we used to call the "Classic Beach Ride" - leaving Scotts Valley, getting down to Santa Cruz via Glen Canyon, then over to Capitola via East Cliff - and then returning the "hard way" - up Old San Jose Road, then up the Laurel Glen climb - down Mountain View to Branciforte - and finally, up the Granite Creek climb to get back into Scotts Valley - here's my Strava recording of the ride:
http://app.strava.com/activities/34842755
All in all, a nice way to finish off 2012 (even though I just might head out for a final New Year's Eve ride tomorrow - just for fun!) ... It's very, very slowly coming back - but my enthusiasm for riding is gradually returning - as I lose some more weight and get back into better cycling shape, I know the enthusiasm will return in full - and that is why I am SO looking forward to 2013 - it's going to be my "comeback year", in many more ways than one!
Keep on riding!
Friday, December 21, 2012
Where Have I Been The Last 23 Months?
Well, it's been awhile! And I just looked at this blog, noticing that my last post was way back in early December, 2010. But that is not the last time I rode my bike! In fact, I did some on-and-off riding for a couple of months after that month - up to mid February, 2011.
And that is when something odd started happening. I was attempting to get myself back into shape, but noticed that some fairly easy rides resulted in a lot of shortness of breath issues. Not good!
So, I decided to go visit my regular doctor - and during my routine checkup, he said he detected a very faint, yet distinctive, heart murmur.
Heart murmur - yikes! What does *that* mean? My doctor said it could mean nothing - or, it could be something - and the only way to find out for sure would be to see a cardiologist and have a stress echocardiogram done. And, he had a cardiologist to recommend, of course.
So I went to see the cardiologist, who then scheduled the stress echocardiogram - the date was March 18, 2011 - a date that will live in infamy - well, not really! It wasn't exactly the same as Pearl Harbor - but, it *was*, in essence, my own Pearl Harbor - that is when I found out I had a defective heart issue - actually, there were 2 defects! One was congenital - I had a bicuspid aortic valve - just like my younger brother, Scott, had found out many years ago (when he was just 29) - they monitored his BAV (as we call it in the heart patient world) and 12 years later, at the age of 41, he had open heart surgery to replace his defective aortic valve.
Now it looked like it was my turn to monitor *my* BAV - and then replace it when it was starting to become too narrow (called "stenosis") - but I had an issue that my brother did NOT have - and that was an aortic aneurysm - my ascending aorta (just above my aortic valve) was TWICE as wide as normal - about 5.0 cm instead of 2.5 cm ... yikes! The problem is that your aorta can dissect (split) or worse yet, rupture. A rupture means you have 5 minutes to make your peace before you die. An aortic dissection will let you live for anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days, depending on how much the aorta dissects. Basically, you are a "ticking time bomb" ... not fun to contemplate!
Bottom line - I needed to contemplate having open heart surgery much earlier than my brother did - I would need it within a matter of months - certainly within a year or so.
And that is exactly what I did a several months ago - September 10, 2012 - the date of my "rebirth", so-to-speak. The surgery went amazingly well - I had a great cardiac surgeon, Dr. Vincent Gaudiani - if you ever need any surgery related to your heart and live somewhere in the Bay Area, I can highly recommend him! Here is just one of several YouTube videos that Dr. Gaudiani has published - what a great guy!
And, just 8 weeks after my surgery - on November 3, 2012 - I went on my very first bike ride in a very, very long time - and there was no shortness of breath - and the ride felt great! Except, I didn't set any kind of records on that ride - pretty short - pretty flat - but, it was uneventful - beautiful!
I also discovered a very cool new website, Strava - here is where you can find me on Strava - what is cool is that after you upload one of your rides from your cyclometer (or, there is even a Strava phone app that can function as a cyclometer, but without the heart rate functionality), Strava will automatically break up your ride into different "segments" - sections of your ride that are ridden by lots of other people - and you can see where you "rank" amongst all those that have ridden that same segment - or, you can just use it to compare yourself to other times you've ridden that same segment - pretty cool!
Here is the link to my first ride after my heart surgery - as I said, nothing to write home about - just 8.2 miles and only 42 minutes on the bike - without any hills to speak of - but it was a ride, nonetheless!
And, here is the link to one of my tougher rides that I took, just 3 weeks later - I did 26+ miles, almost 1400 feet of climbing - and rode for 2 hours and 10 minutes - quite a bit more of a ride! And with that harder ride, I even averaged a faster speed (12.1 mph versus 11.6 mph for that first ride) - and there was a lot more climbing involved in that harder ride.
My main problem has been consistency - I was hoping to ride 2 times during the weekdays and 2 times on the weekends (4 rides / week) - but it has only averaged about 2 rides per week since I started riding again - so I need to increase my riding time! I only rode 8 times in November - and only 4 times for December (so far) - I really need to be doing about 16 rides each month - so I better pick it up in January of 2013!
So, this is why I've been away for quite awhile - but Musings of a Cyclotic will start seeing some regular activity, once again - stay tuned!
And keep riding... :)
And that is when something odd started happening. I was attempting to get myself back into shape, but noticed that some fairly easy rides resulted in a lot of shortness of breath issues. Not good!
So, I decided to go visit my regular doctor - and during my routine checkup, he said he detected a very faint, yet distinctive, heart murmur.
Heart murmur - yikes! What does *that* mean? My doctor said it could mean nothing - or, it could be something - and the only way to find out for sure would be to see a cardiologist and have a stress echocardiogram done. And, he had a cardiologist to recommend, of course.
So I went to see the cardiologist, who then scheduled the stress echocardiogram - the date was March 18, 2011 - a date that will live in infamy - well, not really! It wasn't exactly the same as Pearl Harbor - but, it *was*, in essence, my own Pearl Harbor - that is when I found out I had a defective heart issue - actually, there were 2 defects! One was congenital - I had a bicuspid aortic valve - just like my younger brother, Scott, had found out many years ago (when he was just 29) - they monitored his BAV (as we call it in the heart patient world) and 12 years later, at the age of 41, he had open heart surgery to replace his defective aortic valve.
Now it looked like it was my turn to monitor *my* BAV - and then replace it when it was starting to become too narrow (called "stenosis") - but I had an issue that my brother did NOT have - and that was an aortic aneurysm - my ascending aorta (just above my aortic valve) was TWICE as wide as normal - about 5.0 cm instead of 2.5 cm ... yikes! The problem is that your aorta can dissect (split) or worse yet, rupture. A rupture means you have 5 minutes to make your peace before you die. An aortic dissection will let you live for anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days, depending on how much the aorta dissects. Basically, you are a "ticking time bomb" ... not fun to contemplate!
Bottom line - I needed to contemplate having open heart surgery much earlier than my brother did - I would need it within a matter of months - certainly within a year or so.
And that is exactly what I did a several months ago - September 10, 2012 - the date of my "rebirth", so-to-speak. The surgery went amazingly well - I had a great cardiac surgeon, Dr. Vincent Gaudiani - if you ever need any surgery related to your heart and live somewhere in the Bay Area, I can highly recommend him! Here is just one of several YouTube videos that Dr. Gaudiani has published - what a great guy!
And, just 8 weeks after my surgery - on November 3, 2012 - I went on my very first bike ride in a very, very long time - and there was no shortness of breath - and the ride felt great! Except, I didn't set any kind of records on that ride - pretty short - pretty flat - but, it was uneventful - beautiful!
I also discovered a very cool new website, Strava - here is where you can find me on Strava - what is cool is that after you upload one of your rides from your cyclometer (or, there is even a Strava phone app that can function as a cyclometer, but without the heart rate functionality), Strava will automatically break up your ride into different "segments" - sections of your ride that are ridden by lots of other people - and you can see where you "rank" amongst all those that have ridden that same segment - or, you can just use it to compare yourself to other times you've ridden that same segment - pretty cool!
Here is the link to my first ride after my heart surgery - as I said, nothing to write home about - just 8.2 miles and only 42 minutes on the bike - without any hills to speak of - but it was a ride, nonetheless!
And, here is the link to one of my tougher rides that I took, just 3 weeks later - I did 26+ miles, almost 1400 feet of climbing - and rode for 2 hours and 10 minutes - quite a bit more of a ride! And with that harder ride, I even averaged a faster speed (12.1 mph versus 11.6 mph for that first ride) - and there was a lot more climbing involved in that harder ride.
My main problem has been consistency - I was hoping to ride 2 times during the weekdays and 2 times on the weekends (4 rides / week) - but it has only averaged about 2 rides per week since I started riding again - so I need to increase my riding time! I only rode 8 times in November - and only 4 times for December (so far) - I really need to be doing about 16 rides each month - so I better pick it up in January of 2013!
So, this is why I've been away for quite awhile - but Musings of a Cyclotic will start seeing some regular activity, once again - stay tuned!
And keep riding... :)
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