Mishaps and Mayhem

I'm so sore. I rode Rittenhouse with Marc yesterday. After the night ride Thursday I figured this would be a nice easy ride. No stress, middle of the afternoon, fairly flat trail other than lots of roots. Well it turned out I was on my ass more than I was on my bike.

First I was going through a rooty section, loosing momentum, so I tried to lunge forward to push it out. I hit a big rock and it stopped me dead. Well it stopped my bike dead. Me, not so much. I flew about 6 feet in the air over my handlebars and head first onto the ground. I heard a big crack and pain seems to shoot from everywhere. I layed there for a second waiting for the initial shock to subside and realize what was actually hurt. I hit my funny bone, which hurt like hell. I don't know why they call it that, it's never funny. Also tore back my thumbnail, yeah that hurt too. And the loud cracking sound was just my neck cracking, oh and maybe my helmet as I noticed today it's cracked. But after a few minutes I was able to get up and continue on.

A little later I had to dismount over something and when I went to get back on and missed my saddle. This was big ouch #2. I have a beautiful bruise today.

#3 was the best though. I was just about to bonk and Marc asked if I wanted to stop. I said no, there wasn't too much further. We headed down the next section of trail when I came across a stream crossing. All day I had rode across the ice without breaking through. So I took off across this one as well. I got half way and CRACK! My front wheel busted through. I instantly popped out my right foot. Only problem was I fell to the left. I got my foot out and shoved it toward the ground to catch me. And oh it did, only by the time I hit solid ground it was plunged deep through the ice and into the icy water. This is when I panicked. And instead of just waiting, thinking about my next move and I'd only have one foot wet. Instead I quickly pulled my foot back up, which caused me to fall onto the ice. Then I panicked more not wanted to fall through and shot my arm out and deep into the water. Then my knee. It was a mess. Finally I was able to get up, but by now I was drenched in freezing water. At this point I stood up and said, "now I'm done". Marc quickly got me out of the woods and back to the car with heat. Ah heat! I can't wait until warm weather.

Today I rode Middlerun with Marc, Amy, Ted, Dennis, Epi, Elizabeth and Rich. Things went much better. I managed to stay upright all day. Yeah! It was a lot of fun. Thanks guys!

It's Dark Outside

Last night I did my first night ride (that wasn't in a race) in about 10 years. I put it off as long as I could. First my charger was busted. But Marc sent it back and got it fixed. Then my light was lost. But Marc found it. So reluctantly I charged it up and he bugged me until I committed to a ride. Last night was the night.
We headed out right at dusk. So it wasn't so bad due to the residual daylight and Marc riding behind me, which provided even more light. As we rode the sky grew darker and darker, but I was ok. At one point Marc stopped without saying anything and I was riding with my light alone. Though a little panic shot through me for a second, I quickly realized I was still ok.
I'm not going to say I like night riding, or that I enjoy it. But I will say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Being on trails I knew helped a lot. But overall it was a good experience and one I'm sure I'll have to repeat again and again. Hopefully it'll just keep getting better.

I think I have a problem...

I was putting away laundry today when I found my t-shirt drawer was full. No problem, I thought, I'll just put them in the other drawer. I opened it to find it stuffed to the brim as well. I thought this is crazy, there has to be something in there that shouldn't be. So I began pulling everything out and stacked them up. This is when I realized I have over 30 t-shirts that aren't even my main wearing t-shirts. These are for sleeping, laying around the house, yard work and what not. That's crazy!To make matters worse half my closet is also filled with t-shirts. I have another another 50 or so that I have deemed worthy enough to be hung up and color coded so that I can easily mix and match. And it doesn't stop there. I have a 3rd drawer that is dedicated to just long sleeve t-shirts. I have a problem, this can't be normal.

Ouch!

Last weekend I was out on a group ride. I got myself a bit in trouble a few times and had to be bailed out (pushed). Thanks guys! At one point Amy said I should eat something so she helped me get my Gu out of my back pocket. It was cold so I had thick winter gloves on, which made it hard to have good manual dexterity. I did my best by ripping it open with my teeth and then sucking out the Gu as we were riding. This went ok until I couldn't get the last bit out. At this point I got the bright idea to stick it in my mouth and pull it out to suck it all out. It would have worked fine had I not clamped down to realize that Gu wrappers are metallic, which I quickly realized when it hit my filling. Ugh the pain!

Happy New Year!

It's a beautiful new year. I've been MIA for a while. The holidays were absolutely exhausting. I enjoy them, but I don't know. Sometimes I think they're too much work. Ugh!

We brought in the new year with Ethan, Meg, Jen and Rik. We had a very slow dinner at some cheese and wine place. I'm not so much into wine. But the cheese was good. They had good food too. Towards the end they gave out party favors. We chose horns and noise makers. We had hats and these alien ball things. Marc hates noise makers. So yeah, we made a lot of noise. It was fun.

I've never really been much into making New Year resolutions. Everyone always makes them and shortly breaks them. But this year I decided to make a few.

1. ride more, try to take less breaks. (but oh I love those breaks)

2. loose the 7.5 lbs I gained in Dec.

3. if I can accomplish #2 then work on the other 5 lbs I gained throughout the rest of 2007.

Yeah, I know, they're nothing ground breaking. But hey, they're goals and right now I need some of those. I'm feeling a little lost with my regimented cross season over. I took a huge break and now I'm ready to get going again. Just trying to figure out where I'm headed.

Other than those I'm keeping it simple. Try to have fun with whatever I'm doing, keep working on being more laid back and just enjoy life.

Happy 2008!

Reindeer Run

Since pulling the plug on my cross season I've been kinda looking for a new goal. I always do better when I can work towards something. So about a week ago we're driving along and Marc says, "there's a 5k next Friday I'm going to do it." I said ok, that's cool. He does them from time to time. So it wasn't that unusual. Then he says, "you're going to do it with me". Yikes, ok. I've never done a 5k, but hey it's for Special Olympics and I've been running some for cross, so what the hell. So I bumped up my running some; running a little longer and a little more frequently so I could see if I could finish a 5k without having to walk. So a few days prior I start asking questions as to when it is, where, all that sort of stuff. He says, "oh I have a race Sunday, so I'm not doing it. But don't worry I signed you up". AHHHHH! Not only have I never done one, but now I'm doing it alone!

Luckily I did not have to do it alone. Besides the other 300 plus people that ran, so did Rob, Liz, Megan and Amy. It was great. It was a chilly night with light drizzle, but we all ran along together with our antlers on our heads jingling away. They all were able to carry on conversations as I just focused on breathing and keeping up. I ended up just over 30min. I was hoping for under, but what the hey, it was my first one and I'm a cyclist, not a runner. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday was the last cross race of the season for those not going to nationals. I didn't race, but went down for support and work pit.

Some people are really getting into the Christmas spirit. Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus lane.

While Megan and I are working pit, Kris and Ethan are working another pit. mmmm

We saw some odd things in the pit this past weekend. I'm not sure who this belonged to, but I would have loved to see him come in for a bike exchange.

That Time of Year

I haven't had a lot of pictures lately. Mostly out of laziness. So here's a whole bunch that pretty much describe what I've been up to.

So after the USGP I pretty much cracked wide open and ended my cross season. It was a series of unfortunate events that lead up to the big crack, which I could go on about, but that would just be whining. So I'll just say I needed a break so I'm taking one. The only bad part is once I'm through my break, cross will be over and 10 months away again. Oh well, I'll be nice and hungry next year.

So in my break I've been filling up my time with just about anything but cycling. I've been doing a lot of climbing. It's been great to finally be getting some calluses back. My hands had gotten so soft that when I climbed a couple weeks ago my fingers turned bright red and swollen. I looked like I had sausage fingers!

I'm also trying to get into the Christmas spirit this year. We kinda missed Christmas last year with cross and going to Nationals. By the time we were home for a weekend it was Christmas, so it just kinda passed by quietly. So this year I've started getting out some of the decorations and strung some lights. Ah, so pretty.

When I was out the other day I saw this guy driving by. He's obviously in the Christmas spirit too.

On not as pleasant a note. We had to take Riley to the vet again. He had a tick, we pulled it off, he messed with it, it turned into a hot spot and then got infected. So now he's sporting the cone head look. He's actually on his 2nd cone now as he smashed his first one to smithereens. Watch out, he uses it as a battering ram!

When we were in the vets there were all kinds of pictures around the room. One was this flea. It looked normal at first until we notices they added people teeth to it. Check out those chompers!

Good luck to all those that are still out there racing! It was a great season. It was great seeing, racing and hanging out with everyone. Thanks for all the cheers and encouragement. It means so much.