Finally

I finally got a good ride in today, it wasn't blazin' fast but it was a really good ride. I was a tad underdressed but wasn't frozen at the end, I just had some cold feet. I looked and the temp was 28 but it seemed warmer out.....I think I was wrong. There was a decent wind coming out of the WNW and it was slowing me down quite a bit not to mention that the air was colder since it was blowing across all the snow. I was hauling tail on the way home, the tailwind felt great and I needed it to bring up my avg. I ended up with a 19 avg for the ride which I was pleased with for today. It has been a while since my legs felt like this, I miss the feeling from a good workout. I think I will be feeling a lot next weekend!!!

I tried the new Montana Huckleberry Hammer Gel today and it was awesome, it might be my new favorite flavor. I will need to try it after it has been in my jersey on a hot ride to see if it tastes different warm but as far as eating it cold the flavor was great. I used the new Chocolate flavor Recoverite today also and it was pretty good too, I think I still like the Strawberry Recoverite best though.

Trails.....Not Ready

Okay, I know I can be a little impatient but also willing to take a little abuse. I went back out with Mary on Saturday morning to try and ride some of the campground loop, I was hoping that a lot of the snow had melted as it had around town but there was still quite a bit in that area. I actually went down on the gravel section leading to the trail head, I was going from one drifted tire track across some deep snow to another drifted tread and that is where the fun began. I threw down my best Jedi warrior moves but the force was not with me on that quest, I maneuvered the bike side to side a couple times before piling up in the snow. I swear a squirrel came out of a tree and said "Nice try.....stupid snow".

I dropped into the trail and quickly realized that this would be an interesting lap, and probably not a very fast one at that. I did my best to ride what I could but it was difficult and the lack of gears wasn't helping the situation, but I did the best that I could. When I bogged down and couldn't keep the wheels turning I decided to run my bike, I ran my bike a whole lot farther than I would have cared to but I know it will pay off in the future. I could tell that I hadn't done any true running since the last duathlon last spring, I did a bit at the cross race but nothing like I was doing on this ride/run. I wasn't out nearly as long as I wanted to but at least I got something in, right now something is better than nothing.

I am looking forward to the Oklahoma trip, should be a good time. I still have one tire left to put new Stan's into and need to make sure that everthing is sound on my bike. I'll have to get my packing list started!!!

Living 90/10

I recently got an email that sparked my interests, I get a lot of emails that are forwarded to me that I give little or no attention to depending on the subject. This particular one was about attitude and how a person lives their life, it suggested that we all live our lives 90/10 but how we live our 90 is what determines our attitude and happiness or lack there of. It stated that 10% of what happens to us we have absolutely no power over, it's how we handle the 10% that reflects the rest of our life. The remaining 90% is all our choice, if the 10% brings hardship we can choose to let it bring us down and we can stay down or we can deal with it and move on. I know that I let a lot of things bother me more than I should which reflects in other aspects of my life, I am trying to make a conscious decision to move past difficult things and not let them bother me like the used to. Things still bother me, I'm human, but I can change how I handle them. I have been so frustrated that I haven't been able to train very much due to injury but the injury happened and there is nothing I can do to change it. Stressing over it won't make it better, in fact it will probably prolong things. Good news is that I am having less and less pain, I actually tried some core work this week. I may not be where I wanted to be as far as fitness goes but it is what it is.

I got to go, I need to find Denny some mouse traps!!!

Getting Creative

Like most people, I am tired of being inside and tired of not riding my bike outside very much. I decided today that I was going to try and ride a little bit of single track if at all possible so I headed out to the campground loop at Indian Creek. I had to park on the road because the snow was deeper than I wanted to take my 2 wheel drive truck into, so I just geared up there and rode to the trail head.

I dropped in on the first two switchbacks and the snow combined with the off camber section of trail made for some fun/interesting riding. As the trail leveled out my effort increased to keep the bike rolling. The snow was only about 3 inches deep but the top layer was starting to get crusty. I had to rock and lunge forward to force a pedal stroke but had to jump back to weight the rear wheel to get some bite. I opted to take Mary out because I figured that gears really wouldn't matter too much in the snow and I had more aggressive tires in my Kenda Nevegals already setup on my single speed versus the Specialized Fast Trak on my Epic, the Fast Trak tires are a much lower profile and are awesome on hardpack and some loose terrain. I was able to ride more than half the loop but some areas were drifted and impossible for me to ride tonight. I was wanting to ride several loops but that just wasn't going to happen tonight so I decided to head over to the boat access road.

I was going to ride down the hill on the road to the boat access parking lot but decided to take the off road option that is off to the left by the sign at the top of the hill. There was much more resistance on this route with deeper snow, I rode all the way down and dropped down the hill to where I was just below the dam. I jumped on the trail that leads back to the parking lot and rode into about a foot of snow that had drifted in the parking lot. I couldn't tell if the road had been plowed and had snow blow back across or if it had just had traffic on it at some point. I rode up the hill to the main gravel and decided that I would ride back down and then sprint back up the hill. I did 4 sprints and my legs were on fire, I couldn't hardly breath, and the small headache I started riding with was making my head now feel like it was going to explode. I wanted more but my headache was creating an almost blinding experience, I'm just glad that I was able to ride.

A Disappointed Chuck

Well I didn't exactly have the ride I was hoping for on Saturday, in fact I really didn't enjoy riding much at all. I had worked on Friday and went home and ate and finally laid down and slept for 2.5-3 hrs and got up at 11:45 p.m. and was back at the store at midnight. I worked until about 8:30 and then went home and changed and headed for Jamesport. I was pleased to see so many people there to ride when the conditions were not prime, I know that Coach was super pleased with the turn out. I was excited about the lack of sleep and the opportunity to ride since I am doing some ultra endurance events again this year and training while the body is lacking I think will pay off, that is if I actually ride. Some might disagree but I was wishing I had my mountain bike instead of my cross bike before we ever left the parking lot, I was really wishing I had it while out on the course. I found it hard to ride my bike while wearing heels and a skirt, it didn't show Saturday but I know I have balls because the Doctor had them in his hand the other day.....too much?

I was easily frustrated Saturday which did not help my performance, I never did really get tired because I never could carry much speed. I rode with Damon the whole day and we rode with Raymond through most of the aggie flats. That was the best part of the day, getting to hang out with those guys. I need to be more like them, they are so laid back and easy going. I always want to ask Damon if he is okay when I see him because I swear it looks like he got stung in both legs by a huge ass bee, his legs are HUGE.

Damon had to cut the ride short due to his niece having a basketball game that he wanted to attend so I took my grumpy butt with him. We peeled off and headed East on Prairie, and we encountered a couple very nice climbs, and jumped onto 190 and then headed back North. I ended up with 37.5 miles which is better than nothing, I did sacrifice my Grand Chuck status but I will have plenty more riding opportunities to come.

A+ On The Testes Test!!!

I saw another doctor today for all of the groin pain that has still been lingering on, this time I got to see a specialist and I think I got some answers. I have been frustrated and other doctors have been confused because I have been having pain in my groin in several different places but nothing consistent. I have been proactive with all of this and I have tried to figure a pattern but have had no luck. The only thing that has been consistent is that the pain on the lower left has been burning pain and most of the testicular pain has been on the right (it felt like I thumped in the nugget but the pain would last for 10-12 hrs). The other pains have been very inconsistent and in different areas. I was afraid that I would go in and tell the doc what I have experienced and he would be just as confused as the others but he seemed very confident that the pain was associated with either straining or minor injury (does not need surgery) to the mesh in my groin. I have had 2 hernia repairs, one on each side, and a persons body will basically grow around the mesh much like a tree can grow around a barbwire fence. Any strain or minor injury obviously has to heal and the doctor said I was very healthy and it will heal. Jonas was with me and the doctor said that if I was Jonas' age then I would already be healed but since am almost 80 years old (his words not mine) it just takes longer. He said that injuries like this heal at the rate of 1mm per month so it could take 12 months to heal, there really is no way of knowing how long. I asked if the testicular pain was just pain that was radiating down from the groin and he said that the pain is much like "phantom syndrome" (which I had not heard of but Molly was shaking her head). Phantom Syndrome is if a person has part of an arm amputated then sometimes (5-10% of patients) experience the sensation that there lower arm and hand are still attached (the feeling is usually in the form of pain). He also said that nerves run from the testicles through the groin and then join into the spinal column and of course our brains receive information from the spinal column. He said that if that nerve is injured in the groin our brain doesn't know that is where the injury is, it thinks it is in the testicle. Of course I still get some pain in the groin so I guess not all my wires are crossed. It is very interesting and a lot to wrap my "mis-wired" brain around, I am going to research it some more to see what else I can find out. Anyway, I felt encouraged with the information that I came away with.

Bite Update

As it turns out, the dog that bit my was not up to date on it's shots. The owners of the dog lied to the Deputy telling him that the dog was current, the case was sent to the Health Dept and they checked on the claimed vaccinations and found none. Then the owners were contacted and told that the dog must be impounded for a period of 10 days and then could have a rabies shot, the owners said that the dog had an appointment today to get it's shots. The Health Dept said that the dog could not have the shots until after the 10 day period and on a hunch contacted the area vets and there was no appointment made....interesting. I was contacted by the Health Dept today and given the above information and it was highly recommended that I receive a tetanus shot, I have had one in the past 10 years but she said with a bite I would have needed to have it in the last 5 years. I went and got the shot, I didn't even feel the needle or the injection, but about 30 seconds later.....I could feel it...........as a matter of a fact I can still feel it!!!