bailin' on the long ride

 At 71, I've developed a number of those thousand shocks that flesh is heir to, as my ol' pal Bill put it, and a number of the medications I now take reduce my strength and stamina, so I haven't been doing rides longer than about 30 miles... and most of 'em have been much shorter than that.

But friend Ricky G saw a ride that Laura OLPH had posted, and noted that it was routed right past both our houses. He's also not been riding the way he once had, and he had an Idea. 

Ricky said something to the effect of, "Look, the ride is 40-plus miles. But how about I drive both our bikes to the start, and you and I can do the ride up to near home... and if we feel like bailing at that point, we can get in your car, and you can drive me to the start so I can get my car?"

Well, that sounded just the ticket. Ricky went on to say that we might feel like we could do the whole thing, and we wouldn't have to decide to do anything about it until we were actually on the ride.

It sounded good to me. We signed up, and Ricky brought me to Mercer East lot, the ride start, this morning.

 We ran into Marty and Bobbi, doing their own ride from there.

 A number of the folks I used to ride with regularly were there, and it was good to see them and ride with them again (Tom H, Laura [of course], Eric H, and others). But, first, the route wouldn't load into my GPS (there may have been something wonky about the way the route downloaded). And then the pace was faster than I could maintain, although I did reasonably well for the first twenty miles or so.

By the time we were a few miles away from the stop at about mile 30, I was cooked. I told Ricky I was planning to bail at the stop, the way we'd planned. Ricky agreed, initially.

We stopped at James Brew, the local cafe, to which I should give more business than I do.

 After the stop, though, Ricky decided he was going to do the distance. I thought about it for less than a flash, but I knew I was done, and went home.

Ricky has been referring to my getting to the top of Cadillac Mountain before he did when we were in Maine (the story of the ride is about halfway down the linked post). I told him after the ride that I may have done the climb, but he did the distance.

forty miles

Pretty good one of me. That one, and the one below, by fellow Free Wheeler Bobbi B. The better-looking guy on the left is Albert.

 I've been singin' the blues about my poor physical condition; I let myself get out of shape over the past year-plus, and then I've been put on a number of medications - if Lance Armstrong was taking performance-enhancing drugs, then these are performance-diminishing drugs. I've been adjusting the dosages and administration times of the meds (I'll argue about this with the doctors later... yes, I've got multiple doctors now, and they're all young and hopeful and smart, but I'm going to live my life), and I've gotten to a point where the effects of the meds are less disabling. I've been riding a lot, and testing both my speed and my endurance.

 Club member Marty A posted a ride that was a longer version of the "Double Trolley" Ride he did a couple weeks ago. This one was to be a bit over thirty miles, and, with the four-and-a-bit mile ride from home to the start and back, I figured I could get forty miles in today, most of it with club members around to bail me out if I got in trouble (and The Excellent Wife [TEW] would be available to come rescue me if needs must). Forty miles is longer than I've gone in several months, since a ride with some of my faster friends ended with me winded, disappointed, and depressed.

I'll save you the anxiety and suspense: I did pretty well. 

We had eleven at the start at Village Park in Cranbury.

That one above of Marty is pretty good, don't you think?

 TEW, below, parked at the start, but didn't ride with us.

 The route goes out by road to the top of the trolley trail, loops around, comes back on the trolley trail, and returns to the park. 

 Marty does a good job of keeping to the pace, and, while the route is not quite as flat as an LP record, there are no demanding hills. I had a good time, and I like the people on this ride. 

We don't stop at a store of any kind on this one; instead, we stop at the West Windsor Community Park.

Marty added some miles to make this route longer than the last time, but I understand he's re-thinking his decision and will probably go back to the earlier route and distance. Whatever. This was a good ride for me today, and a sign that maybe my strength and stamina is improving. I'm glad it did it. (I'm glad I was able to do it!)
 

back to a group ride

 I led a ride today for the club; my first in about six weeks. The ride was about 32 miles; with my trips to and from home, I went about 38 miles.

 To regular riders, that won't sound like much. To me, though, it was huge.

 If you read my last post, you may remember that I was having trouble due to a hypertension medication that was slowing me down. I could barely finish the 30-mile ride I did that day; I was dropping off the back of the group and had to stop and rest often after the stop. 

Subsequently, I saw my doctor again. I tried to get him to take me off the medication that slowed my heart, but he did not agree to that (my blood pressure numbers are still problematic). He did cut that medication in half, and added another medication, a centrally acting alpha-2 adrenergic agonist, to go along with the angiotensin II receptor blocker I've been on for some time with no complaint. I was to split the beta blocker morning and evening, and take the other two medications once a day.

The medication he added is called clonidine. I took one dose, and it sorely and severely affected me. I had all of the symptoms of a bad flu except the respiratory effects - but I did have bone aches, arthralgia, weakness throughout my body, poor focus (I surely should not have been driving that day!), and insomnia. 

Clonidine was a drug we used in the 1980's and 90's to treat opiate withdrawal, because the reported side effects sounded like they would ease opiate-withdrawal symptoms. Clonidine was famously ineffective for withdrawal, though. And if it did to the poor opiate patients what it did to me... we should never stop apologizing to them.

I stopped the clonidine immediately. And I moved both doses of the beta blocker to nighttime, figuring that if I'm trying to sleep, slowing my heart might actually be beneficial. And I started doing short rides four or five times a week. 

I slowly started getting stronger, until I could do my short rides at a pace that was as fast as I could do them before. And even though they were short, this week I felt like I had enough stamina to complete a group ride.  So I posted a 32-mile group ride, at a pace I thought I could manage for today.

I limited the ride to fifteen, and it filled up; I had a club member contact me to see if he could drag along! And then I had five or six cancellations. Still, I wound up with eleven to start.

When I got to the planned start, though, the park was closed! There was a firetruck rally, of all things.

 

My riders found their way to one of the available lots, though, and we left from there.

 

 I like this route, although some of it is traffic-y: it goes over roads with which I'm familiar, and it's not too hilly. a couple of the riders said they liked it, too.

We stopped at the Bagel Bazaar in Dayton (which used to have other names...):

 And from there back to the start, including fighting a headwind on which I had not counted.

For me, it was quite a good ride. It was a good mix of people I knew well,  and people I did not. They were friendly with one another, and rode together well.

And it was a personal victory. For much of the time, I was leading from the front; I never fell far behind; and while I was tired at the end, I was able to take care of my usual other responsibilities today...

...including writing this post. Thanks for checking in. You can check out the ride page.

a fine november day in may

 

I haven't been writing much, partly because I haven't been riding well. I let myself gain weight and get out of shape over the past year-plus... and then I sought treatment for a tremor in my right arm that was making it hard to get the screwdriver in the slot (first, that's not a euphemism, and second, I already had to give up drawing for inability to control the pencil). It turns out that beta-blockers, a type of blood-pressure medication, are effective against tremor, so Dr Young-Enough-To-Be-My-Son prescribed one (in addition to my current meds)... and then my blood pressure spiked, so he doubled the beta-blocker.

It turns out that beta-blockers work by reducing heart rate, and have adverse effects on endurance exercise. That explains why I have been simply wiped out after rides of 20 miles. Even with allowing myself to get out of shape, I was slow, and tiring, but not as exhausted as I've been on rides over the past couple of months. I've been working on building my endurance, and it's been somewhat effective. (I'm also starting to work on getting my weight down again, at which I have been only sightly successful.)

I'm well into my seventies (I'm reminded, as a birthday is coming), and I don't have the resilience I once did (one of many things, apparently, I no longer have), 

So for today, I posted a no-pace ride for the club of about 21 miles. I knew I could do the distance*, and I wouldn't have to make excuses for being slow or falling off the back of the group. One rider (well into his eighties, as he noted on more than one occasion today) signed up early, as did The Excellent Wife (TEW), and if the ride were to be just the three of us, that would have been fine.

But I wound up with ten more.

 

The sun was out at the start, and I decided I didn't need my riding coat. That was a mistake; it was colder and windier than I thought it would be, I don't think it got above 60°F for the duration of the ride, and while the tailwind for the last few miles was welcome, it was not always a tailwind, and it was always pretty cold. Are we SURE today was early May?

As happens on this ride, there were riders with a range of abilities. The faster riders went ahead, and waited patiently and without complaint at stops and turns; we slower riders caught up to them at those points.  The group was chatty, and I don't think anybody had to push at an uncomfortable pace.

We stopped at the McCaffrey's on Southfield.

 

 It's in the same shopping center as the Grover's Mill Coffee, and some of my riders choose to go there... but TEW is convinced that they are slow, and she also likes the Polish babci who runs the coffee station at the McCaffrey's.

You gotta see the Colnago that Tony was riding:

He's also brought a never-previously-built-up frame on which he'd hung a glorious Campagnolo set, complete with the delta brakes, and how did I not get any pictures of that?

We had the promised tailwind most of the way back. And I got back in better shape that I'd thought, although the cold wind had gotten to me. I'm ready to try a longer ride again, and we'll see how I finish that one. 

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*That "do the distance" might be a bit misleading. I'd led a 30-plus-mile-ride a couple weeks earlier and "did the distance"... but I was exhausted after the break, and slow. I was worried that other riders might have a problem with my slow pace... but they went on ahead and did fine. I got to the end when I could do so. I "did the distance" then, but without much energy at the end.