Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Snow Video

January 20, 2009 Snow

Yep. First snow of the year!! Woooooo! We got around 6.5" of snow from sometime between (beginning sometime after 1am) 1am to 3:30-4:00pm. No work yesterday and in late this morning. I think it's just down right beautiful, but would not want to have it around for as long as my friends up north have it. This can melt away and then in a couple of weeks, maybe get a little more.

Took a few pictures and a video while Kyle and I were outside playing....













This morning...










my commute:




these are from 1/20, as i walked to the main road, since i was informed i shouldn't try and ride my cx bike...




neighbor's kitteh - didn't really seem to mind the snow:






O'Neil St (aka The Wall (eventually)):










The Wall:






Thursday, January 15, 2009

Thumb Update

visited the ortho for the one week check-up...thumb looks great - you could hardly tell where the break was located. dr said that i'm cleared to ride outside now, just to be careful and not fall on it again! 3 more weeks and it can come off!! what a great birthday present that will be!!!! :)

i will be so glad to get this cast off! it's very irritating. my back and sometimes the ribs are still fairly sore. my back, near the spine/shoulder blade hurts the most. sometimes the ribs will hurt under my right arm. laughing, coughing, sneezing, etc still hurts, but not quite as bad as 10 days ago.

i haven't been on the bike in 10 damn days. i bought a trainer at performance after the last cx race (1/11) and put it together monday evening, but hurt my back/ribs more pulling it out of the box. i tried to ride but, the back hurt too much to do so. i plan on riding saturday afternoon even though it's supposed to be extremely cold around here this weekend. i have to get back on the bike!! i can't lose the fitness gains i've made over the past year. i plan on getting bundled up well and just doing the short 15mi loop around clayton - fairly flat except for few hills right near 42.

that's about it for now.....

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Bored

i'm bored. i'm tired of being hurt already. i want to race tomorrow. one week down, hopefully only 3 to go. go back to the ortho on tuesday for x-rays...if it still looks ok, i think i'll be cleared to ride on the road. that's good and bad....temps toward the end of next week are forecasted to be quite cold...i cant get warm clothes on over the cast, so i may be relegated to the trainer - whenever i get one...

my friend, Dallas, who is riding cx too, has one he's going to let me borrow, but i dont have it yet. depending on whether i get it tomorrow or what-not, i may be going to performance and getting myself one. there have been times that i wished to have one lately. yes, i think they are torture devices and will ride outside when at all possible, but for those training days when you need to do specific training, it can come in handy.

finally got some vicodin yesterday. ribs/back/shoulder VERY painful. hurt to move, shower, dress, sleep, anything. today, after taking meds yesterday evening/night, i felt really good. until around 11am. got a headache and felt like i was going to puke. didn't feel like eating either. took a nap for 1.5hr and then ate a little. felt better after all of this; don't know what was up with that...

so, since i can't do the riding i'm accustomed to and i wont need all the carbs, i'm going to start the South Beach diet tomorrow. should be fairly easy to do since it's mainly me eating here. i hope to lose about 6-8 pounds over the next 3 weeks. eventually, i'd like to lose another 20-25 pounds, getting me down to the 150-155 pound range. that should put me at a better climbing weight.

meh...guess that's all for now....

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Broken Thumb








Photobucket Album

2nd Cx Race

Photobucket Album
ok...it's just been (and still is) hard to type...

2nd race....woke up sunday morning to rain...thoughts of not driving to W-S and riding were thought about...but i just couldn't NOT GO. there aren't too many entries in my Book of Excuses - the main one being something broke...i'll get to that shortly...

so, i get dressed and head on to the race site in Winston-Salem. arrive at 10am so i could get some good warm up laps in. omg...this course was very muddy. tires on the bike were useless in these conditions. i took my laps fairly cautiously - i didnt want to fall & get too banged up prior to my race. well, that didnt work. lost traction on a muddy off-camber section and went down - banged up my left calf really good (it's all black/blue now). after 2-3 practice laps, all i wanted to do was finish the race. this time, i just didnt care if i was DFL.

we lined up and started 1min after the men. the first lap, i was just content to hang at the back. yea, i was last, 2 women in front of me...all 3 of us were struggling...end of second lap, i passed them on a very short little rise. cranked it up a bit to put distance between us. hit the cobble section, still going a bit too fast, made it through that, but at thetransition to asphalt was the deal breaker...going too fast, a little bit over confident, leaned the bike a tad too much and the ass end of bike went one way and i the other.

dang...crashes happen like "that". very fast. all i remember is hitting it hard on the right side, sliding face down into the bushes. very fortunate that i had no head or facial injuries. i lay there for a minute or so, turn over, look at my knee - meh. then the thumb....i knew something was wrong immediately. hurt like hell. no way i was going to be able to finish the race now. i think there were 9 women racing...i might have been able to finish 6 or 7 outa 9 if not for the crash.

so, that was the end of my 2nd cx race and the winter series. watched my friend Dallas finish his race, then the pro/1/2 (&3's?). those guys/gals are great! walked around talking to some of the other women. the group with orange jerseys were grilling hotdogs & passing out a few beer. had a beer to help ease the thumb pain. that's pretty much it...the rest is history (about the thumb). i'll definitely do the fall cx series this fall. i love it.

now, about the injuries...broke my left thumb just above the last joint. went to dr on monday for x-rays. ribs/right side hurt pretty bad, but nothing appears broken there. but, something is wrong with them...hurts to cough, laugh, sneeze, move certain ways - not as bad today as the other few days. saw the ortho on tuesday, put me in a thumb spica short cast. will get x-rays again in a week to make sure it's still set correctly. i can ride a trainer for this week. after the x-rays and assuming everything looks good, i have the ok to get on the road riding.

not sure how well that's going to work though...i know i won't be able to get warmers or a jacket on over the cast - so if it's cold, i might be relegated to the trainer for 4 weeks. i guess that's better than not riding at all.