Short Moment, But I'll Take It

I just got back from a night snow bike ride up Big Springs. It's been snowing the past couple days and the avalanche danger is high. South Fork canyon doesn't get as much snow and there aren't any slide zones to worry about. Its a shorter trail, which was also fitting for me tonight. I haven't been feeling too well. I go through a cycle of fatigue, normal, insomnia. It's been happening for several years now. Long enough that I have confidence in the order of the cycle, it's the length and severity of each phase that is always unknown. Right now I've been in the fatigue phase for about two weeks. By far my least favorite.

Although I dislike my fatigue phase, I also find it the most interesting. Definitely the most contradictory. It goes without saying that I pretty much always feel tired during this phase. No matter how much I sleep I can always sleep more. But I've found that sleeping more than 8 hours makes me feel worse, fewer than 7 hours and I'm a total zombie, 7-8 hours works pretty well for me. Getting up before the 8 hour mark can be REALLY hard though. My body is screaming for more sleep and part of me wants nothing more than to oblige, but experience tells me to ignore it and get up. Also during this phase I don't feel like doing anything active, but if I don't do some form of exercise the pain and stiffness gets worse. If I exercise even just a little bit I know it will keep the pain and stiffness a bit more in check. So tonight although I'm feeling tired and not motivated to exercise I loaded up Babe and drove up the canyon.

It was a beautiful night tonight, fresh snow and enough breaks in the clouds for some nice star gazing. The road from the main turn off to the trailhead was in pretty poor shape, unplowed snow up to about 10 inches deep in some places. I considered just parking at the turn off and riding up the road, but drove up to the trailhead anyhow. It was pretty nice snow bike conditions. About a foot of new snow, but just enough people had been through to create a rideable trail. Packed enough to be able to ride, but still soft enough to enjoy the feel of floating on snow. A snow bike does pretty well at floating and making its way through snow, but it does have limits and 12 inches of new snow is above that limit.

It was a slow ride with lots of stops. When I'm not feeling well that's just the way it goes. But, that's also one of the things I love most about mountain biking. You don't have to go fast or far to have a good time and stopping to enjoy the scenery can be one of the best parts of the trip. The start of any bike ride is usually not too fun for me, I feel tired, weak, lacking air. I push through because I know that within 15 minutes or so my body will warm up and the endorphins and adrenaline will start kicking in and everything in my body will feel good. I didn't have the energy to stay out for very long and I know that pushing myself too hard will have negative consequences. But for half an hour I felt well and everything in life was good. It was a short moment, but I'll take it.

A Slow Process

The diagnosis process felt like it took forever. It took a month from the time my family doctor told me I should see a Rheumatologist until my first appointment with one. I guess they have some long waiting lists. Waiting is hard for me. I feel like I can deal with stuff really well if I know WHAT I'm dealing with. I now knew there was in fact something wrong and all the pain and weakness in my body probably wasn't going to just go away. The WHAT was still a big unknown and really annoying to me.

My first Rheumy visit was mostly lots of talking about what I felt like, examining of my joints, and what seemed like a lot of blood samples being taken. I went back the next week for a follow-up and which point I was told I exhibited enough symptoms to be diagnosed for both Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. That being said the doctor wanted to do more blood work to make sure there wasn't something else going on. And gratefully I was given some meds to help out, mmm Prednisone...I can still remember the sweet sweet relief it offered from the pain and stiffness. More blood drawn, more tests run. More time gone by. More blood drawn and more tests run to confirm previous tests were accurate. I'm not sure how much time actually passed, but to me it felt like FOREVER. Finally I had a diagnosis. My ANAs and anti-RNP results were ridiculously high...Mixed Connective Tissue Disease.

Starry Nights

Night rides are pretty new to me. This winter I've been going on a lot of them though. Largely because, well, it's winter and there isn't a whole lot of daylight. I've also found that the snow conditions are nice at night for biking. It also helps that I bit the bullet and bought some nice bike lights last summer for the 24 Hours of Moab.

Thursday night I pulled up to the Pine Hollow trailhead and was the lone vehicle in the lot. The sky was clear, the air a crisp 12 degrees. It was still pretty light outside, but a couple stars were starting to appear. I bundled up and headed up the trail. In this case it's really just a snow covered road...but in this case I still call it a trail....

I love mountains. During the day the mountains and their detailed features rule the landscape. During the night it's the sky that rules. I love watching the slow transition between the two! I rode up the trail enjoying the view of the transition. Pretty soon the mountains were just dark silhouettes and the attention grabber was the brilliant stars in a clear sky. No one was around. Just me and the sound of the snow crunching under my tires. I stopped frequently to admire the view and take in the silence. I'm starting to really like this snow bike thing...and this night ride thing...

Frozen Hog

Still getting used to this blogging thing...and actually posting stuff. It's been a good week. Last Saturday was the 9th Annual Frozen Hog Winter Mountain Bike Race. The race consists of two laps (~7 miles total) around some mountain bike trails in Alpine, UT. This was my third time participating. I find it funny how perspectives change. The first year I did the race was 2005, I can't even really remember why I signed up for it, but I do remember thinking I was a crazy idea and kind of regretting that I had signed up for it. That first race felt like one of the hardest most miserable things I had ever done in my life! I remember it as kind of fun...but mostly miserable. I figured it would probably be the last time I would do anything like that....

2011 Frozen Hog. Whether it was the snow bike, the better cold weather riding gear, or time and experience, I was really excited for the race this year! And it turned out to be really fun. The weather warmed up and almost all the snow melted negating the need for my snow bike, but all in all it was a great time. I took second place out of four in the Clydesdale (over 215lbs) category and was pretty happy about that too.