Good Times!!!

1st day on the bike

Outside on the bike for the first time since I tore my ACL. Essentially my first day of 2010 on a bicycle outside. It was AWESOME. Pretty sad initially. The first 30 minutes were spent freaking out, hoping I wouldn't crash or fall or something ridiculous. After that though, I got into a groove. I feel that my fitness is actually pretty good. I have been riding 20 - 30 minutes a day on an exercise bike for the last 5 weeks. And at high cadences no less. Rode for 2 hours. I'll get there. My right leg looks about 2/3 the size of my left leg. Take it easy.

WAH! WAH! WAH!

Plushenko seems to be a sore loser and somewhat a bit of a cry baby.

Indians are taking over.

Yesterday got the okay from the surgeon to ride outside. 4 weeks out from my ACL reconstruction and he says your good to go. Surgeon says I'm good to good to mountain bike also as long as I can clean what I ride.

This all made my day. What better way to celebrate than with the new Ranger IPA from New Belgium. Good tasting solid IPA. Anyway, I am a little leary about jumping on to the bike right now. I think I will continue my mind numbing trainer sessions for another week or two, before I take it outside.

Belgian waffles trumped by Pilsner Urquel

Stybar wins the 2010 Cyclocross World Championships.
Zdenek Stybar raced a mistake free race, putting the hammer down and soloed to victory in Tabor at the UCI world championships today.
Congrats to the US team in both mens and womens, who raced very strong.

Goodnight Tonight.

It was fun last night, watching Conan O'Brien on his last "Tonight" show performance. I am quite sad to see him go. Look forward to seeing his antics in the future. I kind of got upset with NBC executives, their fault that this was so dramatic. Poor programming descisions. Conan's speech took all that frustration away and made me think that the world is what you make it.
Conan stated, "I hate cynicism, it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Good luck Conan, we will miss you.

PS and La Bamba too.

White Rim in a day; Do over

Looking forward to completing WRIAD this year. First attempt was aborted due to heavy rains the day/night before. We rode anyway, with the intention of just riding and getting to know the lay of the land. Mineral bottom road was a mess, covered in 6 inches of red mud.We rode for 6 hours. Headed down Schaeffer switchbacks and out past the Lathrop Canyon trail on the way back we took this trail down to the colorado river.

It was awesome and made me thirsty for the rest of the trail. Hopefully, my knee improves steadily and I can attempt later this year.
Walt

Post Op Boredom

There is only so much internet surfing, TV watching, game playing, couch sitting, European bike race watching, book reading, current events staying up with, food eating, that one person can take. Ahhhhh!!! It hasn't even been a week.

ACL reconstructed

Had my surgery yesterday at 1pm or so. This is my right knee ~ 24 hours later. "Looking good" says the orthopedic surgeon and I have to agree. It does look pretty good . Not as swollen as I thought it would be. The night after the surgery was kind of rough. Groggy and slightly off balance. I felt sketchy on the crutches. Sarah would trail behind me , ready to catch me. I waited as long as I could before I got up to go to the bathroom. Eventually when I was able to urinate and was finished I then brushed my teeth . After finishing I got extremely nauseated. I rested my head against the wall and attempted not to fall over. Successful in that my wife eventually prodded me in to taking a medicine for nausea which worked immediately. I then high tailed it 'crutch style' back to my bed.

Today feeling "good". Was able to do my 100 daily push ups and put weight on foot using the crutches with ortho doc's blessing. I go to physical therapy tomorrow and start the work.

King Corn

Seeing the orthopedic surgeon on thursday. In the meantime , I am keeping my knee on corn.

Torn ACL

Skiing yesterday at Keystone and tore my ACL . Initially a severe searing pain was experienced. I was on the slope in the outback and suffered a 10 -15 minute wave of nausea and cold sweat. Amazingly I did not have much pain after the first pain. I was able to ski out of there and rode the gondola down to the base. Iced it with snow the whole way home and kept it elevated the rest of the day. This morning went to the urgent care and had an MRI of the right knee. Diagnosis: torn ACL and tibial plateau avulsion fracture. Surgery in my future and a greatly delayed start to my mountain biking season.

We will see.

01022010

Numbers are cool! 01022010 is cool! Starting to get those miles in. Numbers are cool!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year.

May all your dreams come true.

Walt

Holiday Greetings

Santa Claus riding a bike. Very economical form of travel. I love this ornament. Just got back from Arizona. Full week of riding, running, swimming, and drinking in the sun. Put the tree up up as soon as we got back in town. Made sure this fellow got a premium space on the tree. What do you have to do to succeed like Santa? 1. Plan. 2. Pedal your bike around the world in a joyous mood, while giving presents to all the non-pouting children.

Bam!

Happy Holidays.



Walt

Simplicity

Single Speed

Single

Pedal

Don't think

Pedal

Why

Because

easy

Your choices

Pedal

Pedal harder

Stone Temple 8

Just got back from doing the Stone Temple 8 mountain bike race. Held in Curt Gowdy State Park between Cheyenne and Laramie Wyoming. I did the coed duo with my friend Sally Irmiger. Sally did the race 3 weeks out or so, from having a hand fracture pinned. We all got to the park on Friday and camped out. Preride of the course was done that afternoon. These are some great trails. Woods, open prarie,tecnical rocks. All good.
Saturday came and the race started with a Lemans start. I got on my bike after the brief run and immediately got on the wheel of Charlie Hayes. He was going pretty hard ( at least to me) and took the lead . After about 400meters or so I was starting to peel off and a gap was forming which was quickly filled in by another rider. I hung with this group of eight or so riders for a bit but as we made entry into the woods I was losing contact. As we got into the woods, I was working harder than normal and hit a rock straight on. I was thrown over to the right and over corrected, and then was on the left edge of the trail and hit what must of been a tree stump and catpulted over my bars. I got up pretty quickly and looked back to see my bike on the trail. I spotted a train of riders coming towards me and quickly tried to turn the handlebars to get the wheel in the right position. However I turned it in the opposite direction . Then trying to turn it back two times I was unable to get in front of the horde. It seemed like 10 - 20 riders went past me before I could back on the trail . After that crash my bike was all f#$ed up. The front brake was squealing and it seemed like my steering was off center. Got back on the trail and caught up to pack which was like pulling teeth. The first half of the course is rather technical and hard to pass. There was a lot more on and off the bike than you would want. Got through that lap and handed off to Sally.
As Sally took off my wife Sarah helped get me food and get my knee abrasions washed by the medics. Actually they let me wash them . I have lots of practice doing that; I am an emergency nurse by the way . I picked out a chunk of wood from my right knee. Otherwise just gnarly looking abrasions. Also sprained my right thumb. Went back to camp and Bob ( Sally's husband) helped me repair my bike . Readjust front disc brake, taped up jagged edge of broken front brake lever, and corrected steering. Rested a bit and then went back to switch with Sally.
Sally came in with a smile on her face and we fist pumped and and I took off on our third lap.
The rest of the race went on pretty well(no crashes and good trails).
Sally's daughter Heather( 2009 SSWC ) and her husband JHK came up to show support for Sally. When I was going out for my 4th lap they told me to make sure I finished prior to the 5pm cutoff so that Sally would feel obliged to ride another lap. So I finished my fastest lap yet as Sally went out for her 4th.
When I finished I was greeted by my wonderful wife with a beer in her hand for me. Life is good,.
Sally and I finished, had fun, and came in 5th place in the coed duo.

Walt

Influenza.

I got my Flu shot at work last night. Have you got your flu shot. If you haven't you may want to get it. Costs run 15 - 30 dollars for the yearly immunization. You may say, "Hey , I'm not gonna get the flu, so I don't need a shot.". Possibly right. Unfortunately, even if you contact the flu but do not get bad symptoms, you can still pass it on to others. Wouldn't you feel bad if you gave the flu to a baby or a very old person; or someone else who could not tolerate the symptoms and ended up getting very sick or dying.
If you spend any time with people you should get the flu shot. It is the number 1 preventative action you can take to prevent contracting the flu. Other things you can do are wash your hands frequently, avoid touching your face, and cough/sneeze into your elbow. If you are worried about Thimerisol you can get it without the preservative; at an increased cost. Thimerisol is a mercury based preservative that has been thought to cause Autism. Study after study has refuted this claim. Thimerisol is a form of mercury that is broken down by the body as opposed to another chemical type of mercury that does not break down and can and does cause problems. In fact if you breastfeed your baby, they most likely receive the "good" type of mercury in dose at least 10 times higher than in an injection.
Any way, go get your Flu shot and get it early. It takes approximately 8 days till immunity from time of injection. Get your flu shot, Get your flu shot, Get your flu shot.

Walt

Cyclocross

Gonna give Cyclocross a try again this season. Gonna ride the Bianchi SanJose Awesome bike V2.0 . Did two races a couple years ago on V1.0 before it was reallocated by and to another individual. One issue with my bike is running a low enough tire pressure but at the same time avoiding pinch flats. Flats for anyone in a 45minute race are a killer, but for me they are worse because my wheel set is a bolt on solid axle. With this setup I will not be able to change a tire very quickly. To rectify this concern I am going to try a Stan's No Tubes setup for cyclocross together with some Hutchinson Tubeless cyclocross tires front and rear. Ordered both and will set up and report when they arrive. Got everything for the price of $115 including shipping. From what I hear the tubeless setup allows for excellent traction and very good pucture resistance. We'll see.



Walt

Sufferfest

The 2nd Annual BMA Sufferfest took place Saturday 9.12.09

The usual suspects were there with new faces among them. Sufferfest is BMA's end of season ride for members. It involves 35 -45 + miles of rocky Boulder county trails and fire roads. The ride ended up being a mini epic with snow, rain, hail, grappel, and chilly temperatures. Numb toes and numb nonfunctioning hands were the order of the day. Lets just say nobody did the Buchanan pass option this year.

Beer and burgers and story telling took place by a nice fire.

Walt

I love water fountains!

Today I rode the San Jose Awesome Bike from home onward to Boulder. Coal Creek path to Marshall Mesa to Boulder Creek path, up Four Mile Canyon making a left onto Wall Street. Riding down this road I came across a water fountain at somebody's driveway. Almost rode right past it but turned around to read the sign. "filtered water , help yourself". Nice. Filled up the camelback and continued on to Sunset and up Switzerland trail to Sugarloaf and back to Lafayette.

Thanks Johnsons for the water.

Walt