Congratulations on your ride and money raised!! Hope you can stay in shape and do it again next year.

gmi

I just uploaded a few photos from the ride Check them out in my album.

Thank you, Keri. You're amazing! Congrats!

Awesome Keri!!!! Thanks for riding!

I know all about riding into winds in the heat...it can be BRUTAL! As for your hands, look up "ulnar neuropathy" or "Cyclist's Palsy". It is not an uncommon malady for folks who take up cycling, and can usually be fixed by changing a few things in the gear or bike setup. It is essentially a bruised ulnar nerve and usually comes from leaning too hard on your hands or gripping the handlebars too tight. If you stop whatever is causing the pressure on it, it will recover over time, but can take a long time. My wife had it when sh first rode an MS150 ride and it took almost 6 weeks to come back to normal.

Here are some things to consider changing on your bike to help relieve it:

1 - Wear padded gloves if you are not already. Yes, it sounds basic, but some folks think they are just for show and forego them.

2 - Check the angle of your seat. If the nose is slightly down, it will tilt you forward and make you support your weight on your hands to keep from sliding forward off the seat. Levelling the seat off will take some of the pressure off of your hands.

3 - Change your hand positions on the handlebars more often to keep from constantly pressuring your hands in the same spot. If you are riding a mountain bike or a flat bar road bike, get bar ends to put on the ends of the bar and wrap them with bar tape. It will give you more places to put your hands while riding. The flat bar bikes are the worst for causing neuropathy, because there are usually so few positions to put your hands in.

4. If you are on a road bike with a standard bar with drops, get some of the gel cushioned bar pads to put under your bar tape. Look into "Bar Phat" or other similar products. They cushion the ride of your hands on the bars and reduce jarring of the wrists.

5. Relax your grip on the bars and reduce the angle of your hand against your wrist. Try to just rest your hand on the bar and let your fingers loosely circle the bar. Obviously if you are braking, cornering, or on a rough road, hang on more securely, but generally try not to have a death grip on the bars unless you need it. If you rotate your hands forward so that your hands are closer to a straight line with the rest of your wrist, it will reduce pressure on the wrist and the ulnar nerve.

6 - Finally, if you are riding and feel your fingers going numb or starting to tingle, take one hand off the bars at a time and shake them out to get blood flowing again. If you are cutting off bloodflow, you are probably putting pressure on the nerve too, so try a different position for a while or concentrate on relaxing your grip. One good exercise you can do on the bike to relax the tingling is to reach one hand behind you and reach is far up the middle of your back as possible...then flex your fingers into a fist and relax several times while wiggling all your fingers.

Most of all, don't panic about it. It does recover if you stop what is causing the pressure on the nerve...so try to rest your hands and wrists some now that the event is over and try some of the things above when you do ride, and it should get better over time.

Once again, thanks for riding! I hope you keep after it and rock the 100 mile route next year!

Ok, I should have looked at the pictures first...

You are on a flat bar bike, but you do already have the bar ends and gloves. I would check the seat angle first and see if it is tipped slightly forward. Next, I would try wrapping the bar ends with padded bar tape to make them softer to hold. I can't see what kind of grips you have, but they make "ergo grips" that have a large rounded area to rest your palm on. They come in mens and womens models that are different sizes depending on how big your hands are.

My wife added ergo grips to hers and wrapped bar tape on her bar ends and it completely fixed the problem for her. Then a year later, she switched to a regular road bike (Trek 5000 WSD...women's specific geometry) and now can't imagine how she ever rode so far on a flat bar bike.

Bravo for you, Keri! Proud of you! WhataWoman!!!