Last week I received an email from a HuffPost Live Associate Producer asking if I would be able and willing to participate with other athletes in a live discussion on how sport had a positive impact on healing from cancer treatment.  The "other" athletes included headliner, NY Giant Mark Herzlich, who also discussed his new book, Alex Niles, writer and former collegiate soccer player, and Jake Gibb, Pro volleyball player and Olympian.

Despite being right-smack-in-the-middle of moving, I did not hesitate to say YES!

The morning of the discussion, while still in my "moving" clothes from the day before, I had a short conversation with the Associate Producer and set up the webcam in my living room full of moving boxes.  The rest of the morning was spent figuring out a somewhat presentable 'studio' in our home full of boxes, finding respectable clothes to wear, and prepping my favorite accessory-my bike-for a studio backdrop.  Somehow, I was ready to go and 'on-air' by 11:45 that morning.

All dressed up for HuffPost Live wearing slippers:)

The discussion in its entirety can be seen here.  It was truly inspiring to be in presence of other athletes who have returned to high level competition after cancer treatment and I was honored to be included in the discussion.

Fortunately for me I had my hair cut earlier in the week.  Since I was showered, dressed up, and styling presentable hair, we took a photo!

36ish weeks and four haircuts since completing chemo

In other news, I raced my new green rocketship at Deer Valley this weekend.  I can say with absolute certainty that I love this bike!  Deer Valley has some of the steepest climbs around and the Pivot Les 27.5 makes them feel effortless.  Cornering has taken some adjustment as the bike is so quick and I was oversteering a bit, however I am getting it more and more dialed every ride and railed Deer Valley's tight switchback downhills faster than ever!  Good enough to finish 4th in a solid Pro Women's field!

The smile says it all:  I love racing! 

Photo: Trevor Hooper

Up next is my first MRI since completing Round 2 of treatment.  While there is nothing that is especially concerning to me at the moment, I will happily take positive thoughts and energy for negative scan results; especially at 8:00 tomorrow morning:)  

Wasatch Back 25 and other happenings....

I posted a little teaser photo of my new ride last week.

Racing my new bike at the Midweek race in Park City Photo: Lori Leger

It is a Pivot Les 27.5 hardtail.  The 27.5 represents the wheel size.  There are now three standard mountain bike wheel sizes.  The 26", the 29" and my new 27.5".  Pros and cons can be argued for each wheel size, although even though I only have a few rides (and one race) in on my new bike, I am feeling confident that the 27.5" wheel size is the perfect wheel size for me.  Once I have done a few more rides on varied terrain, I plan to write a comprehensive review of my new bike.  Something to look forward too.....

In the meantime, my mountain bike race season is ramping up.  This past weekend I raced the Wasatch Back 25.  It is a lumpy, chunky, rough 25 miles so it was a no brainer to ride my Pivot 429C dualie!  After over two hours of racing I beat my goal race time of 2:20 by 6 minutes and ended up finishing 2nd overall.  That said, there is always the goal of getting faster, although I do feel like I am making progress in that direction.  My race starts are improving and I am not coughing up a lung after the race.  Progress!  Additionally, all the core work I have been putting in to regain post-abdominal surgery strength is paying off.  This was my longest, roughest race of the year and my back held up nicely.

Some photos from the weekend:

It was a warm, dry, and dusty day in the Wasatch.   Photo: Lisa Palmer Leger

Lori's photos always make me look fast:) Photo: Lori Leger

Leading a group of super fast Summit Bike Club girls up the climb Photo: Dusty Powers

A few minutes into the race.  My starts are still hard, although improving.  Photo: Lori Leger

There are so many highlights from the weekend, however the bottom line is that I love riding/racing my bike.  It makes me feel strong, healthy, happy, and most importantly.....alive; something I strive and work hard for every single day.

Shannon and I also have some other exciting news.  We are officially Park City homeowners.  We pick up the keys tomorrow!  

Pivot Les 275

 A little teaser on my beautiful new ride.  Stay tuned for a full review.  I want to race it a few more times first!

3 Hours of Mesa Verde

12 Hours of Mesa Verde is in its 8th year and is more popular than ever.   Shannon and I have raced this race four times!  We keep coming back because of the super fun course, great vibe, and awesome promoters.  Despite technically being a 'grassroots'  race, it draws some of the fastest racers in the country and sells out year after year with this year being no exception.

Typically, Shannon and I race co-ed duo.  We alternate laps over twelve hours, which means we are each on full-throttle for six hours.  This year we opted for a more manageable 4-person  team which means only three hours full throttle for each of us; hence 3 Hours of Mesa Verde.

Shannon, Dizzy, and I spent the weekend camping in a borrowed pop-up A-liner.  While the pop up was by no means luxurious, camping with heat when nighttime temperature dips below freezing is much more my style!

Our team killed it!  We finished fourth in a super competitive field.  While my lap times were not as speedy as last year, they were respectable for where I am at with recovery.  My body may not quite be where it was last year, however my bike is certainly working hard to make up the difference.  My Pivot 429 carbon dualie is the PERFECT ride for the Mesa Verde course.

Since I don't have many photos from the weekend, here are some of my beautiful bike:

 Pivot 429 Carbon weighs in at 23 lbs 9ounces as pictured.
I am loving the SRAM XX1 1x11 for racing.
My Mesa Verde gearing was 30x11/42.

 I love my Ergon saddle and grips.  With mild post-chemo neuropathy in my hands,
 (okay, maybe not so mild.  When my hands are cold I can't change a flat
or unlock the door to my home), 

having proper positioning and increased support on long rides is imperative

 Stan's NoTubes 29er Race Gold wheels.  When paired up with Continental X-King Protection tires, 

I have simply the lightest most reliable wheel/tire combo on the market

 Beautiful Enve handlebar, stem, and post.....nothing but the best for this 429!

 Xpedo M-Force 8 Ti pedals are insanely light weight, but do not sacrifice a stable platform.  

Side loading bottle cage fits my size Small frame perfectly. 

I run a gel flask holder on my bike.   Don't want to waste time reaching my pocket for fuel!

I should note that Kris at Go-Ride built this bike up for me just before Mesa Verde.
He is incredibly tedious and detail-oriented.
My bikes always work beautifully after he works on them!  

Every time I ride this beast I feel grateful to have such an incredible bike that not only rips races, but is so much FUN to ride!

Soaking in life's grandness from 7000+ feet!

Always smiling on this bike!

So while I love, love, LOVE my 429 carbon dualie, I am pretty excited to get this new bad boy built ASAP!  Not only is it the sweetest color ever, I am thinking sub-20 lbs.  Ridiculous!  Did I mention life is grand?

Pivot Les 27.5 carbon hardtail!

Comeback #2 ?!?

The past few months since my last blog post have flown by.  A lot has happened.  We sold our home in Salt Lake, moved into temporary housing in Park City, made another trip to the desert, have been home shopping in our 'spare' time, and competed in my first race of the season.

Phew.  That's a lot for anyone to wrap their head around, let alone a couple who just finished their second round of cancer treatment in three years!

Despite the chaos.  Things are good.  Exciting things are happening in our life and we are happy and healthy.

As for 'training', our personal craziness and my body's post-treatment need for increased rest and recovery, has resulted in a toned down training program from 2013, when I was my fittest.  This didn't exactly help me exude ass kicking confidence going into my first race in a long, long time, however with a bit of a perspective and expectation change, all was good.

We headed down to St. George for 6 Hours of Frog Hollow.  Shannon and I were registered to race co-ed duo, where we alternated racing the super fun 15-mile lap over six hours.  This is one of my favorite places to ride and happens to be the same exact race that served as my 'return' to racing after my initial diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer in 2011.

Our race plan was to first and foremost have fun.  Sounds easy enough considering I love racing my bike, but honestly I wasn't sure if turning myself inside out in a bike race would still be fun for me.  My body and mind have been through a lot.  Would I still be mentally strong enough to push hard when I was tired?  Would it still be fun?  So with that plan in mind and my uncertainty about how I would respond (mentally and physically) to racing, I had to distance myself from being competitive with other teams (friends), opt out of the often fun pre-race smack talk, and just ride my own race.

The Le Mans start (from the St. George news)

Shannon killed it on his first lap.  He rolled in a few minutes behind Chris Holley in 2nd place in our category.  I took off for my lap, and although I felt like I was riding well, I was soon overtaken by Amanda Carey on the single track part of the climb.  I tried to hang on....kind of.....but she is wicked fast so I mostly just continued at my own pace.    Over the remaining four hours, teams were nipping at our heals and of course we were trying to chase down the leaders, but I stuck to my plan of riding my own race and Shannon continued to race really strong.  Between laps I focused on fueling and hydrating instead of worrying about lap splits.  In the end, we finished 3rd in a very competitive field, but more importantly, I had fun!  I absolutely still enjoy racing!

Finishing up my 3rd and final lap

Greeted by one of my favs at the finish

Great photo in the St. George News race coverage

A pretty badass podium!

Next up is 12 Hours of Mesa Verde on a 4-person team.  Last year, the week after Shannon and I won this race, I was diagnosed with my recurrence.  This milestone comes with a heavy dose of emotion, although I can't think of a better way to celebrate my health and resilience one year later!

Dizzy has acclimated well to our new (temporary) home

Not-so-quick 5-week post oophorectomy update

The original title of this post was "Quick 5-week post oophorectomy update", but after reading how lengthy it is, I changed it to "Not-so-quick.......".

In my last post I mentioned that my short-term goal was to ride dirt by the first weekend of March.  Well, it seems that my recovery from surgery is right on track.  Warm weather and dry trails tempted me to sneak in some short dirt sessions a week early; just enough to allow me to feel confident that my body was ready for some legitimate mountain biking on our trip to St. George the first weekend of March.

While the rest of the country is experiencing the Polar Vortex, 

it has been a springlike February in Salt Lake City.  

All the snow is gone!

It ended up being a quick weekend getaway to the desert, but it was the perfect test of my progress without over-doing it.  I started off riding a bit conservative. I was afraid to cause pain or damage by over-contracting my core to get up and over obstacles on the trail.  By the end of the weekend, I was confident that I could safely engage my whole body, however it was also clear that some strength had been lost over the past five weeks.   The past three years of my life have been all about building strength and fitness, just to be knocked down by surgery (six in total), chemo (eight months), or radiation (30 treatments).   Phew.  That's a lot of knockdowns!  I also know that with patience, time and a whole lot of hard work my strength and fitness will be back.

Being silly in the desert

Dizzy wasn't sure he wanted to leave the desert

While my active treatment (with the exception of Arimidex) has thankfully come to a close, I will continue being closely monitored indefinitely.  To kick things off, last week I had my first mammogram on my non-mastectomy side.  I got the dreaded call-back (anyone who has had a mammogram knows what I'm talking about), but it wasn't dreadful at all.  Instead of getting bad news, the radiologist just wanted to say hi and see how biking was going.  I loved it!  I truly appreciate when my medical providers identify me as not solely a cancer patient.  While cancer is (unfortunately) a big part of my life, I refuse to let it define me.  I am an athlete, occupational therapist, wife, sister, daughter, friend, animal lover (I could go on and on) who just happens to have (had) cancer......

That said, while I am moving full steam ahead from active treatment, it is always good to stop, breathe, and reflect on where I am in my recovery.  Here are some notes regarding my current state of recovery:

Post-Salpingo Oophorectomy:
-Yoga pants became my best friend.  Blue jeans became my worst enemy.  Since I am a blue jean girl, I compromised and ended up investing in a pair of jeggings that are much more comfortable on the incision line than my other jeans.  They're pretty cute too:)  Of note: Cycling bibs are pretty comfy too!
-After a Salpingo Oophorectomy there is a lot more pain on the right side of the abdomen than left.    This is normal, but weird.  I think it has to do with everything getting pulled out of the right incision.....
-Three weeks post-op I had some interesting tingling/sensation/itching in my abdominal/pubic bone area.  I think it was my skin waking up and regaining sensation.  The appropriate pants were key to comfort.  I still have some numbness.
-Four weeks post-op I was finally able to push hard on the bike.  Helllo intervals!  Did my first set of threshold intervals since May 2013.  Felt sooooo good!

Post radiation:
-Stretching of the shoulder, neck, and pecs EVERY SINGLE DAY is mandatory!  My pectorals muscle(s) seems to get especially tight, which makes sense as they were hit hard with radiation.  Without stretching, range of motion is impacted, and I can see how frozen shoulder can easily develop.  I was told that radiation continues to have an affect on tissue for up to a year after treatment concludes.
-Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize.  My favorite moisturizers on my radiated skin include calendula oil and beeswax lotion.  I also massage the radiated breast daily in hopes of limiting capsular contraction.

Post chemo:
- Like I was warned, two rounds of chemo have hit my bone marrow hard.  My white blood cell counts remain slightly depressed, therefore I seem to be wandering around in a state of mild immunosuppression.  Despite this, I have not had a single cold/illness since, well, long before I started treatment in July.  I attribute my good health to quality nutrition and exercise balanced with ample recovery.   Balancing hard workouts with quality recovery isn't a something I "should" do, it is something I "must" do and my training program and current lifestyle reflects this.  Instead of following the typical three weeks of training followed by a week of recovery, my training program is a bit more conservative with two weeks of training followed by a week of recovery.  While this may cost me a bit of fitness, I am hoping that a rested, healthy body will allow me to train harder and be faster in the long run!
-Another residual effect of chemotherapy is an elevated heart rate, especially while exercising.  My perceived effort just doesn't match up with what the heart rate monitor reads.  I recall this phenomenon after my first round of chemo in 2011, and for this reason I didn't even don a heart rate monitor for six months after treatment finished.  I am now almost six months out from finishing chemo, but I have also had radiation.  I am hopeful that my (exercising) heart rate will normalize soon.......That said, it is my understanding that at this time I am NOT at increased risk for exercise induced cardiac arrest.  So while it does perhaps affect how hard and ultimately how fast I am able to go, I am not going to let it slow me down (hehe, no pun intended).
-Neuropathy is also a common side effect of chemo.  While mine is mild, I do notice that my hands become cold and weak very easily.  Despite wearing the warmest cycling gloves I can find, when I return from winter rides my hands are so cold and weak and my dexterity so poor that I can't press the key code for our garage.  I don't miss the irony of the occupational therapist having poor fine-motor skills:)  Anyone want to help me develop heated bike grips?!?

So while I do have lingering effects from treatment, I really can't complain.  Considering everything..... I feel pretty damn good, my current status is NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE, and since active treatment is over it is GAME ON!  First race in six weeks!  BRING IT!

The current state of my hair: 

 I'm probably told 5 times/day that I look good with short hair and
while I appreciate the complements, my opinion: Blah.
Certainly better than no hair at all, but does not come close to a ponytail. 

(My kitty's tail photo bombed this photo.  Looks like I have a tail:) 

Recovering from Bilateral Salpingo-Oophorectomy

Today is a big day.

First, I got a haircut.  My hair is not exactly long, but it was out of control and in need of some 'shaping'.

Post first haircut (20 weeks after finishing chemo)

Second, I am now two weeks out from my Bilateral Salpingo-Oophorectomy and 'officially' cleared to lift more than a milk jug (not that I drink milk:).  Hellllllo independence.  So many daily activities that I don't even think twice about require lifting.  Going to the grocery store alone?  Out of the question.  Grocery bags are heavy!  Carrying my bike up the basement stairs?  Nope.  Not even my bike weighs less than 10 lbs.  Even moving a student chair at work?  Well.  I admit I did do that, but very carefully:)

So while I am celebrating my increased independence, I do want to spend a minute reflecting on the recovery that has taken place these past two weeks.

Tuesday January 28th I underwent a Bilateral Salpingo-Oophorectomy.  It was an outpatient surgery which means I returned home that same day.  The gynecologist who performed the surgery performs this procedure routinely on patients with high risk ovarian cancer and/or breast cancer.  I felt very confident in his skills.  I detailed day of surgery here.

First, I want to say that my final ovarian pathology results came back negative.  No cancer whatsoever was found in my ovaries.  This officially made a crappy situation 'best case scenario'.  As always, I am thankful for small victories.

Recovery from surgery thus far has also been going very well.  I went into surgery after a solid block of early season training feeling fit and strong.  My plan was and continues to be patient with my recovery, erring on the side of caution, as opposed to pushing my body too quickly.  With everything my body has been through since May including axillary lymph node dissection surgery, chemo, radiation, and now oophorectomy, I truly feel that allowing my body to fully recover will help it to bounce back more quickly as I start to ramp things up over the next few weeks.

Here is my rehab over the past two weeks:

Post-op Day 1: Walking was still 'uncomfortable' at this point.  Went for a short, slooooow walk with Shannon and Dizzy.  I am a firm believer in walking as soon as possible after surgery to improve circulation, promote healing, and get the gut working again.  All I will say is that it worked:)

Post-op Day 2: Another short, sloooow walk.  My good friend drove all the way down to Salt Lake  from Midway to walk with me.  She led the doggies while I just tried to keep up and stay upright on the snowy sidewalks.

Post-op Day 3:  Today was my first day out of the house.  I drove myself to acupuncture which presented its own challenges.  Getting in/out of the car and onto the acupuncture table requires more abdominal engagement than I imagined.  I will say that I quickly learned many compensatory techniques on how to NOT engage the abs for these tasks.   I also went to the gym and sat on the recumbent bike for 30 minutes and went for an afternoon walk.

Post-op Day 4:  Went for a very easy and very slow hike.  Turns out uneven terrain also requires abdominal engagement which was 'uncomfortable'.  Who knew?  Rode recumbent bike again.

Post-op Day 5:  Same hike.  Twice as fast with same level of 'uncomfortableness'.  I took the increased speed as progress!  Tried to ride trainer.  Once again I underestimated to amount of abdominal engagement required to swing my leg over the bike and to maintain the lower, more aggressive body position on my road bike (versus the recumbent or stationary bike at the gym).

Dizzy on one of our hikes.  No he didn't dig the hole.  But he (obviously) wanted to see if he fit!

Post-op Day 6:  Resorted to the stationary bike at the gym as riding my road bike on the trainer was difficult.

Post-op Day 7:  Returned to work.

Post-op Day 7-11:  More easy hiking and stationary bike riding.

Post-op Day 12-14:  Easy road rides on MTB.  Hurray for beautiful winter weather and being able to ride outdoors.

For the past week, on a scale of 1-10,  I have maintained a pain level of less than 2 for all of my workouts.  My plan for the next few weeks is to increase duration, intensity, and structure of my workouts as my body allows without eliciting any pain or using medication to mask it.  I also plan to ease into some body resistance workouts.

Short-term goal:  Ride dirt the first weekend of March

Long-term goal:  Race April

Me and my boys