Going to Aruba

It has been a great winter for lots of miles.  I'm getting 3-4 days of quality days in every week since before Xmas. Last week I got four out of five days in because of the wind. Now its time for a little break.

Going kite surfing in Aruba for 7days. It has been forever since I've gone a vacation without a bicycle. I've been flying kites for more than twenty years. We use to go body surfing with them long before kite surfing was even a sport. And ever since I've learned about it I've wanted to do it.

We are renting a house for the week for the sole purpose to learn to kite surf. I'm sure I'll get plenty of rest and recovery too. Just in time to get a few more days of riding in before my big ride.

Opentime and vacations

<p>It takes a bit of work from the village to get enough time off work to ride across the USA. I want to thank my friends for jumping into action to figure out my schedule. Jennifer trading me turns, Amy for trading vacations, Jill and Rebecca for being amazing with opentime. It is the small stuff that makes the big stuff seam easy. Thank you very much ladies!!

It's going to be a good year.

What a year this is going to be. All with in the last few weeks my summer plans has taking the most amazing turn for the best. The first week of May Jill and I are going to Aruba to go kiteboading, something I've always wanted to try. We will be there from the 1st-8th. This will be my first beach vacation in over ten years. I'm not one to just sit on the beach so kiteboarding is right up my alley. This trip will come at a perfect time after spending the past three months putting in some very good quality miles on the bike. I'm looking forward to the challenge of learning a new sport.

Speaking of challenge, the other big news of my summer came from a phone call only about a week ago. Larry Gunter, who I rode with at OTC in September, called to tell me he was given the oppuntity to ride across the country with World Team Sports for Wounded Warriors. He needed a tandem driver for the two month ride and wanted to invite me. --- HOLY CRAP!!! CAN I DO IT! DREAM OF A LIFTIME, I don't know if I can take the time away... WAIT A MINUTE, OF COURSE I CAN. YES!!! I CAN GO!! WOW!!!! --- now my mind is spinning, I have so much to get together to make this trip happen. The biggest is to rearrange my work schedules and call in some favors to get the time off.

The trip is Sea 2 Shining Sea 2012.   The final route has not been posted yet but it looks something like 4000 miles in 60 days with about 20 other cyclist. Starting in San Franciso on May 28th and ending in Virginia Beach on July 28th.

I'm going to post much more info about this trip and during this trip very soon.
Thanks for reading.

What winter?

Gotta love this weather yea! I've been super motivated to ride everyday I've been home this year. I've been getting four good days in a week. Even going out in the rain and sleet. Just pure fun. Over 540 miles in January, 300 miles in a short February and 700+ miles for March. I've never had this kind of mileage so early in the season. They have been mostly very good quality miles too. Now I just have to get in some faster miles, up the speed to race pace.

Still going strong

The riding has been good. The diet has been so so. I've been able to get out for three good days a week even with the cold rainy snowy weather. Can't beat a good 50 mile ride in the rain. And 40 miles in the snow. Just gonna make me stronger right?

I had been nursing a sore right hip for a couple weeks. Then I had a three hour massage that really did the trick.

A Good Start

As New Years Resolutions go I've been doing pretty good. I've managed to log in to my food diary I've meal since the beginning of the year. Not to say my diet has been great, but I am keeping a honest record.
If I am able to ride this much every week all year I will rack up over 6000 miles for the year. That is not including spring and fall centuries.
I'm going to yoga class every Monday and cello lessons every Tuesday.  Now all I have to do is get myself to start doing the Insanity videos on my overnights.

Happy New Year

Let the new times begin. Hoping for many changes this year. Good night.

Still riding

This time of year it's just about getting out and making the legs go around. The last few races I've felt my desire to go fast go right out the window. My race season is officially over. Now all I want to do is ride and watch the grass not grow. In the next couple of weeks I'm going to work on getting my basic all around fitness back. Try to eat right, do my insanity videos, keep on going to yoga classes and just ride for fun and conversation.

Need to stop the food sabatage

My least favorites thing to do is grocery shopping. I want to eat the right thing but I tend to walk around aimlessly until I just grab the worst things to eat. Then I eat it all in one sitting. Sad. And I consider myself an athletes.

Fighting the good fight

Well its been a long while since my last blog post. Now that I can post from my phone maybe I'll post more often. Right.
Anyway, cyclocross season is in full swing. Ed and I have raced the past three weekends. We have two more races left.  And of course I'm fighting a head cold and a few half nights of missed sleep. The good thing is I've had a pretty good week of riding this week. Now its time to try to sleep thru the night. 

Two months in review.

It has been a little over two months since my last blog post. Well that crash on May 8th produced in bit more injuries than first thought. My left wrist and hand were quite sore the next day, forcing me to miss work for a few days.
After being off the bike for a week, I tried to go for ride. No going. I could not grab the handle bars in the drops. I resorted to taping up my wrist and hand so I could race. Hated the thought of losing my fitness. I was only able to complete 3 laps at BIKEJAM. I was still happy with that. I did two races at Ride Sally Ride. Finished both with a taped wrist.
Hoping to not lose my hard earned fitness, I spent a few nights on the trainer indoors. YES, TRAINER RIDING IN JUNE!! that only lasted two weeks. I was able to race the track in both Seattle and Trexlertown. Short efforts have been ok with a taped wrist. Long rides hurt. I've been getting out on the road some. Spent a week riding hills in Utah.
After the first week I went to the doctor for an Xray. It came back negative. Two weeks later I went to see a hand surgeon. The MRI came back saying I have a broken bone in my hand. It is called ' the hook of the hamet bone'. So the best way to fix it is to remove it. There is no blood supply for it to heal on its own. Surgery is the answer.
I was going to get the surgery done last Friday but my schedule just didn't work out. Now I am going to wait til August so I can race Superweek. :) a week of racing is always more fun than surgery. Off to Milwaukee I go.

Oh well, Not Again !!

Well here is the story. Fort Ritchey Criterium today is Cascade, Maryland. I raced two races. First the category 3/4 35+. I got 11th place. Still can't get in the right position for the final sprint.That is not the story.

Second race was category 4. The wind was blowing. The field was nearly full and the course fast and fun. Ted and I were racing together like usual. He wanted to ride with me so we could stay out of the wind. Early in the race I was up front and I could not see Ted. So I went to the back to find Ted. He said the braking in the corners was preventing him from getting to the front. I said follow me, lets get up there now. With in a couple laps we were right where we wanted to be. Now just holding our position waiting for the laps to count down was are goal.

The wind was blowing us all all over the place. Two guys bumped shoulders on the back straight and began to crash. I was sitting a rider back and a bit to the left. The crash began to swing my way. I thought I was save when a bike shot to the left and a handlebar hooked my front wheel. I was braking at the time so I went down very softly. Just really stepped off the bike. There were 7-8 riders on the ground. One pretty hurt holding his shoulder, not good. Another kid asking if he was bleeding over and over again. He had a cut on his chin.It was kind of funny. He asked if his tooth was chipped? It was a little. He started yelling that his parents were going to kill him. It was really kind of funny. Ted was under a another riders bike not hurt at all. He had to slam on his brakes and endoed into the back of the crash.

Both of our front wheels were out of true. We went to the pit for our free lap. I had my wheels in a bag on a hill in the pit. I changed my wheel and waited for the official to tell us when to go. The group came by and we sprint to get in the group. Ted took off and got right in. I couldn't get my right cleat to clip in. I tried a few more times. I reached down and pulled a handful of dirt off the bottom of my shoe. Crap they are getting away.I pedaled some to not get dropped. I tried my cleat again, nothing. I put in a couple of hard pedal strokes so I could get closer to the group. BAM !! I'm on the the ground sliding. My foot slipped off the pedal and I crashed by myself at 25mph. It hit my head real hard too. Helmet cracked into two pieces. Sunglasses lenses came out. Shorts and jersey torn. Even my socks were torn. DAM, I CRASHED TWICE IN ONE LAP!!

Other than the loss of skin, I am fine. I'm sure tomorrow may be a different story. But I will be ready for battle again next week.

Testing testing

Crazy Group Ride

When will training rides learn not to piss off the locals? As many know, I've been riding most of my life. I love to ride fast in large groups of people. I've ridden in many group rides all over the country. Some faster then others, some larger then others and some saver then others. A couple days ago I rode in the craziest group ride ever.

Course description- 3 mile loop on mostly rural roads. Starts at Laserdome in Manheim Pa. It is an all right turn course going clockwise of course. The first right is on to Esbenshade Rd. This is a fairly busy road with a slight downhill. Right on to Rohrer Rd which is rural with a steady cross wind from from the right. Straight on to Erisman Rd at a stop sign. HA,ha! Then right on to Auction Rd.to the finish line at Red Rose Radio.

Ever since I moved to Shrewsbury, I've been looking for a good fast local training ride. I was told about this ride by a coworker who lives in Lancaster. I've been wanting to do this ride for a couple of years. On Wednesday I worked with Bob and he took me this ride was that night. Great I'll do it. I called Keith and he met us there. Bob and I arrived early enough to ride the course once. He warned me about the first corner because he said this ride is fast and they tend to roll right throw the stop sign on to Esbenshade Rd.and there is no shoulder. He even warned me about their disregard for the yellow line. Wow, little did I know.

The ride starts out fast from the beginning. Kind of double line down Esbenshade. On to Rohrer and the pace really picked up. I move up toward the front to protect myself from accelerations. Coming past the finish line the first time I get a tap on my right hip by a rider wanting to come by. At that time I was coming around two riders who were slowing down a bit. This kid who taps me comes flying up the right. I look over and say 'where are you going?', because there is no where to go. As we are entering Esbenshade, I let off the gas a bit to look left for traffic and then jam right back into line. He kid rides past me a calls me an asshole. Puzzled, I ride up to him and ask 'what the heck is his problem is'. He yells at me for opening a gap. I'm like 'dude it is a training ride, relax!'. So, now I'm thinking hmmm.. that was weird. I don't get yelled at often in rides. Oh well, just settle in and ride. We turn on to Rohrer and the whole group goes to the left side of the road. Remember this is a two lane road that is open to traffic. Holy cow this is getting crazy. What if someone wants to pass us from behind. Holy crap what if someone is coming toward us. Someone yells 'car back' and a car passes clearly pissed off. This is really crazy!

It is really fast and I get popped a bit. I drop off the back of the big group. I guess I will sit a lap out and try to get back in when they come back around. Little did I know, there is another group coming by. A B group. Cool! I will just ride with them. I am just looking for a good hard workout anyway. Any group will do. It is about 30 riders strong. Clearly not as strong and clearly more entry level riders. No problem, I will just pull more and work harder. Again we turn on to Rohrer and the whole group goes to the left side of the road. I stay on the right of the yellow line and power into the wind. Yes, I am working much harder but I really don't want to get killed.

As we come around for another lap we see the A group in front of us. Weird? Why are we catching the A's? Ah, must have been a crash. Figures. As it turns out, when they were going down Esbenshade about to turn on to Rohrer, of course from the left lane taken up both lanes, a pickup truck goes into the grass and passes everyone on their right. Now that is truly CRAZY!!! Guys said the guy got airborne when he went off road. They thought someone was going to get killed. Luckily no one got hit.

After the ride we were talking about the pickup truck, someone asked if they called the police to report the driver. Their response was no because they might close down this ride. Hell this ride needs to be closed down until these riders can learn to obey the laws of the road and not take such entitlement to think they own the road. Someone is going to get killed.

With all the disobedience for the general rules of the road it is no wonder the locals hate cyclist. Training rides are not races. The course is not closed. The yellow line should never be crossed, even when there is not a yellow line. Crossing the yellow line is CRAZY !!!!!!!!

Sometimes work gets in the way of life. Then again, sometimes you can work in a little life into work.

The last day of the month and the first three days of the month I have the opportunity to earn time and a half at work. It is a great thing but that usually means working over the weekend once every month. In the winter that is no big deal. But in the spring and summer I do my best not to miss riding and racing during the weekends. This spring I went on a little spending spree in celebration of getting in racing shape. I bought two pairs of race wheels to go with my new race bike. Ouch. So I really like making time and a half when I can.

This week I was scheduled to work Friday-Sunday and Monday-Wednesday. Bunny Hop Criterium was on Sunday at 3pm. I was able to arrange my trip to get back to BWI at 12:30pm. That would be pushing it but doable to get to the parking lot, drive to the race, register and get to the start line in time, I tried to get rid of the PVD turn to make it easier on myself. It would cost me a couple hours of pay but it would make my life a lot less stressful. No one wanted to work my little turn :( Then Jill offered to save the day. She worked my turn for me :). It is so nice to have friends. Thanks Jill!

I got to the race with plenty of time to watch a few races and even warm up a little. It was a very hot day so I didn't want to warm up too much in fear of over heating. I raced the category 4 race. I've raced Bunny Hop for the past 5 or so years with mixed results. It is a very easy course but it can be fast and one year I blow a tire and left half of my ass in the second corner. I felt great right from the start. Able to move up and back thru the group of a hundred riders at will. I stayed in the top twenty or so watching the breaks go and come back. With 17 laps to go the bell rang for a two place prime. I just sat back not really thinking of going for it until we rounded the last corner and I carried my speed into a half hearted jump that got me second place in the sprint. Nice an easy $10.00 gift certificate for a burrito. I drifted back into the pack now waiting for the final sprint. I thought I was going to be in a good spot for the finish but the guy leading me thru the final corner slowed down just enough to to keep me from really getting on top of my gear. I finished 10th.

Happy with my result and still feeling good, I decided to race the category 35+ race too. I had to register and change numbers fast. I have not raced a 35+ race in a couple years because I've had too much trouble hanging on to their speed. Not a problem now. :) I only planned on hanging in just to get some more fast miles. I found myself moving through the group with ease. It was faster for sure. As the laps ticked away I realized I was going to finish this race. And I could even try sprinting with this guys. I rolled up to Mike and asked if he would lead me out. With two laps to go the pace of course really picked up. I felt a little twinge in my right calf. Coming into the last corner before the final lap my calf cramped hard, locking up my leg. Race over. Rats. I almost made it. The heat got to me. The miles got to me. The speed got to me. All in all I am very happy with both of my races.

Now that is the best way to spend the hours between VGA trips.

Happy birthday to me.

My idea of a good birthday is to race three races in two days and get top 20 in all three races. Not winning yet, but still good enough for me. For years my motto has been to race for the pure fun of racing. I never gave a crap about places. I just race for the fun of it. I like to sit in a tight pack of riders and go around corners fast. The more technical the course the better. When the race got argy bargy at the end, I would sit up happy to have finished on the same lap and not been dropped. Heck, I have to go to work in the morning. Why risk crashing? -- Now that my fitness is coming along, I am rethinking this motto. Time to start caring. Time to start sprinting.

Saturdays race was in Chantilly Virginia.Category 35+ 3/4 race. Another easy D course but with no hill. Just a whole boat load of wind. I've decided I needed a nice pair of race wheels to go along with my new Fuji SST 2.0 race bike. Happy Birthday to me. Lance Lacy was selling a nice pair of Sram S80 wheels. They are a very large profile rimed wheelset. 80mm large! He said they were fast. I've seen him make them go fast. I had to try them. People were looking at me a little strange trying such a big wheel on such a windy day. Heck, why out. You can handle them or you can't, right. I started the race extra cautious. After two laps I realized the wheel were going to be no problem at all. Because of the wind you were hanging on to the bike already. I did my normal playing in the race. To the front, to the back, off the front, smile, to the back, go back to the front. I do like my games. As the race entered the last laps I again stayed up front. I had to work a bit harder to stay there and didn't get the nice position coming out of the last corner I had hoped for. I sprinted to 17th place. Not bad. The wheels were fast. I bought them. :)

Sundays races were in Colombia Maryland. Back to back races. Can I do this? 25 mile category 3/4 race followed directly by a 21 mile category 4/5 race. The course is a 2.1 mile loop with a small climb right before the finish line. Somehow the weather has gone right back into fall again. I was dressed for a cylocross race, knee warmers, long sleeves, gloves. And windy again. Just sit in and conserve, conserve, conserve. This is going to be a long day. Of course I had to go to the front to play some. Too much fun not too. I had good position coming up the hill for the final sprint. The finish line is so far away. Oh boy i can't sprint for 300 meters. Fading, fading. Hey! I still got 7th place in the category 4's. Nice! $22.00! Really nice.

Second race, 4/5, watch out for crashes, watch out for gaps. Recover, recover, recover. Wow, not feeling bad at all. Ok lets go to the front to play. Lets go get this sprint thing going. Again going for good position. Got it. Remember the sprint is long, be patient. The hill ends almost 200 meters from the finish. Don't sprint up the hill, you won't last. Crap! You sprinted up the hill. Again faded before the line. Got 12th place. Still quite happy. Note to self-- you can't sprint for 300 meters yet.

Great B-day race weekend. 17th, 7th and 12th. Not bad. Better results are coming soon to a blog near you. Stay tuned. :)

First Race Weekend of the Season

The past few weeks have been encouraging. I've been getting out a couple times a week for 2-3 hour rides. And I'm even getting to do my Home Depot loop for some up hill sprint efforts. I've been looking forward to getting my lighter self on the road racing again.

Saturdays race was in Walkersville Maryland. Five laps on an eight mile loop with rolling hills for a whopping 40 miles. It was a category 35+ 4/5. The good thing about this category race is because everyone has to go to work in the morning it tends to be safer then racing with the crazy 20 somethings. And because it is a 4/5 race, they don't push hard on the climbs. Nice. I sat in for the beginning of the race just watching people stretch the early season legs. Little breakaways, nothing dangerous. With two laps to go I made my way toward the front to have a look around. There were three guys off the front by about a 20 second lead. Their teammates were sitting on the front letting the lead get bigger and bigger. I started saying we need to get though their little roadblock to bring the break back. There was no response from the rest of the riders. I got to the front and wiggled my way through their little armada. That opened the flood gates for everyone else to come through. The break came back.

The last lap I sat in recovering a much as possible waiting for the final sprint. The last corner is over a mile away from the finish line. I was doing my best to stay up front but also stay out of the wind. We also had the yellow line rule to deal with. We had to stay in one lane until the 200 meter sign. Guys were trying to push their way forward early. I was sitting second row working hard to stay there. The front guys were not building up speed like I had hoped. I was just waiting to get swamped by the guys behind us at any second. As soon as a whole opened in the front line I jumped with my sprint. I got a good jump but way to early. I was losing my power quickly about 50 meters from the line. They came around me on both sides. I got 9th place. They pay the first 8 places. :(

Sundays race was in Tysons Corner Virginia. A one mile D with a long down hill backstretch and a short big ring homestretch. This was a straight category 4 race. Very funny race for me. Almost half a race for me. The down hill was so easy for me it became a game. Every lap I could coast from the back of the group to the front of the group. Pedal up the hill going from the front drifting to the back and repeat. The game became how far can I go off the back and still make it to the front by the bottom of the hill. If I let myself go twenty feet off the back I could give it 2-3 hard big gear pedal strokes and tuck all the way to the top ten riders. Very funny. For the last few laps I stopped playing my game and just stayed up front as the speed got higher. I started to second guess myself about sprinting with this crowd. Whether they were safe or not. I dropped back twenty places or so before the final corner. Decided to sprint for the line and saw a giant wall of riders and immediately turned off the jets. I finished in the group.

All in all it was a good first week of racing. Very happy with my fitness so far. I just have to let myself sprint for the win instead of just being satisfied with a group finish.

All in all it was a good week

As I mentioned last week, I planned on riding my century of the year in San Diego on March 7th. Well, that didn't go quite as planned.

Ed and I flew non-rev early Friday morning. We got on the flight to Denver without a problem. The second leg to San Diego almost didn't happen. We got pulled because the flight was oversold by 6 people. It didn't look good for us at all. The next open flight to San Diego wasn't until 9:15pm,a full 12 hours later. As Ed and I were making plans to spend the day in Boulder, the CSA found us the empty seats we needed to get back on the plane. We were on our way.

We landed in paradise at 11:30am. We had the rest of the day ahead of us. Awesome. Eric met us at baggage claim, from there we went to the hotel, got changed and Eric and Ed headed to Encinitas to get Eric's bike. I took a bus to La Jolla to get my bike from AJ's house. I rode up to Encinitas to meet them and we all rode back downtown to the hotel. By the time we got back into town it was way past dark, I got us a little lost, oops. I got in about 47 miles and Eric and Ed got in about 30 miles. Not a bad day of riding for spending most of it on an airplane.

Trying to stay on course with my fitness, I got up early for a little gym time. After a nice breakfast, we went to the Gran Fondo Expo to check out all the different vendors and to meet AJ, EJ and Melanie for a bike ride. We all had a great ride showing Eric and Ed the incredible sites in Mission and Pacific Beach. It was something like 25 miles. Just what we needed to keep our legs fresh for our 101 mile ride in the morning. We all met at 5pm for an amazing pasta dinner in Little Italy. AJ's idea for us to meet early for dinner was a great plan, we were able to get to bed early since the ride started at 7am in the morning. Ouch, even for us east coasters.

We woke up to threating skies, the promised rain was on it's way. Again after another great breakfast we rolled down the 3 blocks to the Gran Fond's start. Sometimes it is all about who you know, we lined up with the VIP's at the very front of all the 3000 other riders. There were past Olympians and past World Champions and many National Champions. There was Dave Letteri, Mari Holden, Kurt Stockton, John Howard, and Paolo Bettini. Even NBA star Bill Walton was riding. As we were waiting for the start the skies opened up with the hardest rain I've ever seen in California. We rolled out very cautiously because this was the first time AJ ever rode in the rain. Must be nice living in Southern California. Except today. The rain never let up.

After crossing Coronado Bridge, we went south down the strand, before going east to the hills. I was riding with AJ and EJ when Paolo Bettini and his entourage sped by. I had to take this opportunity to ride with a 2 time World Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist. I said see ya to AJ and EJ and jumped on the Italian train. Quickly we caught up to Ed, I yelled for Ed to jump in. He looked at me like this is way too early to be going this fast, then he saw who I was riding with, he jumped right in. Shortly I dropped back to ride with AJ. We rolled along though the rain, even passing Paolo with a mechanical, to the first rest stop. AJ and EJ kept on going and Eric and I grabbed some snacks. Paolo and company came in and I was able to get a picture of Eric with Paolo and Flat Stanly. Nice.

Eric and I were just riding along when he said Paolo should be passing us soon, and there he was. We jumped right in with the Italians for the next few miles. I could get use to riding with a World and Olympic Champion. We met everyone at the second rest stop. We were all freezing and soaked to the bone. I was trying to remember the last time I started a century in the poring rain. It was the Civil War Century in Gettysburg about 5 years ago. We did the 50 mile ride instead of the 100. We decided to do the same thing here. We were all good with this.

From here the ride changed from a 100 miles survival ride, to a 55 mile fun fast ride. Since we were heading back to San Diego, instead of doing another 70 miles over a mountain, we all rode freer and faster. EJ and I took off a couple times stretching our legs, fast. Lots of fun. The last 5 miles were on some pretty sketchy roads with lots of pot holes and a crazy amount of railroad crossings at all kinds of bad angles. We all stayed upright, thank goodness.

We got to the finish ate some great food and raced back to the hotel for the hottest shower I could stand and then came back to the Expo for some more food. Oh yea, we went for dinner for some more food that night. In spite of the rainy weather, we had the best time. I love riding with good friends in any weather. San Diego is awesome! I can't wait for next years Gran Fondo. In dry conditions :)

Since I've gotten back, I've ridden 3 days in a row. 25, 50 and 40 miles. Total for the week 240 miles. Not a bad week at all.

It has been a very interesting month

Since I got back from San Diego, I've been trying to keep my fitness consistent. I had to work quite a bit to rebuild the bank account for my planned trips in February. I was able to stay consistent by, believe it or not, working out on my overnights and at home and even riding the trainer. I know. That is such a big step for me. The addition of a new TV and DVD player made the trainer bearable. I've been watching bike races from the 80's. Most of my overnights were in Denver with a very good workout room. Bonus.

So I started off February with three days of reserve with the idea being to not get used and be home to work on remodeling my basement and working out. I had great plans for lots of work and lots of play. The goal was to go back to San Diego for 4 more days of riding then fly to Seattle for a quick trip up to Canada to watch the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Well it didn't play out quite as planned.

On the 3rd I rode my trainer for an hour and was going to lift weights afterwards. When I got off the trainer I had a tightness in my lower abdomen. I picked up the weights and thought 'not today'. I retired to the couch to watch TV and play with the computer. During the next few hours my stomach started to feel more tender. I was thinking it was something I eat or just a muscle strain. I don't remember what I was watching but one of the characters had a pain and was said to have appendicitis. A light bulb went off and I said "Crap I have appendicitis!". Of course, I Googled it. Pain lower right quadrant- Yes, reduced appetite- Yes, nausea- No, vomiting- No, and a low-grade fever- No. Well 2 out of 5 and the pain wasn't really that bad anyway. So I am just going to hang out on the couch. I kept thinking of my moms appendicitis from last year and how bad it can get. And that I was home alone. At 9:30pm I went to the ER at York Hospital.

There were only a few people in the ER when I arrived. They took me in right away when I said I think I might have appendicitis. They drew blood to check if my white cell count was elevated. It was not. The next step was to have a CAT scan. I was very reluctant to have another CAT scan after having so many CAT scans just three months ago. If I was not willing to have the CAT scan the doctor all we could do was wait. I said I can wait at home. So I went home at 2am with instructions to return if the pain got worst or if any other symptoms occurred.

I crawled into bed at 2:30am. At 5:30am I woke up stuck to the ceiling like a cat, the pain was so bad. And now I was feeling nauseous. There is your second symptom. Back to the ER I go. I walk into the ER and the same doctor looks at me and says " How about that CAT scan now?" I smile and agree. Now it is time to hang out waiting for the results from the CAT scan.

Emergency room's are a great place to hang out if you really went to hear how the other half lives. The guy in the bed next to me talked non stop about his drunken lifestyle. How he had drank myself out of a job, a relationship and into homelessness. Then I realized he was talking to the guard who was escorting him. He was in handcuffs.

The test came back positive, I have appendicitis. Now what? I have a big month planned. I have a century on March 7th in San Diego. I am trying to get into shape. Am I going to be side lined for 6 weeks after an operation? Am I going to lose all the fitness I've worked for?

The surgical resident came in to explain the surgery, she told me about the nice 4 inch incision and the weeks of rest I will need. I told her about the big month I had planned and above all I was going to the Olympics. I asked if this could be done laparoscopically. Less invasive. She said the doctor on call didn't do laparoscopic surgeries. I thought for a couple minutes and told her I was going to go to my parents house and have the surgery done at her hospital. I might as well said I was going to do the surgery myself. She told me not to go anywhere.

She came back an hour later and told me she found a surgeon to do the surgery laparoscopically. Dr. Scott came in and said he had heard I had big things coming up. I said I sure did. He said no problem with going to the Olympics and the century should be a go. I liked this guy.

I had the surgery at 3pm on the 4th. The surgery was suppose to be one hour, three and half hours later I was in recovery. Dr. Scott told me my appendix was a lot worst then first thought. He said I probable had it for two weeks or more. Wow. I guess I didn't have gas the week before.

I spent the night in the hospital and was leased before the big snow at 3pm on the 5th. My parents came out to take me home and to hang out with me for a few days. We got well over 2 feet of snow over night. Sadly I was not allowed to go outside to shovel snow. I love to shovel snow. If I would have made a move toward the door I believe my parents would have tackled me. Despite having surgery I was feeling pretty darn good. The only thing keeping me from feeling great was the plastic tube sticking out of my stomach with a vacuum bulb hanging from the end that I have to drain every four hours. So we just hung out for the weekend watching the snow.

On Monday I had my post-surgery doctors appointment. I finally got this dam tube removed. When he pulled the tube out the doctor told me to take a deep breath and exhale. He pulled out a tube that I thought was all the down to my toes. It was at least a foot long. I asked about my planned trips. He hold me to do whatever I felt good doing. And don't lift over 30 pounds. Wow. Cool! Open hall pass.

As you may know, I don't sit well. during the first week I x-c skied twice, went snow shoeing twice and shoveled my driveway. The second week I took two yoga classes, telemark skied, riding my trainer twice and gone to the Olympics. Now I am back into the full swing of things, riding, lifting, working, whatever I feel like doing. I leave for San Diego tomorrow for a 101 mile bike ride. All is good.

Home Sweet Home

I just walked in the door, back on the couch, relaxing in my Crusty The Clown pants, waiting for the CBS must see Monday TV to begin. After traveling across the country sitting on the 4th jumpseat, this is all I can muster for the evening. I left San Diego a soggy mess at 4:30am to arrive in BWI at 3pm and 60 degree temperatures. Nice timing.

I rode 285 miles in 6 days, not bad for January. Now I must make sure to keep on riding and working out everyday. I need to not repeat last years trend of getting in a big week and riding the couch til the next big week. That won't happen this year. The weather is going to be good for a nice ride tomorrow.