Tour de Cure

My wife Noelle signed up for the tour de cure again this year. She signed up for the 25 mile route. This will be the longest ride she has ever done. I am going to do it as well.
I have been living with diabetes for the last 10 years and on insulin for about 6 years. There have been up and downs but luckily I have a great wife and lots family support. Biking has changed my life for the better as well. Living with diabetes your life revolves around food, testing yourself and taking insulin. Exercise helps to lower blood sugar but introduces challenges as well. But once again it is about food, testing yourself and taking insulin.
My daily routine is wake up test, eat breakfast, 2 hours later test, test, eat lunch, test, test, eat dinner, test. You do start to feel like a pin cushion after a while, but you get used it. Luckily I have good insurance and can afford an insulin pump. It really makes a huge difference in my daily life. Instead of having to take multiple shots a day, I can just put a new infusion set in every 3 days. This allows me to fine tune my insulin intake similar to what my pancreas should be doing. But it is a balancing act that doesnt take much to upset. I try to do my best to keep it in control, somedays you can do everything you are supposed to but it is all out of wack, other days everything is perfect. Overall I feel that the disease has made me more healthy in many ways.

Hopefully a cure isnt too far off. The more money that is raised the closer we get. One thing I am grateful for, is that I didnt get the disease until I was in my 20`s. I feel so bad for all the kids out there with this disease that dont get the chance to have a "normal" childhood. So if you can donate $5 or $50 (click the link on the right) I just want to thank you for making a difference in my life and everyone with this disease.

The streak continues

Another nice day to get out and ride. I put in about 16 miles on the dirt roads. I headed east on the MOT but the gravel was like riding in kitty litter so I jumped off at 33 mile road headed east until I hit Armada. The legs were really sore from my ride yesterday, this was the 4th day in the row that I have ridden. I need to keep this up to get ready for summer and the racing season.
As of right now I have 136 miles on the new bike.

I guess some guys on mmba including brad did a ride out to richmond yesterday. I didnt see it posted, and I bumped into someone on the trail today that was asking me if I did it yesterday. I would of liked to so hopefully they decide to do it again. I havent made it that far east yet. I really want to get out that way more and do some riding, I have lived in this area my entire life and havent really ever been out that way much.

Good bye to a old friend.

Another "warm" day here in the S.E. part of the mitten state. The sun was out and the temps were in the 50`s. I got out for about a 2 hour ride on the Seven. I love the bike. Today was my first ride on the I9`s as well. I have never ridden a bike that is so well balanced and handles just right. I am still waiting for the ice and snow to go away so I can get some trail riding in. I stopped by stony today with hopes of at least hitting a little section of trail that doesnt get ridden too much, but would be fun to try the bike out on. But as I pulled up to it, all snow covered. I wasnt going to ride it if it was muddy or snowy, and it was probably both so I turned around and headed home. I had a bit of of pain in my leg climbing a hill, but I was trying to keep a guy on a road bike behind me, which I did. I am sure it was some old, fat guy, but in my mind he wasnt. :)

I sold one my favorite bikes this weekend. It was one of the most verstaile bikes I have ever owned and always fun to ride. But now that I have been bitten by the custom 29er bug the Surly just wasnt working for me any more. When I bought the bike I didnt realize it was only a large frame, it was comfortable, but now with being fitted and feeling how well a bike can feel I had to sell it. So stayed tuned to the next project bike. It will be a single speed and I am thinking Orbea orange/blue for a color scheme.

70 in March

Well we dont get too many 70 degree days in March so yesterday I had to get out and take advantage of it. It was the first time in '09 that I got to wear shorts and a short sleeve jersey, even though I cheated a bit with a wind block layer in the chest underneath. I put in 30 miles on the road bike my longest ride since last April. It was nice to get out and I bumped into Lloyd L. and also Jeff S. on my ride. It was nice to see a couple of friends that I havent seen in the last year too much. The leg felt pretty good, I could tell though on they way back home I was maybe pushing it too hard. There was a decent headwind and with my lack of miles for the year the leg started to hurt a little. I cant say it bothered me too much and after I was home for a bit I really didnt notice it. But it was a pretty easy route that I took, mostly flat the entire way to stony. Have to start somewhere though.
At least the warmth melted some of the snow and ice out there, every day like this the closer we get to being able to ride the trails again. Hopefully that isnt too far off.