Thursday, October 25, 2007

Two Steps Forward...

Yesterday went home feeling like a million bucks. I spent an hour during lunch at the gym doing squats, lunges and hip ab/aductors and a bunch of Yoga. I told the Chickenhawk that I was feeling the best I've felt in months. The next time I say that I wouldn't be surprised if I immediately fell on my ass and broke my leg or something. Note to self... Don't say that anymore!

So this morning David joins me for the regular lake ride. Coming into a corner we miscommunicated about which way we are going and he takes out my front wheel. I unclipped in time to put a foot down and landed on my right hip. I tell ya! that is the fourth time something like that has happened in as many months. It didn't really hurt at the moment and now 4 hours later i still feel OK but I suspect the pelvis is back out again. I'm going to see Dirk to get my body checked out yet again. Hopefully I'll move through this quickly and keep on with my low key training for now.

Of Note: After 7 years and god knows how many miles of road riding, this was my first time to touch the pavement on / from a road bike.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Welcome to Mountain Biking Kid

They say that in road biking if you crash often you are doing something wrong and with Mountain Biking if you don't crash fairly often you are not trying hard enough. Well I did not have that in mind when I took my kids out for their first mountain bike ride last weekend.

Daughter 1 who is 6 just learned to ride a two wheeled bike just three weeks ago. Daughter 2 and I have been shredding on the tag-a-long bike for a year but #1 never really took to it. She is a control freak at an early age. Well, D1 has at least 5 miles and 30 hours of riding under her belt it is time for her first Mountain bike ride.

We headed out on Sunday to a local trail. There is a loop that the chickenhawk and I can do in about 10 minutes if we hurry. Single track contours around a big hill most of the way. There is very little elevation gained or lost and the trail mostly smooth packed dirt. Mostly.

Rolling out the girls were amazed by the amount of horse poop on the trail. I had to talk to them about not yelling about it every time they saw the stuff. After about 10 yells in .5 mile it was getting old. We rolled along through the woods. Me leading with D2 on the tag-a-long with D1 on her hand me down single speed 12incher with some sweet coaster breaks brining up the rear. I keep talking to D1 as we go, "Are you OK?"
"Yes Daddy."
"Are you having fun?"
"This is great Daddy!"
"Are you back there?"
"Wait up Daddy."

And so it went for a mile or two. Then we came to a small downhill. The kind that would make a rather boring single track ride interesting. Maybe 10 feet of elevation lost in 30 horizontal feet, and there are some small rocks exposed.

I slow down and start yelling for her to slow down. Stop at the bottom, yell warnings again, and here she comes full speed no brakes. She bumps down the incline and crashes and burns at the bottom. Daughter 2 and I set the bike down and run to her. D2 starts talking about the cut lip. I dont see it. I just hold her to my chest in my best daddy bear hug. After a minute I hold her away a little and see she's has got a fat lip and about 1/8th of a thimble full of blood.

Disaster narrowly averted. We regroup and the trouper D1 gets back on her 12incher and rides the 1.5 mile back to the car. The crying kept going for a while but afer she started focusing on the riding she was laughing again.

We stopped for popsicles on the way home. I figured the cold would be good for the swelling and we all needed a little treat. I've got some tough kids, they must have got it from their mother.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Well Awright

Did the standard loop this AM. Stayed in z2 the whole way. The hips are feeling better and not too sore afterwards. Damn it feels good to ride with out pain.

An employee gave notice today. She has been with me for 2 years and is a great member of the team. Not completley a bad thing rght now since we needed to cut costs with the market slow-down anyway. It doesn't stop me from feeling sad.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Pain: tolerable but not high.

I don’t want to start at the beginning because it is too long ago after all I am 40 years old. And that is a big part of the problem. My body is just plain not what it used to be. I could go on with the catalog of stuff that hurts for too long. I’d rather focus on the recovery and come back.

My goals for the winter are:
1. To be pain free.
2. To be able to run.
3. To go in to next year with good base fitness.

I got to this miserable place in part because I have been pushing through too much pain. So now I don’t trust myself to not go too hard.
My PT rocks! He really has helped me through these weird injuries I keep getting. I asked him yesterday how much pain I should allow myself to ride with. He says, “it is probably not a good idea to try to push through the pain but to keep it a tolerable (but not high) level.”
So I’ve got a mission. I’ve got to drive to ride for a while so I can ride flats. It is all climbing in my neck of the woods. So it is off to Lincoln on Sunday. I’ll see if I can get any of the veloloco boys to go with but I’m not holding my breath