Tomorrow

Early tomorrow morning I'm hiking up to the scene of the crash and try to figure out what happened. I've really been thinking about it all week long and can't get the crash out of my head. Frustration is starting to settle in and I need to vent somewhere so I figure the best thing to do is just go to the place. This will be a small test for the knee to see how it reacts to the uneven terrain. Today the shoulder let me know its there and so did the knee at times. Haven't been on the trainer but will try tomorrow.
Until then, later.

Looks familiar

click on the cartoon

Soreness is a good thing when nothing is good

One week since my crash and burn and am still finding spots I didn't know it hurt. I shook hands with a friend yesterday and it hurt. A friend told me I did a number on my shoulder and I responded it was more like the whole accounting department ran over it. I felt good yesterday so I had my arm out of the sling for long periods of time and I'm paying for it today. Plus I woke up last night when I felt the pain from streching my arms in my sleep, again, arm out of the sling. I'm going to have to wrap my arm again when I go to sleep, at least for the next week or so. planning on getting on the trainer for 1 hr tonight if the knee responds well to the spinning, it is still swollen and sore. Tomorrow I start going to the pool for deep end running.
Can you tell I'm going nuts not doing anything.
i wonder whar Zen and his freinds are doing now...

Good news

Visited the Ortho this afternoon and the good news are that I don't need surgery. He moved my arm all over the place and said it feels very good. It is very sore when I lift it and move it. He wants me to keep the arm in the sling for the next 3 weeks and exercise it several times a day and then I can start rehab. I'm setting up the bike on the trainers and do at least an hr a day for the next 3 weeks. I do have to watch my right knee, it is still very sore and swollen but feeling a lot better. Don't know when I'll venture out and ride off road again but with a new bike coming at the end of May I'm sure it won't be long before I'm back at it. I wonder how I'll feel and ride, will I take chances again, brake a lot on the downhills, dismount and walk over some obstacles that I rode over before. Only time will tell I guess. As I write this with my arm out of the sling I can feel my arm getting stiff and the need to strech it. Lots of road riding the next two months and then decide if I'm strong enough to do ORAMM again in July.
As I expected I'm not even at work and I'm already getting messages like this one,

I'm sure more will come. At least the rider has a helmet on.

Update

Today I feel much better, the pain is not as intense as it was last week. I've only taken the pain pills at night before going to bed. Last night was the first time I tried going to bed without taking them and all I did all night was look for a comfortable position to sleep. Got up a lot of times to move the knee and just move around. Wanted to go to work today but I'll wait until I see the Ortho. later today and see what the prognosis  is. I'm hoping I don't need surgery and rehab will do. But whatever it is, it is. My knee is still swollen but I can walk without pain now. I want to get on the trainer real bad but I need to take it easy for a while. On the bright side I didn't sustain any head injuries and I guess I'll be able to work on a few summer projects I've been meaning to work (or finish) on for the last few years, like finish re-painting the picket fence.
More tonight after I see the Ortho.

Descending skills part 2

Video - Un vélo fantôme

Descending skills, what a ride

Mondial Du VTT Descente de Venosc caméra embarquée
Uploaded by 103TuRtLe.

Freeride, courtesy of 'Sir Bikes a Lot"

DRUG RAID

I went to Borders, to do what? buy a cycling magazine, what else would I be doing there, drink coffee? I do that at home with real puerto rican coffee. Anyway, I came back home to find a drug raid going on at my house.

I found the little guys going after my percoset.

I told them to forget it and go do something useful with themselves, and they did.









As soon as I turned my back, they made a hook from a paper clip and taped it to a rope and quickly went to

work trying to reach the pills which I had moved to higher place. Spidey was showing off is climbing powers...

  until I caught them and put them in time-out for the rest of the day.

PHOTOS

Went to see the surgeon this morning and have to go back on Monday and see how the shoulder is doing after they had to put me back under the influence because last night they didn't pop it back in correctly.

Notice the hole just above where my finger is pointing. That's the joint out of the socket.

My right knee didn't fare very well either, notice how swollen it is when compared to the left. Yeah, I'm pointing to the left knee, that morphine works real gooooood.

I was a mess, but the nurses kept admiring my muscles.

I was hungry ok. Had not had anything solid to eat since lunch time and it was almost 1 AM when we got home. I threw leftover ribs in the microwave and ate all of them.

I'm going to start shaving my arms too, they ripped the hair off them putting needles and tape to hold them.

Right now I'm going to say I'm out of Mohican, I really don't know if I'll be able to handle the pounding for 100k's. Well I guess it's time to look forward to ORAMM

again in july if I don't have surgery.

For those of you going to Cohutta, Ross my team mate from Solon Bicycles and John from Lake Effect Bike Authority, go get them and give it your best effort.

Thanks for the get well wishes. I'll keep you posted.

NO Cohutta

Since I lost a week of training last week I've been to Reagan park twice this week. Last night went to do two easy laps and on the huffman section I lost control after going over a log that I have jumped a 100 times before and the result is, surgery. hit a tree square on with my left shoulder, bad tendons, bad ligaments screwed up rotator cuff. I see the surgeon today to detrmine how bad everything really is. My right knee is also banged up bad.
Thankfully, nothing happpened to the bike. Yes, this the way most of us think and react after a fall or crash. You would have been proud of my first aid skills, I wrapped a spare tube around my shoulder/arm walked out of the woods  and drove myself to Kaiser where my lovely caring wife met me and stayed with me all night. I'm all drugged up and liking it for the time being. Morphine is good for you, so is percoset. Having a hard time typing with one hand and wiping the keyboard at the same time, I'm so drugged up am drooling all over the place. I see pink elephants dancing with the stars and singing at american idol.
Pictures and more later after I see the surgeon later this morning.

What is it / and Reagan Park

Can't figure out why my trip to the National Association of Broadcasting show in Vegas has affected me so much. Up until yesterday I was in a semi fog and finally today I feel back to normal. Must be an age thing. In my 10-12 years going to the show I've never felt the way I have when I came back.

In other news, went to Reagan Park last night and it was bone dry and fast with only a couple of wet spots, so get out there and ride. I wonder if Findley State Park is dry enough to ride.
I'm as ready as I'm going to be for Cohutta on Saturday, leaving early Friday and meeting Ross and Tif at the check in. Lots of gravel road climbs and sweet single track with a 3 mile road climb right off the bat to spread the field. There's 23 in the Masters category by far the largest field in my category at any race I've been in the last 3 years. Shooting for top 5.
Installed a carbon fork and Sauserwinds S-works tires on the Orbea and the difference is incredible. The fork is 1.5-2 inches higher than my old fork but it handles bettter on the turns and I can lean the bike a little more with the new tires. Did everything I could to fall last night at Reagan and the bike handled a 100% better than with the old fork carving the turns and soaking up all the bumps and roots with ease.

Later, have a great day.

Back from Vegas

Took the red eye and got back this morning at 5:30am. I've spent the day walking in a fog. Took a few pictures but most of them came out blurry. If I don't have my reading glasses on I can't see if the picture came out ok. Plus the fact I'm always complaining that I need a  new camera but I don't go out and buy one. 
I've been going to the show for the last 12 years I believe and I'm always amazed at how big the convention center in Vegas is. I walked all 3 halls at various times during the day and never did see everything in 4 days there. Thursday the show closed at 2pm and we didn't get our boxes and crates until after 8pm. I can't remember how many games of solitaire I played and we even watched a movie in a portable dvd. Didn't get to exercise as much as I wanted to but I did walked the 3 miles to the show in the mornings. early mornings as in 8am are good to walk because there's hardly anybody on the sidewalks and you can take pictures and text them as you walk.

The Z-man made the trip with me and gambled his shoes away.

A mirror with a tv in it, a first for me.

Blurry picture of the Lion and you can see the Z-man.

The Z man showing our product.

This week didn't do me good with Cohutta coming up next week right now I feel like I don't want to do anything because I know is going to hurt. Tomorrow I have 3 spinning classes and lots of yard work. Hopefully a full night sleep will make me feel better tomorrow. Talk about sleep, I didn't sleep very good even though the bed was great. I went to bed Monday and Tuesday at 7:30pm and was up at 5am. One good thing about the trip is that the food is excellent and that's about it for me, Vegas is not a place I would go to on vacation.

First view as soon as you come out of the airplane, slot machines.

Soccer, Mohican, Knob, Soccer

Got up early this morning to go set up the goals for the little ones, we call them SMURFS. Came home and was getting ready to go on a road ride, changed my mind and headed to Mohican to do a lap. I'm glad I did, I pulled the fastest lap I have ever done there. I've never been able to do a lap under 2:35, today I felt good from the beggining, even the first mile. I made it to the covered bridge in 1:09, stopped to pulled bottles from my camel back and after that short stop my legs froze. I had a hard time climbing the trail after the bridge but once the legs warmed up again I kept pushing the pace. The new tires I put on worked great, the sauserwind s-works with 25 psi rode extremely well. After I made it across the little bridge by the campground I looked at my Garmin and saw that I had a chance to break 2:30. I took off and rode the last mile like a maniac as fast as I could, back to the entrance and it was time trial time through the park road under the bridge back to the car 2:29:51, YES. on the way back stopped at the Knob to watch the start of the first race of the season and then back to the soccer fields to pick up the goals.
I'll have limited access next week for the show but I'll try to use one of our lap tops to post. Sorry, no pictures today, had no time to stop.

Nothing much

to talk about this week, other that it's been a very windy week. The weather is back to where it normally is this time of the year. Last night went out for 2 hrs and at times ot was 12mph on the small ring. But the payoff is always good, open the sails and cruise at an effortless 20-22 on the way back.
Have to get all my stuff ready for my trip and just found out I have to take a big pc of luggage to carry a couple of our products to the show, carp. Free carry ons are coming to an end, one airline is going to start charging, can you believe $45.00 for carry ons that doesn't fit under your seat. What's next, UPS your stuff to your vacation place? I'm going to try a train vacation sometime, let's go back to the old days.

Vacation vehicle

Need to find me a better bike to pull this thing.

The Three Amigos

went out for a ride on a very windy day with the Three Amigos.

You can read the newspaper riding behind the Amigo and not miss a beat. 

Had a great 4 hr ride in beautiful weather yesterday. I was in such a groove that I missed my turn on Indian Hollow rd. and found myself 1 mile from Elyria. I kept telling myself "you missed the turn" but the road was so good and with a tail wind I just didn't want to stop. I love riding the roads around Valley City towards Wellington, very little traffic and people wave at you as you ride by their homes. After I figured out where I was I wound my way around and ended up by Valley City again. I thought aout commuting to work today but I'm glad I took today as a rest day It was raining hard on my way to work. This week it looks like showers in the mornings and partly sunny in the afternooon. Saturday, soccer starts which means setting up goals for the litttle ones in the morning Mohican in between and pick up in the afternoon. Trying to cram lots of riding in this week with my annual business trip coming up fast next week.
Have a great Monday.

Yesterday

went back to Mohican with the single speed 29er. I thought I was just going to do half a lap (11miles) and then take the road back up the hill and down to the parking lot but felt good and kept going on the trail. The comparison between 26 and 29 inch wheels is incredible. Friday I rode the Orbea and there's a few spots where you slow down do a quick scan of the trail find the best spot and punch through, with the 29 inch wheels you get to the same spot and just go. Rode up everything but two short very steep hills and one of them I would have made it but hit a small sucker and it threw me off the bike. Felt very good after riding harder the day before. This time I didn't take my garmin and didn't care about how long it woud take me, just wanted to have fun and  I did. Ken and Ray left ahead of me, I had no desire to go pound my brains out trying to keep up with them on a SS. Ken even ran after hammering a full lap in 2:29.
On the schedule for today is a 3-5 hr road ride.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE "HE IS RISEN"

What a long day

On my day off got up at 5:30am went up to the gym, workout for about 45 minutes and then fixed a couple of spin bikes.

Then I went to Panera had breakfast and spent about an hr drinking coffee and reading the Plain Dealer, not a bad way to start the day. After I went home gathered all my things and headed to Mohican. The trail was dry and fast. On the scheduled for today was high intensity at almost race pace. As usual the first mile its always painful to me doesn't matter if is with the guys or by myself. Once I settle down I get into the flow. At about mile 6 I hit a small sucker the wrong way and went down hard. Hit both knees and forearms. Lots of leaves hiding stuff like that. Will it be the first and last, not really, the first one of many to come. Hopefully none of the next ones will take me out for a period of time.

After seeing this picture, I quickly got home and shaved my legs. It had been a couple of months since the last time.

Met up with Gary from Snakebite and rode together for a while.

Got to use the AWESOME straps for the first time and they are a great addition to my mtb gear.

Even the "Z" man likes them.

After Barbie dumped him he started drinking and we had to send him to a rehab center. He's doing quite well but now he got into my Hammer stuff and says it is the best stuff he's had in a long time. I could have told him that.

The rest of the ride was uneventful other than it was the really first HOT day and at times it felt like somebody was putting a blow torch to my face. Not complaining, I'm glad we are getting this type of weather so early in the season. I actually hit over 80 today, wohoooooo. More of the same tomorrow and I'm going back to Mohican with the single speed since I'm a sucker for pain. The day ended with a call from the Rec Ctr that they had a few more bikes they wanted me to take a look at, they are having a Spinning workshop tomorrow and wanted the bikes to be in good working order. It's only 9pm but I'm beat and I'm going to bed honey, I have a headache.

Change of plans

Although I really like the Mid-Ohio race I'm not going. It's going to be warm and dry I'm heading to Mohican tomorrow and Saturday. Lots of dirt time before Cohutta. I have to cram a lot of bike time in the next 10 days since I'm going to loose a week on the anual business trip to Vegas. Lots of calistenics and running while there, I'm not paying $20 a day to use the hotel gym. They want you gambling not exercising but since I don't gamble and only have a beer here and there they are not getting my money. Let the fools loose it not me.
Later.