Cycle Salt Lake Century

I signed up for the Cycle Salt Lake Century this morning, committing myself to a 100+mile ride next Saturday. It should be good, my only concern being that "technically" I've not been cleared by my doc to do such an event. I've also not been forbidden. Shouldn't be that big a deal - except, I seem to have irritated things a bit yesterday. The following paragraph will be a little gross, so if you get queasy or just aren't in the mood, skip it.

So, yesterday, I took a shower (not the gross part) after a day of riding (only about 35 miles) and gardening. Hot showers have been wonderful for my sinuses, for the obvious reason that they tend to increase the moisture content of the air that I'm breathing. They also seem to loosen things up a bit. Afterwards, I blew my nose (carefully - I'm still nervous about really blowing my nose much, though it constantly feels like I need to) and out comes a nice wad of, well, what you'd expect to come out. Along with the normal, however, was a nice little blood clot. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed. I've read online about people having enormous clots coming out after septoplasty. Oh well, it's still only been 2 1/2 weeks, I'm probably not done yet. But I digress (and you thought blowing blood clots was going to be the gross part!) Afterwards, I filled a glass of wine and walked out to the front porch where Robyn was sitting reading (the weather here's been amazing, causing me to want to spend as much time outside as possible.) As I stood there, describing the clot I'd just produced, I felt a tickle in my left nostril. Thinking (or rather probably NOT thinking) that this was no big deal, perhaps an errant hair - I reached up, grabbed and pulled. I will not say that this was the worse pain I've ever felt, I still think that the stingray incident in 1988 has it beat, but I was definitely not expecting the RIGHT side of my nose to experience that much pain. Turns out, what I yanked on (and thankfully did not completely pull out) was a stitch, which, when I surveyed the damage in the bathroom mirror, was still hanging 1/4 inch out of my left nostril. Well, that was an unacceptable situation but as I am smart enough to learn from one painful lesson (usually) (well, sometimes), I didn't want to pull again. The only thing I could find to cut it was a full size pair of scissors (awkward). All I can tell you is that holding a stitch taunt with your left index finger and thumb as said stitch protrudes from your nostril while trying to cut ONLY this same stitch with a full size pair of scissors, and trying to do so high enough within your nostril so as to not have the remaining part of the stitch continue to protrude is not easy. Especially when you feel like you just got punched in the nose. Thankfully, I was successful and there was not blood (from neither the scissors nor the yanking of the stitch.) There does seem to be added swelling and soreness today, which if it keeps up will probably prompt me to call the doctor to see what I've done.

That actually wasn't so bad, was it?

In news of the Giro, Christian Vande Velde dropped out today after a crash. Still no word on his situation but I wish him the best. Young Tyler Farrar, also from Garmin-Slipstream, finished the day in 2nd, out sprinted for the 2nd stage in a row by Alessandeo Petacchi (LPR Brakes), and 2nd overall, 8 seconds behind Petacchi in the GC and 10 seconds ahead of 3rd place Michael Rogers (Team Columbia - Highroad). For the record, also 23 seconds ahead of some guy named Armstrong, who's currently sitting in 5th. Not a bad day.

edited to add: Apparently, Christian has two broken ribs and a severe contusion and sprain to his mid-back. Heal fast, CVV! Oh, and Tyler sprinted with a broken rear derailler cable, unable to shift. Showoff.


In other cycling news, Alejandro Valverde was suspended for two years for his alleged involvement in Operation Puerto (if you don't know what that is, I'm not sure many people do anymore, it's been going on so long. It has something to do with some doctor, some blood doping and some cyclists.)

In other doping news, the bumbling Belgian Boonen has stated that he doesn't think he has a problem with cocaine, but rather, with alcohol, which apparently from what he said, he uses too much of about once a year and then either is so shitfaced that he thinks snorting a line of coke a good idea, or is so sodded that others decide it's a good idea to slip cocaine into his drinks for fun. Whatever. Tom, you have a problem and you should take some time to think about it, and try to get some help. It's not easy. It won't be fun. Looks like you'll have all of July to think about it though, at least. I wish you the best of luck. Honestly.

GRRRR...

So, by 8:30 AM start time on US, they apparently mean tune in to the TV to watch world cup diving...the Giro's online. I'm being told now that it'll be broadcast at noon EDT, 10 AM here in the mountains. Of course, I have somewhere I have to be at 10 AM today, so I'll miss Columbia and Garmin's runs...probably the whole thing.


Awesome.

Boonen Suspended

Tom Boonen of Quick Step has been suspended by the team following a second positive in an out of competition test for cocaine.

Hey kids, don't do drugs. Especially if you ride a bike.

I'm gonna go watch the Giro...

We're number 18!

We're number 18! We're number 18!

Doesn't quite have a ring to it, does it?

The League of American Bicyclists released their 2nd annual ranking of Bicycle Friendly States today. Utah is number 18, down 7 spots from last year's ranking of 11th (I know, you could have done the math yourself, just trying to be thorough.)

While it beats the heck out of living in Alabama (last), which could probably be said for many reasons..., I think we should be better. I mean, this place (Utah) has some of the most active people of anywhere I've lived (Texas - 36), some of the most beautiful scenery to ride through, and comparatively speaking, lots of nice wide roads to ride on. I'm not satisfied with this.

See where your state ranks here.

updated to add:

From the League's site:

What is the Bicycle Friendly State program?

A Bicycle Friendly State promotes cycling through legislation, policies, programs, and by creating new places to ride, educating motorists and cyclists, and encouraging people to bike for transportation and recreation. The Bicycle Friendly State Program is a two part recognition program that ranks and recognizes states that actively support bicycling. First, states are ranked annually based on their level of bike-friendliness. Secondly, states that wish to apply for a Bicycle Friendly State award designation can receive further recognition and promotion of their efforts as well as feedback, technical assistance, training and further encouragement to improve their bicycling legislation, projects, and programs.

The Bicycle Friendly State Program is generously support by program
partners Bikes Belong and Trek Bicycle.

Giro d'Italia!

Looks like for the first time in forever, I'll have the opportunity to actually watch one of the Grand Tours on something other than streaming video online! Universal Sports just announced that they'll be carrying the 2009 Centennial edition of the Giro d'Italia! And guess what? I actually get that channel on my new HDTV! (We don't have cable, a situation I'm seriously thinking about changing so I can also see the Tour this year.)

This is exciting (for me...my wife may not be as thrilled.)


In other news since I last posted, I had my deviated septum fixed on April 23rd (15 days ago), with the goal of being able to breath more freely through the left side of my nose, possibly reduce my susceptibility to allergies, etc, and maybe help my snoring (which isn't so much a problem for me as others...) So far, so good. I was pretty much stoned on pain killers the first few days after surgery and slept a lot (I also watched a lot of DVDs) I had the splints out the following Tuesday, which was the worst experience of it all. Actually, removing the splints wasn't so bad, it was removing the stitch that was holding the splints to the front of my nose that was painful. Pulling the splints out kind of just felt like pulling out the world's largest booger. Gross, I know, but that's really the only way to describe it. Since, I've had some drainage (fun) and extreme dryness (I know, I haven't figured out how it's possible to have both at the same time, either.) And, honestly, I'm a little worried because the left side still feels restricted (though the right is extremely clear) which, if you remember from a few sentences ago, is the exact situation I went in to have fixed. I'm hoping for now that it's swelling still, which is likely. I've got my next follow-up appt. on the 19th...

Meanwhile, I started riding to work this week. I was supposed to avoid exerting myself for two weeks. I made it two days shy of that. Besides, my little commute isn't really much of a ride. It's not like I went out charging up Emigration Canyon or something right away. (I'm saving that for this weekend, I think)

I missed the Ghost Town Century on May 2nd because of the surgery. I'm still on the fence about the Cycle Salt Lake Century on May 16th (though I'm leaning toward riding).

Because of the decision to have the surgery, I've once again blown my plan to ride a century a month and qualify for the Larry Schwartz award from the UMCA...maybe next year. So far this year, my February ride is the only qualifying long ride I've done. So I missed January, March and April, which is one more month than you're allowed to make up. Oh well. I should probably stop trying to plan such things and just ride.

I'm still on for the MS-175 in June, the Desperado Dual (200 miles) in August and the LAF ride down in Austin in October. So, it'll still be an amazing season on the bike.

If anyone besides me cares, I'm sorry I'm so bad at these updates. See ya.

Checking in

So. Apparently, I'm a crappy blogger. Something tells me that you need to write something more than once a month or so to even have a remote chance of encouraging repeat readership. Oh, well. Maybe I'll try harder. Truth is, though, there are some much more important things that I'm trying to work on right now so picking up one more self-imposed commitment may not be my wisest move.

Not that I've ever been too good at choosing my wisest move. So, I guess we'll see. (I should probably say "I'll" see, since I'm my only reader.)

So, about the bike. So far this year I've ridden somewhere around 535.1 miles. (I'm not positive as I'm basing it off of my log here plus the miles I've downloaded from the Garmin, the Miyata computer has the odometer with any other miles that I may have ridden and forgotten, but there's a fresh layer of snow on the ground between me and the garage right now and it's 6 AM, so I'm okay with guessing.

So, at this point I need to ride a little less than 3,000 miles in the next nine months. Or around 333.33 miles a month. I need to step it up a bit.

On a medical note, since you all got to read about my foot. There's a chance I'll be going under the knife again, this time on the other end. I've been seeing a couple of docs about my breathing issues (and, more importantly to my wife, my snoring issues...which, by the way I think she's exaggerating, I hardly ever notice me snoring...) As it turns out, apparently, my one doc says, it looks as though at some point in my early childhood I broke my nose, consequently, my septum is a little bent out of shape. Or, actually, a lot. It explains why the left side of my head always feels more constricted than the right, my tendency to sinus infections, and to top it off, my crooked nose. So, if he has his way, I'll be having that fixed.

I have such a fun life.

On the other hand, it would be nice to breath "normally."



Edit: By the way, just in case anyone does stumble across this. I'm not sure if you can see it any better in your browser than in mine, but as you can see by that yellow blob thingy to the right, I've only raised about $250 of my $3,000 goal for the LiveStrong Challenge. Hint, hint...

02-21-09 90 mile ride

Rode 90 miles today, think I'll go to bed now. :-)

Garmin's first ride

So, this is kind of cool. I (finally, thanks to some disgustingly filthy pollution hanging out, literally, in the Salt Lake Valley last week) took the new Garmin out for a spin last Saturday. Here's the resulting graph (with Speed and elevation graphed, because I was playing around)

And the map of the route.



This could be fun, once I figure out how to use it better. Oh, and apparently, I burned about 1630 calories, too. Cool.

The end of an error

Congratulations to President Barack Hussein Obama.

That feels good.






And George - goodbye, good ridance and well, ...go away.

See, this is how it works.

I got very excited to get the new Garmin on Friday, and couldn't wait to get out on my bike again to try it out. So, what happens?

Saturday was a bad air day. No riding.

Sunday was a bad air day. No riding.

Today...you guessed it, bad air day. The particulate count as of five PM tonight? 153. That's into the red range, "unhealthy." What does that mean? From the AIRNow website: "People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion. Everyone else should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion."

I love living in the mountains, don't get me wrong. But this inversion crap really sucks.