In the midst of various home and freelance work projects I looked at the weather forecast for the week and saw that Tuesday looked to be the one day over the next few that I could finally get out on some singletrack. Despite my left hip and lower back being in various stages of suck, I forced myself to load up the PrOcal and head up to the trails.
As expected the ride was awesome! The trails were fast and dry and it felt amazing to be ducking, dodging, twisting, turning, climbing and descending on the narrow trails. Sadly–as expected–it also fell apart in the back and hip areas and I would be forced to be content with about 10 miles of riding before retreating home. The pain wasn’t excruciating or anything, but I was unable to generate and real power without discomfort.
It was a mental kick in the crotch knowing that back in Pennsylvania about five or six years ago I would ride fifty to sixty miles of mountain singletrack, dirt roads and two-track and feel fine. Not to mention the four or five laps a Saturday I used to put in at Seven Springs back when I was getting ready for the 24 hour race they held there. Now my body can’t do a full 16 mile loop, with about 900 feet of elevation gain without giving me shit.
I’ve been attempting to be in touch with my doctor for a week now, and despite calling during office hours, and following the prompts, I always get sent to a random extension’s voice mail box. Good thing I’m not really sick!
I tried to keep my spirits up, focus on the fact that I was on my bike in the woods, and just putz around taking photos (like the one of the snake I accidentally ran over above), but it just didn’t feel right. So I went home, had some lunch, made another failed attempt to get a doctor’s appointment, and did some work.
Later in the day I also worked on moving my left cleat back a little bit. This would normally be a three-minute adjustment; unless you’re me and the cleat bolt is frozen, then stripped. Then it turns into an hour-long project and busting out a Dremel tool. Sigh…
As expected it’s raining pretty good here today, so my day will be confined mostly to my desk chair as I TRY to come up with some proper proofs to send out. Thing are NOT going well though, thus me writing this crap post instead of pushing pixels.
Later.