AIDS Ride Training

I started my formal training for the AIDS Ride (CAR6) in January of 1999. Around the middle of February I bought a Bianchi road bike, and was very excited and apprehensive about the task I had undertaken. These first two months were fantastic, I was way ahead of the suggested mileage for training, and I felt great! Unfortunately, with all my momentum, I hit my first stumbling block like a brick wall.

One weekend in the beginning of March Matt and I had plans to explore the Coyote Creek Parkway. I planned to ride the very short quarter mile it might be to his house, and then we were going to drive down to the park (in San Jose). I got a little more than half way there, signaled and started to get in the left lane to make a left turn. And then I was looking up at a paramedic.

I have a flashbulb memory of going over the handlebars, but nothing else. Witnesses said that I wasn't hit, that I just went right over. I don't remember there being any cars nearby. My memory of the events that followed, up until I was being wheeled into the ER, would best be described as "patchy," and I'll spare you the details.

The end result was that I was not concussed, but my helmet had lots of scrapes and a nice big crack in the side. The shoulder that seems to have taken most of the fall was not broken, nor was it dislocated (though it was "close," whatever that means), but it did have a fairly sizable patch of road rash that prevented me from soaking my shoulder for most of the recovery period.

My crash kept me off my bike for a month, which was plenty of time to sit and stew, and feel as though I was getting further and further behind on my training. I also needed to go shopping for a new frame, since I had done a surprisingly good job of warping the Bianchi. I might have been able to straighten it, but the down tube had a visible arc to it, and I'm not sure I would have felt 100% safe on it once straightened.

I dragged my feet on getting a new frame, but I finally bought a nice little (damn my stubby legs) frame handmade by Koga for Miyata. It fits me as well as any normal production frame is likely to, since I have an abnormally high trunk length to leg length ratio.

After a marathon component swapping tune up (kudos to JimG and Stork, even if I didn't get to do it myself in the interest of time) I was ready to ride! Unfortunately, I had to make back some of the progress made earlier, since I'd been sitting on my ass for a month, and my shoulder was still not as strong as it had been before. Mired in frustration, I trained on.

I never escaped the feeling that I was too far behind, and not training enough. I really thought I would be suffering for most of the ride. Getting out of bed on a weekend became an uphill battle. Lying there I would always be reminded of the ride where I struggled up Old La Honda Road to Skyline Boulevard, intent on climbing to Page Mill Road to come down, and coming up into 10 foot visibility and 25 mile an hour, gusty arctic cross winds blowing me into traffic. After toughing it out for 5 or 6 miles (less than half way) I was forced to turn back for fear of my life.

But while I never escaped the feeling that I was behind, I did begin to feel that I was making progress. The most poignant example of this was a phenomenon I took to calling "Hill dilation," in reference to the "time dilation" that is an integral part of my life. It would manifest itself thus: Upon looking down the road a fair bit I'd notice a hill in front of me, and a sense of dread would come over me, proportional to the pitch of the grade. But as I approached the hill it would seem to dilate, grow longer, but not taller, effectively depressing the grade of the hill, making it easier to climb. In the case of small hills, the result would be that they seemed to have flattened completely. And as time went on the effect became more and more pronounced. It was a very satisfying feeling.

I think I peaked around the middle of May. I was as ready as I felt I could be, without significantly more time to train. I began to feel that training was sucking my entire life away from me. I was riding to and from work, after work, and both weekend days, the feeling wasn't unfounded. I was excited and wanted to end the training and RIDE!

A few weeks later my wish was granted, and I began California AIDS Ride 6!