Ridininthawoods

Saturday I received a call from the Turner that rides a Turner with an invitation to pedal around in the woods on Sunday. The plan was to go to Sewanee and ride the perimeter loop. Very rarely if ever have I declined an invitation to ride in Sewanee so the decision was easy for me, all I had to do was comit to going, wake up the next morning do some work around the house, get all of my stuff together, and casually mention my departure and expected time of return to La Jefa as if I already had permission. A brilliant plan that actually worked.

Three minutes before our departure our group of four dwindled to three so it ended up being Turner, R.D., and myself. We have been having a bunch of rain and Sewanee's soil really has a lot of sand content so while the creeks were full and flowing the trail was just perfect with the exception of occasionally being very leafy.


A non-action shot expertly captured by my camera.


This qualifies as an action shot because R.D.'s drive train operated (or didn't operatae) in a manner that required him to ride in his big ring all day.

It was nice getting out for a ride even though the wind was howling at about 3000 mph and the temperature was a balmy 48F. Sometimes my favorite part of riding is knowing it will end soon.


A quick change back into civilian attire and then we were off to Shenanigans for my own unique form of recovery. A vegetarian sub sandwich and a Fat Tire Amber Ale.

Bicicletas montanas, Cervezas y servicio

This past week I managed to get in two rides. First was a ride con mi amigo Alberto with some beers afterwards.


Alberto was sporting some new winter riding gear and dancing on the pedals of his still new Yeti 575. We both aquired our 575's at the exact same time but mine seems to be showing more signs of wear and is in dire need of some attention.



I needed to remove the shock to get a years worth of grime and build up clean before my linkage took on the appearance of an old farm implement.



If you look in the background, somehow more in focus than what I was focusing on, is the beginning stages of my XTR single speed crank. If I could just get my bottom bracket I would be set.



Alberto spends most of his year wearing spiked shoes, shin guards and a jersey with Chivas spelled out in big letters on it, while chasing a black and white ball around a big grassy field. The rest of the year he splits his time between tennis and mtbing. He drinks beer year round so that gives me enough excuse to put up with his other sports and the occasional mountain bike trip.

Like I said I rode twice during the work week and the second ride was a lunch hour road ride. I really don't like riding the road much and especially don't like riding a short one hour ride on a small loop. But the trails were soaked and it was better than not riding at all.

This weekend should offer some good riding if early Christmas stuff doesn't get in the way, but somehow I think it will.

Ignorance is Bliss

You know how you can ignore a problem it's supposed to just go away. This particular method of ignorance have never really worked out well for me. In stark contrast however, other methods of ignorance have worked quite well for me. More on that another time. Take the letter from the IRS that I really didn't take the time to read and fully understand. I just ignored it, thinking it would just go away but instead resulted in a huge debit in my business account. Dammit! The slightly squealing brakes on my truck that signifies it's time for new pads were ignored long enough for me to require new pads and new rotors. Ouch! The rear tire that had lost some knobs and loses all of its air between rides the one that I can see the dry rot from ten feet away was ignored until it came to pieces on the section of trail farthest from anything requiring a lengthy hike out. Yeah that sucked!




Similar has been the case with my back pain. I have been seeing a Chiropractor for three years with some results when I really was hurting. However last March I injured my back again but not as bad, I just felt like it would just go away. It did go away and manifested itself into severe pain radiating down into my left buttock, hip, and calf. Damn if this didn't hurt. It was extremely uncomfortable to bend over, sit, stand or lay in bed certain ways (like the way that is the most comfortable for sleeping). About the only time it didn't hurt is when I was riding. Huh. Well if I can ride, I must be okay, just ignore it and it will go away like all of my other problems. It hasn't worked in the past but it will probably work this time. WRONG! It just actually got to the point where I couldn't sit in a car to drive, or sit anywhere for that matter, couldn't sleep, or walk and oh my God it got to where I was in so much pain on the left side of my body I couldn't ride. Well this spurred me to action. I went to an Orthopedic, received a diagnosis in 2.37 minutes (the Dr. was able to do this without any dialogue from me whatsoever) and a prescribed course of treatment. Not quite worthy of my BC/BS $30 co pay. Since this kinda pissed my off I chose to ignore his diagnosis and coarse of treatment as arrogant and not beneficial to my very important quest to kick ass as an aging, nearly bald, mid pack, single speed phenom.

So I went about in ignorant, but painful bliss. Until now. I just couldn't stand the pain or ignorance or I don't know what but I finally took action and got a MRI. the results, two heriniated dics, one as the doctor put it, is severe. See example below:




That very day the good doctor sent me to the hospital where a nurse made me wear a funny robe and put an I.V. in my arm. Eventually I was administered something that made me see double for a few minutes and then I came around and my mom was there staring at me. Thank God for mom. From what I have been told, I recieved an epidural injection of cortisone into the disc area of the spine which has made the pain almost go away. This doesn't fix the problem it just makes it go away for a while. But for now I am in a lot less pain.

Into the Mild

Just prior to celebrating the National Indians Losing their Land to Us Thursday, I loaded up the family (well 75% of the family, La Jefa, The Little Man, and myself, no Midasdog) to head over to Bankhead National Forest. I have some pics of our eventual 'hike' in the woods, but first a quick detail of the day:

Awake at 6:00AM

Shower, eat breakfast, tinker around until 7:00AM

Load car with 1 Chariot, 2 bikes, 2 bags of adult clothing and 5 bags of miscellaneous food, drinks, sippy cups, diapers, toys, baby wipes, camera stuff, etc.
This takes until 10:00AM

We leave for the forest. We make one stop in Wren, AL at the only place to stop in Wren, AL. Everyone we see, men, ladies and especially the children is adorned in camouflage. Ah-oh. Do they allow hunting in Bankhead? Yeah what else ya gonna do in the woods? This makes us a little uneasy. But we forge ahead and get to where we are going to begin our adventure. It is now 12:30PM.

We decide to just hike a little with the Little Man. We 'hike' until 1:15PM; turn around and head back and arrive back at the trail head around 2:00PM. We traveled approximately 1/2 mile. Pretty good with a 2 yr old. Mind you he was hiking on his own, not in the marsupial fashion that most toddlers and infants are used to.

We then drove to a different trail head in the forest and began another sort of hike. The only difference is this trail head required a $3.00 fee. We really didn't get our monies worth so the forest will owe us next time. We finished up around 3:00PM and headed for home.

Back Home at 5:00PM and unloaded by 6:00PM.

For those of you tabulating, that's:

~3 hrs loading, packing/unloading

~4.5 hrs driving

~2 hrs 'hiking' read: walking, stopping, falling down (the Little Man, not us), taking pics

We didn't hook The Chariot to the Niner and ride old abandoned forest roads like we had planned, but we spent the whole day together as a family and that's what we intended to do. Maybe we will be better prepared for adventure next time, actually map out a route and ride, maybe we won't, but we will enjoy the day just the same.


Hey! what are you doing way up there?


The Little Man.....kickin it up the trail.


Uh-oh.



Can I take this home?


There maybe more hiking, walking, driving or activities other than riding in my immediate future. I have had back problems for some time now but for the last nine months my left leg has been alternating between pain and numbness. I have been seeing a chiropractor for a while and am now beyond his help. I saw a rude, know it all, I don't have time for your problems, orthopedic surgeon both this summer whose course of treatment I chose not to pursue unless absolutely necessary. I am now seeing a non-surgical orthopedic and have gotten a MRI. I will get the results today. Hopefully there is a solution that will allow me to continue to ride and begin to heal at the same time.

Recent Pics, and a Big Surprise from Armstrong

Below are some recent ride pics from Monte Sano State Park. Click the pic, it will get bigger.



Two Turners, one fully suspended and the other showing a sly smile. The suspension comes from Fox and Push Industries and the sly smile from sneaking away from work and riding a not so secret 'Secret Trail'.



You know the old adage; It's hard to see the forest for the.......power lines.


The Tang Flavored Niner. Yeah, the trail is a little leafy.



The views are nice on the south side of the mountain. It is always a little warmer in winter on this section of trail.



Climbing out just before dark. After we got back up to the road there was enough daylight on the west side of the mountain to loop around High Trail on the the Land Trust Property.


Lance, Lance, Lance and more Lance..........



Lance was heard saying on the newest soap opera titled...'As the World Turns around Lance'........I'm going to, maybe I want, I don't know, do ya think I should, I kinda like racing, pay attention to me cause I might change my mind, the French don't like me and they don't play fair, who should I date next, yeah...I guess I will race in the Tour de France after all. But I may be too tired from the Giro to want to win, or maybe I want be too tired from the Giro, or maybe I won't try to win the Giro, or maybe I will wait and announce something later next month. This is getting exciting.

More Pictures, Less Second Grade Prose

As promised, some pics from the Cavaliere's visit. Click on the image for enhanced viewing.

'Team Cavaliere' on the trails at Raccoon Mountain. (Note: This pic looks grainy but it's not, that is just how misty it was. (Photo: Becky)


From left to right, the 'Director Sportif' from Mountain Mist Cycling and the sole 'Domestique' from Team Cavaliere.


The view from the overlook at Monte Sano State Park. (Photo: Becky)


Becky did a great job timing this pic as I was able to keep the front wheel off the ground for .00002 seconds.


Are we just going to ride around in this parking lot all day? I got some big wheels on my Specialized I want to roll over some rocks. (Photo: Becky)

In other Cycling News from less important parts of the world.........It appears that 4 days of suffering in the mud, heat, humidity and oddly enough the cold is not enough for the organisers at La Ruta de los Conqustadores. In order to reduce the events carbon footprint they feel it is necessary to add another day to the fun. The good, the organizers are doing away with more of the paved riding in favor of more off road, which in Costa Rica means craggly dirt roads that have the same profile as the graph of my sock portfolio. The bad, you are still chasing a bunch of Ticos and World Cup pros around in the steamy jungle only to pedal up to frigid altitudes at around 11,000 ft and then down the the steamy jungle and then back up again for multiple days on end. If this sounds like your cup of mate' then grab one of the 300 spots available and have fun.