Surviving the Weekend

I can't believe it's August already. 15 days to go on the cast. I can't wait to get it off, but I've found that its amazing how resourceful one can be with enough time. From the first whine-y post back in May, I've figured out how to tie my shoes, write my name, get in and out of a sports-bra (this is still a daily challenge but I usually win), eat with my right hand (not in front of people -it's just not cute) and even open my car door. While that may seem trivial to most, try getting along without YOUR dominant hand for a week or so and let me know how that works out.

So, on the same note of recovery, I'm happy to say that Jens Voigt is on his way back as well. I can't believe he's talking about racing in the Tour of Ireland - less than a month ! Makes me feel like a wuss for missing 3/4 of the season for a paltry broken wrist.

I've held out on turning on the AC all summer until now but finally gave in this weekend. Lesson #1 = AC is a wonderful invention. Aside from keeping things cool, calm and collected, it also creates a white noise of sorts that drowns out my neighbors. This may sound harsh, but I swear these people don't sleep. I wake up at all hours of the night to the sound of my neighbor striking up a conversation with random passers-by (at 1am??)

Another lesson learned this weekend- I'm out of hot-weather-riding shape. I went out with good intentions on Saturday to get in a good 3-hr jaunt. I made it about 2:45 but I was miserable. It's much more tolerable when you're on a group ride and getting your arse handed to you. Not so much when you're simply suffering at your own expense.

Lesson #3 -dreams are seldom reality. I damn near killed myself today after ignoring good advice. See, I had a dream last night where I was FINALLY moving my current TV set-up to the basement to make room for my new flat-screen. I woke up to pouring rain and decided today was the day. I walked the entertainment center (contents and drawers removed) to the first step and moved myself down the stairs to guide it down. It seemed so easy in the dream ... I thought - okay, as soon as it tips off the landing, it's coming down, so brace yourself. As it tipped, it came down in a hurry, knocking me off my feet and down about 6 steps as it charged me. I had enough time to look behind me to see where I was going to hit the wall while wondering if my never-sleeping neighbor would hear me yell since the house was now closed up with the AC on.

Long story longer, only the bottom half of the cabinet survived the fall and someone was clearly watching over me because other than a few scrapes and some sore muscles, I'm no worse for the wear. I used to think I was invincible. Now I know I am ... there's no earthly reason I made it out of that without significant injury.Every time I think about it I laugh because it's completely absurd that some dumb-ass would think she could move that alone, much less while on the IR.

And so, back to the office on Monday to try to stay out of trouble. Oh, and I'm ordering that damn TV this week to finally cross that off the list. Next task ? Get the shutters on my house re-secured ... winds have dislodged them and they're all caddywampus. Maybe I'll get some help on that one. Maybe.

TGIF- 7/24/09

Another week down, another weekend of races missed. Although, given the late-July "hazy, hot and humid" forecast, I am not devastated about missing the Lost River Classic in WVa. We (Team CycleLife) have spent a lot of time on those roads in the spring/fall; I can't imagine those climbs in this kind of heat. I suspect this will be more of an epic than a race and I can't wait to hear all the trash talk that comes out of it.

Tour Musings

Speaking of trash talk and its close cousin, drama, I'm strangely disturbed and yet comforted by the amount I've seen through the media coverage of the Tour. I think we all like to have these idealistic ideas about how much more mature and professional bike racing is at those levels. As long as we realize it is idealistic, not realistic, that's all fine and dandy.

Trash Talk: It's really funny to see how a little bit of success can turn the nicest, sweetest person into an arrogant arse. When the Tour first started, I thought Mark Cavendish was a cutie- confident but not arrogant. After the first few stages, where he completely dominated the sprint finishes, he crossed that line into arrogance and I can't stand to hear him talk right now. Okay, I have no idea if he was "nicest, sweetest", but we've all seen it happen in real life so work with me, here.

Drama: Hincapie and his almost-yellow-jersey. Interesting that Lance calls Garmin out after Hincapie called Astana out and, honestly, for 5seconds, couldn't Hincapie's own team's leadout have made that difference ? That whole day went badly for Columbia, as Cavendish was relegated after a dangerous sprint.

Bummed about Jens - that crash looked awful but it sounds like he's doing much better than I'd have expected. A broken cheekbone sounds terrible, but he's already talking about next year.

Another sad instance: a spectator was killed by a police motorcycle while crossing the road in the middle of the race. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often with the crazy fans running around on the race course ... I'm truly amazed (and thankful) that this is "rare".

As you can see, I'm racing vicariously through the Tour - I have no idea what I'm going to do with all of my spare time when it ends on Sunday.

Happy Friday.

TGIF - 7/17/09 - One Month to Go

The countdown is on - I have a doc appt on Aug 18th to get this damn cast off and it can't come soon enough. I feel bad that I am wishing the summer away, but summer isn't much fun with a cast. Even when it's super-awesome-cool green. Teammate Sonja took some pics of me sporting my cast at Hains Pt earlier in the week - havent seen them but will post when I do just so you, too, can appreciate the shock value.

On a very-much-related subject - seems all the cool kids are doing it. No, not THAT - I mean breaking their respective wrists. First it was Gesink, then the Pope (he had surgery this am) and now Levi. I don't know the detail for the first two, but Levi said he broke the schaphoid which means he will be sporting a cast similar to mine for at least a couple months. Wonder if he'll get it Astana blue ? Or green, to be like me ?

Very sad to see Levi have to abandon - he was riding strong and, as someone said in some blog somewhere recently, Levi is one of the few men who can make bald kinda cute. Hey, I'm single, I'm allowed.

These last few stages of the Tour have been less than exciting as we await the Alps ... the long, flat stages simply aren't exciting until the finishing sprint unless there's a wreck (bad karma to hope for that). The best of those stages was Stage 3 where Columbia used the cross winds to create an unexpected split.

As an aside- I appreciate a good sprint as much as the next girl (especially since I can't sprint my way out of a paper bag. wait. that doesn't really make sense. you get my point.) but each stage that Cavendish wins seems to give him that much more arrogance - as a general rule, guys, confidence is hot. Arrogance, not so much.

Happy Friday - enjoy the weekend.

A little courtesy, please ??

The thought had occurred to me, now that I'm back on the road, that having a mechanical or a flat tire would bum me out more than usual since I lack full usage of my right hand. On Saturday, I found out just exactly how much ...

After procrastinating all morning, I finally turned off the Tour coverage and donned my lycra. Did one lap through Patapsco Park and started to head down the trail to pop out on Ilchester. If all went well, maybe I'd take a spin up the hill. All did not go well, so I never made it.

About 3/4 of the way down the trail, I realized my rear tire was going flat, quickly. No problem... Pulled off to the side and dumped out my seat-pack. Tire levers, cO2 cartidge, tube - all present and accounted for. I grabbed the levers and got to it - still holding onto my fairly sunny outlook on the ride. About 10mins later, I lost that sunny outlook. The levers were sh*t; wouldn't hook under the tire bead to save my life. My lack of a right hand didn't help. A few riders sped past, not slowing a half-second to see if the clearly disabled chick needed help.

Another 10mins and I finally get my hands under the tire to pull it free from the rim. Out comes the tube, where I discover that it was the valve that failed. Good, at least my tire is okay. Now to the new tube, all put together - time for air and I'm home free. Still annoyed that no one bothered to ask if I was okay.

Then I realized that I had the wrong cartridge. I had a threaded inflation-thingy but I grabbed a non-threaded cartridge. It wouldn't work no matter how hard I tried. After pondering the idea of walking 4miles home, I flagged down two kids on MTBs. They begrudgingly stopped, gave me what I needed (thank you) and rode away before even seeing if it worked.

It almost didn't work- I lost a bunch of air because I'm not that adept with my left hand. I managed to get enough air to get home, where I promptly emptied the tire (did you know that cO2 cartidges carry traces of oil that will weaken your tubes if don't drain out the air ? Thank you for the insight, Josh!) and refilled it with my floor pump. Having wasted a good 45mins on this little escapade, I hooked up to my trainer and finished my ride while watching the rest of the Tour.

If I see a rider on the side of the road, I always - ALWAYS- slow down, take out the earphones and ask if they need anything. Am I really the only one who does this ? I understand that I'm an odd sight right now in my bright green cast, but c'mon- I'm a cute (if I do say so myself), fit female in lycra. WTF ? People suck.

Take away lesson: Chivalry is dead.

Tour Observations- No Spoilers !

I've been obsessively watching the Tour these past few days ... I don't normally follow it more than passing highlights, but this year is different for two reasons:

1) I can't race so I'm living vicariously and
2) I recently got DVR capabilities from Comcast (thats another story).

Anyway, just a couple of quick observations for now - I can't use up all my material or my TGIF post will be pretty boring.

1. Love him or hate him - Lance's participation in the Tour is bringing media coverage and overall interest that professional cycling hasn't seen since ....well, since he raced the Tour.

2. In stage 2 (or was it stage 3?), the leader of Lampre's squad had a mishap right when the peloton was starting to chase the break ... the announcers said the peloton slowed to allow his team to get him back in the group. Is this analogous to honor among thieves? Note that our local racers will hear a wreck and use it to drop contenders that might have been tied up in the incident.

3. SPOILERS - argh !! I've received at least 4 different emails that contained info about that day's outcome. Please don't make me boycott email until I get to see the stage !

4. I hope to heck that none of the big-names get tagged for doping this year. While that doesn't mean they're not doing it (another discussion), it'd be super if we could get through one Tour without further disparaging the sport.

That's all for now - I'm off to Hains Pt to see how much shock value my new green cast has when I'm on the bike. Hey, if I'm stuck with the damn thing for another 6 weeks, I might as well have a little fun with it.

Anyone up for a BBQ ?

So I missed my TGIF posting but in my defense, it was a holiday. A 3-day weekend was much appreciated - I consistently lobby for 3-day weekends to be a rule rather than an anomaly, but alas I'm but one voice amongst the powers-that-be. Sigh.

Friday morning started without an alarm-clock, which is a wonderful way to start any day. I was enjoying my coffee out on my back patio when I decided my mission today was to buy a grill. Much like my quest for a new TV, which has yet to be fulfilled, I've been meaning to get a grill for my back patio for at least a year now. Today was the day.

I'll skip the minor details but suffice it to say that while the idea and intent to buy a grill was all well and good, the execution was not exactly thought out. Remember I lack an opposable thumb and the full use of my right hand/arm.

Arriving home with a huge box in the back of my car, I took out the smaller parts, carrying them through the house and out to the back patio. Then I got to the "body" of the grill. Large, awkward and heavy - no way I was getting that up 4 steps to my door, 4 more steps inside, across the house and down 3 steps to the patio. I slid the box to the ground and proceeded to push, pull, slide, curse and will the box up the stairs, across the house and to the sliding door.

Which is when I discovered the box wouldn't fit through. At this point I was more than frustrated, mostly at my own stupidity for thinking this was a good idea. After a couple of tries, I lifted the piece out of the box and nearly fell backward as I gripped it precariously with my left hand and my right cast. Awesome.

I pictured someone finding me days later, pinned under a half-assembled grill. The local media would interview my neighbors who would confirm that yes, she was a bit ... eccentric. We don't know what she was thinking, they'd say. She wore that neon-colored lycra all the time, even in the dead of winter, and we saw her recently riding her bike with a cast on her arm ! I digress...

I managed to get the grill together by about 930pm. The project started at 4. But dammit, I did it. By 10pm, I had grilled veggies, some chicken strips and an ear of corn.

Score: Wendy = 1, Grill= 0.