Love to ride bikes

Started feeling not so great Thursday during the day and went downhill fast. By Friday morning my lungs were full of congestion and I had no energy. I emailed my colleagues and slept almost all day, drinking as much as I could when I was awake taking vitamins and eating blood oranges. I slept in on Saturday too, which is amazing considering my insomnia. The temps cooled and I was happy to curl up on the couch and sleep again. 

But a friend came down from Cincy and convinced me to get out and show her the trails in Chero/Seneca. She was sweet and patient and I took her over trails I felt I could do and still breathe. When I did take her up climbs (even the smallest) I would stop and rest after. I was sucking air like crazy. I dressed so so for them temps, but she only wore shorts, jersey, arm and leg (?) warmers and was peeling the arm warmers down after the first 20 minutes. We had a nice ride, though the temps dropped and the wind picked up and we were both chilled by the end. Unfortunately, she took a spill and landed in the creek which didn't do much for insulation. 

She came by after and took a hot shower and went to meet friends. I walked to dinner and turned in early and slept late. Asthma kicked in walking to dinner and just got worse. Sunday I slept in and decided about 1 to ride the club ride. I walked out on the deck and it felt decent. So I didn't dress properly for the temps and wind. By the time I got to the ride start my feet were numb. That was 6 miles. I bailed and rode home, in misery the whole way. Frozen to the core I ran a hot tub bath and soaked. Of course sleep was elusive, night before a work day.  blah

Today was full of activity and some not so wonderful moments (not horrible but not wonderful). I wrapped up what I needed to do and signed off. Kitted up and hit the trails. Today was supposed to be an easy day, but yesterday was supposed to be an endurance day. I've screwed up my program so badly now. But I rode the trails and life was good. I felt great, my shitty moments melted away. My silly sadness turned into smiles and hard work and sweating. I was so happy at the end of this ride. I saw many many people I know. I didn't fall once. There was one (yes I said ONE) place at wilderness when you exit the trees into the open area and have a very short very steep ascent that I could not make. That was the only time I got off my bike the whole ride.  Y E S

I most sincere wish is that everyone was able to enjoy their day. I also hope you have a special way to make those bad moments melt away.

peace

Yes!

so maybe I'm outta this funk  Have a few things in the works  Had a great workout tonight, even though it wasn't 100% what coach ordered, I was close (well sorta) I had the cadence and wattage for sure.

Temps are gonna cool off, which I think will be good. I can ride some trails in next couple of days, that always heats me up! Another chickadee racer is in town. I hope she and i can join up soon. Should have happened today, but I had to be disciplined. Thing is she will kick my ass, and that is A-OK with me. I need that! 

ok, I went to my holistic guru and said I need more protein. I broke down and had chicken tonight. I also broke down and had a shot of patron. I need to sleep well. too many nights up every hour on the hour. 

Only one item missing and should have a closing date soon. yippee (she says softly)

I hope everyone got out and enjoyed today. The weather zoomed on past us and made for some nice time in the out of doors

peace

Spring has arrived

the temps have been balmy and today downright warm. It's March, it won't last. I won't complain either. What a wonderful couple of weeks. 

So I've been a slacker most of the year on training. Not on purpose, life has gotten in the way. Well.... maybe on purpose too. I had that stupid flu for almost 3 weeks. And have been focused on house buying. March started off right, but hiccuped a bit   NO EXCUSES! I've been slacking. I'm good with that. 


House:  appraisal came in well above purchase price  YAY  waiting on the underwriters and such to tell me it's a go. Actually think it's just some paper from the sellers and we are good. We walked thru last week and only found one thing. Outside spigot needs fixing because they didn't shut it down over winter and pipe froze and busted behind outside wall. Already have a tiller lined up to borrow. 


Work:  will be traveling to Europe end of May. Mixed feelings, but mainly good stuff. I want to see those guys again!


Riding: I've been training mostly according to coach. Saturday I rode 30 miles solo, endurance and felt great during and after. Then a fairly new acquaintance asked me to ride with her on Sat afternoon. So we did almost 20 miles, recovery pace. Nice to spend time with a new friend.  Sunday had planned to do mtn bikes with friends but saddle issues prevented me from riding. So, I walked 1.5 hours on trails instead. Monday was a nice ride with a friend thru the parks. Tonight I joined up with the LBC ride. A couple of friends said they were going to "take it easy". Yeah Right!  such sandbaggers  Anyways, I got dropped on Blankenbaker, caught up at light at River Road and dropped again before Glenview. I am NOT in shape. I maxed out at 175 HR (which is my max) and spent a lot of time above 160. My powertap numbers came out ok. Just wish I hadn't blown up. Spent the rest of the ride solo. Caught up with another cyclist at the ride start and rode home thru the parks til Big Rock. 


I sat outside on my deck for an hour tonight. Trees and flowers are blooming everywhere. There are fragrances as you walk and ride through the parks and neighborhoods. Ah, I love nature. Of course I had my fair share of bugs, gnats really, in my face and ears and mouth riding home tonight. 


It's Springtime! and today was in low 80s. I'm not complaining, seriously.  Later this week will see 40s and I'm good with that. It's still March for goodness sake.


I hope you are enjoying life as it comes to you, best as you can.


peace


and no matter what I say or do, sometimes I'm just not gonna get a response. that's the hardest part I think. I want and try to be friends, I truly am interested. oh well

Sub 9 Death March

I saw this back in December or early January.  It looked like it could be fun. <9 Death March  Two person teams head out into the Hoosier National Forest in search of up to 9 cemeteries and a Fire Tower, provide proof (photographic kind) that both team members were there all under 9 hour time limit. 5 cemeteries are mandatory, 3 of which are published in advance, remaining 2 are drawn at the start line. Some destinations have time bonuses (fire tower was 45 minutes off total time). Oh yeah, it's about 50 miles (depending upon the route you take) of which 40 is gravel roads, 8 is single track and 2 is paved. Well, like I said it really depends upon the route. 

Teams gathered at the start for mandatory meeting at 8:45. We received instructions and the final 2 mandatory stops. There were 78 teams registered before Saturday morning. I'm still unsure of the final total. Nice crowd to be sure. Many rode mountain bikes and the rest road CX bikes. Heather and I rode our CX bikes. I was concerned about that at first, but think it was the best choice for sure. At the strike of 9 am we all took off. It's March and Heather and I had decided we would do our best to hit all stops, checking the time throughout the day and just enjoy the adventure. We were in the back of the field. We stopped at the first optional cemetery which was at the entrance of the Boy Scout camp where we began. We had a paved road for a mile or two. All downhill it seemed (need to remember this for the end of day ride back). 

We are riding and get to the first gravel road. It had fresh gravel, about two or three inches deep. Loose and dusty. Not the most comfortable ride and we tried to find ruts at the edge to ride. The first hill on that loose stuff was rough as it was slick and made for a large expenditure of energy. My mind start to get real blurry now and I won't have all stops in the right places as I was oxygen deprived most of the ride.  We make our way to another road, which used to be a road, but is only used by atv's and horses I think. It had some gravel but mostly the kind that comes out of creek beds and they are large and sharp edged. We cross numerous creeks of varying depths. None more than 6 inches, but a couple deep enough to get our feet good and wet. At the end of this "trail" we get the evidence and turn around. Now on the way to that cemetery we had some good climbs and as we met faster cyclists I was pleased to see even seasoned riders were walking the steep climbs, pushing or carrying their bikes. 


We wind up making all but 2 of the cemeteries and climbed the fire tower. Normally, I am ok with heights as long as no children are around. We were lucky there, but as we made our way down that tower others were climbing up it. The wind was fierce at the top and that tower swayed more than I like. Now I still had my long spikes in my shoes from CX season. They came in handy on some of those climbs, but were tricky as hell on those metal steps of that tower. 


I would up having two flat tires, both on my rear wheel. Mile 5 and mile 20. We had each brought 2 extra tubes and plenty of CO2. I think I should invest in a hand pump I can attache to my bike though (for road tires at least as CO2 would leave a road tire too underinflated)


We rode a total of 44 miles. I kept running out of gears. Butch said we probably climbed 3,000 + feet. Heather out climbed me (she had a triple!) We tried one single track trail as it looked like we could cut some miles but there were so many downed trees it was a hike a bike. I even took a nice spill, made for a great laugh! Most of the rest of the gravel roads were hard packed with only a little loose thrown on here and there. They were much easier and more comfortable. We wound up riding several miles on a nice paved highway. We had a wonderful downhill that gave us a much needed break for recovery.


I know I'm leaving out a ton of events from the day. We dropped several F bombs throughout the day. My HR monitor had my max at 174, which is pretty much my max. It also had me burning a ridiculous amount of calories. 


There were only 3 all female teams. We came in second. I definitely want to go back. The day was fantastic. The weather was perfect, dry, started out high 40s and ended up in high 50s/low 60s. The sun shone! There were very few dogs to be worried about. 


I was exhausted by the time I got home. Heather and others stayed in an RV at the BS camp. I hung out with them for a bit and ate a bite and drank beer. It was fun to sit around and listen to everyone's stories from the day. 

It's Monday night now and my calves and quads still have knots in them. I tried to spin them out yesterday and again tonight. Guess I should find my stick and roll them out now. 


One thing is for sure. Saturday's Death March was a much better choice for me than going to the first road race of the spring season. I'm definitely not quite ready for that, YET.


peace

UPDATE!!! We came in 63rd of 95 total teams. I'm thrilled

lame post

wish I had more gumption/energy/something but I don't. It was a great day and days leading up had some interesting events. However, my legs and body ache and are spent and my fingers aren't working and neither is my brain.  Soon, I hope...

March enters as a lamb

February exited with some storms, March entered fairly calmly. Tuesday was cool, but dry and sunny. A friend and I met after work and rode our road bikes. Met at Seneca, went through St. Matthews and over to Rudy and Blankenbaker to River Road. The river was even higher than on Sunday since we'd had all those storms Sunday night into Monday. There was a lot of debris moving with it, tree limbs, garbage, barrels of something. We can be a careless bunch of humans. 

We got back on Spring Street and I asked if she wanted to see the house I'd just made an offer on and she was sweet and said yes. We rode over there, meandering through the neighborhoods while I picked streets I hoped weren't too busy with traffic. When we got there I sent a text to my realtor as I still hadn't heard anything. It was almost 6 and they had til 5 to respond. It wasn't until I arrived home that he sent word that they countered for a little more money but the rest of the terms would remain the same. So I had a decision to make. Didn't take too long. And now for all the fun stuff, paper work and loans applications and decisions on points for interest rates, etc. I took myself out and celebrated. Sent a note that I was taking Wednesday off, at least part of the day.

It's still a bit to get used to, but slowly I'm adapting. Celebrating events on my own. Buying a house is a pretty big deal. The real celebration will happen once I've moved in and can throw a party for my friends.

Mother Nature was very kind the rest of this week. She gave us warmer temps and dry sunny days. The trails drained and dried out nicely so I rode Wed and after work on Thursday. I'm so glad I bought the mtn bike! Wednesday I felt great, fell a couple of times and scraped a knee but no big deal. There's one obstacle behind the golf course that I'm going to go and focus on next time the trails are dry. Thursday I felt great and though still slow much stronger than Wednesday. Funny thing was, when I got to Eastern Parkway I went to lock the suspension and it already was! I had ridden Chero/Seneca with no suspension at all. Ha Ha Ha  what a Dumbo! Oh well. 

Today I still don't have signed paperwork on the house. Can't stress about that.

I think I'm going to drive up and pre-ride some of the Death March on Sunday. That will be interesting to say the least. I've asked a friend for some advice, but not rec'd an answer. Like how many spare tubes, etc. should I take. There are team mates from Louisville that are going and I've emailed to see when they plan to leave. It'd be nice to caravan up there. Silence on that front as well. Oh well

Everyone enjoy your weekend!

peace

made an offer

on the house, they countered, I accepted. Scary, heart thumping, exciting, exhilarating, so many words. Hope I can celebrate soon with friends. Was a bit anti-climactic tonight. Still have a hard time doing stuff solo.  My daughter say I should be grateful. Know what? I am. Doesn't mean I don't have urges, cravings, wants for     eh

peace and love to each and everyone