Friday, March 30, 2007

Motoring

Spent the last two days taking a motorcycle endorsement class. It was my first time riding and operating a bike - and the instructor approached me afterwards and asked me if I'd be interested in instructing. Ha! Two days on the bike!

If I do it then every mile I ride can be a tax write off of $.48/mile. It practically pays for itself!

Shopping for bikes this weekend - hopefully we'll pick something out for my birfday. :)

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

LSD (Long slow days)

Well sort of - if you consider an hour and a half a long slow day. Now add in the factor of rarely going faster than 12 mph and suddenly your efforts seem twice as long. Yep, that's right. I'm a rec rider as we speak. My existence has whittled down to what the hamstring allows me to do - and that means turtle speed. But I'm okay with that if that means I'll be back to it soon. Turtles can race too.

The other day we got together with some Bellinghamsters Ryan grew up with down in Tacoma. For some reason we started talking about Chris Wright, this sparring partner I had when boxing. He was an amazing athlete and Ryan, Andrew and Adam had some good stories about the fights Chris would instigate after school in Cornwall park. Chris had an insane amount of fast twitch muscle fiber - he would Chuck Norris people's asses. Then we started in on the Chuck Norris jokes - those never get old.

Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds till." After you ask, "Two seconds to what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face.

If you want a list of Chuck Norris' enemies, just check the extinct species list.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is based on a true story: Chuck Norris once swallowed a turtle whole, and when he crapped it out, the turtle was six feet tall and had learned karate.

Oh and there's more where that came from...

Monday, March 26, 2007

The haps...

This past week has flown by - I've managed to keep myself busy doing things other than riding. I'm starting to get used to not riding and healing - but I hope this stops soon! It's getting old - fast.

The memorial service for my grandfather was good - it was a trip to see all of my relatives in one spot. For some of them it has been well over a decade since I last saw them. My grandfather would have loved to be there.

Ryan and I finished painting the basement. I've been putting a lot of my free time and energy into the basement - and it's paying off. We got a delivery of the dry goods today and are waiting to hear back from Superior about all the wet stuff they hauled away in December. What a mess. It's almost over though.

I rode my bike for only 30 minutes this weekend - I'm hoping that by truly taking time off the bike I'll be back to full recovery quicker. Sigh.

Monday, March 19, 2007

George Marshall Sutton Jr

My grandfather just passed - at noon. He will be missed by so many people. He lived a great life - but it was his time to go.

Rip

I may have re-injured my lame hamstring again. Idiot!

No Redlands - they found a replacement.

My grandfather probably won't make it through the week. Sad. He had an amazing life - and was definitely an inspiration for me to pedal. I remember he used to go for 50+ mile rides solo and he loved it.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Morning Dash


I can't seem to drag my butt out of bed earlier than 8am. I've set my alarm clock to some up beat hipster music and as soon as I heard Madonna belching out some chords I decided enough was enough. Walk like an Egyptian. (Yeah, yeah - Bangles, I know.)

First thing's first - must drink coffee. Open pot, pour in water, put in filter and fill with coffee grinds. Glance outside - oh yeah, it's Friday - garbage day.

But no worries, the garbage man doesn't usually come until late morning and no one else has their bins out on the street. As I'm taking my sweet ass time and downing my second half of java - I hear the brakes squeel up the street - and make a mad dash to put some pants on so I don't show the neighborhood my pj's. Luckily my next door neighbor heard him too - and dashed to grab her two bins which gave me just enough time to grab our garbage and give it to the driver. Phew - close call! The guy just laughed at us.

I needed that though - an interruption of the typical routine. Something to remind you the world is spinning around you and if you're not careful it will knock you on your bum.

Training wise - I decided after Sunday's jaunt to start putting some mileage on the saddle and build racing miles up. The hammy seems to be taking it ok - so why not? I rode with Miller and Nick Tuesday night and we did some nice interval work. I was wrecked the following day. Mr. T wanted to go for a ride on Magnolia and I was pathetic - my legs were torn up. Thursday was better - I met up with Kari and we headed down the trail only to get drenched. It was chilly too - only 36 in the morning and it really didn't warm up all day. She peeled off in Kenmore and then I rode home solo. I really stopped and smelled the cold wet roses. And then the self -doubt and questioning started creeping into my head. In retrospect - having those feelings is perfectly normal. I'm starting to train hard again and it's been a month of easy cheesy. It should be a shock to the body. I took for granted how adapted I was to riding before - and now that my body is getting back to it - it's starting to protest.

I got home and listened to a message from Kari. Apparently the Redlands race director called her and said that Ti needs 5 women to race or they can't race. I'm frantically searching to find a replacement. Otherwise I will travel down there, use it as training and just see how long I can last. Flipping hamstring. Why did it have to blow out this year?

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

back to it

So the MVA Auction raised over $23,000!!!! Mad props to all the people who volunteered and played a huge part in its success. I had a blast and bought a new Raleigh track frame out of the deal.

This week I'm going to ease back into a normal training load. Hopefully the hammie will tolerate it. My goal is to be back up and running by April 1. No joke.

Monday, March 12, 2007

decisions, descisions

Well I had to choose - and I chose not to go to Redlands. Although I felt strong on Sunday - dropping my chain during a riser could've been a blessing in disguise. I chased to get back on for 8 miles and then after a longer riser my hammie started sending warning signals to my brain. So I chilled. Lame. But - it's getting better! And I came to the realization that it isn't going to be prepared for Redlands and I need to cut my loses and continue the path of recovery.
Sunday was a flat race - Redlands is notoriously hilly. Hmmmm... and I haven't even climbed a hill yet. Yeah, not such a good idea.

But the racing season is early and there's lots and lots of racing to be had. I'm starting to wonder if I should book any more flights prior to the race. Losing money in change fees is getting to be a bummer!

On a side note - Carrie Eller is looking strong! She pulled a breakaway for 2 laps!

Friday, March 09, 2007

42 degrees and pouring

I'll take it! 3 hours of water surfing and pothole dodging - not a bad day for my first real venture out in over a month. It felt good - but it was kind of hard to feel anything after an hour and a half in the pouring rain and wind. I managed to kick out some decent power - nothing to write home about - but power nonetheless.

And today, the day after, the hammy actually feels alright. So we're a go for racing this weekend. Yay!!!

I downloaded my power data after the ride and compared it to last month - holy cow. Prior to my blow out I did some serious riding for at least two weeks solid. By far my biggest block of power to date. Hopefully this month of rest will kick it up a notch and I'll be exceeding those numbers shortly! But one pedal stroke at a time.

Some poor woman got stuck in the elevator yesterday at work. The building we're in is 20+ years old and so is the elevator. The building is only 3 stories tall - but some people prefer to still ride the elevators. Anyway - some woman got stuck between the 2nd and 3rd floor and we had to call the fire department and elevator repairman. By the time the repairman showed the woman was out - apparently the cab shimmied down to the 2nd floor and opened on its own. Time for a new elevator I think. (They're not cheap - they start around $80,000 - ouch.)

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Updates....

Hmmmm... not necessarily posted in order of importance:

Ladies track training sessions has been moved from Tuesday nights to THURSDAY from 7:30-9pm. A great move considering the traffic, Fast Track intimidation factor, etc. And as long as 5 women show up - we get the track to ourselves. :)

Hammie... well it comes and goes. It felt great all weekend - I managed to get in 6 hours of riding on it. But yesterday I went to go for a spin and it didn't like it that much. Granted, I probably didn't wear enough layers, etc. - so we'll see if it's ok to race on it this weekend. If I can't race - then I'm bailing on Redlands. :( Simply put, I don't want to risk ruining an entire race season because I neglected to listen to my body and do the right thing. Talk about a hard decision to come to - but there's always next year. And who knows - it could do some miraculous healing in the next 24-28 hours!

Our downstairs is almost done. The cabinet guy was over yesterday and installed the laundry room counters. It looks fantastic. Bill was over working on the bike shop/TV room area too. He should be done soon. Then it's all about paint and getting it put back together!


YAY!

My brother and his family are coming up to stay a week starting Wednesday. Should be fun! Laurel is already over a month old.

Peas.

Friday, March 02, 2007

WPCS

So our team has been contacted by the promoter for the Nature Valley Grand Prix to make sure we're aware of the Women's Prestige Cycling Series since we're registered for Redlands. I hope everyone's game to do it - that would be awesome if we could represent and hopefully get some funds toward Bermuda.....

The hammie's getting better. I put in 2 pain free hours on the trainer last night at mid to high zone 2. Sweet. No racing this weekend - but things are looking up for the following weekend. ;)