Isn’t Bruxism a Vegetable??

Every year, the AIDS/LifeCycle office plans a special training event called “Day on the Ride”.  It is designed to simulate what a typical day on the actual AIDS/LifeCycle ride is like.  Staff and volunteers provide all the necessities the riders need, including breakfast and lunch, fully-supported pit stops with mechanics, water, electrolyte drinks, fruit, snacks and porta-potties, a motorcycle crew to help direct traffic, sweep vehicles to pick up riders who might be hurt or unable to finish, and a team of sports message therapists to give riders adjustments and massages.

This year’s Day on the Ride took place in the South Bay.  We met up with about 200 other riders at 6 am at the Helen’s Cycles in Manhattan Beach, many of whom wore bunny ears to celebrate Easter.  The organizers started the day off on a somber note with a moment of silence dedicated to a training ride leader from Orange County who recently passed away.  After a few more words and the safety speech, we were off.  The route took us south into Rancho Palos Verdes.

Based on similar training rides I did while training for AIDS/LifeCycle in 2003, I knew we were heading toward Malaga Cove.  I remember really liking those rides, even though there’s one small climb right before reaching Malaga Cove.  But I had forgotten about the Palos Verdes Estates hills past Malaga Cove and as soon as we started heading up those hills, I remembered how awful they were.  But lucky for us, it ended up being a beautiful day and we were treated to a smog-free, picturesque view of the ocean and Santa Monica Bay.  That was worth doing the climb.

From Rancho Palos Verdes, we continued south down the coast toward San Pedro.  I thought we were done with the climbing for the day, but unfortunately this stretch of road was long and at an incline, which meant more steady climbing.  My neck/shoulder area started acting up again and it was causing a lot of pain by the time we reached our lunch pit stop.  Thankfully, there was a team of sports massage therapists on site offering riders adjustments and massages.  One of the therapists, Apryl, worked on me and gave me a really good adjustment.  She told me that I was extremely tight all over the place and that I needed to get massages more regularly to loosen up my muscles.  (Thanks Apryl!)

After our lunch stop, we headed north from San Pedro and slowly made our way back to Manhattan Beach, 64.49 miles total.  I ended up getting another massage when we got back.  Tony, one of the lead sports massage therapists, worked on me.  He assessed my neck/shoulder problem areas and speculated that I have bruxism, which is grinding of teeth and clenching of the jaw.  He was spot on about the teeth grinding because my dentist had to prescribe me a mouth guard to wear at night.  He also told me that people with bruxism get a lot of headaches, which I do get a lot.  As for the jaw clenching, he said that causes the tightness at the base of the skull where the jaw ends, which then puts a lot of pressure on the muscles from the neck down to the shoulder.  He recommended that I see a functional orthodontist to get this checked out.  Of all things, he strongly recommended that I learn to relax.  Easier said than done.  I don’t think I’ve ever been able to relax in my life.  That would require a major game change.