Rock on tmana!!! We look forward to hearing about your adventures in training and at the ride!
I’ve signed up for the TDC in NE Ohio with is that same Saturday! I’m hoping to finish the metric century faster this year then I did last years. So sub 3:57:00, hopefully won’t be a problem!
I still love wearing my RR jersey, even if it’s under a bunch I layers of clothes! I still know I have it on! 
Weather’s been so awful, I’ve finally gone and invested in an indoor trainer (CycleOps Fluid2). The thing that’s bugging me at the moment is that it seems to be harder to keep the same cadence on the small chainring/largest gear on the trainer than on the middle chainring/middle gears on the road. (I’m new to training on the trainer, still trying to get a feel for the equipment.)
Also, I’m going to have to change my computer to a rear-wheel mount to get any useful info (beyond duration/HR) from the trainer. Any recs on Cateye Strada Cadence v. Strada Double Wireless v. V2 (wireless)? Current computer is a Cateye Micro Wireless (which doesn’t have cadence, and which has a bad habit of catching interference from high EM fields, store security systems, etc. and saying I’m riding 75mph when I’m standing still).
I have the Fluid2 as well. I found that I have to toss all cadence, endurance, and temperature expectations from outdoor riding back out the window.
I have no recommendations on a comp, I use the Garmin Edge. It was an expensive toy that I went all out for, but I also use it in the car sometimes for navigation. (Maybe I should hook the cadence sensor to the engine belts? 
According to the page that came in the enclosed training DVD, one should not use an indoor trainer for more than 90 minutes at the go… so I can see part of the throwing-out endurance. The other issue is that on the road, we sometimes coast and stop (road conditions, turns, traffic, lights) – which we don’t on the trainer. Those few seconds can give us back our breath, so to speak.
That aside, I’m wondering if being able to endure x time at similar cadence, where it FEELS harder on the trainer will make for things feeling EASIER when I’m on the road?
As a person who has logged hundreds of hours indoors, I can say that riding on a trainer is much different than outside. Yes you don’t get to coast but every point in the pedal stroke has tension so there is literally no rest. You also don’t experience the side to side motion and it can tend to isolate the leg movements in a way that is not repeatable on the road or trail. But, there is one thing that is true - the more time you put in now, the better you will be when the weather turns better. So, put that Gladiator DVD in the player and enjoy the movie while going harder during the fight scenes.
Gladiator? Don’t have that DVD… most of mine (except for some STAR TREK and the complete EON-sanctioned James Bond series) are either set in Tudor-era Europe, or 17th-19th Century US, viewed primarily to study and critique the costumes or the portrayals of historical persons and events.
Hi All - I rode the Maryland 2010 Tour De Cure today! My wife joined me for most of the ride. I am now a RedRider
Weather started out cloudy and mid 60s, but ended up in the mid 70s and sunny. So much so, that in the morning I chose not to put on NO sunscreen and now I have the bicyclist’s weird sunburn on my legs, neck and arms! The wind gusted very hard (up to 45 mph) and seemed to come from every direction, so much so, that I made several outbursts about the fact that my speed at times went from 16 to 6 during some of the gusts!
I previously posted a question about the 50k vs 100k. Unfortunately I got a case of shingles last Sunday and started treatment on Tuesday. It hurts quite a bit so I opted for the 50k!!
The event was well run by the Maryland ADA folks and there were ~500 riders and they collectively raised about $186k. I started my fundraising late and only raised ~$560.
Sorry to hear about the shingles and sunburn – but HOORAH for having completed your first Tour!!!
Mine’s June 13 (my first). I’m aiming for 50miles (we don’t have a 50k here). Unfortunately off training for a bit due to a bad crash on Wednesday. (Thinking I may need to follow up with the doctor today due to unwelcome developments.)
Congratulations on the ride, and in raising a significant amount for the ADA. I hope the difficulties just made the sense of accomplishment sweeter. Best wishes for a full and rapid recover from the shingles.
I wore the RR jersey for the past 2 Tour de Cures (or Tours de Cure?) in Seattle, and it was neat to see others doing the same. The first year I just wanted to ride the century and didn’t feel like advertising the diabetes, but I wore the jersey anyway. At a rest stop about halfway through family approached me and told me they were riding because their son was recently diagnosed. Turns out he was diagnosed at the same age I was diagnosed, except in my case that was 35 years ago. We talked for a long time and they called their son on a cell phone and told him that they met someone with diabetes who was riding. I am not a Team Type One-level guy, but was kind of nice to think that maybe someone was encouraged. So I’ll wear the jersey again next Saturday for the TDC.
Very cool story, Greg. This is why I think we need to “advertise” when we’re doing something healthy and/or challenging.
Saw the doc Saturday - one week after a car accident (I was the passenger, not the driver) that compounded some of the cycling injuries, and several days after an episode of fainting that was probably an adverse reaction to pain medication… she doesn’t want me training until I can get a CAT scan of my head, just to make sure that the face-plant was not due to a subdural hematoma. Right now we’re waiting for insurance clearance…
Good Luck!
I have had the chance to be a red rider this year for the San Anotio Texas to Austin ride. At first I was not too sure that I could complete the ride. I took a nasty spill 2 weeks before the ride so I had stitches on my arm and nursing some bruised ribs. I decided to to the second day which was San Marcos Tx to Austin Texas. It was a great experience and hopefully I can come back next year and do the full ride
All right, my blood-glucose level cooperated during last weekend’s Seattle-area Tour de Cure, but the weather did not. Here I am at the start line, 7 AM, rainy and 47 degrees. Not sure why I appeared to be in a good mood.
Took a week to find out I didn’t need insurance clearance… but unless I could find a facility that billed a CAT as an office visit, I’d be responsible for $2500 + 20% of anything over that. Don’t have the cash, playing the odds. So far, so good. Haven’t been out more than an hour at the time and still need to get back whatever climbing legs I was starting to develop… not to mention working on endurance…
The 50-mile ride really stretched me. I didn’t get in as much advance training as I would have liked; the day quickly got hot, and my blood glucose levels were much higher than I’m comfortable with. I was about to SAG at about Mile 42, but figured I’d walk the bike while waiting for the SAG wagon to catch up with me. To make a long story short, it never did, and I rode into the finish line under my own power.
I was asked if I’d like to address the riders before the start of the ride. For some reason I’d thought there were many more Red Riders than there were, or that we were going to be a lot larger proportion of the group than we were… so even with a few last-minute changes, my speech was a bit skewed towards those of us living with diabetes on an everyday basis…
I am celebrating my 50th birthday by riding my first Tour de Cure.
What I – and the rest of us – are about to do today, many fit adults half my age say they could not do. (By the way, that includes the one-mile “kiddie” ride.) While we could quibble about “could not, or would not,” the bottom line is that for many of us, regular intense physical activity is a necessary tool in managing our diabetes, or in preventing diabetes.
Nominally, the Tour de Cure is about the mission of the American Diabetes Association. But really, it’s about us. It is about taking control of our lives and our bodies, keeping them in sufficient condition to ride our bicycles, and encouraging others to ride as well. It is about not using diabetes as a crutch or an excuse to sit around and mope at what cards we have been dealt – it’s about using it as an incentive to get serious about our own health.
And it is about using our motivation to inspire others. Whether we ride with diabetes, with someone who has diabetes, in honor of (or in memory of) someone who has – or had – diabetes, or any combination of the above, our dedication shines as a beacon to others – a sign in blood glucose test strips, sweat, and neon-colored lycra that we are not going to “give up and die” – we are not going to let diabetes “win” – and that we are, and will remain, active – both with our bodies and in our support of people with diabetes.
I ride for many people today: myself, my life partner Frank, my mother, and many, many friends, family members, and colleagues. I ride in memory of many more. I ride inspired by Team Type 1 and Team Type 2, and the Red Riders and Cycling Diabetics groups on TuDiabetes.org. I choose to ride on my birthday as much to “give back” as to have fun. For whom do you ride? Who inspires you – both to ride, and to manage your diabetes? Take a moment to reach out to them, and – in your own ways – let them know, “This one’s for you.”
Now, let’s ride!
Tour of the White Mountains/ Mountain bike race 35 mile.
BS at start 185. Started off strong felt good passed a lot of people at the start one guy crashed right in front of me.
First climb no one passed flew down to the first sag stop blew on by.
BS at 30 min in 165. On a dirt road 2 guys go to pass me, I up my speed first guy can’t hang falls off.
Talk to the second guy he finally leaves me I let him go.
Second sag stop BS 132 eat orange slices get right back on.
Catch a couple of guys in the technical sections pass them.
Catch a third he increases he speed catch him again and hang out behind BS 130.
24 miles in flat tire, ripped the side wall Stan’s can’t fix it boot the tire and put a tube in it goes flat as well.
I am done! walk out to sag stop 3. Went thru 2/3 of a bottle of3 scoops Heed. My First mechanical and first DNF, checked my time from last year to this year and I was definitely faster probley would have placed in the master catogory
Awesome job Kent! Sorry about your mechanical luck, get’em next time!!!