Off To St.Jo, TX

Returned from a long day of work-related travel. Last night was spent preparing for fun-related travel! I take a lot of pride in making the logistics operate smoothly. Something I've carried over from my car racing experience. The first car race I attendend I was simply blown away with the amount of "stuff" required to support two race cars. It jam-packs two semi-trailers. I was more blown away that everyone knew where everything was. There was zero chaos in the pits - even when we had big problems with the car. Save the chaos for the race course!

The spares and tools are gathered and lined up ready to be placed into the truck. All that's left is to clean and tune-up the Stumpy and it's time to hit the road. I'll be leaving early to spend some time with folks in Dallas.

Here's a preview of the race...

Joyful Sunday!

Eighty-one (81F) today! Beautiful blue skies. Not too bad for February. Topping off things, I'm celebrating an *almost* painless sneeze today! My friend/doctor/financial-advisor/cycling coach EK thought recovery would take "atleast two, likely four, and possibly six weeks." I'm right on schedule for that four week number...

Today's ride was on the Chi-Chi bike. I hit the White Oak Bayou Trail that runs alongside of TC Jester.



I like this path. It's car-free, and great place to open-up the roadie bike.



I rode to the end of the trail just north of 43rd Street. I stopped and watched some of the skaters for a bit on the other side of the bayou. Skateboarding looks so fun.



I rode back south, and then east down either Ella or 34th (I can't remember). I saw these cookie-cutter townhomes...



It struck me that I could have some fun in this neighborhood with a couple of gallons of paint. If you shuffled the colors around, your neighbors wouldn't know which house was their's!



The entire "development" is the SAME house... just one after the other. How boring. It's a shame what the "developers" are doing to this once unique neighborhood. I'll stop before I turn this blog into Swamplot!

POST RIDE FEED
After burning up the calories it was time to refuel. On the left is an egg and milk wisked together. On the right is whole wheat flour, sliced almonds, paprika, a pinch of cayanne peper, and salt.



Salmon filets in the milk/egg then the flour/almonds...



Then into a frying pan with a dash of EVOO. The result...



Served up with some lemon-cilantro-jasmine-rice and fresh (from Canino's) broccoli sprinkled with soy sauce.

WHAT'S UNDER YOUR SINK?
As I was cleaning up from cooking, I noticed a rapidly growing puddle at the foot of my cabinet! YIKES. I opened the door under the sink and the p-trap was loose. All of the water going through the sink drain into cabinet! Thank doG I hadn't run anything down the garbage disposer! Undoubtedly, I knocked off the p-trap putting away my floor cleaner. First thing was to pull everything from under the sink...



Yup, all of that stuff was once under the sink. It was a great opportunity to throw-away junk and clean up under there. The P-Trap was an easy fix. I'm thankful I can handle stuff like this myself without having to call a plumber!

Going To The Darkside

Blogs are good for confessions. I've bought a chi-chi bike. An 18-pound, skinny tired, plastic, fragile, roadie bike. There was a lot of indecsion in this purchase. I (still) want a hard-tail mountain bike. I also want a cross bike. But in the end, I figured I get the most use out of a roadie bike.



Yes, I need to de-sticker it! I'm not becoming a roadie. I promise, it's just for training. Although, I may do a few crits between the spring and fall mountain bike seasons.

I'll do a more detailed reveiw when I get more time in the saddle...

UPDATED SCHEDULE
Speaking of racing seasons, I updated my spring schedule. TMBRA canceled the Tapitio race. I'd also planned to volunteer/spectate the Ouchita Challange race, but I've got a conflict that weekend. Still going to be a fun season!

Back...sorta.

Late last week it appeared that my flu/caugh was making a break for the lungs! All week I took it easy, ate my Vitamin C, ate some mucous relief pills to keep the lungs clear, and slept - A BUNCH! By Saturday, I was probably 85%. Some amazing homemade chicken soup - THANKS JANE! - it was the death blow to the flu/cold/cough. Like all good food, it was as good for the soul as it was for the pallet. It put me the top.

The ribs felt great, too. Saturday night I celebrated some long missing action from my bed. That's right gentle readers - I was able to roll over onto my side!! TADA!!Not the side that I fell on. But nonetheless, it was the first time in two weeks that I could sleep any position except on my back. I was stoked! I could hardly sleep, anticipating good weather and my first ride in two weeks.

THE SNEEZE.
I woke up Sunday to beautiful weather. Ribs-OK. Flu/cold/cough-OK. Ready to Ride. But first I made breakfast. As I was cooking my omlette, I felt a sneeze coming on. I used my sneeze avoidance method. I've got this technique down. Pinch the nose, breathe shallow and verrrry slowly. KABLAMMM! It hit with my nose pinched off! That Hurt! Despite the smoke rising from my pan, I could barely even move for what seemed like an eternity. By time I finished off my breakfast, I was knotted up and hurting too bad to ride. RATS!

MONDAY BAG
Still hurting I had to sleep on my back Sunday night. It was worse Monday. I took a good 10 minutes to get out of bed. Gosh, Monday was a tough day. Achy ribs, discouraged, and I had to fire someone. On the drive home I decided I was going to beat the pain, or it was going to beat me. I put some sag into the fork, jumped on the bike, tender ribs and all, and hit the gas. The softened fork helped. The ribs still hurt. The well rested legs felt amazing! They were urging me on. The pain of breathing deep kept me at a slower pace than I wanted. It still felt sooooo goood to be back! Dare I say theraputic?

WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?
I'm not sure where to resume training. Before this interruption I was in the middle of a build period. Can I resume there? Do I need to go back and work some base mileage? I'm just not sure.

Nail In The Coffin

Forecast for Terlingua from the NWS:

Friday Night...Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow showers or showers. Colder. Lows 24 to 31. North winds 10 to 15 mph.

Saturday...Mostly cloudy. A 20 percent chance of showers
or snow showers in the morning. Highs in the lower 30s in the mountains to
around 50 along the rio grande.

I'm out! Don't need to be camping out in that!

An Uncomfortable Disclosure

I'm sick. There I said it.

Perhaps it's a futile hope that if I don't admit to being sick, I won't be sick. Or maybe it feels like acquiesing to defeat. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this but...I am sick. There, I said it again.

I felt bad this weekend, but didn't think too much of it. I slept almost all day Sunday, that was the first sign I tried to deny. The noze was stuffy too. The second sign, and denial attempt. Woke up this morning and felt like death. Like a trooper I covered a meeting, and immediately came home. Checked my temperature - 101.1F. Pretty hard to ignore that one! Off to bed I went, and have stayed until now. I'm up eating some chicken soup, crackers, and sprite. Then back to bed.

Thus far it's just in the head. With my still sore wibs I'm petrified of this turning into a chest cold or cough.

No Wonder Adam Was Bitter

If God made Eve from Adam's rib, I bet he really resented that! Rib injuries suck! I didn't end up with a female partner for my rib injury, c'est dommage. Nor will my rib pain condemn humanity to a lifelong of sin! In fact, it's already on the wane. Last night I was able to move around, with only minor pains. I actually stretched, and though it ached, it wasn't that sharp pain, but the "good" ache that you get from a long stretch or a deep massage.

I'm itching to ride! I should probably wait one more day. But I don't want to. Is there anything more tempting than forbidden fruit? In any case, tonight I will also do my logistics planning for the trip out to Terlingua. I gotta get me, all my stuff, and a buddy out to Big Bend and back.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Feeling much looser today! Instead of a constant ache in the side, it's down to just certain things. Like sneezing on my drive to work! Yah, that hurted! Still hoping to ride tomorrow, but that may be pushing things. It sux lounging around the house, feeling my fitness rot away. When you rest, you rust.

Is it just me or does TV suck even worser than it used to? I do have a Vonnegut book I've never read. I think I'll start that tonight.

Owwweeee! 2nd Day's The Worst?

Not sure if it's second day soreness, or the way I slept last night, but the ribs were killing me when I woke up. Getting out of bed was close to un-possible. Took me a good 15-minutes of trying to find a way to get up without rolling or twisting in a way that made me see stars!

Other than the ribs, everything else is great. I got a nice strawberry coming in on the hip. I think I see an image of Jeebus in it.... That spot doesn't hurt though, so that's kinda nice! Ironically, the painful ribs show no external signs of bruising. Go figure.

The biggest bruise of all is to my ego. It's embarrassing to fall at LakeLake. The place is smooth enough to ride on a CX bike. I did, afterall, ride off of what amounts to a sidewalk and into a bridge. ;-) Total DA move. Seems that I have difficulty with the easy parts and handle the difficult parts with ease. A concentration/focus issue, perhaps?

I have to admit in a manner this feels good. It's a reminder that I'm doing something physical and athletic. This mountain biking thing is fun, falls and all! Now, back to my heating pad!

Jinxed Day?

Saturday started out with some Beeeeeuuutteeeeffffuulll weather! I awoke with great excitement - looking forward to getting in some quality trail time. I hurriedly packed up the truck and headed north on I-45, bound for Huntsville State Park. One little problem... I ran into this:



Never good to see an ambulance making its way to a wreck. After clearing the wreck, and spirits raised, it was on to Huntsville!



Unfortunately, I didn't know there was the Rocky Racoon adventure race going on! Several hundred runners on the trails = no biking here. Disappointed, I headed back south, comtemplating what to do with the rest of the day. Then I saw an exit to Coldspring - home of Double Lake. AHA! Undaunted and determined to get some riding in, I took the exit. This, despite not having a map, or a clue how to get there. I made it, too!



I decided I'd ride two laps flat out - race effort, then two more tempo paced laps. The ride went great. The heart was pumping, legs felt good, and I was making a great pace! Then, I came across this little section of trail...



It's a low spot with concrete blocks and a short wood bridge. Here's what happened, I dropped off the right hand side of the concrete blocks. You can see my track at the bottom of the picture. I tried to bunny hop back onto the concrete. Good plan, bad execution. I didn't get back on the block. Then BAM! I'm flying through the air and the bridge planks were rushing up to greet me!

My front wheel had hit the big sqaure board on side of the wood bridge (at top of picture). The bike stopped instantly, I however, kept right going over the handle bars! Darn near cleared the wooden bridge!

I knew there was a rider behind me that I'd just passed... so I dragged myself to the side of the trail, releived I could move, and tried to catch my breath. Nothing broken. No blood. Good! I sat at the side of trail for about 5-minutes collecting my thoughts, breath, and trying to see what kind of shape I was in. As I sat there I could feel my muscles tightening up, and knew if I didn't get moving, it would be harder.

I snapped that photo and moved on - at a snails pace of course. Which was hard, because I kept speeding up... I wanted to ride, dammit... then my ribs would hurt... I finished that lap, though, and packed up for the house...

It was pretty hard shunt! The damage: sore shoulder, very bruised ribs on my left side, a knot on my hip, and a scrape on my ankle from catching the handlebar grip. I haven't had the wind knocked out of me since (I think) 10th grade on the football field! Forgot what that felt like!

As I drove home I got stiffer and stiffer. Damn, a hot shower felt reeealllly good.

YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND

Despite being sore, I made my way to see Yonder Mountain String Band at Warehouse Live.



My goal was not to move, but dang, how could I just stand around with this goove going on? I didn't, thanks to large amounts of alkeehol and some pain relievers I had. Had to hang around the back of the house, as everytime I'd get bumped by someone in the crowd the tinges of pain would shoot through the ol' ribs.

Ran into a couple of old friends I haven't seen in a while, and that was a bonus. One snuck up behind me and gave me a big hug. OOOUUCHHH! She didn't know, and I think I scared her with my shreek! Of course everyone took great delight in trying to make me laugh - which hurt like heck, too. Lots of smiles!

It was a good show, and it probably did me some good to get out and move around. The bluegrass music was theraputic for my soul, if not my body. Unfortunately had to call it an early night, as the pain relievers were wearing off.

Not feeling too bad today, but still sore as heck. Hoping to be back on the bike by Wednesday.

LOOK! Yonder Is A Mountain with a String Band

Come one, come all, Yonder Mountain String Band plays Warehouse Live tonight. I will be there drowning my pain from mountain biking today. More on that little detail later!