Needles!!!

I almost forgot to share some of the biggest work related news I've had in a few years. I can use needles at work again!!!!!

The PT licensing board has declared dry needling to be within the scope of practice for a PT if they have the appropriate training. That means I can use acupuncture again as an adjunct modality in my practice. I'm very excited. My clients are very excited and I have already seen some good results in pain relief and swelling management.

The wonderful spin off is that my renewed use of acupuncture has spurred me to review some of my Tradtional Chinese Medicine books and notes. This in turn has motivated me to spend more time meditating and centering myself.

I feel as if I've been released from a cage.

Training adventures

I've been wanting to post something about this for a while because I think it's a really fun way to get in a lot of miles on the bike with good support and allows you to go places you can't if you solo.

Here's what we (Tom, George, Terri and I) did this weekend. We all piled into the Race Across Oregon van - with Amelia of course - and drove to BZ Corners WA. We then rode for many miles. Each of us taking turns riding and driving in the van. I logged 75 miles the first day with about 6600 feet of climbing, Tom logged 95 miles and George and Terri each got in 50. The next day was a little shorter but no less challenging in terms of climbing.

The great part about this kind of riding is the social aspect. Good quality time with friends. Then there is the distinct advantage of riding with a support vehicle. For me it means I can push a lot harder than I normally would because I know that I can always get more food/water or even a ride if I completely explode. It also meant that I didn't have to ride the crazy gravel downhill that Tom conquered in the rain!! The man is insane.

I can't wait to do this again.

Ring of Fire Time Trial - Maupin OR September 12, 2009

The plan was to ride my bike for 12 hours. The hope was for 160 miles. The reality was very different.

Well, it started out with a stomach ache and trouble with nutrition. The first 60 miles of the course is at least 80% climbing and I was much slower than I had hoped. I was OK with that, I had all day to pull through as long as I could get my stomach to straighten out. At about 5 hours I finally got a long enough descent to back off substantially and get some food into me. My stomach started to feel better and I hit the next climb with some oomph, still not fast, but better.

Then I had fun for about 1 hour.

Then came the heat and there was carnage all over the race course. Someone with a temp gauge on their cyclocomputer said the heat got up to 97 deg at about 3 PM. Cyclists were stopped at random spots all over the course just because they were too hot to keep going.

I got seriously overheated. Relying on SAGs and self supporting did not help. By the end of my big loop of 112 miles, I was struggling to go 10 mph on a flat road with a slight tailwind. I should've been cruising easily at 18 mph. I hurt everywhere, had a terrible headache, flashing lights in my field of vision. When I got into the checkpoint and tried to talk to one of the volunteers, I wasn't articulating well and I knew I couldn't go on until I had cooled off substantially and got my electrolytes and hydration squared away.

While I was trying to do this Tom came in off the 24 hour course with a DNF. He ended up very overheated as well.

That's when I decided I was done. The cost seems too high to go back out. People were throwing up everywhere, many racers had DNFed, one went to the hospital and had an IV of 3 litres of fluid. He still wasn't quite squared away.

So I got an official finish and I seem to be recovering in a timely fashion. I'm still a little whacked out but my legs are better. No significant signs of anything serious. I'm very glad I decided to pull the plug when I did.

Not sure I will solo this race again. I certainly would not do it without support if there is any chance of heat. I was definitely not able to carry enough water to keep hydrating well between SAGs in those temps.

Tom and I are thinking that a 2 person team might be the way to go next year. :)

So this blogging adventure has not gone as planned. It's been tough to keep up. All I can say is, like everyone here in The Gorge, summer is sacred and should be enjoyed to it's fullest. I haven't had much free time at my computer.

Today however, I woke up to the sound of pouring rain. So I've ditched plan A which was to ride the Ring of Fire Time Trial course. It's remote, it goes up high and it's 112 miles. I'll be racing on that course next weekend. I've now gone to plan B, back to bed. It's cold, wet and apparently the snow level is down to 6000 feet. Yup bed sounds good.

Here's a quick summary of an exciting summer:
Butte to butte run and epic (yes I'm using that word appropriately) ride to Moon Point in Oakridge OR.
Tom raced but unfortunately did not finish the Cascade Cream Puff. He was exhausted from June.
July Mountain Bike Oregon. I got to do a trail side reduction of a dislocated shoulder!
XTerra Portland for me... I got my butt kicked but came back the next day with a 5:37 century in Newport OR.
Then back down to Bend OR to watch Tom take 3 in the SS category at the High Cascades 100!
And last weekend, up to Penticton to watch Ironman Canada and sign up for next year.

Oh yeah, I've been working quite hard on getting my coaching company up and running. That's been quite a learning process.

And there was that fire that threatened my little home of Mosier OR. You can see more about that here http://videos.oregonlive.com/oregonian/2009/08/update_on_microwave_fire_near.html
This experience is worth a whole blog post of it's own. It was one of the scariest things I've seen and one of the most educational. Thank you, all of my dear friends and family, for your support. A huge thanks to the firefighters that saved our little town.

A pretty busy summer by anyone's standards. I'm looking forward to fall. Less travel, more Ironman training, cool temps...

Pacific Crest Half Ironman

OK, I haven't trained for a while and I really shouldn't have expected much but... I still really wanted to beat my time from last year when I had that horrible stomach issue and I didn't. I did get through it though. So here's my advice on how to survive a Half Ironman done off the couch.

Find a good draft on the swim and use it as a warm-up
Ride at a low heart rate and focus on your pedal stroke
Expect the run to hurt. It's gonna suck. There's a reason why people train for these things you know!

The final result was 6:03 I think. 9th in my AG. 3rd out of the water for my AG, 14th or so on the bike and 8th on the run. So I guess I need to ride more. Bummer ;-)

Sure wish I could walk today, good thing I can still ride my bike.

Success at RAW.

I had no idea. The summary is that we came, we saw and we kicked... well, you know how that goes.

RAW stands for Race Across the West. It's the first 1044 miles of Race Across America. It's a killer ride with lots of hills. Thank goodness I was crewing and not riding.

Tom entered as a 2 man relay team with George Thomas. They rode 58 hours and 56 min to get them from Oceanside CA to Taos NM. I sat in the van with 2 other people for all those hours, taking care of Tom with a little drivng and navigation thrown in when Lisa and Ken needed to be spelled off. The average shift on the bike was 1 hour at a time but got as long as 3 hours if the other teammates needed a sleep and a lot less if it was hot. Some of our rotations were as short as 30 min leaving us barely enough time to get Tom off the bike, into the car, fed, massaged, driven to the next hand off, dressed again and ready for the exchange. It was a really tough job but we did great. Tom and George made it to Taos before anyone else. Granted they had the advantage of being a team but even if you only compared them to other teams they kicked azz.

For those of you that have thought about crewing for an event like this...

Crewing for a team is MUCH harder than crewing for a solo rider. It seems counter intuitive, but it is. I've done both now, trust me.
If you volunteer to crew, embrace the silliness that comes with sleep deprivation, it makes it more fun.
Finally, stock your vehicle really well with snacks, decent food can be really hard to come by, especially when you're crewing for a team and your down time is minimal.

What a trip!!

Wow. To say that I was busy while I was in Europe would be a serious understatement.

Here's the Reader's digest version of the trip....
We arrived in Lisbon having survived the drive to Vancouver WA, train to Seattle, plane to Heathrow and connection to Lisbon. We were jet lagged, hungry and missing Tom's bike. Fortunately the bike turned up the next day. The Race Relations person, Louize, picked us up and took us to the Hotel Barcelona. The next day or two was spent eating, resting and more travel, this time by bus to Braganca. More prep time and the race was on.

The first 3 days were insanely hot and to a serious toll on all the racers. Tom had a very difficult first day but rallied back the second and was doing well by the third. Then the weather cooled and he just got stronger. While Tom was racing my days went something like this: get up, big buffet breakfast, go to our first checkpoint with my check point partner Patricia. We then sat for hours watching the racers go by noting times and numbers. Then off to the stage finish where I'd set up for massage. Massage would go on until about 7:30 or 8 until we had another amazing buffet style meal, then back for more massage. Often I wouldn't get back to my room before 11 PM. Then Tom would finally get his turn and off to sleep to do it all over the next day.

As the race went on, problems started to crop up. At least one third of the riders, if not half of them, had developed saddle sores from the heat, sweat and grit. I ordered dressings for the sores and spend what spare time I had distributing them to the riders, explaining in detail how to use them and even applying dressings for the ones that couldn't reach them on there own. Of course all the jokes started to come out... Cassie is covering everyone's ass... the rider's are really a pain in the ass... Cassie the queen of the butts... you get the idea.

Yes I was busy and yes I was exhausted at the end. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. I got to be part of the team, I had updated info about how Tom was doing all day long and I got to meet a bunch of really great people. I can't think of a better way to see the countryside and I would do it again... maybe even race it one day.

Tom placed 9th overall, much better than expected and he would've done better yet if he hadn't struggled so much that first day. He even had several days when he placed in the top 5 and one day when he came in 3rd after the 2 very fast racers competing for the overall win. It was amazing to watch.

We had 4 days to recover in Portugal, then 2 days checking out London with Paul, another racer from Portugal. He was a great tour guide and we had a blast.

Now we're on the last leg of the journey. We're here in Oceanside getting ready for RAW. There are a lot of details to take care of before we start the race on Wednesday. Speaking of which... it's time to go.

To be continued.