Road Cycling - One month later...

Not about the bike silly... :p

ONE MONTH to this day I rode a bike for the first time in 9 months. The doctors just like before told me I could not and I showed them :) ! I have had more than one person ask me what it is like to get back on the bike since being off for so long... and here it is in one word - PAIN! There are quite a few mental and physical hurdles to get through once back, actually more than a new rider has to go through.

When I rode my bike before I was a "racer" - I rode fast and hard and at one time I was one of the fastest 3 riders in our local club (not race team). When I went down there was little time to reconsile all those thoughts of being fast, sprinting at 37 MPH+, averaging 21 - 24 MPH in an itt, etc... and it is a blow to reality when you try and be fast after 9 months... my first ride was 4 miles... and every moment of it I was anaerobic - at 12 MPH... it is quite a let down for sure...

You start all over - 4 then 7 then 10 miles, then some hills - 12 miles then 20 then 25 etc... the aerobic system comes back on line. Your legs feel like jello, you cry in pain, you get cramps, it all comes again and again. It takes longer for me to warm up now, a side effect of my medication - 20 minutes or approx 4 - 5 miles to be almost ready to ride - the first hills make me want to stop - I push through, and after warmup I finally feel good!

I have riden 14 rides in the last 30 days, at the beginning I rode 4 miles, today 25 with about 1000 or so feet of climbing and I felt like 5 - 10 more... progress comes slowly... I wanted to turn around today, my legs were tired, my calves and quads screaming... after 14 miles of steady 2% - 4% I made it to the top... it felt great - only one month later. The fixie was the catalyst of that change... I am climbing better, and spinning faster.

Today I averages 13.6 MPH and it was a slower day - no major hammering - It may not sound very fast but from 10 MPH to 13.6 MPH solo is not bad at all :D ! What does it really feel like... it is the joy of the open road, the joy or crappy pavement, chipseal, rude drivers, and more. It is the joy of loosing 6 pounds in 30 days, and the confidence that it can be done... never say never...

I may have only put on a few hundred miles in the last 30 days, but those miles mean more than anything I have done in a long time... I am back on the bike! I have learned to love evening rides...


I survived!

Mandy

Woo!




So can I have your trek? PLease? pretty please? I mean you like your giant so much...:D :p

^^^ :lol:

Wow, that's inspirational. Thanks.

--Steve

Glad to hear it, Mandy. :) Hope we get to ride together again soon.

Keep on going. You're not as far off as you think.

Wow....I remember my first ride back on the bike last August VERY well, after several years of not riding....took up running instead. Then had a shin injury which kept me from running for a year (still can't run more than a mile without a lot of pain), then decided to go back to riding. Gained 30 pounds and was at my heaviest of 180lbs. Bought my Trek 5200 to give myself a little extra motivation, and my first ride was 5.5 miles....I basically went to juuuuust about the top of what is now my climbing repeat workout hill, nearly died, turned back and went home. It's a mile long climb that gains nearly 300 vertical feet, with a max grade of 11%. Now I'm down to 160 (would like to be at 145 for next season), and still improving.

Why did you have to stop riding?

Way to go Mandy...glad to hear you are back on your bike......Take it easy, it will come back to you.

Cheers,

Brian

Somehow.....I missed it.....What happened to you?

Way to go!!! Keep it up! I'm still trying to work the fear out of my head, and it's been more than a year and a half. Longest ride in all that time has only been about 20 nervous miles.:(

Ok, a little off topic but I'm sort of confused. You signed that post with Mandy but I could have sworn seeing you post a while back as Michael? Are you sharing IDs?

Oh my gosh... I have to go here again :lol:

At one time there was a post about GID, etc... I am IS, raised male but am in the process of redefining my gender to female, particularly since I am genetically and mostly anatomically female... This metamorphasis came for some part due to a troll on this forum and my eventually disclosure to my condition. I am still learning about myself everyday, it is not easy when you find much of your life has been a lie...

Now why did I stop riding...

1. Last race of the season I was feeling a bit off and in the sprint my foot came out of the clip and I slammed my foot into the group, breaking the little bone in the front of my leg (name?). The doctors discovered that I had ostiprosis, and said that I would never ride my bike again. I went into some depression, etc... but fought though it. About 7 months into all of this I was told that if my next bone density scan came back better I could start riding again... a glimmer of hope. About 45 days ago the doctors were amazed by my progress and said I could start riding slowly again... (I will probably never race again unfortunitly). My weight blossomed up to over 260 pounds (from 215) and I had a bought with testicular cancer along the way.

For some of you that might be interested since the search is down here is a little medical speak...

I have kallmans syndrome, hydrogonism with amonosia (sp?) The bridge between my patuitary and hypothaimus does not work, I do not produce hormones in my body (no testosterone, FSH, etc). I also do not have the ability to smell, mainly due to a break between the olfactory system and the brain. I can detect sensations (such as burning) more as pain then smell. I am XXY, I have partial internal female analtomy, external I have what appears to be a microphallius, with a sealed vaginal opening. For years due to lack of testosterone I grew beyond what I should have, my legs and arms are disportinatly long compared to normal. I did not know any of this until I was about 23 years old... yet was diagnosed at 10... the doctors said nothing. For years they pumped testosterone in my system, and I protested inside... call it an internal instinct.

At birth I was given the name Mandy (or actually Amanda which Mandy is short of), but it was changed when my parents decided they wanted a boy, it was then changed to Michael. Offically it is Mandy again, but it will take several years to undergo the metamorphasis I am currently under... I am 24 years old in a 14 year old body...

I have beat the odds twice and I am on the bike again... small milestones at a time... just how I like it!

Mandy

Oh ya, IS is intersexed... a catagory of many rare distorders (kelfiners, AIS, etc) where some part of the body is either mixed or ambigious. Kalmanns syndrome occurs in 1:40000 - 50000 males 1:125000 and is not considered IS, microphallius occurs in about 1:2000 or so of the 1:40000 - 125000 cases, of those maybe 1:2000 of so have ambigious genetiala etc... the doctors think I am 1:500000 or so... so it is rare!

holy **** :eek:


GOOD LUCK! I HOPE YOU GET CENTERED SOONER THEN LATER -= i cant even begin to pretend to understand or imagine what your going through. But i wish you the best~!

bet you could kick some ass racing in the womens category :D

The last GID thread went on for about 350+ posts. The only way to explain it is that I feel I have something special in life, and to make something big in the world because of it. When I was born we knew very little about medical science, and doctors made decisions based on very little information. We now know that our self identity is locked up in the brain from birth - and for people like me, we are kind of a little of both worlds... I like some very sterotypically "male" activities, cars, bikes (the motor kind), sports, etc, plus I also have a very caring girly side - I want to be pretty, dainty, have kids, find a nice guy someday, etc... all the girly stuff.

There are three main types of IS people, the ones who feel like their birth sex and the one that they were raised are right, the ones that believe their raised sex was wrong and they opt for gender reassignment later in life (very very common), and those who feel a little of each sex (myself), but lean to one sex more than another (I am a tomboyish girl IMO). As young kids we can not make our own decisions, but since I was about 5 I knew I was different, and at 9 I wanted to have a "sex change" someday - before I knew about IS, etc.

Going though this journey has thought me more about myself in the last 1.5 years then in my whole life... things just click and the little things that made no sense now do... those subconsious things that make us different gender wise! BTW people who are transexual (classical definition) share many of the same characteristics as IS people do, though they physically male or female but their brain to various degrees are the opposite (due to cell populations in various areas of the hypothalimus, such as the sterious terminous). Sexual orientation also comes from this area... which changes my view of homo and hetero sexuality greatly.

We all have our problems, we just deal with them... I would rather have GID and be IS then have servere MS or autism like my sister (born 1 year after me) has... it is all perspective to our own lives.

Funny you ask about racing... I was able to race cat 4/5 without the aid of testosterone, etc... essentially physically I was a girl racing with the boys... that says something about my resolve... it also makes me realize that I was not doing to bad when I would get shelled off a training ride with the other girls... :) - as for women's racing... I would have no one to draft off of!

Mandy

Very inspirational story about your recovery! I admire your resolve.

Also, I think it's awesome that you've shared the other part of your story and know so much about the medical aspects of it. I knew a little about this issue, but now I know some more. I know that not everyone who is IS is comfortable doing this, but when people are brave enough to share such things, it helps increase understanding of something that many people are simply unaware of or misunderstand.

outstanding attitude and perseverance. hope all works out for you

Wonderful resolve! Very inspirational. Thanks for sharing.

outstanding attitude and perseverance. hope all works out for you
+1

The fixie was the catalyst of that change... I am climbing better, and spinning faster.
After reading all these posts, this is the only thing that stuck in my mind. :D

Good job Mandy! I predict you'll continue to make great strides forward and not only because you're 6'7" tall. :)

your signature just went from ascerbic to damn funny.

(From a New Yorker that is high praise. Best of luck and thanks for sharing.)

Woo!




So can I have your trek? PLease? pretty please? I mean you like your giant so much...:D :p

Would any of us be able to fit on it? :p

I've always wanted to be tall in a peloton. You can be in the back and see all the way to the front!

PS: Mandy, your story (or at least the way you tell it, and your perspective on it) never ceases to amaze me. Thanks for being so open to us.

I've always enjoyed your posts, glad to see your riding again. Enjoy it.

Patriot

For the first set of questions, I am currently on intermuscular estrogen injections (very simular to the testosterone they gave me very early in life), but on a very low dose. The doctors are not sure how my body is going to react, things like menstral periods, etc are an issue... I am 24 years old and am in no real hurry for the final resolve if you would which is SRS (sex reassignment surgery) which actually does not apply in my case because It is nearly partly already there. The rules if you would for anyone completly changing sex is one year of RLT (real life training) which is a period in which the individual lives as their target sex (in my case female) before being allowed surgery. In fact there is about 1000 or so individuals in the United States who undergo SRS each year.

For me unfortunitly this will be a long process. My current life situation dictates that in my profession that I am off propationary status (i.e. have tenure) before I can come out full time, which means probably 3 years at least (it takes 2 years + 1 day off full time classroom instruction to recieve tenure in California). Now we have very strict antidiscriminatory laws here in California in regards to gender identity nut until I am tenured it would be very easy for the school the let me go for any other reason... we all know how that works. Also surgery costs big dollars (12000 - 14000 for the actual SRS - maybe more, plastic surgery (FFS) for a few areas of my face will probably be in the 20000 - 30000 range, etc).

2. As for cycling, I really do not know how long it will take to be back up to "peak" fitness like before, this time will probably be a bit faster than last, although my recovery tends to still be an issue. I am hoping to be ready for tour de palm springs century in February and the three hilly centuries in April and May. I feel very much like Lance did after cancer that I will be stronger than before, but only time will tell... it is just feels great pedaling a bike again...

Life does not start over - I am just beginning a new chapter in my life... and it feels great - and life feels right for once... :)

Mandy

I appreciate your honesty and vulnerability in sharing you story with us. Personally for me, as a marital/family therapist (in training), it is encouraging to see such internal resolve and esteem and acceptance of things beyond our control. Keep up the good work and I look forward to meeting/riding with you one day as we are local.