Eric,

I had my first MS episode in 2004 (hearing loss) and got DXed in 2006. I have been lucky to have had a very benign course so far with my MS. My lesion count has increased from 2 to 17 since my first MRI, but I have never had another distinct "flare" since my first episode. I have had various fluctuations in my hearing and find that in places like restaurants with alot of background noise, I just can't pick out what people in front of me are saying from the general noise. Other than that, I have rare episodes where I run out of energy due to fatigue, but they are few and far between.

I actually started riding in 2004 and have ridden in an MS150 ride every year since 2005. In a little over two weeks, I will ride my 9th from Houston to Austin. The only way MS affects my riding is that I have found that I can't handle warm temperatures very well when I ride anymore. When the temp goes above about 80-85 F, I can feel my body getting much weaker and I get a bad case of dead legs. On those days I just have to drink alot more, douse myself with water while I ride, and just keep my heart rate lower to avoid cooking myself from the inside too much.

To account for that issue, I started riding the Houston to Austin MS150 instead of the San Antonio to Corpus Christi ride, because the Houston ride is in the spring so I can train while it is cool, and the San Antonio ride is in the fall and would require training through a Texas summer. I generally spin indoors mostly during the summer about 3 times per week, and when it cools off, I add a weekend ride outdoors. Right now, I am in a training series organized by several of the MS150 ride teams and have been riding anywhere from 35-60 miles each weekend for the last 10 weeks. I have a 74 mile ride this weekend and a 50-something next weekend left to do for my training. Then it is on to Austin!

I really encourage you to get out there and ride if you can. We have a group of cyclists with MS here in Houston called "Because We Can". My understanding is that the MS Society may try to take the group into more of a national thing over the next few years, but I like the idea of a support group focused around an activity rather than one focused around a disease.