I rode the Pescadaro ride without Joyce because she was on call. We started at Canada Road at 92. Towards the end of Canada I found myself riding by myself. I could see a few riders far off but none of the others. I didn't notice that many had stopped at the bakery on Woodside so I pushed on without a break. As I kept going I thought it was odd that nobody was passing me (which is my usual M.O.). Turns out most people had stopped at the bakery and were waiting for me! Finally, they decided I must have gone on ahead so they took off again. I was suffering through Old La Honda with my music and my thoughts. Taking my time, stopping about every mile. Suddenly I saw some of the CCC green jerseys coming up the hill. I was about 2/3 up when everyone had passed me. That's more like it :) Of course Jerry stayed with me to the top and I was greeted by the rest of the group with lots of congratulations. It is so great to ride with such a supportive group, don't know how I would have made it through the training without them. Also, thank goodness for Weldon who had parked his van in Pescadaro the night before so I didn't have to try and do the whole ride, which is 62 miles with 5200 feet of climbing. Here is a map showing the route, I did the red line (up Old La Honda not Woodside):
Here is a table of my rides for the last two weeks of August.
The training took a hit during the last week because I was on service and busy with my clinical responsibilities. I wanted to try to get out at least once midweek but I was working until after dark each day. Joyce and I had left Pinkie and Tumbles in our office in case we could get away but it didn't happen until Saturday August 25. I think we worked out at the gym one day but can't recall which day.
That Sunday, August 26, we conquered Old La Honda together and we were celebrating our accomplishments. Well, we were celebrating until it turns out Old La Honda had conquered me! I woke up August 27 with a bad back spasm. I have had these before over the years and a couple mild ones since training. However, this one was pretty bad. I decided to get a sports massage that afternoon, which seemed like a good idea, but it turned out to be BAD. I had a 75 minute massage focusing on all the spasm that had taken over my back such that I couldn't stand up straight. It was one of the most painful massages I have ever had but when I got up I could stand up straight and felt less pain. I then had dinner with my friend Jessie who was in town for a few days and when I got up from the booth after dinner I had severe spasm and could hardly move due to the pain! I had to head home and take a muscle relaxant (flexeril) and ibuprofen. I spent the next day in bed essentially in a flexeril coma. When I still had significant pain the next morning I had a novel idea - maybe I should go to my doctor! :)
I knew something wasn't quite right when I couldn't lift my right leg off of the examining table without excruciating pain. For those people not in the medical field, that is not a good sign. So, an MRI was ordered, I got referred to a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist, increased my ibuprofen from 600 mg to 800 mg, and used some heat and rest. Over the week my back improved but never got back to normal. The MRI was done August 30 but I had to wait until September 4th to know the results. In the meantime, we had a big ride scheduled with Jerry for September 1st so Joyce and I decided to do a slow and relatively easy ride Friday August 31st to see if I would even attempt the ride Saturday (Crissy Field, Marin Headlands, Tiburon). The 8/31 ride went ok so we decided to go for it the next day. Of course, that is for another blog since this entry is about August. Can you stand the suspense?
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