What I’m Up To: Surgery Edition
I feel like a car commercial. 0 to 6 hours in four weeks after surgery. I can’t say it was comfortable. But I can say it’s done. Everything is so wet, the hardest part of getting the ride done off road, was finding a place to ride. With a 6 hour ride, and a lot of weekends away from my family, I really didn’t want another one by the wayside. Since the three classes at Samson Park didn’t work out for me, I had to either a) pray that Solavaca Ranch opened or 2) go to Abilene to do what sounded like a super cool race. I really didn’t want to travel. That would have made for a 12 hour day, 6 hours of driving, and Solavaca ranch didn’t seem like it was going to open. I got a wild hair caught in butt crack and facebooked Andy Harris, race director and human being extradorinaire up in Ardmore, OK. He thought the trails would be good.
With daylight savings and Halloween, I would have liked to have wheels down at 7 but that was going to be impossible. So I headed out to be there about 9. I helped some roadies, can’t remember their names; one had a flat, and I handy dandy, had my floor pump in my car.
Now if you haven’t riden Ardmore, it’s hard, it’s very technical, for me, and it was pretty wet, especially the rocks with moss, and the leaves, and some of the corners. It’s super technical if you’re by yourself and you have 6 hours to put in. I did a XTERRA lap, I went in to do another lap. That one got screwed up, I got turned around, I was having unnerving pain in my right side while riding and breathing, I ran out of solid food, I almost ran out of water, that laps was 3 hours and I had to bushwack to the road. Thank GOD for the BMX’ers that knew where the navigationally challenged had parked her car. The pain had finally subsided, and I decided I would have my lunch, tuna spinach salad, and I would ride the road for an hour and then hit the XTERRA loop again.
This trail is horrible training for my next race. But I got my upper body, and hands and field of vision working for that 6 hours. Honestly, I can’t believe I got it done. Seriously it’s been 4 weeks since I’ve had major veins taken out of my legs and with almost two weeks on the couch…there’s that car commercial. Even the old man said he had to bite his tongue when he heard what was on my training schedule today. He didnt’ think I would be able to do it.
Here’s the crazy thing, I think, there’s something to this doing nothing thing. Yesterday the little monkies had their swim meet, they rock, they totally improved on all their posted times. So I sat on my butt inside, almost all day. And you know what…it made me more sick. I was out all night last night with trick or treating, but I was sitting then too. I think, it’s just if I don’t get sunshine, or exercise, I’m sick…We’ll see how I am tomorrow, I don’t think, I’ll see any improvement. Not after today.
It was so nice to see all the sun! It was great to be outdoors all day. I love that drive up there, it’s so beautiful and there’s a little more fall up there, probably because there are more trees.
I’m in bed, I’ve gotten most of my work done, I’m soooooooooooooooooooooooo glad my peak is over and my taper has begun. I am tired, but I don’t have to be at Larry North by 6:30, my old man is traveling, so that will be nice to get an extra hour and sleep until 5. Tomorrow we don’t have swimming, I love those days! Oh and the monkies take the bus, so I don’t see them until 4:30, so I have an extra hour and a half.
Life is good, God is great!(or the great Universal Spirit, or the Divine Energy, or Mother Nature, or just think about it as Newton’s first Law, if you have a tough time wrapping your mind around it)