This is my second year riding but my first with cancer. Was not feeling well last year before the ride but didnt think it was anything (thats what my dr told me to think). A month after my 24th birthday i went to th ER and asked for an ultrasound of my abdo and they found a 12cm tumour. Since then i have had 2surgerys, 3chemos, and too many tests to count. I finish chemo on march 21st and plan to ride in June. Anyone else out there planning to ride who is doing treatment or just finished treatment who is riding?
Hi I did the ride last year, and it happened to mark the one year anniversary of my stem cell transplant at PMH to treat Multiple Myeloma, a rare blood / bone marrow cancer. I am doing the ride again this year on the second anniversary. Multiple Myeloma is currently non-curable but I am in a good remission since fall 2010. I do take medications, but currently not doing chemo or maintenance. So I am living with cancer everyday. I consider being active part of my medicine now! Getting active is what really helped me regain my energy and stamina after my transplant. I was basically on my couch for almost a whole year because I was to week / sick to do anything, and now I am back at work etc. and trying to live my life like a normal 34 year old. Good luck with your training start of slow and dont push over your limit as it is not worth it since then it takes you a lot longer to recover then a normal person.
I applaud both of you! Here I am just trying to deal with diabetes, but I can't imagine what the both of you have gone through/are going through. You both have my full support, that's for sure!
Mgirl how did you find training different. I've been in the gym working slow and recovery is definitely a lot slower. Any suggestions. I have a great team (steves cyclepaths) to train with so that really helps.
Not very well. But two pennies to rub together is better than the nothing that RTCC had before. I have a few other ideas up my sleeve (more for work, than party based), but right now I have to deal with a medical issue.
Training was definatly slower. I'm not sure of your own treatment, but a part of my chemo was highdose pulsed steroids, four days on, four days off for 4 months. This is a mainstay of Myeloma (and other blood cancers treatment). As a result of this I gained a bunch of weight, and lost most if not all of my muscle tone. (common side effects) So when I joined the gym in December 2010, I basically had to start out at zero. As if I had never worked out before.
I started with 5 minutes on the stationary bike, 10 mins on the eliptical, some of the weight machines at the easist setting (5 or 10 kg, or pounds or whatever the meausre) and then I worked up from there. I was not working so I was able to go almost every weekday. In January I got back in the pool and started swimming again. I am a former competitive swimmer in highschool so this is something I am good at. but again I had to start at swimming for 15minuts and build up from there. If I over did it one day the next day I'd wake up and feeling so drained I'd lay on the couch recovering. so I learned i can't push myself as much as the old me. The recovery is definatly more pronounced. By March I had my bike back on the road. in my formal life I cycled every where as my means of transportaion, too work home etc. So I think this helped me get back into bike mode. Han't ridden my bike for about two years.
I started with 5 km rides, then 10kms, and when I got to 25 km's I was feeling pretty good, and able to just go out for long rides during the day. I recomend you get a bike computer so you can track your speed and distance. work at finding a good cruising spped. I got about 22 -23km/ hour. not fast, but not too slow either.
I got up to about 60km training rides, and maybe did 2 100km days. It took some experimenting about what food I need to take with me on the bike. I learned that you need something and I like the good ol protein / granola type bars.
