Tag Archives: ulcerative colitis

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September 30, 2010

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Roller Coaster

I feel like I’m in the middle of roller coaster season rather than cyclo-cross season. Roller coaster basically sums up how things have been going so far. If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time and clicking over to read my race reports, you can most likely understand why. But just like any respectable roller coaster, my cyclo-cross season is having some solid moments of ups with its downs.

Seems though that these ups are happening when I’m not racing. The ups are happening when I’m cheering on Marc, watching my friends race hard and succeed, and when I’m helping people learn new cyclo-cross skills. Such was the scene this evening. Tonight I helped out the OBC and held a session for a small group of kids/teenagers. In total we had five kids/teenagers all with a range of racing and cyclo-cross experience. A good little bunch of kiddos eager to learn and definitely willing to attempt to rip my legs off. Thanks to Marc and Conor for demonstrating skills and for providing their expert opinions, we had a really good session. Things were kept pretty basic with the focus being on the “dismount – mount” sequence. By the end of the 90 minutes all of these young racers were getting off and on their bikes very smoothly. We played some follow the leader at the end and I was impressed with the creativity the kiddos demonstrated with the route! All in all, a great night of helping out the future of the sport and seeing people thrive. Definitely an up on this roller coaster.

Training wise, well really I haven’t been able to do anything this week. Monday was consumed with preparing for the endoscopy and colonoscopy and then Tuesday was quite literally swallowed and sucked up with these two procedures. My 11 a.m. appointment ended up being at 2:30 – so I was at the hospital from 10 until 4:30… Not like I had the energy or desire to get on a bike when I got home. The only thing I really wanted to do was eat! I hadn’t eaten any solid food since Sunday night and really jello and popsicles don’t count as food…. I took it easy today as well – my body basically had no food left in it so I really just needed to rest and eat. The eating part I don’t mind, but resting is hard. Good news is that we’ve already got some results back. So tomorrow I’m back to the hospital for some additional procedures that will hopefully make a difference. By next week we’ll know even more and keeping my fingers crossed we find out what to do to put this ulcerative colitis to rest (at least until Feb. 1…). So another up on the roller coaster.

Of course the biggest up on the roller coaster is yet to come… It is of course: Gloucester! There is no place quite like Gloucester. Great race course. Solid fans. Excellent organization. Beautiful location. Just a great spot for some cyclo-cross racing. My focus is on having this weekend be full of ups as well. Positive mindset – anything can happen and in my visions, only good things are going to happen. Looking forward to racing, hanging out with our super hosts Mike and Cathy, cheering on Marc, Steve, Conor, Karl, Evan and the rest of the Ottawa crew who is making the drive down, hopefully catching up with Erik B., and just generally enjoying be out on my bicycle.

As the new favorite shirt says:
Do What You Like. Like What You Do.

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July 8, 2010

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Baked Goods

Mmm, I love baked goods. Nothing quite like a squishy gooey cinnamon bun or a rice tart from my fave Belgian bakery. But sadly, I’m not talking about such soothing baked goods. Nope rather baked goods refers to how I felt out on my ride today. My plan was to “beat the heat”… Ya right!

Lets just say the “heat beat me”… I had an innocent 75 minutes on the plan today some endurance to warm-up the legs and then tempo intervals to shake things up and get the blood flowing. No problem. I had two full water bottles with a bit of apple juice in them and I was ready to go. Hit the road just after 9:30. Perfect – still not too hot and a slight breeze to keep me cool.

Ha! Well, the first hour or so was spot on. Great ride. Legs were ticking over smoothly and I liked the numbers I was seeing. And then the it happened. Almost as soon as I finished my last interval – the goosebumps came on. The hair on my arms was standing straight up, my legs were covered in goosebumps and I felt cold. Uh oh.

Not sure if it was a bonk or heatstroke or a combination of the both. Whatever it was, it resulted in a death ride home. What normally takes me 30 minutes or so took close to an hour. It was all I could do to turn the pedals over. I stopped worrying about power, cadence and speed. My focus was getting home. I had about 3/4 of a bottle left at this point. I stopped at a couple of businesses in hopes of filling up my bottles but strangely there was no one around.

So mind over matter and just focus on getting home. My mind was beginning to wander from listening to my podcasts to food. A sure sign that things have gone badly. Funny how appetizing a recovery drink seems when you’re out baking on a hot road far from home! Luckily as I rolled into town, I came across a couple just getting out of their car – they kindly filled my bottles with ice cold water (thank-you). I rolled home very happy to be returning to air conditioning. And no, I haven’t been outside since!

I’m sure this bonk/heatstroke incident was induced by my dietary changes over the past few days. As you know I’m following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and in the first week of the diet, carbohydrates are strictly limited. Today I was able to add bananas to my diet – but there aren’t a lot of carbohydrates in bananas. Still the dietary changes are making a big difference in my ulcerative colitis symptoms and I’m feeling much better than I have in a long time. It will take a bit of time and research to tweak the diet to make it work for cyclo-cross training and racing, but I know it can be done. I’m currently reading The Paleo Diet For Athletes – very interesting read and follows many of the same principles as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

All this to say – it is hot out there! Make sure you take more liquid than you think you need on your ride (normally I wouldn’t need two bottles for 75 minutes…) and bring some food in case the dreaded bonk/heatstroke sets in. This heat is nice but really, I’d take some rain right about now! Tomorrow is a recovery day for me so I’m off to play in the woods on my cyclo-cross bike and then to the park for some skills and drills. Good sensations all around.