It’s almost been a couple weeks but I want to get my ride results in for the Tour de Cure here in San Diego.  A fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association, the 2010 tour used the same excellent routes as the 2009 tour that I blogged about here: http://nerdnotes.net/blog/PermaLink,guid,70d1a34e-b41f-4124-a563-efb8dc736c36.aspx

Once again I considered the century route and on the day of the ride (or day before in this case) decided to go with the 71 mile route.  However the difference from last year is that last year at the end of 72 miles my thought was ‘good decision, not sure I could have made it another 30 miles.’  This year at the end my thought was - ‘I should have gone for it’ which is a good sign.  I have been getting in more training but was just a little short of what I considered my comfort level for doing the century.

The result this year were similar at one level with my results the year before  The Garmin shows me at 13.7 mph again this year.  However, I know I spent a significantly longer time at the 3rd rest stop as I’ll explain in the numbers. Last year the 3 legs averaged 14.0, 14.4 and 15.8 respectively.  Unfortunately this year I forgot to tag my garmin when I left rest stop 3 and lost that gap in my timing.  However, my first two legs averaged 15.5 and 15.2 respectively.  That’s an awe inspiring 1.5 mph increase in the first leg and a solid .5+ in the second leg.  Why is that time important? Because even though in terms of hours on the clock my times were almost identical the bike computer tells the rest of the story.

On my bike computer my bike computer showed that my average speed climbed from 15 mph to 16.1 mph and my time spent riding was only 4 hours 30 minutes.  That means almost 45 minutes was spent stopped.  17 minutes was spend at my favorite rest stop – stop 2, just before the climb up Circle-R.  It’s run by a sorority and in something even rarer here in SoCal – the shade of trees.  The third rest stop took up an even bigger chunk because I stayed a little long to go for a ride with my Doctor. He was also on the ride again this year (I think he last did it in like 2007 when it was still out in East County.)

He was a little slower than me – he’s also more than a couple years older and has a hip problem.  The interesting thing is I actually felt I was sand bagging in the last leg even though my speed was taking me well over a 16 mph pace for the full 70 miles.  That’s why I wrote I could have taken on the 100 miles. 

Once again it was an awesome ride, a great day for a ride and a great group of people to be out riding with.  The ride was somewhere around 1000 people this year – well above the 300 or so that would come out when I started back in 2003.  I think the ride raised somewhere around 400K for the ADA which is used not only for research but also for education and assistance programs for those with or at high risk of Diabetes.

In theory you can still make a donation through my page at: http://main.diabetes.org/goto/BillSheldon

Finally I’m going to leave with a post I’m making to the blog on that page.  It involves a friend of mine Scott Hanselman…

I'm sure that some people think the reason I ride is because I have Diabetes.  That's not really accurate.
A more accurate statement is I ride because by being diagnosed I learned about Diabetes - not just Type 2, but also the less common but far more devastating Type I.

Type 2 which I have is something I like to think of as "God's way of telling me to get off my fat but and get rid of my belly."  That's a very 'optimistic' view but still for me Type 2 Diabetes is something I may have but not something that has me.

Now let me describe an entirely different disease.  It strikes people who are still young, it's fatal and without expensive treatment and drugs, but eventually still terminal.  Even with those drugs and treatments it's 100% incurable and has taken some amazing people before their time.  Research in recent years has made amazing progress and those diagnosed now live years longer than just 20 years ago.

Sounds a little like AIDS - but it's not, that's Type I diabetes and the big difference is that 1. it's not contagious, 2. It strikes almost randomly to people between the age of 6 months and the late 20's.

As I learned about my disease and how to manage it, I learned about Type I diabetes and just how devastating it is. 

An acquaintance of mine ( I hesitate to say 'friend' although we co-authored a book together) has Type I diabetes.  Scott Hanselman, currently of Microsoft, is quite open about his battle with this disease.

Scott just yesterday posted a new You Tube video that I'll link to in a second.  However, before you go to the video let me speak for Scott for a second.  In it he shows just what's involved with setting up his insulin pump and continuous blood sugar monitoring.  It is painful to watch - but he isn't complaining about the process.  He would be the first person, and I'm pretty sure he does at the start, to say how amazing and wonderful this process is compared to the alternatives.  When I said advances in technology and treatment have helped with the control of this disease the process Scott shows is testament to that.

The key in the video however is at the end.  This is the point where Scott and I have a common feeling.  He'll hold up his tray of waste from the process and then he explains the real motivation.

I mentioned this disease strikes children as young as 6 months - think about going through the process Scott shows - or worse being limited to test strips and 3-4 injections a day from that age.  Think  about that as you watch the process Scott is demonstrating.  Scott described this video on Twitter as having his 'fat' belly on display - but a more accurate description would be 'bruised' belly - look for it as he sets up his glucose monitor and think about having multiple bruises like that as a child, the daily, weekly pain of the injections and finger sticks that leave bruises like that - even when you do them perfectly.

http://hnsl.mn/iamdiabetic 

but he’s not alone, so here is a young man I’ve never met named Thor – check him out, then think about the process involved in setting up that pump he’s using:

That’s why I ride, donate and raise money - not for me; Type 2 Diabetes? I can handle this, and in comparison, its not bad at all.

Update: Made some minor gramar and typo corrections, and need to note one wording issue.  The last sentence implies I only ride to raise money.  To clarify, I got back on my bike and started riding it to help control my disease.  That sentence isn't refering to me on the bike in general, its focused on why I ride in the Tour de Cure every year.

It’s been a couple weeks but I wanted to record the results of my ride for Diabetes – Tour de Cure here in San Diego.  The 2009 tour used the same 71 mile route used in 2008, and since I still haven’t gotten back to where I’m riding my 40 mile weekend rides, I limited myself to the 71 mile route instead of the century (100 mile) route.

The 2008 tour – well it wasn’t one of my best. It took me 5 hours and 45 minutes to complete. My average speed with my Garmin was 12.6 for the route (note the Garmin’s speed is based on time stopped at lights and rest stops… which while accurate isn’t what I want to measure, which is jsut my speed when not being penalized for stops including traffic signals)

Unfortunately I didn’t capture my bike computer’s numbers last year but I recall it being pretty low. The Garmin also estimated that I burned ~4741 calories on the ride, and recorded a max heart rate of 185. (Note: the higher the max heart rate the worse baseline shape you are in.)

This year my bike computer had me completing the ride with an average speed of 15 mph – which was great since I was shooting for 14.5 and would have been satisfied with anything over 14mph.

As for the Garmin it said 5 hours 15 minutes to complete – a 30 minute improvement.

My average speed with my Garmin was 13.7 mph – this time I actually managed to mark the time spent at rest stops – I stopped at 2 rest stops, # 4 and #5 and so I can see they accounted for 20 minutes of time, and even if I get motivated average my speed for the 3 legs of riding between them. My average speeds on the 3 legs surrounding the rest stops were 14.0, 14.4 and 15.8 respectively. Admittedly there was a nice wind blowing from the NW near the end of the ride which helped push me down the coast on that last leg (although as always I had to fight it as headwind for 7 miles down the bike path first.)  By the way, the rest stops put together by the organizers are great on this ride (both years) and there is a great deal of support along the well marked route.

It was also a fairly cool day, a blessing since as I recall it was hot on April 19^th in 2008.  Overall it was a great ride, and they had a couple bands lined up to play after the ride.  The organizers learned from last year and did a much better job of spreading out the start time so people finished closer to the same time, instead of those on the long rides finishing after most of the festivities were over.  Of course I’ll be back to ride again next year, and encourage everyone to join me.

One of Tim Huckaby’s favorite sayings when out mountain biking can be paraphrased; ‘If you are really pushing you’ll leave a little blood on the mountain’.  The idea being that since really pushing it on a mountain bike tends to involve taking some risks and occasionally crashing… if you’ve gone all out somebody managed to crash.

Pictured below is my knee after a recent ride, the question though with any such injury is how did I manage to get these gouges in my leg?

Well at this point you are probably assuming that I was on my mountain bike, after all I haven’t laid down my road bike since I was like 13… well until Sunday that was.  Yes this is the visible portion of the painful results of a road bike crash.  I was training for the Tour de Cure.  As part of my training every year I head out to Sleeping Indian road (in Oceanside, CA) and ride my bike up the rather brutal climb on that road.  To get there my route takes me out College Ave to Old River Road and then it intersects with Sleeping Indian road. Near this intersection the Old River Road narrows briefly and a curb is added, just prior to where I need to make a left.

On Sunday I was rolling along at around 18mph as I approached and needed to check behind me before moving out into the lane of traffic.  As I did this I realized I had a car literally right behind me, and he caught me by surprise – at the same time my slight reaction put me into some sand on the side of the road.  At that point my first thought was ‘ turn into the road to regain control’ – to which my second thought was ‘no there is a car there’.

I’d like to put in a quick aside here for those who drive cars.  Many times cars will stay behind us for a while.  I realize sometimes its hard to find a good time to pass, but in all honesty I would rather have you get past me sooner than stay behind me so you can ‘see me’.  The problem being that once you are past me  you are no longer a threat to me and I can be out of your thoughts… with you behind me how I react to a sudden road hazard changes – because with a choice between hitting the ground or risking getting hit by a car – well the ground looks mighty inviting.

At any rate I again corrected toward the edge of the road knowing that there was a large open dirt space on my right – but forgetting about that annoying curb.  This took me from bad to worse – because the edge of my front tire contacted this rounded ‘curb’ made from blacktop.  Which brought my next thought – TURN LEFT go into the road, followed as you might guess by the thought “NO!”.  Which was entirely appropriate since this was just about the point that my tire finally caught hard enough to trigger the chain reaction that resulted in me separating from the bike and getting the first hand experience of just how ‘inviting’ that dirt patch on the side of the road really was.

After  jumping back up from being on my back with my head toward the road, and my bike remaining (not sure how I managed it) sitting on the side of the road, I faced the cards which had now stopped.  Make no mistake it must have been an awesome crash to watch because no less than the first 3 cars in back of me asked me if I was OK… to which I answered yes – even though I wasn’t quite sure yet at that point.    Note I ALWAYS keep my cell phone with me when I ride alone so I had been less than OK or had my bike been inoperable, I would have called home/help as required.

So as with any wreck the first minute or so is just collecting the name of the ‘bus’ which just hit you and really deciding if you are OK.  Then you begin the real processing of how is my bike?  When I wrecked I was 11 miles into a planned 45 mile ride, and could have either turned back and headed home goal unfulfilled or pushed on to get in my climb and long ride. So I did a quick look over of my bike and sure enough within about 5 minutes I was pretty sure I was actually OK. I was amazed in some ways – my bike appeared pretty much undamaged. I did a more thorough check as I remounted and made a quick spin as I was deciding what to do.

Now aside from the obvious damage  - most of my impact had been on my back.  One of the tricks I learned mountain biking is that when landing “Use the camel pack.”  By which I mean, even on my road bike I show my slavery to ‘style’ by wearing a big ugly mountain bike camel pack to carry my water and stuff instead of a water bottle and the pockets in my jersey.  The advantage appeared again, because unlike my leg which has some significant scratches the only scratches above the waist are a few minor ones on my right arm.  Which is impressive because at first I wondered if I had broken my collar bone and over time it’s my right shoulder and my neck which have hurt the worst.  (Another note my helmet didn’t hit the ground – another untouched item)   The camel pack took most of the impact, that and I vaguely remember trying to get my right leg onto that curb – a memory driven in part my the pain in my right heel.

At any rate given my experience mountain biking as I got started and things appeared to be good I decided to press onward.  So I started up Sleeping Indian road.  As I was climbing Sleeping Indian I noticed that my front tire seemed a bit deformed.  I had tested with my brakes and didn’t seem to have a problem with the wheel at slow speeds… but on I pedaled noticing as my front wheel spun in front of me that it just didn’t look right.  It kept seeming like there was an odd little bump on the left hand side of my tire – which was odd since the curb was on the right when I wrecked, below is a still picture looking down on my front wheel (taken after the ride… notice the deformation). 

While the wheel was spinning of course there was the question of what is that ‘blip’ that keeps spinning past… but the good news was I passed my test for the ride. I made it up Sleeping Indian without stopping on the climb.  This is my test because back in 2003 when I bought my bike and started getting ready for my first Tour de Cure I set out on a ride that included this hill without knowing what I was getting into.  I stopped about 1/3 of the way up the hill and again at about 2/3’s and of course at the top.  Today like every year since I’ve climbed the hill – non-stop and as in Sunday kept on going without stopping after reaching the stop.  This is a good sign for me being read for the Tour de Cure on the 18th.

My next warning came on the resulting down hill.  Now at speed when I pressed the front brakes to slow down I got a clicking… both a sound a a feeling.  That clicking is something I’d felt before.  I had it when I managed to bend a rim on my road bike.  Not a subtle bend like you correct by adjusting spoke tension but a dent in the side of your wheel that is causing the brakes to hit an uneven surface.  Cursing mentally because I’m picturing a need to purchase a new wheel, not a cheap fix.  It also meant I had to be careful using the front brakes since they could in theory catch and send me flying (again). 

Once I got to the end of Sleeping Indian I pulled off for a quick break and to figure out just how bad the damage was and that deformation well it was caused by what would be some significant sidewall damage to my tire,

You’ll also note there is a small amount of what I later determined to be negligible damage to the wheel itself, but as you can see from the next photo the tire damage wasn’t in just one spot it was pretty much the entire right side of the tire.

So at this point, you’re probably thinking – hmm failing side wall, bleeding, shoulders and neck starting to hurt – Bill headed back.  However, you just aren’t considering just how stubborn I can be.  I was still only around 15 miles into the ride, so I continued on.  I made some checks at 20 miles and was careful to avoid my front brakes – after all – the clicking I head wasn’t the rim, it was the deformed sidewall hitting the front brakes.  Thus each time I heard that I was risking a sidewall failure as the sidewall collided with the braking mechanism.

Things went well till about mile 40 when I pretty much bonked. The fact that I couldn’t really breathe deeply combined with the general soreness of my right shoulder and neck made the last 5 miles – painful.  However, I survived and yesterday I put a new tire on my bike.  It rained this morning so I’m waiting until Thursday to head out for another ride.

I am riding in this years San Diego Tour de Cure to help in the fight against diabetes.  This years tour is on April 18th 2009 and includes a 100 mile (century) ride which I’m hoping to complete.   If  you have a road bike and are interested or are just plain interested in the ride you can get more information from the official site at: http://tour.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/TDC551018030?pg=entry&fr_id=5632

Since this is a ride to benefit charity you can also help out by sponsoring me.  You can send an offline donation for those uncomfortable using the online methods using the address in the link above:

Offline donations can be sent to:
American Diabetes Association
Attention: Tour de Cure
225 Broadway, Ste. 1530
San Diego, CA 92101
*Please include a note that states which rider the funds should be credited to.

or you can make an online donation through my personal event page is at: http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/TDC551018030?px=1001265&pg=personal&fr_id=5632

Diabetes is a nasty disease and when you consider it’s linked the leading cause of blindness and amputation in the United States, is associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's, associated with increased risk of Stroke not to mention that just having diabetes is not only an increased risk of heart attack, but means you are treated as if you’ve already had your first heart attack, you hopefully can see why I support this cause.

A new story on how they've discovered the gene responsible for a genetic pre-disposition to diabetes (and all you ever hear is it's because people eat too many carbs... wrong - even before the gene was found it was known to be a genetic problem.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18122308/site/newsweek/wid/11915773?GT1=9303

Apparently according to this article the the gene in question is #10.... you might have one copy that's bad or two but having even one increases your risk of Type 2 diabetes significantly.  As for me - well I already have Type 2 Diabetes so no reason for me to get tested - and as for my son - why would I possibly want to have him tested?  I don't plan on telling him I have Diabetes once he's old enough to really understand because I don't want him to be black-listed for insurance and other activities - thus what possible benefit would there be to getting him tested?  The fact is leading a healthy lifestyle with exercise and diet is the only defense until and after you get diagnosed so unlike say a breast cancer risk where you might choose surgery to remove the risk, the test really doesn't provide any value.

So with the arrival of Billy, my operation and work related activities to close out the second half of last year my biking has been almost non-existant.  While I normally like to get around 2000 miles a year in, last year I got in ~700 - which is sad and not healthy.  So it's time to start getting serious for this year, got my bike tuned up and a new chain and brake pads. I'm finishing up my work for Professional VB.NET 3.0 any day now and am starting to ride to and from work (a mere 8 miles each way).  Of course as part of getting serious again there is that little concept of goals and I have mine.  For starters although I took off last year for the birth of my son, I'll be back at the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure ride. 

Consider this an open invite to join me on either this ride or the Encinitas ride I describe below it.

The San Diego Tour de Cure is May 12th this year, leaving from Cuyamaca College in East San Diego County.  This ride is 10, 20, 30, 42 or 64 miles depending on the route you select.  The longer 42 and 64 mile, routes involves some significant climbing up into the hills of East San Diego County.  I'll be doing the metric century (64 miles ~100Kilometers) version of the ride again.  It is a fund raising ride for the American Diabetes Association and my fund raising site is here: Click here to visit my Tour de Cure page. 

for more information about the San Diego event you can go here: http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=4403

Back when I was first diagnosed with diabetes this ride was the both the reason I bought a road bike (in addition to my mountain bike) and the reason I upgraded that bike to have a triple front chain ring.  As described on their site the ride is challenging.  Given that I've regressed almost to the point where I was when I bought my bike I have my work cut out for me getting ready for this years ride.

In addition to that ride, this will be the inagural year for another ride here in San Diego County.  The Encinitas Sports and Fitness Festival is launching a San Diego Century ride.  The even has three ride lengths: 35, 72 and 105 miles that go through a portion of North San Diego County.  This ride is scheduled for May 19th of this year and is a fund raiser for the Challenged Athletes Association.

More information on the event is here:  http://www.encinitasrace.com/sdc/ 

The cost for the century ride is $50 on Active.com but  I haven't decided if I want to take on the century ride for this event.  I've done century rides in the past, and even difficult rides as this one looks to be.  However the route that has been posted concerns me.   Specifically it looks like you put in about 60 miles on a hilly course and then need to climb up into Ramona from just south of Poway.  Thus the major climb occurs three/fifths of the way into the ride which is a challenge.  Worse however is that this will probably hit between 11AM and 1PM for me (depending on start time and speed) and that means at the height of the day climbing during the heat of the day.  I have to see if I am really willing to take this on so I'm going to hold off registering for this ride.

Bill finishing the Tour de Poway century ride....

As for Fall - well I'll be looking for another century ride - Poway at a minimum hopefully, but more importantly I'll be looking to climb Palomar Mountain again.  I want to once again make it up without needing to stop during the 12 mile climb.

Feel free to join me for a ride.

Eventually this has the potential to be great news for literally hundreds of milliions of people.  It's still a long way out but seems to be on the right track.  It could bring about an end to two major and several minor charitable organizations and cure one of the most damaging diseases in terms of blindness and loss of limb that is out there.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=a042812e-492c-4f07-8245-8a598ab5d1bf&k=63970

Of course doctors/scientists and others have known for a while that inflamation in the pancreas and the destruction of the islets was the  source of diabetes and we've seen several initially promissing studies which then failed to pan out.  But as I've noted in the past, when researchers address the issue at it's source (the pancreas) they are in my opinion on the right track for a cure (as opposed to a treatment).  By the way this study would in my opinion fit with an earlier summary that said extremely high doses of aspirin which adressed inflamation in the kidney/pancreas by blocking certain enzymes:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-08-30-aspirin.htm

and it fits with another old study which I unfortunately don't have a link to which talked about a similar path to a cure for diabetes.

Unfortunately just like the past stories there are still alot of questions and it's way too early in the process to really think this WILL end diabetes, but at least its another step in the process of finding a cure.

Many of you may be familiar with the Yellow wristbands supported by Lance Armstrong's live strong foundation to support the fight against cancer.  Some of you who know me may have noticed that I've transferred my yellow band to a red band... not that I'm particularly consistent on wearing any wristband, and nothing against cancer research. I have several family members (both living and deceased) touched by it. 

The red wrist bands support Diabetes and are available from the American Diabetes Association.  As most people know my wife Tracie and I are very involved in the fight against Diabetes (since I have Type 2 Diabetes).  You can order the wrist bands online from the ADA at: http://store.diabetes.org/products/product_category.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302024093&bmUID=1123024922007   (Alternatively you can contact your local ADA office who can help you obtain a wrist band.)

They contain the ADA's message for Care-Cure-Committment since unlike many organizations the ADA isn't just out to find a cure, but also to ensure that the 18million or so Americans who have Diabetes (many similar to high blood pressure don't know it) learn to care for themselves.  The ADA plays an important role in Diabetes education especially in those communities such as the Hispanic and Native American populations where incidence of this genetic disease is much higher.