5/23/06 - Still Down and out...

So, it has been about 9 days and I put a pair of shoes on for the first time yesterday. Man, that did not feel good. The actual toe feels okay - it is the gash and the missing nail that is still pretty tender.

Pulled the rest of the nail off my toe Friday and forgot to medicate it after doing so. Got a little infection there and that just made things worse. Been putting some ointment on it the past couple of days and it is feeling better, but still a little red.

Thank God I have my John Deere to ride around the back 40. But, today, I may try and get back out there and edge. That should be interesting. I am really hoping to be back on the bike by Friday/Saturday and walking by then as well. I am good if I don't have any shoes on right now. So, I hope I can get the skin healed up good enough to start putting pressure back on the toe again.

Up 6.5 pounds during the lay off - not good. that is just total lack of effort on my part and being lazy. Gotta re-focus and move on. Less than 6 months away. Plenty of time, but it will be here fast!

Little toes aren't really important....'till ya break one of 'em

Friday night I was walking into my bedroom to turn on the TV, set the sleep timer, and hit the bed. I was attempting a David Blaine like stunt and was doing this with no lights on. The stunt went array as I approached the TV and forgot that I had recently re-located a sharp-edged sub-woofer in between my dresser and armoire. Do guys have armoires?

I took a full stride into the corner of the sub with my 2nd to smallest little pig. That little piggy ain't going anywhere for a while! Gashed my toe, broke it , and had the nail standing straight up. I did the man thing and just turned on the faucet in the tub and ran some water over it to clean it and then rubbed some 'tussin on it. Tussin is good for anything ya know.

Let's flash back to '02. After a tri, I was walking through a parking lot and was distracted by a mind-blowing set of boobs. Ahhh, I still remember them both! I took a full stride into a parking block wearing flip flops and broke 2 toes then.

Again, in '04, I was walking through my living room that was filled with boxes after just moving back to Picola. As though I was trying to kick a 50 yd, game winning field goal, I took yet another stride into a box of hardback computer books from grad school. Still not sure why I kept those things. Broke my little pig then too.

So, the other night I had the option of heading to the emergency room and waiting for probably 8 to 10 hours (no kidding, I did that last hurricane season when I laid open the back of my hand, enough to see the bone running from my middle knuckle half way up my wrist, as I took a full swing into the corner of a brick column trying to start the generator so we could have electricity. I don't think I will be manning the generator this season). Seeing that injury as being far worse, I didn't feel like sitting at the hospital all night and paying them 3 bills just to tell me to take some aspirin and tape it up. Tussin is much cheaper. Now, unless I got the smoking hot doc that stitched me up last year...

Needless, to say, not much working out. I did get the weed eating on the back 40 done. My entire body is sore from adjusting my weight. I guess that counts for something...

You know, my pigs have enough pressure on them, literally, with having the responsibility of carrying my fat ass around all day, every day. They don't need to be taken out of action. Re-working the schedule with Mike and moving forward. Still going to try and get a swim in tonight and just push off with one leg. Can't wait :)

Catch up - Golf makes you drink...

Well, my dad fell Friday and had a pretty good fall. So, that meant my Saturday morning ride had to be ditched to go over and help take care of some yard work for the rents. Then, I was off to Destin for the day to meet with one of my coaching clients, his wife, and one of his new coaches coming on. Dave and I met at a couple of clinics last Nov. and Dec. and he is from Kentucky. So, he called me up and asked if I could swing over for a visit since they were only going to be an hour away. Had a great time and it is always good to see my clients.

Couldn't ride Sunday as I was in a golf tournament after church and wouldn't be home until dark-30. Good time just forgetting about everything , playing for a great cause, and hanging with my boys. The tournament was for 2 Coke employees whose children were dating one another and were killed in a car accident. I owned a grocery store in a previous lie and knew both families - one of which happened to be a good customer of my store. We knew a lot of the Coke employees and my roommate wound up working for Coke for several years before he and his family moved to Alabama. So, 2 old employees of mine, one of which was my best man in my wedding and my old roommate got together for the tournament and simply had a blast.

I am not ever much of a drinker, but there is something about golf that just drives you to drink. It couldn't have hurt my game... much :) All in all we had a great time and helped contribute to some scholarships this event was raising money for to the local college in the two kid's name. It was definitely worth it.

Been back on track good this week with some walks, 2 great swims (2500 yds in an hour - volume is coming up) and playing with my CompuTrainer.

Sorry for the delay in getting things posted. As always, we are hammered at work with some big releases and just staying very busy with new clients and taking care of our existing folks.

Today we run...ugggh. It is yucky and dreary outside - the day fits the excitement of the workout today :) But, it won't get any better if I don't keep drudging along.....

5.5.06 Can you get addicted to the numbers????

To catch up - Wednesday was an 1800 swim and a missed walk, argh! Nothing too exciting.

So, Thursday I had a run and easy zone 1/2 bike. I could tell I lost some fitness over the past couple of rough weeks I had. I was supposed to do 3 minute interval runs and only did 3 and not for the right duration. Got a note back to Mike about dropping then down and maybe increasing the intervals to get back to where I should be. But, got a good 1:10 of a walk little run in.

I took to the trainer last night and was just amazed at the difference in my cadence and how I felt on the bike. All during the ride I was thinking - "Man, I can't wait to see this file and check out the numbers." I was comfortably hitting in the 80s on my cadence and had no bounce. And, I was even pedaling the whole time. This was a bragging file to send to Hunter Allen as redemption is due from the earlier files of mine he has looked at with me.

I get in and upload from my Ergomo and don't know what happened, but I had a file from like Dec of 2000 on my computer and it was all chopped up. Wound up clearing my Ergomo and lost my ride from my bike fitting - where I also have a Computrainer file to compare the accuracy between the 2 devices. I am sure it is/was something I did or missed. But, man, I was disappointed that I didn't get to see my numbers. I was so looking forward to seeing my cadence chart and all the other goodies in Cycling Peaks. Oh well, just have to have a good ride in on Saturday and admire those numbers.

Made a little adjustment to my seat pitch and think I dropped the nose a tad too much - or I am still getting used to the new position. Good reason to get some time in on a position before changing things :) Overall feeling very good on the bike, just have to dial that seat pitch in just right.

So, I got a sneak peak at the new version of CyclingPeaks WKO+ Very cool stuff! I always have to remember to go back into my regular CP software for screen shots so I don't get i trouble for posting out of the unreleased software just yet ;) I was looking at a new feature - the Power Profile. Essentially it looks at a selected range of rides and builds a bar graph against 'other riders - example of what it is doing here. So I IM Gear and ask him if the Power Profile section is turned on in my beta copy? I asked because I put in a long date range, that has rides, and could not get any graphing. Now, I didn't expect to see the bar graph go up to Elite, Cat1, and all that stuff. But, I did expect to see something. Gear replies with, "Yes, it works just fie. Are your numbers good enough?" So, I change the setting to a female cyclist and bingo! I get an itty bitty little mark on my graph for one ride where I am equal to a very out of shape female rider. Man, i hated IMing Gear back to let him know it was working just fine. Son of a....

Like I don't have enough things to work on and a now shot ego :) Another check point added to the list. I hope to get a bar or two in the MENS section - even if it is compared to men that really suck. Jeesh. talk about the truth hurting :)

But, it is all good. Time to keep plugging away at it and making it happen. Computrainer arrives Monday! Excited about that!

5.2.06 Great hill workout on the trainer...

So, I supposed to do 45 minutes and just flat faded after 30. I am sure some of it had to do with the down time last week and some with adjusting to the new fit. Could feel my hip flexors a bit more and quads were feeling some new points on the 'climbs' as well.

Was to 8 to 12 3x30" climbs maintaining 70 to 80 RPMs and gearing up after each 30" with a 90 sec RI. Nice workout. I wanted to shoot for 12 but settled for at least 8. It was tough but the file sure looks nice. You will notice my last 2 efforts were starting to fade a tad.

Overall bike setup felt great. only the first ride and we will have to keep an eye on how the future rides go. Happy that for the first time my hands didn't fall asleep and I didn't even have my gloves on. And, I wasn't sitting up and stayed in the horns. Aero comfortability test this weekend!

5.1.06 Bought my CompuTrainer today - oh and swam...

Talked with Chuck at RacerMate and got my CompuTrainer ordered. Will be here this coming Monday. Can't wait to get that thing hooked up and dialing in some issues. Another pretty cool part about getting the CT is that we (TrainingPeaks and CyclingPeaks) have some real cool software that comes with the CT - found here. So, just as an added benefit to having the Ergomo and learning about power and CyclingPeaks software, I will now have the opportunity to learn about our other products. So, that just makes it all good.

Back in the pool for an easy 1650. Felt stronger than I ever have for some reason. Guess the break did me some good. My massage therapist corrected a pain I was feeling on my pull in my elbow. Talked with her yesterday as I was getting my weekly massage and she showed me some stretches. Felt great swimming today!

Good to be back. On the bike tomorrow!

4/31/06 Bike Fitting - I'm not only fat, have a terrible cadence, but my pedal efficiency sux too. SWEET!

Met a another USAC coach while doing my New Leaf test over in Mobile, AL. David seems to be a great guy and very knowledgeable when it comes to bio mechanics and training with power. We had lunch after my test a couple of weeks ago and plan on helping each other and pool our resources together. After all, we are like the only certified USAC coaches from Texas to Tallahassee, Birmingham to Atlanta. So, a little help is always welcomed.

Made some great changes to the bike. I was shocked to see my SpinScan results as I pedaled away during warm up. It was in the 50s as I would only be producing power on the down stroke with each leg. I tried to convince David that I was such a strong cyclist, that I didn't need to be producing power all the time when I pedaled. Don't think he bought it. I have a ride on Tuesday, so I will get to feel the results of the fit. One major thing we found was that I was at 0 degrees at 6 o'clock - not good. Could explain a lot of things. I don't think i got shorter legs since my last fit 3 years ago...but who knows. It was nice to see that after the fit I was just spinning along at a cadence of 80 without even thinking about it. Good stuff!

Got my first taste on a CompuTrainer and really understand why Mike (my coach) was pushing me to get one. The SpinScan alone will be a huge training tool. Now, if I can just rig that thing up where I can take it on my road rides :)

The good thing about finding out more bad info about skills is that it gives you a benchmark and plenty of room to improve. All that turns into focus and good motivation. So, with that, I say Bring It!