Cycling After Being Sick
I spent most of last week being sick with sinus and allergy problems. So much so that I missed almost two full days from work and spent a lot of time in bed on meds. Because of that I didn’t get any time on the bike during the week. About Thursday I started to feel human again and was looking forward to getting a Saturday ride in. Saturday morning finally rolled around and I did get a ride in. The conditions weren’t ideal (see pic below), I was still a little weak from being sick, but I couldn’t resist the urge any longer. Out the door I went.
Surprise, Surprise, it was Windy
Looking at the weather report on Friday I knew I would face some wind no matter what time I rode. I’ve gotten used to it after being here in Dallas for just over a year now but it still makes me shake my head when I see weather reports like the one below. Maybe you can see the problem (it’s spelled WINDY):
Think it's windy?
The wind would actually get worse later in the evening and I saw one report of gusts up to 41 mph. Ridiculous. It was probably gusting to 20 mph when I rode. The problem though is that even though I’m riding a loop down at White Rock Lake, the wind swirls due to surrounding hills and you end up facing a headwind on most of the ride. So much fun.
Almost Bought the Farm
I was only about a half-mile from the house and came to a four-way stop intersection. As always I slowed to do a brief trackstand stop but saw a car rapidly approaching from my right. The guy driving was going VERY fast and I knew there was no way he could stop in time. Almost falling over I managed to get a foot unclipped and stood there as the guy almost ran down a cat and blew through the stop sign without even looking. He was oblivious to the fact he had run a stop sign. I yelled at him but knew he didn’t hear me. In retrospect, I should have gotten is tag number and sent it to the police.
The ride around White Rock Lake was pretty good. There weren’t too many people out but there were several groups of cyclists out riding in small groups. I really need to find out who some of these groups are and see if I can’t meet up with them at some point to ride.
The new bike is riding great and I’m enjoying it. It glides, accelerates, and stops so much better than my old one. I can easily cruise along several mph faster than on my old one and found myself going at 20 mph plus with no effort on a couple of sections of the loop. It was probably wind aided but it felt great. The only thing holding me back right now is my pathetic fitness level.
The Three Sisters
Because I can now ride to and from White Rock Lake directly from where I live, I have to ride up three hills on the way back to the house. I’ve dubbed them ‘The Three Sisters’. Why that you ask? Because back when I was driving ships in the Navy there were three buoys in the channel approach to Norfolk Naval base that marked a danger bearing and meant that the ship was heading into hazardous (shallow) water if you were on the wrong side of those three buoys. Those buoys were called The Three Sisters and with three hills marking my way back home I thought it was a good name.
The Three Sisters
The first hill is up Flagpole Hill which you’ve heard me talk about here before. The other two are about a half-mile later and come in rapid succession. The three times I’ve ridden them previously have given me some trouble. During this ride I went up Flagpole Hill pretty good but faded quickly at the top. I had a guy pass me like I was standing still. He was just flying up the hill and wasn’t even out of the saddle. I hope to get to that kind of form someday. Sister #2 just about murdered me. It’s not quite as steep as Flagpole Hill but seems to go on forever. At the top of it I was totally spent. After getting down the backside of Sister #2, Sister #3 pitches up quickly. Thankfully it’s a short hill and doesn’t give me much trouble. I think I need to re-start my Hump Day Hill Repeats to get back into hill climbing shape.
Overall I think I had a good ride even though I was still tired from being sick. I really paid for it later in the afternoon as my sinuses really started to bother me. I think it was worth it though.
Reviews, Reviews, Reviews
I’m in the midst of several reviews right now including clothing, electrolyte and recovery drinks, and chamois cream. I rode in a new set of bibs yesterday that I thought were awesome. They’re actually just like an old set I have except the chamois has been updated. I’m going to ride in them a couple more times before I post a review. I’ve ridden in the chamois cream I’m currently using several times now and really like it too. A review on it will be coming soon. The electrolyte and recovery drink review is a ways off as I’m trying several different brands and will compare them all in one big review.
Cycling After Being Sick
Like I said, I had been sick for several days this past week and I do feel like it impacted my ride yesterday. I still felt tired and lethargic from being run down and believe that directly impacted my performance. My ride was OK but when you throw in the wind as well I think I suffered and that was really evident at the top of Sister #2 and during the afternoon. I had initially wanted to do two loops of White Rock Lake but knew after about 8 miles that it wasn’t going to be possible. It was probably better for me to not push it and risk getting sick again.
What about you guys/gals? Do you ride when your sick or do you hold off for a while? When you do eventually ride again how to you ease back into it?
Read MoreFeature image courtesy of effekt!.
How to Treat Road Rash
As cyclists, who hasn’t gotten their fair share of road rash? I know I have. I ran across this cool article today on wikihow about How to Treat Road Rash. There’s a video too. Check it out.
Read MoreI’m still around but healing
I tell you, the crash in Ride 23 has just ruined my ability to exercise. My shoulder is fine now. It was sore for a few days but is 100% good to go now. My knee is whats causing all my problems. I believe when I hit the sidewalk I bruised my knee pretty bad. It’s till tender around the edges and one of the scarpes I have is just below the knee cap. It hurts everytime I bend or move it. I’ve started icing the whole area twice a day and that seems to be doing some good. I do believe it’s getting better each day but it’s taking longer than I expected. It’s killing me to not be able to ride. This just sucks.
In the meantime, I’ve been making a huge push with my mortgage acceleration business. I sent out a bunch of marketing packages earlier this week to local realtors and will follow up today with phone calls. If you haven’t heard of this program, I invite you to check it out. I can show you how to own your home free and clear in one-half to one-third the time and potentially save tens of thousands in interest. All this without refinancing, without changing your monthly mortgage payment, and without adjusting your current living lifestyle. To find out if this program is right for you, and to see if you qualify, is free. Contact me if you want to know more.
Read MoreRide 23 – Crash and Burn
Well, it’s been about a week since I rode last. Not all my fault but some of it was. A business trip out of town and rain wasn’t my fault but laziness was. Because of that, I was planning on calling this post “No More Excuses.” You see, as I’m riding I’m concentrating on riding good but also letting my mind wander to different things. One of the things I think about is what to title the post for that day’s ride. Because it had been a week since I’d ridden, and because I felt bad about it, I was set to title this post No More Excuses. Before the end of the ride, though, events would cause me to change it.
My alarm went off at 5:00 AM as always for a weekday ride. I’d gotten a decent amount of sleep last night and felt ok. Maybe too much because I felt like I was in a fog for the first few minutes of the ride. After that, though, I began to come back to reality. The weather was good and there was actually a little chill in the air. That was nice considering the 90F days we’ve been having recently. It was chilly enough that I rode with my jersey zipped up. No moon in the sky so it was dark.
Starting off my legs felt….weird. They didn’t feel bad and didn’t feel great. They just kind of felt there. It was a weird feeling. They began to warm up and for the first time in a long time, I started to feel it in my quads near the end of my ride. A little discomfort in my hamstrings wasn’t uncommon but for me to feel it in my quads was new. I spent many years lifting weights and have very muscular quads that usually have no trouble doing whatever I ask of them. Maybe this is a sign that I’m making progress. Or maybe it’s a result of not riding in a week. Or maybe I’m just getting old. Not sure.
For a Wenesday there seemed to be very little traffic and until I reached my halfway point I didn’t see another rider, runner, or walker. The rider I did see was the Christmas Tree dude. He was going the opposite direction on a divided highway so I didn’t get a chance to say “Hi.” I did see some roadkill (a dead racoon) laying in the road but he had seen better days. It’s funny-yesterday, my wife had picked me up a new t-shirt that was from a place called the Roadkill Cafe here in town. The shirt is awesome. Little did I realize that both the racoon and tshirt were trying to tell me something.
I power through No Man’s Land and begin the 3 mile straightaway back home. I cruise these last few miles and with about a half mile to go I take it to the sidewalk. I take to the sidewalk because near the end of my ride there’s a big intersection and when I hit it on my return leg it’s very busy this time of the morning. Rather than mess with the traffic light and cars I hit the sidewalk and use the crosswalk. So, this morning I did the same thing. I’m riding down the sidewalk with no problems. I get to about 100 feet from the crosswalk and stop pedaling so I can just coast to the intersection. That’s when it happens. I feel a big jolt and the next thing I know I’m flying to the left and my bike is leaving the ground. I hit the ground hard and before I know it, it’s over except for the pain.
The first thing I notice is that my mouth is full of dirt. That would turn out to be a good thing. Then I notice my left leg and shoulder are hurting. I had somehow managed to get my pedals unclipped and I’m laying on the ground next to my bike which is laying half in the grass and half on the sidewalk. I remove my helmet and begin to survery the damage. It takes several seconds to get all the dirt out of my mouth. Once that’s done I look at my leg. I’ve got a huge piece of roadrash below my left knee that is just starting to seep blood. In a few seconds the blood has run from the rash to my ankle where I have a small cherry just above my sock. That’s when I see the huge knot just below my knee. This thing is huge and has a big red cherry on it. It starts to bleed. My shoulder is sore from hitting the ground. I get up and nothing feels broken. Whew! I pick up my bike, put the chain back on, and set it against a small tree just off the sidewalk. Now I try to figure out what happened. I look back up the sidewalk and I immediately see it. About every fifty feet or so on this road there’s a drain at the curb that leads to a box culvert under the sidewalk which in turn leads to drainage pipes under the sidewalk/road. At each of these curb drains there’s a small access cover on the sidewalk. In order to integrate the access cover with the sidewalk there’s a seam that curves about halfway onto the sidwalk following the contour of the access plate. At the point where I crashed there’s one of these curb drains. The seam that curves into the sidewalk looks to have a gap in it just wide enough for a bike tire to fit into. My guess is that my tire slipped into this small gap and caused me to crash. I must have hit that gap perfectly because it doesn’t look much wider than my tire. Unbelievable. Looking at the distance between where my shoulder hit the ground and the gap and it’s about ten feet. No wonder my leg looks like it got run through a meat grinder. If my recollection is correct, my tire briefly become caught in the gap and it threw me and my bike to the left. My left shoulder hit the ground first followed by my left leg dragging down the sidewalk for several feet. Maybe as far as 6-8 feet. I look where my shoulder hit and I realize just how lucky I was. My shoulder hit square in the dirt next to the sidewalk and left a huge gouge. If my shoulder had hit the sidewalk I’d most likely be suffering from a broken collarbone right now. Man I was lucky.
I get back on the bike and make it across the intersection with no problems. As I head across the crosswalk I can only imagine what the drivers are thinking as the blood is running down my leg. As I’m pedaling the last quarter mile home my left leg is starting to ache pretty good. I get home and immediately head to the shower to get everything cleaned up. The shower hurts initially but I eventually get everything clean. It looks pretty bad. I think the knot below my knee has actually gone down some. I wake up my wife to help me bandage the carnage. She sprays on an antiobiotic for cuts and scrapes. According to the can it’s not supposed to hurt. Yeah right. It was excruciating! Once the pain subsided we bandaged everything up. I’m sore but able to move around ok. What a morning! I’ll post the numbers for the ride later.
How was that for a return to riding after a week off? These last few weeks have been unbelievable. I almost wonder if somebody is trying to tell me something. I will say one thing though…No More Excuses!
Read MoreNot riding this week
As some of you may have noticed, I haven’t posted any of my rides this week. Well, there’s a good reason…I can’t ride right now. We had a family get together on Sunday afternoon and I burned my right hand pretty good on a hot pan. I picked it up with a towel but it burned me right through it. The palm of my hand was singed a little but the worst damage was done to my middle and index fingers. The tips of both of those fingers were burned and I have another spot on the second joint of my middle finger. The locations (and pain) of the burns makes it near impossible to grip anything let alone hold onto a handlebar while riding. So, until these burns heal some (hopefully by Monday next week), I’m going to have to take some time off from riding.
Read MoreSix month checkup complete
Yesterday I had to go do my six month checkup with the doctor. For those that don’t know me, I absolutely hate going to the doctor and hate hospitals even more. I needed to go back in to have my blood pressure checked. My blood pressure has never been really bad but always borderline. Couple that with my horrific family history and I’m on blood pressure meds.
The nurse checked me in, took my BP and pulse, and I waited for the doctor. He came in and said my BP and pulse were excellent. We talked about my recent return to bicycling to lose weight, how I’m doing it, mileage so far, diet modifications, and weight goals. All-in-all it was a very good talk. I guess I was fortunate that I had to have this visit and it coincided with the beginning of Biking To Live.
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