Awesome Race - Desert Rampage

Just a few from the team.

Desert Rampage is one of my favorite races, although I will admit I do have a few.  The fun thing about this race is seeing everyone again, starting off on a fun course that doesn't kill you, good passing, and ending on the downhill.  This year held true.

The race was great fun.  We had a large group of women in the sport category about 17/18 (when I counted I can't remember if I counted myself or not).  Great to see so many women on the start line!  My start was a little rough.  My stomach was too full from liquid, so I ended up making myself throw up what was in my stomach.  No, I didn't stick my finger down my throat, it was easy as bending over and what shouldn't have been there came out.  I felt better, but my tummy was still pretty full. 

As we took off the start line I was up near the front, but held my speed not getting much faster.  Little by little people came by me and were passing, until finally somewhere along the first hill climb I ended up being in dead last.  This was not where I wanted to be.  At first I was a little discouraged, but I told my mental bad talk to take a hike and rode as well as I could, while figuring out what I was going to do so this would not happen again.  I have to add although I was in last place, I could still see my division and was very much in the race.

On my first lap, in the wash I passed a gal in my division.  Her sidewall had ripped.  I was so bummed, because it never feels good to pass someone due to a mechanical.  I continued to pound along, and by the end of my first lap I was feeling really good, and started to pull in on others in my division.  My nex pass was right in the lap/finish area.  We almost ended up crashing into each other, because she thought I was going for my water bottle and I was actually on the opposite side.  I didn't go for my bottle, because my tummy had been too full to take in any water.

I had now passed 2 gals, and I could see more in the distance.  Little by little I began to pass women on the trail.  Two on the first climb, one on the first downhill, one at the first of the second wash, another one with a mechanical towards the end of the 2nd wash.  There were still more women ahead and I soooo wanted to catch them.  I kept pounding determined I was going to get them.  I finally caught my last rider at the beginning of the second down.  We were coming off the single track at the same time and heading down our final descent.  She took the the single track and I took off the course for the pass.  It worked!  I took off hoping I could keep her from catching me and hoping I might see someone else on the down I could pass.  I made it to the finish not passing anyone else from my division and without being passed.   Whew, it was over and I felt good, tired, but good.

The results.....I believe I took 9th and I took over 3 minutes off my time from last year!!!  This is great since last year this race was just before my heart surgery.   I am getting stronger and getting more fit.  I can't wait to see the direction my health will take me.

Goregous St. George Views.

  

Fun with friends on the pre-ride.

Good Morning?!?

(Old pic) My puppies trying to convince me to get up.

I am not a morning person, and early mornings are my least favorite part of the day.  But if I want to workout I must get up early in the morning.  Why you ask???  Well mostly, because I have a full-time job that keeps me away from home until 4:30 pm and a family I need to take care of when I get home.  Of course I am pretty sure my family would be okay with me not being home until later and they would be totally supportive of me coming home late, but my conscience does not.  So this means I must workout in the morning and I am NOT a morning person--in fact, it is best to give me about an hour before you talk to me if it is early morning.

So this morning my alarm clock went off at 4:35 am and I began to have the typical morning conversation between the "it's okay to stay in bed" and the "get out of bed and workout" angel/devil.  The first voice "you know your tired, just sleep in for a couple of more hours and you can workout when you get home"  Then comes the second voice "get up and workout, you know you need to".  Back comes the first voice with pretty much the same thought of sleeping in and workout later.  The second voice "get up and workout, you know you won't work out when you get home".  First voice the same.  Second voice "get up and workout, you are fat and out of shape and there is no way you will get fast  if you don't work out."  The second voice is a bit more cruel and ends up winning.

I drag my body out of bed and gloomily get ready to ride the spin bike or something like that.  Eventually about 30 minutes into the workout I start to feel pretty good and by the end I am completely awake and ready to take on the day. And although I feel really good by the end of the workout, it still does not change the fact I am not a morning person and I wish there was a different time of day to workout.

So what do I need to do.  I need to find a way to make me a morning person (not likely this will change), or find another solution.  Any suggestions???

6 Months Down - 6 Months to Go

I can't believe it, but it has been 6 months since my heart surgery.  The hardest part of the surgery has not been the surgery, but the recovery.  You can read all you want about the surgerical procedure, but there is nothing on recovery.  Because of that, I figured I would rest the 6 - 8 weeks after the surgery like the doctor told me, and then get on my bike and only have short time before I was in tip, top shape.  As most of you know that was not the case.  Recovery has been slow, but steady, and as I later found out, it takes 6 months to a year for complete recovery.  However, with each day and each bike ride I am slowly getting better.

Last week was my 6 month follow up appointment with my cardiologist.  I had a transdoppler test and an echo cardiogram with bubble test.  The results were very positive.  The hole in my heart is not healed yet, but is getting closer.  Prior to my heart surgery I had 500+ bubbles going through my heart, at rest, with little stress and with a lot.  Now I have 70 bubbles going through my heart only when there is a lot of stress!  Great improvement.

What does this mean?  It means I have reduced my risk for a stroke significantly.  It also means the hole is almost closed up--I am very excited about this. 

With the healing a new issue has popped up.  As I said under stress bubbles go through the hole.  Well, when you mountain bike a hill climb is stress.  Even if it doesn't feel like it, it is.  So, what has been happening is when I push it hard riding, even only for a moment such as a short steep up, or when I ride at high altitude I am getting a migraine.  It only started happening recently, which is due to the hole getting smaller and I am no longer taking plavix, only aspirin.  This is not good.  You see when I get a migraine, I get an aura.  Aura's prevent you from seeing in one or both eyes.  Lately I have been getting these while riding--not always, but more than I would like.  Try going down hill blind with one eye--not fun.  The good news there is a solution.

When I get an aura I need to immediately chew an apirin--oh, and wash it down with water of course.  The purpose of chewing the aspirin is to get it in the blood stream immediately.  If the migraine is caused by a blood clot going through the hole in my heart then it will thin the blood, stop the aura's and potentially stop the migraine.  Does it work?  Well, I got to test it out a week ago, and worked.

Jolene and I were riding in AF Canyon (sadly it will be her last ride for a while), we had just finished going down Deer Creek South Fork, when all of the sudden I started to get an aura.  Luckily I had remembered to pack some aspirin, and took one immediately--yuck!  It is very difficult to swallow chewed up aspirin when you have been riding a bike.  I was worried one wouldn't work, so I took another for good measure.  We pedaled and pedaled, and I was getting worried the aura was not going away.  I knew if it didn't there was no way I could negotiate the downhill after the summit--too many things to look out for.  Just as we got to the summit the aura quit, and I did not get a migraine.  I am so glad it work. 

Now all I need to do is remember to take aspirin on every ride.  Today I forgot and I paid for it.  I was going down Rush and low and behold an aura.  I just kept riding hoping I would make it down before the aura got worse and before the mirgraine hit.  It didn't work.  The aura kept getting worse and trying to see became very difficult.  Luckily for me I ran into Karl, Dot, Joey and Johnny and was able to follow them down.  They got me to the road safely and I took off to the car to get some aspirin, and hopefully stop the aura and on-coming mirgraine.  I didn't make it in time.  The aura quit just as I hit the parking lot and now my head is killing me.  Lesson learned aspirin in the car does not do any good.

As for everyting else.  I am looking forward to the next 6 months and seeing more improvement.  Although the last 6 months the recovery has been slow I am looking forward to the continued recovery over the next 6 months of getting stronger and better.

The Diagnosis

As a few of you know I have not been up to par lately. I have been recovering from being sick, fatigue and very low blood pressure. These symptoms actually showed up last year at the Snowbird race, at the time since it was not affecting my every day life so my family doctor was not too concerned, although it was affecting my riding and racing, but it was manageable. Recently though it is affecting my every day life, my riding and most definitely my racing, so off to the doctor I went. As I wrote previously the doctor did a lot of tests, and when I left off we had just finished with me having an MRI.

As predicted my MRI came back normal, except according to the doctor it did show I was a bit of a blonde. My doctor has a great sense of humor. However, the MRI gave a small indicator that I needed an echo-cardiogram. The appointment was set for me to go to cardiology on Monday and have an echo-cardiogram with a bubble test, so on Monday I went.

For those who have never had an echo-cardiogram it is a painless procedure. They put 3 patches on you with electrodes coming out of the patches that attach to a machine. Then they put a gel on an ultra sound wand and place it over the heart area. It is cool to see the heart and what it looks like. I got to the the valves and the left and right side of the heart. After about 45 minutes we then did the bubble part. This is also painless except for putting the IV in you. That usually is not so bad, but the technician missed my vein, and it took everything I had to keep from yelling out as she moved the needle around trying to find the vein. Please just quit when you don't get it, don't keep sticking the needle around trying to see if it is there. Luckily she got someone to come in for the second attempt, and he made it on the first try--I did not want to go through that again.

So back to the bubble part. It takes 2 technicians do the bubble part, one to administer the saline solution and one to continue doing the ultra sound. What they do is shoot a saline mix into the IV, as soon as it goes in you can see it the mixture immediately go to your heart it looks like a whole bunch of little bubbles. Imagine then how quickly drugs get to your heart. I thought it was really cool to see the bubbles go through the 3 different holes in my heart. You could see the valve open and close. It is really cool watching the heart at work. The technician ended up having to shoot the solution in a second time. The second time as he was prepping it he ended up showering me with some of it. I guess I needed a mini shower. After the bubble part we were done. The technician told me it would be about 5 business days before my doctor would get the results. I had an appointment with my doctor the next day, but oh well, maybe he would have something new to tell me.

The next day it was back to the doctor's office for a 2 hour wait and then a visit with the doctor. Well, guess what....the results from by echo-cardiogram were back! The doctor had the report and wondered if the tech told me what she saw. Of course she didn't, but in this case I think the doctor would have been fine with it. He and I read the report, which by the way is not written very well. The results showed I had a Patent Forma Ovale (PFO).

The foramen ovale is a small hole located in the atrial septum that is used during fetal circulation to speed up the travel of blood through the heart. When in the womb a baby does not use it's own lungs for oxygen-rich blood, it relies on the other to provide oxygen rich blood from the placenta through the umbilical cord to the fetus. Therefore, blood can travel from the veins to the right side of the baby's heart and cross to the left side of the heart through the foramen ovale and skip the trip to the baby's lungs.

Normally the foramne ovale closes at birth when increased blood pressure on the left side of the heart forces the opening to close. If the atrila septum does not close properly, it is called a patent forament ovale. This type of defect generally works like a flap valve, only opening during certain conditions when there is more pressure inside the chest. (reference)

Basically what this means is I have a hole in my heart. Which accounts for the 3 holes I saw on the echo-cardiogram. At the time I didn't know what I was looking at, but once I read the report it all made sense. I am so happy to know what I have. I have told friends, family and others very excitedly, because it is a solution. My husband thought it was funny I was so excited over a heart defect, but actually it is nice to know what it is and there is a solution. Now for the solution.

The next step is going to be to wear a halter monitor for 24 hours moitoring what my heart is doing. The doctor wants it on me for a race to ensure a good mixed reading--guess I won't need a heart monitor that week. We decided the Sundance race would be the best. One because it is coming up soon, it is a good uphill climb and higher altitude. Hopefully it will show what goes on before I race, during a race and after.

After the race I don't see the doctor for awhile as it takes at least a week to read the results. Once I see him we'll decide what direction to go. But the good news is although I have a hole in my heart it is very fixable!!!!