As mentioned in the last post, I had been dealing with some off and on again swelling in my left calf since last Friday. Due to my history of DVTs this was very troublesome of course. Despite taking a blood thinner, swelling and slight pain mean one thing to me–another f*cking blood clot. I was hopeful that I just aggravated a muscle during my Memorial Day dirt fest ride, but since it remained for a few days with that familiar tightness, I finally broke down and went to the emergency room.
These days, it seems that I find myself typing things about busy schedules, traveling around Michigan for soccer, and a subsequent lack of quality riding more and more. This post is no different. Last week I got out for a few rides, including one hell of a fun mountain bike ride at MMCC, but then the weekend came and that meant two days of 5:30 AM wakeups, driving, spectating, cheering for, and photographing B’s soccer games. Not going to complain about that, that’s all great stuff, especially since I watched B’s U13 team make it the whole way to the Michigan State Cup U13 D2 Finals on Sunday. They lost 4-3, but to make it that far was a hell of an accomplishment, and B had excellent games in both the Semifinal and Final playing as a winger and a right back at times.
Wednesday’s ride left me feeling like spent dog shit, and on Thursday there was a large part of my even larger body that wanted to say “f*ck it,” and do anything at all that didn’t involve me riding my bike into a steady headwind on a dirt road.
After Monday’s Memorial Day Singletrack Extravaganza at MMCC, Tuesday was spent catching up on stuff I neglected while away over the tournament weekend and the holiday spent riding.
It was nearly a full week since I last rode my bike. The break was not planned, nor was it enjoyed. It was five days of rain, high winds, cool November-like temps, a busy travel soccer schedule with B, and a nice bout of “who gives a f*ck?” ennui. However, per usual, just when I thought that I might never actually ride my bike again, I found myself rolling out from the cul-de-sac onto the roads of rural Michigan.
We got some pretty heavy thunderstorms overnight and into early Tuesday morning, because of that I planned on a 30-ish mile paved ride to avoid any potential quagmires on the dirt roads.
There has been little time to get any miles in on the bike for a variety of reasons, including a home tournament for B-Man over the weekend that had us at the fields most of the weekend.
After two days of 30+ mile rides, I was tempted to take a day off, and get some actual work done on Thursday, but the blue sky and perfect spring temps lured me out onto the dirt roads like a seductive temptress. At least for a little bit.
Wednesday brought another welcomed chance to ride, and attempt to burn off some of the calories I put on over the past week (and years) of rideless slack. It was also a chance to ride dirt and gravel roads south of town. Some of those roads proved to be no day at the beach, even though they were very much like riding on one.
After Sunday’s short, miserable windy ride, I had little desire to do anything but what was required of me as a father, husband, and human being on Monday. I did what I had to do, and got it over with… sort of like me in grades 1 through 12.
