What a great day for a training ride yesterday. I joined up with several of my fellow GearUp4CF team riders at 10th and Cypress at 7:30 AM, after doing a short loop out to UBC (see route map, below).
Tom Evans and Susan Edmison had organized this trek out to Horseshoe Bay. Since they organized it, of course, there just had to be a mandatory stop at Central Bistro off Denman street for massive 'energy enhancing' breakfast. I don't usually do this before a big ride, I was happy as it gave me a chance to get to know my fellow riders a bit better.<--In front of the Bistro. Left to right: Linda (a friend of Susan and Tom), Rebecca, Justin, Susan, Tom, Stan
Susan and Tom had a big surprise for us. When we stopped at the Bistro, they took off their bike helmets to reveal..... their amazing hair!!
Susan and Tom had, in memory of Eva Markvoort, taken on her her trademark flaming red hair. They looked pretty good! Susan and Tom showed off their new hair last night when they appeared at the grand opening of the 65 Red Roses art exhibit on Granville Island. If you are in Vancouver, you simply must see this exhibit, on display until June 16th.
During breakfast, Rebecca, a young post doctoral researcher, told how she has moved west to work in David Speert's lab at Children's Hospital , that specializes in Cystic Fibrosis research. Her special research interest will be to learn why the inflammatory response to infections is so different in CF. By understanding this better, improved treatment may be possible, with, ultimately improved outcomes for the children we are riding for. This is the sort of work that is actively being done in Vancouver, considered a leading center of CF research in Canada. And this is why your research support through GearUp4CF is so important.
Justin works in a research laboratory at Children's Hospital near the lab where Rebecca will soon be. He has worked in CF research as well. While we were having breakfast, Justin explained that many of the specialized techniques he uses can be applied to doing cutting edge research in CF. Both Rebecca and Justin have a keen understanding of the important work that is currently underway, and both will be riding with us to Banff. I am looking forward to learning more about their research along the way, along with James Zlosnik, also a leading researcher in Vancouver who is studying the bacterial pathogens that cause so many problems for people with CF. When you think about it, we have quite an amazing team of riders this year.
<--Margaret and Brian at Horseshoe Bay
It is all the more remarkable because Margaret, quite an athlete in her own right, has Cystic Fibrosis herself. She has reached an amazing level of fitness thanks to her successful double lung transplant. Later, Brian gave me a chance to try handling the bike with him riding on the back. I could not believe how difficult it is to do! Every minor shift in weight had to be carefully anticipated, or you could easily find yourself on the pavement. It gave me a whole new appreciation for what a challenge they are undertaking, cycling up the Hope Princeton highway with us to Manning Park this year.
Margaret rides behind Brian on a Tandem bike. As you can see, she has "special" instructions from Tom: "Yakity Yak, Don't talk back!".
<--Left to right: Justin, Stan, Linda (Susan's friend), Rebecca, Susan, Tom, Brian and Margaret (click on photo to enlarge)
From there, we parted company, almost everyone returning home to Vancouver via Marine Drive. I headed off up towards Cypress Mountain to repeat the route I did last week. Along the way, I managed to fix a 'little' problem, a loose screw that had been making my right cleat fall out of the pedal. It was a good thing, as the grade going up Westport Road from Marine Drive to the Upper Levels highway is between 18 and 21% in places. I needed all the help I could get! Thankfully, we won't be seeing grades like that during our tour in June. Cypress mountain, about 12 km to the top, has a constant grade of about 8-9% which is more typical of most of the mountain passes we will be doing this summer. The real worry is that a number of them are 25 to 30 kilometers in length, which means endurance training now is pretty important.
My route yesterday. Total distance: 115 km, Energy used during the ride (based on heart rate calculations from my Garmin GPS): 4547 calories. After a ride like that, you can eat anything! For more details, click here -->
With my pedal clip now working fine, cycling up Cypress was pretty easy. I'm feeling stronger, and my weight, although not too bad, is reaching the level I need to be by June 19th... a good sign. On Tuesday, however, I'm getting a cardiac stress test in order to check that my heart is really OK to do this ride. No worries, I just want to make sure. (Updated May 18th: I passed my stress test with flying colors.)
On reaching the top of Cypress, I tucked my head and elbows tightly into the bike to lower wind resistance and rocketed straight back down the mountain at a thrilling 70 kph. I continued on from there, enjoying the brilliant sunshine, and perfect riding conditions.
It was great getting to know some of my fellow GearUp4CF cyclists a bit better yesterday. I am looking forward to our next team ride!
- Stan
Would you like to sponsor a favorite rider? Click on their name anywhere on this journal to open their "bio" on the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation GearUp4CF web site, click on the button "Sponsor this Rider", and you will join our team!
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