Trek to Work

I rode to work the other day. It has cooled down a lot around here, I actually had to wear long sleves in the morning.

I got up at 6 and met my good friend and co-worker, Tess, at her house. We rode through town and on to the American River parkway. It is about 15 miles one way to my office aned most of it is on the trail so we don't have to deal with traffic. It takes a little over an hour but it is a great way to wake up in the morning and a nice way to work off steam at the end of a long day.

I try to ride to work once a week but I need to increase the frequency so I can get experience with back to back days.

Saturday Ride

I went on a ride yesterday from my apartment in downtown Sacramento to Nimbus Dam in Folsom (45+ miles round trip). The most current heat wave has passed and temperatures are in double digits again so it is safe to train in the afternoons.

This ride took me a little longer than it should have because I havent been training very heavily in the past couple of weeks. It has been too hot to go outside. However the heat wave is over for now and I am going to try to train hard until the next wave...

Me, halfway through my ride with Nimbus Dam and the American river in the background:

Some of the Many Reasons

From the time we were convinced that something was wrong, it took us (my family and I) over a year to find the answers we were looking for. My Dad noticed that my skills were deteriorating in sports, specifically baseball. So he convinced my Mom and I that something was truely wrong. We went to a neurologist once a week for a while so he could run all kinds of tests, he had no idea what was going on. Many doctors, many wrong diagnoses and many months later, we found a doctor who took one look and knew right away that I have Friedreich's Ataxia...

Nobody knows about Ataxia (even doctors as I found out), that is why I am riding across the country, this disease needs some attention. It is estimated that one in every 50,000 Americans has Friedreich's Ataxia, yet nobody even knows about it.

I am also doing this beause I am one of the lucky few Ataxians who can still get around without the use of a wheelchair. The ability that I have will be gone at some point, I feel an obligation to do as much as I can while I still can.