Today In History

1980, one of the greates achievements in US sports history. What was it?
Hint: Winter Olympics

Everyday is better

Feeling a lot better as the days go by and that's a good thing.
What I have to watch is sudden movements, bending over (to pick up stuff, for those of you that are mentally sick) and coughing. Boy does it hurt when I cough. Last night I thought I broke another rib, I was out of breath. Sleeping is a lot better although I still can't lay down.
Another 45 mins on the trainer last night with barely any pain.

Riding the trainer...for now

Well, got on the trainers yesterday for an hr of good spinning. I just didn't just sit there, I worked hard. i wanted to see how the two brken ribs would react to spinning but other that some initial comfort, I felt good. this coming weekend depending on the weather I'm riding outside.
My friend Ken bit the dust yesterday too. They rode 50 mies around the Hinckley area, got distracted and hit the pavement hard and woke up with a black eye today.
We should be called the "crash brothers".

Mental suffering

I'm mentally depressed, dry and 30's today, good enough for a 3-4 hr day on the bike without having to worry about frostbite. I'm planning on 1 hr on the trainer today. I tried it yesterday and went through every gear and felt good. The importance of having a good bike fit where your body is not fighting the bike is the key to enjoying the ride/race and using all your energy in a efficient manner. That's the reason I'm going to be able to ride the trainer until  I'm able to ride outside. The bike fit I prefer is the "wobble naught" Ive had it done on my road and mtb and I'me very happy with it.
I was talking about being depress and go off into bike fit. I guess is a depress/worry feel I have about losing training time when your whole season is centered around one race, Transylvania Epic at the end of May and that's where my worries come from, 7 straight days of racing. This is my first stage race and I want to be at a 100%. Too much money paid to just go ride around in the woods.
I'm going to stop worrying and just keep going and let everything fall where it falls, lets just be thankful I didn't break my head wide open or broke something else and I can still walk. It doesn't matter how bad you have it, there's always somebody else in worst shape or condition than you.
Rant over, out of my chest, time to enjoy life because I'm alive and in "good" health.

Coffee

I have decided to end my self imposed coffee ban and start drinking again (coffee that is). I have not had a cup of coffee since December 31st. and I really have not had any coffee cravings and didn't get headaches like many people get when they try to quit.

 I was just trying to find out if it really made a difference in my sleep and most importanly, getting up at night to "pee". A lot of times we think we have it bad when we get up 2-4 times a night until you talk to people that have been in the hospital because they can't go and have to be caterized and have to carry a bag. I've been taking my medication plus "Hammer PSA pills and feel great. I'm not on that 'Phlomax" stuff, I guess I'm in better shape that others. What I take has made a big difference, I only get up 2 times at night most nights. Why am I writing such a personal post? A lot of times we are too proud and stupid to go the doctor or even admit that we have a problem and all we are doing is making it worse. Don't delay if you feel you have a problem, it could lead to worse problems, talk to your doctor, talk to your friends, there's nothing to be ashamed off. I've been there, go take care of it.
Anyways, I fell off the wagon and I'm drinking again, I want to know if it really made a difference. Here's to coffee, it makes the body goooood. And I don't drink that weak crap, I drink the real thing.

Espresso in a regular coffee maker, try it, you'll like it

Comments after the crash heard around the basement

I've really been getting a lot of smart comments since my "indoor crash" on Wednesday night. As high as I was flying after the narcotics they gave me, I logged on to my work e-mail to turn on my "out of office". I wrote " I"ll be out of the office due to a medical condition". I was told "I have a mental condition". How do I say "Morphine" in spanish.
"No eres tan joven como tu te crees, "you are not as young as you think you are".
We are going to buy you "Lady Gagas bubble wrap dress". I need to apply for "First Alert"
in spanish. How do I say "broken rib in spanish". "You need to start riding indoors with a helmet and body armour".  A classic " I've fallen and I can't get up".
Plus people stopping by my cube(I went to work today) to make me laugh so I would hurt with two broken ribs and multiple bruises. As you can read, they like me.
I am feeling a lot better today even though I haven't taken any pain pills. I'm already thinking and planning about stuff I can do to keep my fitness up and not lose to much. I know I'll be riding the trainer within the next day or so.

The crash heard around the basement

Intervals night on the rollers, last 30 second interval of 30 for the night, 33mph, 5 seconds to go and I don't know what happened, slipped off the rollers and hit the stationary trainer leg with my left side. Result: two broken ribs and a huge bruise on my left tricep. One rib is overlapped, the other one was a clean break, OUCH.

I've done pretty good the last year and a half with no bad crashes or visits to the hospital. But this could not come at the worst time with the Transylvania Epic stage race at the end of May. This is really going to slow me down at least for a "week" I wish it was only a week. 6-8 weeks to heal. This will only slow me down for a short period of time. I'm so upset with myself, training is (was) just perfect and I feel I am way ahead of last year at this time. Ashville weekend is coming the second weekend in March and as painful it may be, I'm still going, I'll just ride the gravel roads and do a lot of gravel road climbing. Does it sound like I'm just blabbering, well I'm on narcotics, what do you expect, I feel real good right now. They gave me something that's stronger than morphine the nurse said. Yeah, I feel good, what's that over there, never mind it's just my buddy the pink elephant, no just my white dog.

I wanted to show off my six pack but I couldn't hold my breath long enough. I really don't look this fat, it's just the picture you know, makes you look big. O yeah, I'm feeling good, can't wait for the next dose.

looks like I'm going to have to eat less for a while, in the meantime let me just finish off the pork chops my lovely wife cooked for dinner.

We need to do this here somewhere

Florida pics

Few pics of the time spent in Florida which was a well spent time.
Almost 200 miles and 20 hrs of riding trails with maybe 5 miles of pavement. And who ever says FL is flat, please slap him or her on the mouth. 7 days of riding, total acumulated elevation gain, 7200feet. May not sounf like much but there's a lot of small climbs that add up. San Felasco was one of the best trails we rode where I almost rode over this,

A beautiful diamond back...I hate snakes.
Visited tarpon Springs, the US sponge Bob capital of Florida but took no pics of sponges, you see one you've seen them all. I could not believe some of those sponges sold for over $200.00, should've taken a pic. instead I took a pic of this,

Hey, there's sponges on the boat, didn't even noticed.

 We found the gnome while riding at Santos. In Florida you'll find gnomes hidden somewhere on the trail and the first one to find see yells and moves it to a different place where it can be found again. Look for Gnomes at Reagan, the new trail in Strongsville and Findley this summer.

The leaf on the velcro hung in there for days and I just left it there until it fell off.

Overall it was agreat week of riding with friends pushing each other to the max.
Now, back to reality and winter is back.

The man that lived on his bike

THE MAN WHO LIVED ON HIS BIKE from Guillaume Blanchet on Vimeo.

Santos

Traveled today about an hr north to Ocala to hit the trails at Santos. We opted to do the Land Bridge trail and not do the vortex area. The vortex is a series of small loops and some of them are quite technical. The land bridge is a bridge over I75 for hikers, bikers, horse back riders and animals to cross over the highway. Our ride today started mellow but at times the race was on. 84 degrees and for us northerners it makes us suffer this time of the year. Did manage to fall hard and I have the bruise on my head and hip to prove it. Somehow I hit a small lip on short drop and my front wheel slid from under me so fast I didn't even take my hands of the handlebar and hit the ground with my face and helmet. I had to stay down for a couple of minutes to gather myself.
On the way back it was more of the same, mellow pace and race mode for miles, flying through the woods like a runaway train. Lots of fun today, rest day tomorrow and back to San Felasco on Wednesday. So far 14+ hrs on the bike in 5 days.

Balm Boyette scrub preserve

Another beat down at balm boyette yesterday. We rode for 2 hrs and it felt like 4. This place is full of 25 feet drops and ups. You can carry your speed and watch for the corners or you'll fall into the abyss. One drop is called the "plunge" and it has to be at least a 25-30 foot drop straight down. At the other end is an equal up which drops you inches from the edge and if you don't turn fast enough you are going down the abyss. After we finished Ken said the 20 miles we rode felt harder that some races he' done and I agree.
Right now we are getting ready and leaving in about and hr for a 4-6 hr ride at Santos in Ocala. Later.

Florida

Traveled to Florida last Wednesday for a week of riding with Chuck and spending the week at Ken's house. Ken,Karen and Ken's parents have been very gracious hosts. We are fortunate to have such good friends.
Wednesday night we stayed south of Georgia. We went out to get a subway sub, it was dark raining did I mentioned it rained from Cincinnati all the way down to Georgia. Anyways, I started to drive across the road and never saw a semi truck coming from the right and he slammed on the brakes and blew the horn. I kind of in shock and kept driving then I noticed the truck following us around the hotel parking lot, I never stopped and kept going and he kept chasing. We drove to a country road and he was still chasing, I had to flor it and drove into a small subdivision and finally lost him. Is not like I want to be plowed into by a semi, did I do it on purpose, NO. I could hardly eat my sub after that. We were looking out the window every half hr expecting my car windows to be smashed. Luckily, nothing else happened that night.
The next day we took off at 7 for a 4 hr drive to San Felasco preserve and ride before arriving at Kens. We rode for 1.5 on some real nice trails. On one of the trails I almost ran over a 5 foot long rattle snake. It was a heck of a scare.
Arrived at Ken got settled And immediately started planning Fridays recon ride at Croom. Met up with Ray on Friday and rode the short loop at Crom to losen up the legs. Croom is located in the withlacooche forest and the Swamp club has built 50 miles of trails that are fast and fun. The pit area has a lot of up and downs that hurt you after a while of hammering through the trails. Saturday we were up at 6 am, got ready and rode the couple of miles to the start and signed up. We were the first ones to take off and never saw anybody until we were on the last 5 miles and started passing the people that only rode the 35 miles. This is were the new bell I bought for the bike came in handy, ring the bell and let them know we were coming. We came up behind a slow rider and I kept ringing the bell and he would not move, finally I said "hey amigo, we want to pass" We passed him on a wide enough area and we still had to cut him off. Later Ken told me that when I asked him to move he said he was going fast enough, I was so glad I didn't hear him because I probably would have gone ballistic on him. You are not going fast guy, we caught you from behind and we did the 50, you are only doing the 35. After the ride we had a little bit of food there and rode back to Ken and had a great picnic, thanks Karen and Arlene for the food.
3 maybe 4 more days of riding and then is time to head back to cold Ohio and ride again bundled up.
Pics will be posted when I get back, I'm posting from an iPad and I haven't figured out how to download pics. More tomorrow from sunny and hot Florida.