Tour de Garage

Mid winter is here and it is time for every cyclists time of tribulation and suffering. A time when pain and suffering are increased and there is little of no pleasure payoff. Some cyclist seem to avoid this all together and others just get through it. Personally, if I am going to do something I try to make it as fun as possible. That is why I embrace trainer season. Easy to say since I have not been on my trainer yet this year. Frankly an hour long trainer session is second on my list right behind a nice road ride but neither of those is in the cards right now so i might as well write about it.

I am lucky. My garage is almost completely dedicated to cycling. Observe:

There is the 'man cave'. Note that the primary trainer is a spin bike. It is great, I scored it from a local gym that was upgrading. 150 bucks, not bad. The only down side is that the crank arms on it are 170s. I ride 175s on all my bikes so it really does feel like spinning. The best part about the spin bike is that it is stable and strong enough for my 170lbs to stand and sprint or climb on. Also note: although it is hard to see... there is a autographed poster of Magnus Backstead, my favorite PRO rider.

The garage is fully sheet rocked and insulated so I can heat it up in winter. Eventually I'll install that wood stove in the picture and then it'll get rockin' warm in there. That'll be nice for winter Yoga sessions.

Here are the bikes:

Those are mine and the Chickenhawks. They sure look lonely hanging there. Note the white bar tape on the road bike well after labor day, very puddin'. But when you aint riding it why bother changing it.

I've got two fans set up for cooling while on the trainer and I've got a TV with DVD player built in for entertainment. I like to watch hour long shows when I am doing low intensity rides. Last winter I watched all of season 7 of The West Wing while sitting on the trainer. I've got a couple of Chris Carmichael Dvds for interval workouts but I can hardly stand the guy. He is such a chooch I can hardly stand it. So now mostly I make my own playlists and then build interval work outs to go with the music. That actually makes the time go faster.

Two more points of interest from the garage:

This is my high tech weather observation station.

And this is my reminder to have patience and that I am doing just what I am supposed to be doing right now.
Thanks for reading.

Yoga

Last night I got a full hour of yoga in. First time I've been able to move around well enough to do yoga in 3 weeks. What a treat. The small things in life can be so nice.
I got a new exercise ball yesterday. The old one had a bad leak and has been sitting. The kids helped me inflate it this AM while the chickenhawk baked cinamon rolls. I just finished another half hour of stretching on the ball this AM. We've got Ice Cube Rockin' in the house. The sun is out in the valley and the grass is popping out on the hill sides. BAM

More Tests??

Went to the old HMO today. The Orthopedeist looked at both the hip and clavicle. I've been on steroids for 12 days and off the bike for 3 weeks and the hip pain is subsiding. He thinks it bursitis as well and is going to send me for a MRI. With the collar bone he got a bit tripped out. He ordered a Xray right away. It showed poor bone density at the end of the bone and a big old hump in the middle where break healed over. I've got to go for a bone scan soon. Yikes.

The good news is that the hip is healing nicely.

Work is super busy. Interest rates are down. The yield on the 10 year bond closed at 3.62% lowest I've seen in over a year. Go refi your house if you have any equity left. You should be able to get 5.625% or so.

The chickenhawk and I made a date to got to Harbin Hot Springs next month. Looks sweet. Now I've got something to look forward to... That and a bone scan. All I can think about is going here. I haven't so much as looked at my bikes in two weeks. Imagine that.

Today I am grateful for: The fact that I have money to deal with this. The Chickenhawk and her support. The team of healthcare PROs that are working with me. My family and friends.

Populist Messages

The press has been all ga-ga about the primary elections. Obama seems to be a golden boy and Huckleberry is the surprise Republican candidate. Personally, If Obama makes it I'll be OK with voting for him but and if Hillary makes it to the final I'll have a tough decision to make. That is not the point I wanted to make tho'. Obama's message is one of 'Hope' and 'Change.' I'm sorry but I want more than that. I want to shake up the system, Kunslter's latest puts it Beautifully:

Edwards seems to recognize that there are some people -- like the health
care
executive he cited who retired from his job with over $100 million in
the policy-holders loot -- who don't deserve to come together with anything
except a grand jury. Edwards is willing to gaze past the kindergarten
emotions of primary politics and see the stupendous ugliness and unfairness
of a land that is being sucked dry by corporate vampires. I believe he will
righteously kick their asses, and that they need to get their asses kicked,
so I'm more inclined to support Edwards. I believe he means it, too

Edwards message is distinctly populist. A message of power to the people and not the companies running our so called lives. That about you and me y'all not the corporate bosses. I only personally know one person who is making enough... were talking more than 500k per year, to really benefit financially from the republican agenda (all social issues aside).



Don't like the liberal social agenda Huckleberry is preaching about class warfare as well. I don't like the guy at all but i want to point out that he is pushing a similar fiscal agenda of giving power back to the people instead of the Man. Even the


I find it refreshing that after 7 toxic years of Bushco's ravage of our environment, the constitution and especially the American middle class that there are candidates on both sides talking about lifting up the middle class.

Laugh, I nearly cried.

I didn't realize how down I've been until last night after putting the kids to bed. The Chickenhawk and I were actually laughing. I haven't laughed in a week or so. That is just not me. It feels good to be on the way back. I can't say how much I appreciate how she's been helping me through this.

The prednisone is kicking in and the pain in the hip is back close to pre-last-weeks-fall levels. When I was at the PT's office on Wednesday I had him look at the big old bump on my left clavicle. The shoulder has been hurting since last weeks fall. This is a re-injury of the same thing from last April when I crashed at Priaire City. I had the Doc check it out last May and it was so inflamed then that he missed the break in the clavicle. I'd been doing my best Tyler Hamilton impression and riding through it. So, I've got that going for me, which is... you know, nice.

Next week I've got an orthopedist appt. Fun with HMO's I tell ya. You call 'em and tell 'em you can't walk and they get you an appointment in 10 days. Could Single Payer Health Care be much worse? Anyhow, I'm gonna push hard for an MRI to determine that there aint any soft tissue damage lingering in the hip and then I am going to push for a cortisone injection. Hell I'm gonna push for Human Growth Hormone and EPO if I have to. I want back on my bike dammit.

On the bright side, what am I really missing? Rainy rides and ridiculous trainer sessions. At least I'm not wearing out drivetrains and expensive michelin rubber. If it was May I'd be going insane!

BTW I loved O'Grady's Rant today. I'm thinking that Mr. Ball is going to be the gift that keeps on giving this year.

Wrong on So Many Levels

First you wreck the constitution then you blow it by not paying the bills:

WASHINGTON - Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time. A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000. In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal and intelligence investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.

It Boggles the mind: Link

Three Steps Backward

Whoa what a ride! Wednesday night I was feeling good. Doing a very low weight shoulder and chest work out when I tripped on a dumbbell and fell on my left knee and left hand. BAM the impact shoved the left femur head up into the hip socket. With the left hip already completely dodgy that impact sent the pain level up to 11.

I woke up Thursday AM in a ton of pain and toughed out a trip to the office for a client meeting. After the meeting went home and ate a vicodin and passed out.

Friday the valley was shaking with a big old winter storm. I was worrying about one of the big oaks in our yard falling on the house with all the wind. The Chickenhawk took me to a series of appointments starting with PT Dirk. I could barley make it up the five steps to his office. He was able to help me get a bit of the spasm out of my hip flexor and do a slight pelvis adjustment. I was waaay out of alignment.

From there I went to a Chiropractor that was a complete quack! I was there for three hours and got nothing out of it except a $300 dollar bill! It was an adventure in medicine that I will not forget. I'll write the story about it when I am a little more done being pissed off.

After that off to Kaiser for an Xray recommended by doctor KT. Results for that show negative for arthritis or bone damage. KT says I have ilipectineal bursitis. All I know is it hurts like a mofo and I cant really walk all that well. I started taking perdnisone yesterday. Yeah now I am on Steroids... look the F out.

So we get back to the house on Friday night and the power is still out and the storm still raging. All day Saturday we waited for the power to come back on. At our house no power = no water and no heat (well and central heat). I desperately need to keep warm since cold induces those dreaded muscle spasms. I spent the day under a down comforter in pile jacket and pants. It was a blur. Finally at 4:00 we bailed to warmer more comfortable digs. Best $100 I've spent in my life. Back in the day I would have toughed it out but now, I am a puddin'.

It looks like I'll be on the bench for a while. It is a real pain in the ass. Cycling is my mental outlet. It is the thing that reaffirms my humanity after the week's BS beats me down. I don't know how long I am going to be out. Right now my guess is that I might be able to do some miles in March. My big goal for the year is to race cross in the fall with a good strong run instead of a hobble.
Thanks for reading.