waves to wine 2013

[mmpetunia]

hi all,

i am doing the waves to wine ride this year in SF and i'm super excited! i formed a team and we are planning to do the century on saturday and the 40 mile ride on sunday. i just went to the doc and got oodles of blood work and have an ultrasound scheduled to take a look at my heart murmur--just want to make sure everything is on the up and up.

are there any PwMS here who have done a bike MS or century ride? what did you do to prepare for the ride? i am looking at century ride training schedules and it looks like a lot of it is cross training--things like swimming, spin classes, pilates, etc. in addition to one short ride and one long ride per week. i'd love to hear about what worked for you.

i am a little bit concerned about the heat. the ride takes place in september and it will be sunny and HOT (ok, so i consider hot 75-80, especially if i am physically active) and there will be lots of hills on this particular bikeMS ride. did you take any additional precautions because of your MS when you rode? how did all of the training effect your fatigue level? i will probably give the cooling vests a look so if you have any feedback on those if you used one for the ride i'd love to hear about it.

my current fitness level is not good--for the last 2 years i have had very little exercise and the effect on my body is noticeable in terms of lost muscle mass. i am not overweight and feel like i could make quick gains in terms of fitness, since prior to my bike accident 2 years ago (the event that sent me spiraling downwards until i was diagnosed a year later) i rode nearly everyday, went to the gym, did yoga, and jogged minimally (never have enjoyed running. ever.). i recently went to a pilates class and i felt like a fish flopping around on dry land. clearly, i have some work to do! but i'm excited and looking forward to the experience.

[ScottSD]

I know this is a fairly old post, but I felt compelled to reply. I'm sure at this point you are still in training for your SF century. I am also planning to ride a century, but mine will be the Bay to Bay Bike MS event in SoCal. I just recently started riding my bike again, but so far it feels good. I've never ridden in a century ride. Before diagnosis I was intimidated, but now I don't care. My objective is just to make it! I plan to ride as much as I can for the next 3 months until the event. At this point, for training I do a short, fast ride 1 day during the week, do a 1 hour hike also during the week, and then do a decent ride on Saturday mornings. I am planning on riding in a 30 mile night mountain bike ride in August, a 50 mile event in Sept, and then the century in Oct. My riding style is different than it was before diagnosis. I use to push myself a lot harder, and now I ride according to my heart rate, trying to maintain a 150-160 bpm heart rate, but it fluctuates based on the ride.

In terms of heat, I don't do anything but drink cold water. Heat doesn't affect me that bad, just makes me a little dizzy. As long as I am moving on the bike, the wind helps.

Now that my diet has changed significantly, the biggest thing I am planning for on the ride is to bring my own food and eat every 2 hours or so. I'm going to buy a seat mounted rack just for my lunch bag. The second thing that worries me is that my hands go numb a lot when I am riding. I just bought an aerobar today so I can put the pressure on my forearms. Going to test it out tomorrow if the Avonex allows.

I will probably continue to focus on the bike and making sure it is prepared. Also, seat time is important just to get use to that much time in the saddle. Prior to the ride I will try to do some 70-90 miles if time allows.

Good luck with your ride. Train as much as possible and enjoy it.