Resolutions

Back in Middle School band, we played a piece called "Resolutions".  I loved it, but unfortunately don't remember who the composer was to look it up.  And it's the time of year where most people go crazy making over-the-top resolutions for the upcoming year that they don't have any intentions of carrying on for more than a few months.  I've learned my lesson on not to get over zealous with resolutions!

It's been a rough past few years, but I still have a lot to look forward to!

I love watching the girls grow up! Two girls who look so much alike but have completely different personalities!  And those personalities are as lively as can be! They aren't so little any more, Ellee is in 1st grade and is reading while Dani is in Preschool and learning to write.  And as with girls, the drama gene is starting to appear - this is the one thing I could definitely do without!!!  But then again, it just makes life all that much more interesting because you never know what is going to happen!

Learning to live with Type 1 Diabetes has been an interesting ride in itself, but Ellee makes it look easy.  April will mark our 3 year mark. Some days it feels like it was just yesterday that she was diagnosed and others if feels like it should be longer than 3 years.  We are now 3 months into pumping and while it has one major downfall, the benefits are priceless.  I'm looking forward to our Endo appointment in Feb so that we can see how much, if any, the pump helps control her A1C!

But, the high light of my year will be getting to ride in the JDRF's Wisconsin Ride to Cure!  Two years ago I bought a road bike for myself for my birthday with doing a JDRF ride in mind.  I knew I wouldn't be able to do any thing over 10 miles on my hybrid bike, so I took a leap.  I didn't get to ride it much that summer, but I did learn a lot about a whole different world: the world of cycling!  However, this past summer I started living in this world!  It's kind of like visiting a European country, falling in love, and wanting to move there!  I wish I lived closer to work so that I could park my car and ride my bike! But I will be the first to admit that I'm a fair-weather rider, so as soon as the temps drop and/or the wind picks up too much, the bike comes in the house in hopes that I get some time to get the rollers out!

This past year I put 375 miles on the bike and 115 miles on my inline skates!  I did my second half marathon inline skate and while I didn't finish in under an hour like I wanted to, I can't complain about my performance: 13.1 miles in 1:05, finished 3rd woman to finish and 1st of the women in my age group (out of 6-8)!  We drove the course right before the race and my heart sank as I saw the hills on the one stretch of road, and when I say that the finish line was an uphill battle, it literally was!  It felt like the last hill was a 45 degree climb with about 10' of flat road right in front of the finish line!   As for cycling, I'm still getting use to it, but along with lots of shorter rides. I did a 47 mile ride and felt awesome afterwards but another time did 65 miles and for the last 8 miles had this overwhelming feeling to throw up, and once I did, I felt human again (as weird as that is to say)!

While I may not make resolutions, I am making goals!  I want to spend more one on one time with the girls.  I want them to see that life is what you make of it, and while not everything is fun, with a little hard work, it is very enjoyable!  I also want to improve my cycling and skating skills, not only for my health, but for the girls' health!

Inspiration

The last 2011 JDRF Ride to Cure was the weekend before Thanksgiving, in Tuscon, AZ.  I love flipping through the pictures posted on Facebook.  You can see the people's faces of how amazing of an experience this is for them.  Reading about a parent's journey of riding for their children, or even reading about a marriage proposal at one of the rest stops!  It's an inspiration to see the sense of accomplishment in their faces, whether they have T1D or are riding because some one they love has it.  The smile on their faces as they cross the finish line tells a thousand stories, and you don't even have to know "their story".

I had to get on the computer this morning to send out an email.  I read a little while ago that JDRF would be finalizing the 2012 rides with in a few weeks.  I went to see if they were close to releasing them yet and found a link to this story:

Huntsville's Ross Armstrong does 111-mile Ride to Cure

Nate was working on the Christmas lights and I started to read the story aloud to him, without pre-reading it.  I made it through the first two paragraphs with no problems.  I started on the third and my voice started getting shaky.  Once I hit the word "needle" I had to stop to gain my composure.  Nate knows me better than I know myself because he didn't waste any time coming to me.  Needless to say, I didn't compose myself, instead as Nate wrapped his arms around me from behind, I lost it.  Like his daughter Mallory, my daughter Ellee had very little memory of what it was like to be carefree.  Even I have very little memory of what it was like for 4 years to be able to feed her without having to check her sugar first then to give her an injection of insulin afterwards.  

I know that very few parents understand how I feel when it comes to this ride.  When we tell people that we will be riding over 100 miles next summer, the mileage is what catches their attention, not the cause.  In my eyes, riding a bicycle 100 miles in one day is nothing compared to living a lifetime of daily care of T1D. But after each training session and after the day of our big ride, my life will resume.  Back to checking sugars before every meal, dosing for everything with carbs that she eats, changing out infusion sets, and analyzing sugar results to make sure her dosage is working.  

I ride because it is my hope that one day Ellee will be able to say "I vaguely remember what it was like to have to check my sugar and dose insulin after eating."  

A Few More

Click here to see Full Album!

Second View

A few more images from this wonderful session!

Senior Preview

I am so glad that I did this session! The weather was perfect, the location was perfect, and these guys were a blast!  It was by far the most fun I've had on a shoot, thank you so much!  

Enjoy the little preview and I will post more as I get them done!  

Best Wurst Ride

Nate and I knew from the first time we saw this ride that we just had to do it!  Being German, it's hard to pass up an opportunity to have good German food!

We have been working hard to ride as much as possible, and for as long of distances as possible, to work up our endurance for this ride. We've done 50 miles, 40 miles, and many rides 35 miles and less.  Very rarely do we get out on the bike and "just don't feel like riding".  Most of the time, we have found that once you get on the bike, the miles add up like they are nothing.  Your body feels like you've just started and you've already rode 10 or 15 miles.  And the hills!

Funny thing about hills... any one who has rode bikes as a kid or has rode a cheap mountain bike on the road will tell you how much they hate hills.  Where I live (and it's where I grew up), you could actually ride your bike in a circle, including down hills, and feel like you don't have to go up any hills!  Once Nate and I started riding, we rode up a few "smaller" hills.  The first few times, you feel like your struggling to get up there.  You are learning your gears and learning when to shift, how often to shift, and what gear to start out in.  But, after you starting getting any one of those things down, the hills start getting easier.  You learn what gear to shift into and at what point before starting the hill.  The next thing you know, you're at the top of the hill, and you didn't struggle at all!  Or, you made it just about clear to the top before you really "felt like" you were climbing!  You still have those "oh crap" moments when you approach a new hill and it looks like a monster, but when you get to the top, you feel like the hill was only half as tall as what it looked!

Back to the ride!
Over all, I really enjoyed it!  There were a few areas that I did not like, such as having to share a one lane gravel road with the runners (whom I'm going to guess were running a half marathon).  I won't get into the details of my disappointment with that leg, other than that is the reason why I *always* stay as far over to the right as possible, not matter what I am riding on, when I bike and skate, other than to pass. Had both groups practiced this, there wouldn't have been any issues!

Most of the roads were very nice, and most of the first 50 miles were flat!  We had to go up and over 30 a few different times, so there climbs here and there.  There were a few iffy roads, such as the one that ran past the junk yard.  We went through some neat areas, such as nice small towns and beautiful country roads!

On the map we had a small section that took us North, go over to the next road, and head South, then a straight stretch back to the fairgrounds.  Then the hills started.  They started out gradually and small.  Up one side, then down the other with a straight stretch before the next.  Then it got to the point where they were getting to be back to back.  Then the monsters started, and this time I mean Monsters!  Hills where you struggle to get up no matter how much you shifted!  Then when you got to the top, you tucked in and rode it down because you were too exhausted!  My average riding speed is around 13mph, and I think my fastest down one of these hills was around 28mph, and Nate's was 30+!

After riding 50 miles, you think to yourself that 15 more miles isn't that much.  But then when you start getting into these hills back to back, 15 miles starts to feel like an eternity!  After inline skating two half marathons, I've learned that as you get closer to the end, you push yourself harder because you know that it's almost over!  And try as I might, I just didn't have the energy to do this.  After 5 miles of these hills, I was starting to feel sick to my stomach and zero energy.  I knew that if I were to get sick, then I'd feel better afterwords, so a few times I got off the bike and into a ditch hoping that I could get this over with, but to no avail.  We rode a few more miles, usually up or down one or two sets of hills, then I'd have to stop and try to get sick.  Why is it that when you I *want* to get sick, you can't???  The last 3-5 miles I struggled and my speed started dropping into single digits and I kept shifting into easier gears.

We finally hit the straight stretch back to the fair ground!  While I still felt like I had to get sick, I had a glimmer of hope that it was almost over and I was trying to hold out as long as I could before I got off the bike.  My odometer read 65 miles as we came up to a jog in the road and the SAG wagon was sitting on the corner and he told us that there was about 2 miles left!  We stopped so that we could get a drink and I again tried to get sick.  Nothing again, and knowing that I couldn't go any slower, I told Nate to go on and I'll get a ride back in the SAG.  The guy came over and asked me a few questions and said it sounded like dehydration.  Needless to say, as soon as Nate rode off and I went to walk my bike over to the van, I lost it!  And I was right, all I needed to was to get it out of my system and I would be fine!  It was like an instant relief!  Although I felt like I could ride after that, I decided it best just to get a ride back. 

The total distance ended up being 68.5 miles and I had to explain to Nate that it's hard to map something out like that down to a nice, round (and exact) mileage!  I was amazed that on that 3 mile ride back how many people were stopped wanting to know how much further it was!  So glad we weren't the only ones struggling that last section! 

After we got the bikes loaded up and clothes changed, we drove to "downtown" to where the festival was so that we could get some brats!  Brats didn't sound as good as I was hoping they would, but sauerkraut did! At one of the places that Nate ordered a brat from, the lady was nice enough to wrap up a little bit of sauerkraut in some tin foil for me! 

Instead of jumping on 309 or 30 and heading back to the lake, we headed down to Columbus to see Dad.  He was scheduled for Open Heart Surgery in a few days, so we stopped in to keep him company for a little bit! When we told he and Mom that we just got done riding 65 miles, they looked at us like we were crazy!  And for a while I was starting to think that maybe we were!

After that, I know that I have a long ways to go before I'm ready to do 100 miles for this JDRF ride.  And who knows, I may feel the same way after riding 100 miles on that ride, but I will do so with pride!  

And as a side note, I did hit 400 miles for the summer while on this ride! 

Dehydration

Nate and I have had many conversations after a ride about how amazed we are that the heat and humidity doesn't bother us once we start riding.  Heading home from work I have the A/C on to cut down on the humidity at the same time knowing that once I get home, I'm changing my clothes and going for a ride in this weather!  We both get lots of people telling us that they can't believe that we are going to go out and ride after working all day AND in this heat!

Truth be told, it's not bad once we get out there!  With the exception of when we're on a Rails to Trails path that will run through woods, we ride on the open road and there is usually always some kind of a breeze to help cool you down!  I have read that you are suppose to drink 4-6 oz every 15 mins, even if you aren't thirsty, to prevent dehydration.  I am *horrible* about drinking water!  Knowing this, I try to hydrate if I know that I'm going to skate or bike after work.  This was not the case on Sunday!

We went to a Relay for Life Cornhole Tournament in the afternoon and sweated our butts off, but we took 3rd place!  Because I had gotten a new seat for my bike and wasn't sure about it yet, I wanted to go for a short ride.  The more we got out, the more we decided to ride further.  After about 15 miles of what ended up being a 40 mile ride, I was feeling it.  My tell-tale sign that I'm dehydrated is a headache, and I had one that just wouldn't go away!  Even though we made it a point to get a drink at every stop sign we came to, both of us were wiped out! 

Being out of water and Gatorade, we stopped to refill the bottles at the bike path.  We had it planned out so that we way we went home would put us right at 50 miles, but I started feeling sick to my stomach when I got off the bike, so we agreed that we'd take the short, direct route instead.  I *hate* riding on 235 any more than I have to, but at this point I didn't care!

I've learned my lesson!  I am really enjoying being out on the bike and I don't want to do anything to ruin that feeling, I definitely don't want to feel like that on another ride again!