Bart's Ride

Welcome. I'm Bart Rupel, husband, father of two great kids, and to make ends meet an engineer.

My son, Matt, was diagnosed in 2004 with Friedreich's Ataxia, or FA for convienence. FA is a progressive neuro-muscular disease that robs a person’s ability to coordinate their movements. This eventually leads to full time wheelchair use and…

There is hope though. Some very hard working people have gotten us close to finding a cure for FA. This effort is spearheaded by FARA.

In 2007, Kyle Bryant, a young man with FA rode his recumbant bicycle 2,400 miles to the annual national ataxia conference in Memphis, TN. Along the way he raised $40,000 and generated a lot of publicity.

In 2008, Kyle is going to ride 600 miles to the conference in Las Vegas, NV. I’ve decided to join him for half the ride, starting in Bakersfield, CA.

Friday, February 1, 2008

The First Climb

Well, I didn't really look closely at what I was getting into when I signed up for Ride Ataxia II. I was a bit suprised to find out that I will be do a 4,000 foot climb on the first day. The only way I'll be able to do that is if I do some of my training in the hills.

Today I took my first trip into the hills. Luckily we have some good hills nearby to ride on.

I forgot how hard hill climbing can be. The first part of the climb was easy enough, but the near the end the climb got steep. It was hard just to keep going forward. Lungs started burning, legs turned to rubber.

Mileage was less then the previous rides, but with 1500 feet of climbing, I think I'll feel this one more.

Map of the ride.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow - I need to get some climbing in also, but 'real' hills in Dallas are hard to come by. HUM...
Spinner

February 2, 2008 at 5:27 AM

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