Forest Park Crit...

This was the first race of the 2009 season and I'd have to say I was happy with my performance. I basically ended up around the top 15, although I wasn't scored. In fact my number wasn't even on the results anywhere. I didn't get a chance to protest it because I knew I wasn't top 10 and plus I wanted to put in some more miles before I had to go in to work tonight which is where I'm at now, on break of course. It kind of sucks, but, as they say, I guess only the top ten matter.

As for the race itself it seemed fast at the start with a few surges, but then settled down. My best position I could maintain was about mid pack, which is about where I wanted to be anyways. I made one attempt to bridge a gap of a group of about 10 pulling away. I shut off the gas when I realized the effort I would have had to put in and seeing the group behind coming up pretty fast. I sat in the rest of the race before putting myself in a good spot for the finish. I was about top 15 coming around the last corner to the final straight, but with no one in front of me I had no one to draft off of and pretty much finished in the same position. Next up is Dogwood.

ready for days....

i'm on my lunchbreak right now, it's 1:30am, it still seems odd saying that after all these years working this shift. the good news is i just found out that I will go to days. i was able to maintain my supervisors position. i'm so ready to get back on that shift. i've been eating like crap lately, but what's new. wednesday i go in to see another doctor. i did go last week to a neurologist and he showed me my mri. it turns out i do have damage and a herniated disk that is poking into my windpipe. he said it's not bad, but in 15-20 years i may need surgery if it gets any worse. he just gave me exercises to strengthen my neck and lower back. my lower back is causing my hamstring problem, so he says. i liked that doctor. he was up there in years, but seemed old school and was matter of fact. when i asked him about trigger point therapy he said "bullshit, that crap doesn't work, do these exercises and that will solve your problem." after just thinking about it, it really didn't solve my problem. i still have this tightness in my throat, i guess he's saying i better just live with it. i go to see an orthopedic spine doctor this week and we'll see what they have to say about all this stuff. i just can't believe there is nothing they can do.

on another note, after not riding for almost four months i've finally gotten in over 500 miles. just in time to get them ready for some spring races. i still haven't had anything high intensity. i've been playing hockey for that that, and speaking of hockey, several more weeks left, maybe this week i'll make both my games.

Lucky I have a job.....

This was written last week, better now then never to post it. Well, for the last two and a half years I've been working the midnight shift at our hangar here in St. Louis. I was just notified last week that we will be shutting down our maintenance facility here and maintenance will be performed at other bases around our system. Our lease on our hangar was up in April and there was no other suitable hangars to move into. Actually, there were hangars available, just not what our company was willing to spend. It now looks like we will go back to a line maintenance station, meaning we will fix and put band aids on anything that breaks here, just like we did before. We will be laying off roughly 30 employees, although many were offered employment elsewhere. I feel for many of the guys that worked for me. They worked hard and we went through a lot of growing pains opening up this new maintenance facility. Now that we are like a well oiled machine it's going to be dimantled. It also sucks for the guys being offered jobs elsewhere. They were basically given one week to make a career decision to move to another city or take the layoff. I'm sure it's going to be tough on them and their family. I, on the other hand should be safe here considering my seniority and position, although nothing is set in stone. On the bright side I will go back to a more "liveable" shift, either a dayshift or nightshift postition. It won't be the graveyard shift. In fact, that was one of the main reasons I moved back here almost three years ago, to get off the graveyard shift until I was offered my new position. Anyways, just getting off graveyards should help me physically and mentally throughout the race season. It's bittersweet.



As for my health, I go to the doc today, a neurosurgeon. Amongst my groin and ankle pains, I have neck pain resulting from several whiplash injuries. I should've been doing all this during the offseason, but never did go in until today. I will find out if the bulging disks are what is causing some of my aches and pains in my neck. I'm pretty sure they are so the question will be, what do I do now? Surgery, therapy, rehab? I'll find out some information today and then next week when I see another doctor for another opinion.

Time to get back on that bike....

Well, after a subpar end to last season and taking an extended break off the bike I've decided it's about time to start training in earnest for the upcoming season. I can now say I've actually been on the bike for maybe five rides so far this year. I've done a ride here or there, the trainer, but since last weekend I've officially started putting in base miles. I even got a new set of tried and true Rubino Pro's for the training wheels. I've been through many sets of those tires and they've always come through for putting in the miles.

I've been playing hockey all winter, but it's not the same as getting in the long miles on the road. It's great cardio, but now it's time to get that endurance up. I can tell I'm not totally out of shape, but also know I'm nowhere near where I used to be. Hopefully the long break is what I needed. I took such a sabbatical from biking that after last years Gateway Cup crash that took out my Easton EA90SLX's I finally got them sent back into Easton for repair. $130 to replace one hoop and true the other seems pretty reasonable. I was actually expecting to pay a lot more. They were a $700 wheelset so it's well worth it.

My latest dilemma is getting a new phone and plan. I like gadgets and now I've got to have a smartphone to include in my collection. I've had pocket pc's with wifi before and thought having it on the phone was so gay. I've seen a couple new phones like the iphone and blackberry touch screen and thought, these would be great to have for the road, not to mention accessing the web at high speed from anywhere. I guess I would say I'm somewhat addicted to being "wired". The GPS would come in handy driving to races out of town. I even thought about integrating the GPS into a cycling computer somehow. I've already seen a couple applications that make your smartphone into a cycling computer. I've already got my Garmin, but it would be pretty cool to have a color screen of the route your riding and not spend another $500 for a cycling specific computer. I've even seen that Garmin is coming out with a new phone.......I wonder what kind of applications that will include.

Note to all you travelers. I was just told by the young Grasshopper aka Casey, that he was walking through the airport the other day(on his way to Jelly Belly camp....lucky dog) and saw a bunch of pictures promoting St. Louis. One of which was of the Gateway Cup. He said it was a huge poster and I was right in the middle of it. That's pretty cool. I work at the airport too and seemed to have missed it. I guess I'm not getting any royalties for that one.

New Season Approaching...

This was written back in January and never posted it so posting it now. A new seasons approaching. I can't say I'm raring to go just yet. I haven't really been riding much since mid september, in fact I can count on one hand how many times I've been on the road since then. I've been keeping in some sort of shape though playing hockey a couple times a week and riding the trainer. I've upped the time on the trainer lately, but really need to get outside on the road. I've also gained a few more injuries from hockey(bruised back, bruised ribs, arthritic wrists), but those should be totally healed by the start of the season. It's my ankles with tendonitis I hope will have been totally healed from the end of last season. I also need to shed some pounds, but that'll come with some miles on the road. At this rate I'd say my base miles and fitness should be in by mid march or later. I haven't looked at the race schedule yet or even know if it's out to know which races I'll do. I guess I could check out the stlbiking site, but I'm to lazy to do that right now. I'll check it later. It'll be tough to get in the miles and still play hockey since the season won't end until March or April. With any luck I'll be ready for all the early season road races.



Now for the dogs. Skates' training is coming along and he's turning out to be a great dog. I've taken him to the dog parks and he always makes friends. In fact it was pretty cool the other day when I put his food in his bowl and he sat there a foot away just staring at it. He was waiting for me to say "go" and I wasn't even trying to train him. He's also walking better on the leash. As for Bailey, she's just happy as long as she can play with her tennis ball.