Tag: bessie

Still Climbing After a PE – Thanks to My eMTB

JUST over five (5) weeks ago I was in the hospital. Nothing exciting like a broken collar bone you’d get in a bike race. Nope, just a not-so-sexy pulmonary embolism, or P.E., as Steve at Half Fast (and his medical-profession colleagues) would call it.

SUNDAY the 11th was the first ride of over an hour that I did since. Unfortunately for me – I could also say “fortunately” – a subsequent echocardiogram turned up some not major, but not minor issues with el corazon and so I’m on “exercise restriction” until further tests are done. We’re also trying to figure out where that clot came from – an ultrasound of my deep leg veins about ten (10) days ago was clean. No clots and excellent circulation. What I expected. Still, the uncertainty of not knowing is taking its toll.

DEPRESSION, anxiety, bewilderment… Just some of the emotions flying around in my head. I did not spend hours on an airplane, I did not injure myself, I did not have any major surgeries, (see deep vein thrombosis) yet there I was in urgent care being told that I had a blood clot in my lower right lung. What the what? Had some fluid around that bad boy, too.

HURTS like hell in case you were wondering, but not all the time. Trying to lie down was excruciating. I could finally get there but it took everything I had. I thought I had a rib out of place or “something chiropractic,” if you will. Perhaps an infection in the cartilage in my ribs (the internet can be a dangerous place)? I took a walk the Wednesday before I went to urgent care, and noticed I was out of breath on this little hill that usually doesn’t cause me any angst whatsoever.

THE pain started in my right back but it eventually moved to my right chest. Was more painful to breath in than out, yet standing or sitting (I kept working and such throughout the week) wasn’t too bad. Like a rib out of place or something like that…

FINALLY, I reached out to my nurse practitioner’s office and got some direction, and then off to urgent care we went. X-rays – negative. Lab work next and a positive D-Dimer test was returned. A negative rules out a clot. A positive can be false however, and so a CT was ordered. And, bam, there it was. A blood clot.

NOW I haven’t led the cleanest life but I’ve always exercised, even when I was “large and in charge.”

That’s my rotund self back in 2013.

AND so to hear that my lungs, and my heart, were compromised, was a serious blow to my psyche. Then being told to tone it down… This after bustin’ my ass for the last several months, and finally seeing my fitness ramping back up. I had elective prostate surgery (not cancer) in October.

FEELING sorry for myself? Yup. Confused? Definitely. Depressed? Uh, huh. Scared? That too. Pissed off? Oh yeah! Let’s just say it’s been a wild ride. Now I’m taking Eliquis, and a blood pressure med., and feeling somewhat older than my chronological age of 59.

THAT ride a week ago Sunday was oh so sweet. I wish I could say it resolved all these crazy feelings I’ve been experiencing, but it didn’t.

WHAT it did do, though, was remind me just how cool e-Bikes are, especially for folks that are compromised, for whatever reason.

THE waterfalls were raging and the wildflowers were starting to pop. The air was crisp and clean and our regular cycle of thunderstorms had not yet begun.

I could not have done that ride on my road bike. My heart rate would have been too high and it would have been too taxing on Mr. Lung, and the whole body in general. I’ve been hammering on my self with lots of negative self-talk about my riding days being over, and taking blood thinners for life, and blah, blah, blah (yes, I’m going to see someone for that), but then I finally got out of my own way and realized I had an option.

BESSIE would be my steed and I would let her help me (funny, that’s what real horses do for their riders) up the climbs, just like she helped me do a sloppy, soaking-wet-shoes, grit-in-your-teeth, ride in Grover Hot Springs State Park a couple weeks go.

I could ride outside.

I could climb 4.

SOME “purist” might say it’s not right to ride an e-MTB on a road ride, especially an iconic climb like that one. Others might say e-Bikes don’t belong on the road or on the trail. It’s not fair. It ruins the trails. Ca-ca like that. I’ve always said it’s the rider, not the bike, and that any day on a bike, for ANYONE, is a good day. I’ve also espoused the view that if an e-Bike can let someone do what they couldn’t or wouldn’t otherwise do, that’s the real value proposition. That’s what it’s REALLY about.

ADMITTEDLY, I hadn’t thought of me being that person. Nope, definitely didn’t see that one coming.

LAST Sunday, though, (shout out to all you Dads) I took it one pedal farther and I did my 20th ascent of the north side of Ebbett’s Pass; again, with a little help from my friend.

IT was a hellawindy day, as a low pressure system was blowing in, but my faithful steed was not fazed. I could give it a little more gas, too. The lung is healing and so I was given the okey doke on Thursday to let loose the hounds a bit more. Still no TTs or racing in my near future, but I’ll take it.

RIDING bikes has always been my happiest of happy places and I was really worried that I might lose that joy. Frankly, I was beginning to…

BESSIE brought me back to reality, though, and is helping me heal. Physically and emotionally.

NOW here I am, enjoying beauty days on my bike in the California Alps, and reflecting on just how lucky we are that someone invented e-Bikes.

THANK you, whoever(s) you are!

THANK you, too, faithful reader, for letting me get that off my chest. Here’s hoping that my story may resonate with you, or someone you love. And if you have your own e-Bike story to share, please…comment away.

Ps. While I fervently believe e-Bikes should be allowed anywhere “real bikes” are I do think that PRs, cups, or any accolades earned on Strava should have an asterisk next to them. That 4th all time from Monitor Junction to Ebbett’s Pass is Bessie’s cup, not mine. Congrats, girl. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer e-Bike. 😉

A Bike By Any Other Name…

I don’t remember naming my bikes when I was a kid. I remember the bike types, colors, and perhaps even a specific adventure, or jump, or modification, but names, nope. Nada. Zipparoony.

ROSCOE therefore, must be my first. In which case it was only six (6) years ago, then, that I must have begun this “tagging habit.” Funny. Roscoe (the first, I might add) is, and was (keep reading) a Trek Domane. Original frame red and white. Current frame, stealth black. That’s him there on the left, and in that other “snowbank shot” above.

AFTER I moved up here to Markleeville the shop discovered a crack in the frame and Trek being Trek, replaced it. Because it was two (2) years later they no longer had the red and white color scheme and so Roscoe II was born. That’s him there on the right.

ANYWAY, I’m not really sure why then, or for what reason, I gave him a name, but I do remember why I chose the name Roscoe. Roscoe Fanucci, actually. I was in the surgical center (maintenance) and the nurse called out “Roscoe. “Roscoe Fanucci.” And this dapper Italian gent (even in a gown in a surgi-center bed he looked distinguished), I’d say in his 80’s, responded in the affirmative.

I said to my wife. “That’s a cool name.” I’m going to name the Domane that. After all, he (the Domane) thinks he’s italian. Okay, my Mom had this Walter MItty thing with her first VW bug. I can’t explain it but obviously the apple didn’t stray too far from the tree.

ROSCOE does think he’s Italian.

BULLITT was an easier one. In a roundabout way. There I was at our corporate offices in Novato (former job) and I had brought my new Trek Fuel up for a mountain bike ride in China Camp. I’m showing the bike to Matt, our engineer and business analyst, and he says “Wow, cool colors. Those are the same colors (the Gulf Oil/Heritage livery I’ve since learned) that Ford used in some of their racing cars back in the day, including on the same model that Steve McQueen drove in Bullitt.

I had ridden this bike for a couple rides prior and it was cool. It glided over things. It floated. It looked GOOD. It thinks it’s Steve McQueen. Bam, Bullitt it is. Thanks Matt!

Me and Bullitt at Grover Hot Springs State Park on our first ride up there in the Spring of ’17.

BLUE, the Wild Mustang of Markleeville, as you might imagine, thinks he’s a mustang roaming the California Alps. He’s a Trek Project One Emonda and is named after Blue, the leader of the Pine Nut herd of wild mustangs living not too far away from here. Mustangs – resilient, strong, willful, good going uphill or down. Seemed like a good fit. The paint scheme, with the the blue lettering also worked.

LAST but not least, my newest addition to the fleet: a fatbike named Farley Schlanger. It’s a TREK Farley 7 so as you’ve guessed, the Farley part was easy. Although I was thinking about naming it Beast. I had just sold Beast (a Trek Rail 5) to a friend of mine and so I was contemplating Beast II. But then my wife, knowing my weird fascination with cool names, told me about a reference in a book I’m reading (The Athlete’s Gut) and there were two names. One was Schlanger. And Farley Schlanger was so named.

I mean look at him. Is that a Farley Schlanger or what?

And what a fun ride. Ordered him in November of 2020 by the way, and just picked it up last Saturday. Supply chain issues, you know?

CAN’T wait for snow. Before that, some Pine Nut sand should be fun. Can you say “slide over the silica?”

MY wife does the naming thing, too, and so I have to give her her due in this here post. So I’ll close with Daisy and Bessie. No reason for those names she said, other than “they look like that to me.”

SOMETIMES it’s just that simple.

HOW about you? Bike names? Stories? Hit me!