Whiting Trail Group Ride

I have gone on a few group rides, and loved all of them.  However, tonight's ride was extra special.  What made this group ride so special?  Three things.  One Scott and I were leading the ride.  I have never led a ride, so this was a first.  The second, this was the first time back on the trails since surgery.  The third, I rode my new bike.

The ride Scott and I led was Whiting trail.  I have never been on this trail, but Scott had and he said it would be perfect.  We decided to have those in north county meet at Mad Dog Cycles and those in south county meet at the trail head.  It turns out this was a great plan, and we ended up with a large group of 16 riders for this ride!

Scott did a great job picking the trail.  It is absolutely beautiful, and there are a lot of fun things on the ride.  It has a lot of ups and downs, stairs and a lot of variety.  The trail was perfect for riding.  We had reports it might be muddy, but instead we ended up with a nice tacky trail.

For our ride Scott stayed in the front and I took the back.  It was great to be at the back, I got to talk with the riders, and I needed to be at the back.  First day back on the trail was hard on my heart and I maxed out pretty quickly-try a 183 hr, trust me this trail is not a 183 hr trail.  I actually had to stop at one point.  Little discouraged about that, but hopefully in time my heart will quit spiking to such a high heart rate and all will be good again.

The ride up the trail is mostly up with a few ups and downs, so it is not a straight up hill climb.  There is nothing too difficult, but there was a couple of tight turns that led to some steep ups.  Why are there always steep ups in percarious places???  The downhill was a blast.  Nice curvy turns, with quick up and downs.  You could really pick up some speed and go really fast down this trail. 

About half way on the down Scott traded me places, and I got to let my bike go.  Sooooo much fun.  It rode great.  It felt so good to go fast.  Thanks Scott for trading me.

I didn't get any pictures of the trail, but I did get pictures of a few of the riders riding down the trail.  If you look closely you can see how pretty the  trail is. 
Scott leading the ride on the down.

I think Dave needs water.

Carson - our sheep dogger for the night.

Group Ride Invite

Mad Dog Race Team sponsors group rides almost every Thursday.  The rides are for you, your friends, family and anyone who might like to ride a bike.  All of the rides are led by some of the Mad Dog Team Riders.  Tomorrow I get to lead on of those rides with Scott Billings!

We are going to ride Whiting Trail, which is in the Springville area.  I haven't ridden the trail, but according to Scott it is a pretty nice trail.  Everyone is invited to come.  It is a no drop ride--since this is my first mountain bike ride since surgery you definitely do not need to worry about being dropped.

We are meeting at Mad Dog Cycle in Orem at 5:30 pm  and the trail at 6:15 pm.  Here are directions:

From Interstate 15, exit at Springville (Exit 260). Head East 2 miles to intersection of Main Street and 400 South. Turn right (South) on Main Street, staying in the right lane toward Highway 89/Price. Continue approx. 2.3 miles to Maple Street. Turn left (East) on Maple/State Hwy 147 for approx. .9 mile to Main Street in Mapleton. Turn left (North) on Main Street. Turn right (East) on 400 North. Drive East on 400 North for approx 2.7 miles until you reach Whiting Campground.

See ya' tomorrow.

New York

It has been 22 years since I have been in New York.  I lived there, loved it, but moved back to Utah to help my family, and never got to come back.  Arriving on the plane and driving to my destination brought back a flood of good memories from when I was here.  One of those was the beauty of New York.

I remembered how beautiful New York is, but for some reason seeing it again is more breath taking than when I lived here.  I guess you appreciate things more with time.  Another thing I remembered was the ugly highway patrol cars.  I can't believe they haven't changed.  They look like they are more than 20 years old.

It sure is good to be in New York again.  But it will be nice when I get to come home.
Outside City Hall in Saratoga Springs.

Part of the main shopping area

Congress Park is beautiful.  I couldn't take enough pictures to even come close to show how pretty it is.

Fun New Stuff

The past two days I have gotten some really cool stuff.  The best is at the very bottom.

New suitcase for traveling--going to New York soon, so it will come in handy.

I love the side compartment for my laptop.

Droid cell phone.  Mine went the way of the world after 3 years and it was time for a new one.  It has some really cool stuff, the gps will be really helpful when I travel.

I have bought Tifso glasses since I started to ride.  One of the cool things about Tifso is if you loose any of the lenses they will replace them.  The other cool thing is they sponsor the Mad Dog Race Team.  Thanks to Tifso giving us a pro deal I was able to get some glasses for this year.  Thank goodnes, because last year I had 4 glasses lost, run over, smashed, and broken.  I was in desperate need of some glasses, and now I have some backup glasses too.
These are the envy.  They are a little bit more sporty, and will go nicely with my new helmet (it's black and silver)

These are the DEA a little more fashoinable.  Black and pink will go nicely with my other helmet.

My new bike has been built by Mad Dog Cycle and is home!  I rode it to work this moning, and next week it will get to go on the dirt.  I can't wait!!!

What I do When I Can't Race

Easter Eggs!

Status Update

It is not that I haven't had anything to write about, the fact of the matter is I have been so busy the last 2 weeks, I haven't had time to write!

It has been 2 weeks since my ASD repair, and things are going well.  A week ago I was given the green light for riding my road bike (no mountain bike yet).  So last Saturday I went for a ride.  I thought it would be a good idea to go with Mandy, so I would have a nice calm ride.  For those who know Mandy you are probably laughing right now.  However, this ride actually turned out pretty good.  She wanted to show me she could make it to Vivian park, unfortunately there was snow just before bridal veil, and I needed to be careful, so we turned around.  I kept my heart rate low and felt really good for my first ride since surgery.
Mom please don't talk to me while I'm riding.

Now we are picture perfect.

Mandy rode in the snow!

That was my only ride until today.  This morning when I woke up, the weather looked good, so I opted for a quick short ride up the provo trail.  It felt good to be out.  With every pedal stroke there was a sense of exhiliration and freedom.  I rode at a nice tempo, but nothing that hurt me.  I paid close attention to my chest making sure I didn't feel in pain or pressure.  This is the gauge the doctor told me to look for--any chest pain, or pressure means I need to slow down.  This ride no chest pain!  My hr did get a little high a couple of times and my hr alarm went off, so I just backed it off a bit.

I can't tell you how good it felt to ride.  There is nothing better than the freedom you feel from riding.  I am so looking forward to many more rides.

Yummy Food

So what do you do when you can't ride your bike and you need to rest for a week?  You catch up on your food blog, and then put some of those recipes on this site.  Yesterday I had Chocolate French Toast and today Fish Tostada's.  Both were sooo yummy I just have to share.

Chocolate French Toast
1/2 C Fat Free Milk (milk)
1/4 C Whole Milk (cream)
3 T Butter
2 T Sugar
1 t Vanilla
1/2 C Chocolate Chips
2 Eggs (1 egg)
8 Slices Bread (you choose what kind, we used white)

Place chocolate chips in a mixing bowl.  In a saucepan mix milk, whole milk, butter, sugar and vanilla.  Heat over meduim heat and bring to a simmer.  Once heated pour over chocolate chips and let sit until chocolate is melted, about 5 min.  Add 2 eggs for richness (if using cream only use one egg), and mix thoroughly.  Cut bread diagonally and layer in greased 9x5 baking pan.  Pour chocolate mixture over bread, cover and let sit in regrigerator for 2 hours.  Remove from refrigerator and let sit 30 minutes.  Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown at 375.  Top with your favorite topping, we used whip cream.

*This is really good, I forgot the cabbage, but other than that everything else turned out great

Fish and White Bean Tostadas
1 lime (zested & juiced) ( I like lime so I doubled the lime)
2 cloves garlic
2 T extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt & pepper
1 pound white fish (tilapia, flounder, sole, no skin)
8 (6 inch) corn tortillas (we used wheat and corn)
Sauteed White Beans (recipe to follow)
1/2 C shredded purple cabbage
Pineapple & Avocado Salsa (recipe follows)
Sour cream for garnish (we left this off)

In a small bowl mix lime zest, juice, garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper.  Cut fish in cubes and place in zip-loc bag.  Pour mixture over fish and let marinade for 15-30 minutes. 

Remove fish from bag place on greased cookie sheet and broil for 4-5 minutes until cooked through.

In frying pan heat 2 T oil and fry tortillas until crispy (other option is to deep fry in oil)  Drain on paper towels and salt while still hot.

to assemble layer each tostada with beans, fish, cabbage and salsa.  Garnish with sour cream and squeeze a lime wedge over fish.

Sauteed White Beans
2 T Olive Oil
1/2 white white/yellow onion finely chopped
Kosher Salt
1 clove garlic minced
1 t ground cumin
1/2 C white wine
1 1/2 C cooked navy beans
2 T chopped fresh oregano leaves (or 2 t dried)
Fresh ground pepper

In a medium pan heat oil until hot, add onion, pinch of salt and saute until soft.  Add garlic and cumin, cook 2 more minutes.  Raise heat add white wine, cook until half reduced.  Stir in beans and oregano season with salt and pepper.  Cook 15 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl and serve.

Pineapple and Avocado Salsa
1 can pineapple tidbits
1 T lime juice
1 T honey
1 T olive oil
1 small jalapeno (seeds removed & diced)
Kosher Salt
1/2 red onion finely chopped
1 medium avocado
2 T cilantro leaves

In medium size bowl mix 2 T pineapple juice, lime juice, honey, olive oil and jalapeno.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add pinepple and onion, mix.  Add avocado and cilantro mix and let sit for 15 minutes.

I am Awake and Up

Keeping busy while I wait my turn to go back.

The surgery/procedure went well.  I arrived at the hospital about 6:45 am, registered and then went up stairs to the cath/cardio lab.  At that point I had to wait until about 9:15 am to be taken back.  The set up was quite extensive.  I was put on a table with the width slightly smaller than a surf board.  There was the cleaning of the area of my femeral artery, and then draping with a sterile cloth that covered my entire body--except my head.

The nurses and I had a long discussion about whether I should be given the medication to relax or not.  I was hesitant because I am soooo very sensative to medication, but eventually decide it would be best, since I had to stay completely still during the procedure--absolutely no moving!

About the time the Dr. Sorenson came in I was resting with my eyes closed.  Once he arrived I woke up and stayed wide awake for the whole procedure.  It was really cool to see and hear the entire procedure. 

The doctor numbed my artery and a couple of other areas.  The numbing worked great because I felt numb all the way to my face.  He then went in and up the artery to measure the hole.  It turns out is was a "rather large hole" according to the doctor.  The size was 25 mm which is almost an inch.  I guess for a female heart this is pretty big.  After measuring the heart he went back up with a helix and patched it up.  The entire procedure took less than an hour.  The doctor was thrilled because it couldn't have been more perfect.  The surface was flat, with no rounding and it looks like it will stay in there well. 

Once the doctor finished I was rolled back to my recovery room where I had to lay flat for a minimum of 2 hours.  I could not lift my head, or move my right leg.  This was actually not too hard since I was tired, and slept some of the time.  When I was awake the nurse wanted me to eat so she could give me my medications.  Lucky for me it was waffles, I would hate to try and eat cereal laying down.

After about 2.5 hours the nurse came in and sat me up.  I got up for a bathroom break, and ended up spurting blood all over.  Apparently I had formed a hematoma or something else happened that she explained, but I can't remember--either way they both result in the same thing.  This meant I had to lay back down for about another hour, and the nurse had to push all of the excess blood out of my leg--that took a while.  I ended up laying down long enough to have lunch laying flat on my back.  Luckily for lunch it was a sandwich, another good laying on your back food.

After about an hour the nurse came in and I got up again.  This time it was a success and there was no blood.  They then moved me to my room, where I have been sleeping off and on for most of the day, in a bed that my feet touch the bottom--good thing I am not any taller!  I am staying overnight, and if all goes well I will be going home tomorrow morning.

Thanks for all the well wishes.
After surgery in my room, holding my new companion that is connected to me while I stay in the hospital.

My Last Mountain Bike Ride....

for the next 32 days and who knows how many hours and minutes.

Some of you know and some of you do not, tomorrow I am getting the hole in my heart patched up.  If you remember last May we discovered I have a PFO, well it turns out this is not the case, and luckily we found out before anything serious happened.

I haven't said much about how I have been feeling, the past few months, because it's not something I have wanted to talk about.  But since my last race in October I have not been myself.  I have been able to ride 2 times a week and that was it, and most of the time I was extremly fatigued.  I was so happy in December when we found out finally what was causing the low blood pressure, fatigue and everything else.  What I didn't let you know was when I had the seizure and my heart stopped during my table tilt test, I didn't fully recover for a good week--things were not great.  By the time I started to feel better I had my nose surgery.

As most of you know the nose surgery went well, but it took 2 weeks to get out of bed, and another week of half days before I felt really good.  What I didn't write about was what happened 2 weeks after my surgery.  It was the final day of recovery, and I was feeling pretty good.  I was cleaning the house and preparing to go back to work the next day.  As I was doing all of this I all of the sudden got a thunder clap headache.  The headache was so bad I could not think--all I wanted to do was lay down and hope the pain would go away.  I did this, and fell asleep, but do not recall the falling asleep part.  When I woke up a few hours later I was numb on the left side of my face down to my arm.

At first I thought I had slept funny, but after time passed by it remained numb--like novacane from the dentist.  Royce and I decided I probably should go to the hospital and have it checked out.  I went reluctantly, because I did not want to bother the hospital.  I figured I would be fine, but was not 100% positive.  I think I wanted to be fine, and did not want to acknowledge something was wrong.

At the hospital, they did some tests.  I had a CT scan, and xray and eventually an MRI.  All of which was to see if I had, had a stroke.  You see the symptoms I had were classic symptoms of a stroke.  Lucky for me I did not.  I did have an infection in my nasal cavity, and a lesion on my brain.  These 2 things got me sent to my ent the next day, and then a referral and appointment to the neurologist.  The ent gave me a special antibotic spray, and got me in to the neurologist within 2 days.

At the neurologist we discussed my past medical history.  I also was able to show her my MRI from last May to make a comparison.  What was noticed was the lesion was there before, but a little bit bigger, and there was more white matter.  Not a lot, but a little.  She knew I had a PFO, so she recommended I see Dr. Sherman Sorenson a cardiologist in Salt Lake.  He has worked on many PFO's (thousands) and knew he would be able to help me.  I was able to see Dr. Sorenson in about a week.

At my appointment with Dr. Sorenson I underwent another test, called a Trans Cranial Doppler test.  The test is a new test which measures brain artery blood flow by using safe ultrasound echo probes placed on the surface of both sides of the head.  If microscopic bubbles injected through an IV shunt past the lungs to the left heart, TCD detects and counts each bubble as it appears in the brain arteries.   When the test is over you are then given a rating from 1 to 5, with 1 being no bubbles get through, and 5-300+ bubbles getting through.  I was a 5 plus.

What this means is I am at high risk for a stroke, and I do not have a PFO.  Instead I have a fossa/fassa (I can't remember the spelling even though Dot told me).  A fossa is a hole without the shunt.  Which means even when my body is at rest I can have blood pass through to my left atrium, and skip going the right direction.  Which as I said means I could have a stroke.  The technical term is Atrial Septal Defects (ASD).So what needs to be done?

I am currently taking Plavix.  This is a blood thinner, which causes bruising and a few other side affects, but is worth it so you reduce the risk of a stroke.  The other thing I need to do is get the hole plugged up.  That is what I am doing tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning the doctor is going to go up my femeral artery and measure the hole with a balloon.  From there he will get the right size of patch, go back up and put the patch in place.  And I will not be fully sedated for the whole thing!

Once it's done I have to stay in the hospital overnight, and then will be released the next day to do normal activities as long as there is no physical exertion involved.  I am not allowed to ride my bike for one week.  After one week I can ride, but must take it easy, and I cannot lift anything over 50 pounds.  Also, there is no riding my mountain bike for a month!  I am somewhat bummed about no trail riding, but at least I will get to ride something after a week.

So what does this mean?  It means hopefully my low blood pressure and stuff will partially resolve.  It means I can start riding regularly and start losing all the weight I gained from lack of being able to ride.  It means I should have more energy and not feel so fatigued--my circulation should be better as well as my breathing.  The best part it means I have greatly reduced any chance of a stroke, and by doing so I will have many more mountain bike rides to come and longer to be with my family.
Pictures from my last ride on the BST...at least for 32 days.

I Have Sinned

After work today I went for a mountain bike ride.  The sun was out, weather was manageable, and I know there is a possibility this will be the last mountain bike ride I have for over a month--it will all depend on the weather next Wednesday.  With everything going in my favor I decided to opt for singletrack.  Yes, I could have safely ridden Water Tower, and although it is dirt, it just isn't quite the same.

Lucky for me the BST north was dry, so I took off on some fun, simple single track.  As I rode occassionally I would come across a patch of dark dirt, but nothing to be concerned about.  And then it happened after I crested the top of the hill and began to descend I descended into a sloppy, muddy mess!  I felt so bad about riding in the mud and snow, but not enough to turn around and go back.  No, instead I kept going.

From that point on, the trail would go from being good, to some patch of mud and and an occassional yucky spot.  And since I continued forth, there was no bail out point, until I reached the 2nd parking lot. Necause of course when I reached the first parking lot, I had determined conditions were not too bad and I could go on to the next stopping point.  Well, conditions were not the best.  Let's just say by the time I got to the second parking lot I had collected a fair amount of mud on my tires--perhaps 5 pounds per wheel.

Now being a good mountain biker, and being concerned for the trail I should have used this opportunity to take the road home and not cause further damage to the trail.  But today had two little voices pulling me back and forth.  One voice, kept reminding me it would be a very long time before I would get to ride dirt again, and certainly I did not want to miss this opportunity.  The other voice reminded how it is to be responsible, and how much I hate riding on trails people have caused damage to.  The voices went back and forth, until I finally gave in.

You guessed it.  Once I reached the 2nd parking lot I turned back around and rode the trail all the way back to water tower.  And of course I had every justification possible letting me know it was okay--it was pretty out, I wouldn't be riding trails for a while, what would one tire track do....  You get the picture.  But the truth is I have sinned against the trail.  I intentionally rode back knowing it was not in the best of conditions.  The worst part, is I really don't feel bad.  I guess you could say I had so much fun, that it was worth it.  And yes their is a hint of feeling bad, but not enough to take away the great joy I had from my ride today.  So although I sinned, I have no regrets.