A Short Ride

Finally got out on a short road ride today. Got in about 38 miles in roughly 2 hours. This was a ride just to test out the knee, to see how it would react to a decent effort. I would say that the knee acted "ok"
After being on my feet all day at the bike shop on Saturday, Sunday my knee was swollen and painful. So, I laid around the house, saw a movie and spent quite a lot of time on the couch with an ice pack. Today the knee was still a bit swollen but feeling much better, so the ride was on.
No sharp pain throughout the ride just a dull ache towards the end. I could also tell my knee swelled a bit by the end of the ride. I stopped in at the bike shop on my ride, some of the guys remarked on how much larger my right knee is than my left. Yeah, I know I look like a freak.
On a positive note, I got my dog on a walk after the ride. No pain. Running might be an option soon. Fingers crossed.

Not Good

I was off work early yesterday, early enough that I had time to drive to a trail for a little off-road biking. After some thought, I decided to save gas and ride a local trail. It's been a while since I have been to Kessler so I was amped to ride it, maybe a bit to amped.

Two minutes into my ride, I come to the first intersection. I hesitated, right or left? I decided right and let off my brakes, next thing I know I am going over the bars. It was a low speed crash but my right knee took the brunt of the fall.

After the fall, I immediately hike back to the car and headed home. The pain was intense and my knee grew to the size of an orange. This freaked me out so I decided to try and bend my knee. The bent knee caused a large amount of blood to flow from a nasty 3/4" long gash. For the next hour and a half it would not stop bleeding and swelling. Upon inspection from my sister, she decided to take me to the ED for Xrays to rule out any major damage

The ED visit wasn't horrible, about three hours of sitting watching TV while waiting for the MD.

Xrays were negative. That's good, the "Not Good" part is that I will not be racing this weekend, no telling when I will be able to run again or bike, etc. I just hope it heals soon.

Right now I am off work, good timing for my scheduled day off. I have knee splint/immobilizer on and even just standing up is painful. Work tomorrow may be out of the question. I'll close with a pic of my knee. It doesn't look like much, but I assure you that it's painful.

pics!

Weather here went fom Winter to Summer to Early Spring and now Summer again.

Called Out

I got called out for not posting here for a very long time, kind of like how I got called out for not shaving when there were ample amounts of razors and cream to be used. Well, I'll post but I am still not shaving the beard.

It's still cold here in NWA. Yesterday I was in LA riding my bike in shorts and sleeves, I was loving the 60 degree temps with sun. Today I am back home to overcast and 40. I shouldn't complain because 40 is a lot warmer than what we have had for high's.

While visiting my folks, I did manage to get in back-to-back road rides. I haven't done that in a while. I mapped out a 34 mile route for Saturday, profile was flat as a pancake compared to NWA road rides. My ride was cut short, however, as I took a wrong turn and knocked off nearly 8 miles from the route. That was to bad as I cut off some of the best road on the route, fairly smooth and zero traffic. I mean zero traffic. I did the full 34 mile loop on Sunday and I still didn't see a single vehicle, coming or going, on Seven Pines rd. It felt good to get the two rides in and I actually felt better on the second day's ride.

The forecast for this week looks supreme, I'll definitely be putting in the miles on the road. Speaking of road, I got a new road bike. It is a demo Tarmac we had at the shop. The bike is in immaculate condition, it just didn't get used all that much. One thing I really like about it is that there aren't to many out there with this paint scheme. Here is a pic, yes it is purple.

Disaster Averted

The freezing rain stayed away for the most part, there was some ice accumulation but the power stayed on. As of right now the snow is falling, hard. About 3 inches so far with another three or more inches to come.

2010 Schedule

Been working on my 2010 schedule, it's pretty well dialed. 12 races so far with a few local 5k's thrown in for July. July looks really light having only one mtb race, I plan to supplement with road running races as they are abundant in the month of July.

Here are the MTB races I plan on racing, all in the AMBCS series:

May 30th Womble Classic
July 18th Eureka Springs Fat Tire Festival
Sept 19th Northwest Arkansas Championship
Nov. 7th Slaughter Pen
Nov. 21 Attila the Hun

One race from the Arkansas Marathon Series:

April 18 The Rock Epic 50 Miler

Side note: I would love to do more of the Marathon Series but the other two races sold out within hours of the opening registration time. You may have heard of them, The Ouachita Challenge and Syllamo's Revenge. Maybe a spot will open up. However, I doubt it.

One off-road duathlon:

Feb. 28th Du it in the Dirt

One on-road duathlon:

Apr 3rd Iron Pig Duathlon

Last but not least, at least four Xterra events:

May 1st Xterra Epic

June 12 Eureka Springs

June 26th Xterra Dawg Dayz

Aug 8th Xterra Iron Will

I hope for more Xterra races, my results will be the deciding factor.

That's all for now. Training picks up intensity late this week, just in time for a crazy winter storm to hit the area. Warnings are already being issued and the storm isn't supposed to hit until Thursday morning. Forecasts are calling for anything from 6-10 inches of snow to 3/4 of an inch of ice. Anything but ice, please! Last year's ice storm was devastating and NWA still shows signs of the damage. I've got my fingers crossed for snow, more the better if it keeps the ice away.

Will have links to races soon.

It's cold

Like most of the Nation, it is cold here in NWA. The coldest air of the season and close to breaking the records. I haven't been on a bike exactly a week. Today would have been good temp wise, but with ambient temps at 36-38 the trails were a brief sloppy mess before tonight's uber freeze. If I can stand the single digit temps on Friday, I plan to hit up some frozen singletrack at Lake Fayetteville.
Southern California is calling. Screw this uninhabitable weather, it's just not right.
Call it ironic, but I love snow. Most of all I love the crunch it makes under your shoe while running. I love being the first to lay tracks down a trail, like a pioneer discovering a new route. On the flip side, tracks in the snow reveal multiple biographies of previous adventures endured. I always try to be the first to lay tracks down after every snow, sometimes I succeed, but usually someone gets to the pristine, snow covered trail before me. I don't mind though, it makes me happy thinking how he or she had a blast cutting the first track through the trail.
New Responsibilities, I passed the RCIS test. The day I passed had to be close to the best day of my life. I'm grateful for my job and for the people who gave me the opportunity to advance to the position that I have today. I'm learning so much, every day I'm learning something new.
Should have some pics up by Sun.