Old days of BMX

Going through old things last week and found these results from some NBL nationals.

I have some with Tomac in them from grands in 87? I'll dig those up, just thought some of you might find these amusing.

Started racing age thirteen, was twenty one when doing this in '86 and just turned forty four. Thirty one years of competitive cycling is a bit crazy but I still enjoy it.

Michael

Pro Cruiser results:

B-Pro results:

Dreaming about 2010

Usually in the middle of February I start to dream about racing, odd, unrealistic dreams from lack of racing time. Well. I'm already having them from this past year and look forward to competing again next season.

11-6-09 did a ride up at Highland, NH freeride/dh mountain, brought back memories of my old DH days, I forgot how much fun it was. My friend Chris Z. dragged me out so I threw a bike together the night before and we all had a great time!





I think that some DH might be thrown into next season, occasional race helps technical riding on top of just being fun.


End of the day, in the locker room changing back into street clothes along with another rider who I know from somewhere, can't place him. As we're leaving he asks if we know each other, so we swap names and both chuckle.

It was Adam Craig, NORBA National Champion, who I raced against quite a bit when he was in Maine and still do at nationals, we have only seen the other in xc uniform which lead to no recognition.
We talked a bit and went our separate ways just like an old New England XC race, a cool end to a great day just like old times.

Looking forward to next season, 2010 is going to be great!

MRI

Quick note: The MRI results showed that the tumor tumor had shrunk quite a bit from new treatment, pretty cool huh? New treatment has little side effects at this point, biggest is bruising easily.
Think I can handle that, hopefully this one does not take away any more memory, if it does I'll just get my name tattooed on forehead.

Michael

Great season!

Riding yesterday and realized how lucky I am, this really has been a great season regardless of any "slowdown" due to treatment.
Never would have gotten through the year without friends like Frank, Raul and my lady Joan I may have gone crazy. They all took me to places I had never ridden before and would not have done if competing, it was great! The one race where I actually rode half ass and finished fourth helped a bit also.

NEMBA rides were very cool as well, had a great time on those as well with some great trails and other new places to mtn bike.

So I've been in/out of hospital for a few new chemo treatments and riding the whole time thankfully. Some people asked what I had been on and here they are: first new one BiCNU (carmustine) was brutal and felt like fire was being dripped through iv into your vein. Second was back on Temodar 40 mg daily instead of 1 large dose monthly, it has worked for many people that way.

Carmustine worked well but by second run it was growing again, the Temodar seemed to work for a bit but after three months I knew something was up, losing my balance, memory made me nervous. I even had even stopped riding and driving for a couple of weeks due to fear of seizures and balance issue.
Late September MRI showed tumor had grown three times the size so it was time to try something new.
Did the first run of Avastin on October second, (Friday) and rode 3 1/2 hours that Sunday, small change huh?
Go in again this Wednesday for MRI, third treatment and will know more but cannot wait for next season at this point, it will be nice to race for real again. Attached a photo of my last treatment, it is a quick twenty-twenty five minute iv and then you head home. No projectile vomiting from this either.
Thanks for reading all this update info, from here on out I'll focus on riding and keep this dumb info on the back burner.

Michael

Sloan /results

Hit Sloan Kettering yesterday, everything looked ok and I'll head back in a month for an MRI. We'll know then how much the tumor has been shrunk, I don't need the MRI's, when the petite malls go away I know it's going away too.

Any rate, racing in Maine this weekend (again) and everything will be just fine.

Thank you everyone!

I would like to thank those that helped me yesterday at the XC race in Maine. I had a petite mall seizure on the first lap and did not slow down enough to ride all the way through it. When we hit the second lap, it started to come back and I tried to ride through it on the climb....oops.

This goes out to the officials and all the riders that helped as I was attempting to trot back to officials and walking into trees.
Spent a few hours in the hospital, earned a big headache and guess that was payback for pushing it so hard while on chemo.

I head into Sloan Kettering tomorrow for an update and this may speed up some new treatment.

Thanks again to everyone for their help, if I had any memory left, I'd thank you all by name. :)

Michael

Still here

Hey everyone,

I apologize for not posting in quite a while, must admit this summer has been boring with all the new chemo I was on.

Amazing how I thought that riding/racing would be no problem, however, finishing an average of 30-40 minutes behind guys I hung with last season made competing not much fun. Stopped racing for a bit and I've just ridden for fun which is pretty awesome! Done a few NEMBA rides along with locals, think my Superfly has gotten more exposure at those big rides than it may get at some race events.

The first round of Carmustine/BiCNU shrank tumor a lot, I was at Sloan again on 8/4/09 and it is growing again so we changed treatment. Back on Temodar just a different way, 80 mg a day for six months as opposed to the 250 a day for 5 days once a month.

Going to add Avastin next month, incredible new drug that shrinks brain tumors and keeps them from growing anymore. I'll be test rat but having seen how well it works and its approval for other tumors it will be great opportunity. Just cannot crash while on it as it thins blood, hate to knock off the tumor only to sh** the bed due to a bad singletrack move (you can laugh, that was a joke).

So any rate, I've felt better since being off the other stuff and will race again this weekend @ the EFTA Treasure Valley Rally. That should be interesting as I have no legs but hope to get them back for cyclocross season.

So that covers it all if I babbled and repeated from last post I apologize.

Take care,

Michael

Racing results, good MRI, etc.

Hello everyone,



I have not been posting much lately and I aplogize for that. Been a bit crazy here with the new stuff Sloan has me on.
Racing is a bit tough, I managed to finish the first EFTA event and then raced Bear Brook this past weekend. Teamate John kicked butt and won with a great ride, I was only about forty minutes behind him and wound up lucky thirteenth. :)

I had no legs or strength after the second lap and lost tons of time, not that it made a big difference in the long run.

This past tuesday, 6-2-09 had a follow up MRI to see how the chemo's working on the brain and apparently it's doing the job. My nuerologist was very happy with results and shrinkage of the tumor growth.
Right after that news I was taken to another section of the hospital for my second round of this chemo, only four more after tuesday. It is two months between treatments so this will continue until about march of next year.

For now, i'll train (ride) when I can and race as much as I can, just a bit whooped from this new stuff. First round wasn't too bad but this second round is kicking my ass.
Oh well, still planning a mtn bike ride with my bud Sean in the morning, he won't make me ride too hard.

All is well and thank you for the positive emails and thoughts.

Michael Patrick

Chemo, riding and King of Burlingame Time Trial.

Little over a month since last post, had my first run of the new chemo (Carmustine) it was different than just taking the chemo pills once a month. Treatment was at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital (4/7/09) in NYC in the chemotherapy suite for iv chemo. Made sure I did two hours on the compu trainer before treatment, good thing.

I was told that it may burn the vein as it entered, a separate solution was hooked up up to dilute it and ease the burning. Well, it did burn but we figured it out and made the whole thing not that bad. Funny part was putting a heat pad on the vein area with the burning sensation, it worked.
Headed home from there picked up my new Superfly and went out to the garage for assembly, not a bad day after all really.

Felt cruddy Wed/Thur/Fri and woke up in emergency late Friday night, some chemo side effects had brought on two gran mall seizures. Bad part for me was inability to speak, when told I was staying in the hospital we discovered that my ability to punch walls was still there along with immaturity.
Good thing actually, I was a mess, couldn't speak, sight and balance was off a bit as well. MRI showed brain swelling most likely from seizures blood tests showed that required post chemo med level was very low which may have caused all of this.

Big question for me was "i can still ride, right?" but swollen brain wouldn't let me say that. Communication was gone, could not speak for about two days and even then speech level was "f***" along with "sh**" along with only thing written was the letter "k". It got better as evening approached on the second day and speech was back to some degree although while saying one thing my mind heard another.
They let me out on Sunday, and we hit Sloan the next week, Dr Nolan told me that riding/racing is okay and I've gone easy from there.

I've been riding, plan on racing at EFTA's opening NECS event, Glocester Grind on 5/17/09, that should be interesting as my legs are gone along with my ability to ride too long. Gotta fix it somehow so that should be fun, hope not to get lapped on the first lap. Feel better every time I ride and will try to do 2 hours on my compu today boring as that is.

OK WITH ALL THAT JUNK.

Week before the seizure, did the 2009 King of Burlingame Time Trial had a great time while doing it, just a fun course, early in the season and usually a good thing to help judge training. Johnny Bold just hammered along and kicked butt in my class along with overall time, Kevin Hines was riding fast as well.
My teammate Thom Parsons looked great on his single speed setup along with Kurt Johnson (recovering from a recent heart attack). Full results from that event can be found below. Congrats to Andrew for his win at the root 66 opener also.

http://www.efta.com/PDF/results/2009//2009_kob_results.pdf

Riding the new bike now and it is great! It's better every time I am on the bike, just need some legs along with getting my lungs back.

Thanks to everyone for all the support.

Got to ride with Gary, great time!!!!

I know posting once a month is lame and it will pick up now, just been a crazy winter. Got to ride with Gary Fisher and Raul last Saturday 3/28/09 and it was just a great time. Gary hammered on the techy trails and enjoyed the ride we got in before heading back to the TREK of Fairfield event. I owe a big "thank you" to Raul for showing us where to go as he knew the area so well, was a great ride.

Raul and Gary

Gary and myself.

I'll have more up about the Gary Fisher ride/day/event in a bit, been busy traveling in and out of NYC the last two days. Monday was at Sloan for an 8 am MRI and headed home from there, I was not even in the driveway before my phone started ringing and I was told to "come back tomorrow" to talk with them.
Back yesterday and new growth has appeared over the last month so time to use something a little nastier or in my thoughts more effective. Funniest part of yesterday's visit was when I said to my doc "lets just get rid of this so I don't have to come back anymore" and he gave me a strange look, don't think people understand that "i ain't going nowhere attitude" sometimes. :)

Start the new chemo, Carmustine/BiCNU next Tuesday 4/7/09 in NYC @ Sloan Kettering for the treatment, look at the positive, helps keep my climbing weight down. Also no extra memory/brain removal needed at this time either, like I have any of either left.

Cool, no interference of race season, priorities huh?

See you in RI.

Michael

PET scan results.

Got the results the other day, not too bad, small growth of something (tumor/necrosis) another round of chemo and see what the next MRI shows.
It will be good so race season can just hammer out as usual.

Following is from my neurologist.

"I just saw the results of the PET scan. There is only mild uptake of tracer, may be a combination of both tumor and necrosis from radiation. Since you are doing so well, let’s do one more cycle of Temodar and then repeat the MRI."

USA Cycling, where does our $ go?

USA cycling updated all semi pros to pro for 2009. Yes it is the riders choice to upgrade but how many pro racers does USA Cycling have?
If they had just 200 pro racers what is done with the thirty thousand made from licence fee for the riders? Certainly most result info is from nationals or road races can found on the site, lessen fees in these times for all of us.

More important are the beginner/sport/expert classes, without them NORBA does not exist, attention should be paid to them in magazines and more on the USA Cycling website. Just a page on results from each national for ALL classes in the magazines would help build mtb racing rather than three photos of the same pros on the techy dirt road climb/descent.

The ones whom pay bills and support the mtb races deserve attention, without them there would be NO NORBA.

Again?

2/17/09


Spent the day in NYC today for an MRI, obviously using that to see how the chemo is working on recent tumor growth. I’ve done three rounds of Temodar chemo and feel much better as my thought’s are all here and not kicking as they were three months ago.
I’ve been riding a lot and look forward to a nice season along with preparing for cyclocross ahead of time this year.

My attitude was great going in and expected the results to be tumor shrinkage, unfortunately, MRI showed more growth and led to a long talk with my neurologist.
Could just be Radiation Necrosis which is dead tumor cell build up from my radiation last year, this eventually reverses itself and just goes away in most cases. That made more sense to both Dr. Nolan and I due to the fact that if the tumor was actually growing my head/thoughts would be skipping like a scratched cd.
Dead tumor cells may be what caused the recent issues and the chemo appearing to help may have been just timing as my brain get’s ready to trash the dead cells. He told me to do a PET scan and keep the positive attitude.

So, back to NYC next Tuesday for a PET scan, had them before and that will give us the answers we need.

Alternatives are what make me nervous, if it is actual tumor re-growth and not scar tissue, they are the following:

New drug called Avastin, not yet approved for brain use but works wonders on certain tumors and would be without surgery.

Or

Get another brain surgery; remove new growth of tumor and then a Temodar trial that is a small daily dose treatment (5mg) rather than the (335mg) I do 5 days a month now.

Or

PCV, (nasty stuff, not doing that).

I’ll go with the scar tissue and think nothing but positive during the 4 hour ride later today. Surgery would really mess up racing, but I’d probably be pretty fit for worlds in September. Figure at least three months recovery so my season would start in June. Any rate, I thought this should just get posted and answer some questions that were asked yesterday when we returned from NYC.

I’ll let you know the results from PET scan when received next week, meanwhile I am training my brains out. J

See some of you at the King of Burlingame Time Trial in a month and a half.

Michael

King of Burlingame MTB Time Trial

4/5/09 is the date for a great "start the season" mtb time trial in Charlestown, RI. Only 120 riders allowed, so sign up while you can. http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=7519

EFTA and NEMBA are supporting a ride there tomorrow 2/15/09 as well, should be fun and muddy, that site is http://www.nemba.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22974

It'll be fun to get outside along with scoping out the course as well.