Healing

I arrived from North Carolina to two things.

1.)- Cold weather, snow and wind.  It's a bit of a shock to go from high 70's to mid 20's and snow.  But that's what I love about Colorado so much.  One day it's 20 degrees and snowing sideways and the next day is 70 degrees and sunny.

 2.)- a Bona Fied Achilles injury. It is official. I hurt my Achilles tendon pretty badly while I was in North Carolina.  Riding through (during) the pain only made it worse and I have not been on my bike in more than a week.

Instead of riding, I have been healing.  I had PT three times this past week and my bag of frozen peas is my new best friend.  I'm trying to heal because I hate being injured and I hate not being able to ride my bike.  Fortunately, I have been injured several time during my athletic career, so I have a good idea of what the "healing process" involves.

So, I've been at home or at FasCat Coaching, where I now work.  If I can't ride my bike, I might as well be happy in helping others ride their bike faster.

This is Lucy Dog.  While at home, she helps me heal.

What's going on?

I'll tell you what's going on.  I've been in Charlotte for the past 10 days.  It's been really good and fun and interesting and now it's time to go home.

I've been staying with my friend and teammate Robin.  She is an amazing and she has the most energy I have ever seen a person have.  I get tired watching her.

This entire week has been filled with riding bikes, getting ready for our Fall Cycling Camp in Asheville, spending time with cool people, and general "stuff".  It's been so much fun that somehow I managed to injure my left Achilles tendon.  Ouchy, it hurts and the worst part of it was the fact I couldn't ride in a 3 day cycling camp I was helping to put on.

"Come ride with Alison Powers and she'll cheer you on from the sag car".  Oh well.  Shit happens and at least I can be somewhat of a good role model of what to do when injured.  Stop, rest, ice and take care of yourself.

Here are some of the views I got while riding in the car today-

Home tomorrow!

Lucky-Unlucky

-Arrive to the airport on time, with plenty of time to get to the gate- lucky
-Delta agent tells me it's going to cost me $200 (the same as a bike) for my "baby jogger"-  unlucky
-Give nice Delta agent agent my credit card and get charged "only" $100- lucky
-Walk to security line and see it's REALLY long, walk to other security line and see it's longer- unlucky
-Walk around in circles trying to decide which security line to go to- a waste of time
-Wait in line, cut line, hurry to x-ray-er, put bags on belt, and get told I have some "sort of tube of cream" that needs to be taken out of my bag next time. Realize it's sunscreen AND chamois cream AND the nice TSA agent didn't take it out of my bag and throw it away- lucky
-Run like hell to gate and miss flight by 4 minutes- unlucky
-Already booked on a new flight later in the day- lucky
-Surprise my Dad at his gate when he flies in an hour later- happy
-Hang out with Dad in the red carpet club and load up on snacks- lucky
-Fly to Charlotte where my "baby stroller" is waiting for me and dinner is ready- lucky

Hunger

What does exercising three times a day do to you?  It makes you hungry.  Here's what you should eat (in my opinion).

Group Ride- steel*wool style

Normally, I'm not much for group rides.  I don't really like them.  Riding with a bunch of people with varying  fitness levels, for the most part, annoys me.

However, riding with a few fun, skilled riders, I really enjoy.  This type of riding makes me happy, tired and I look forward to it every Wednesday. With the steel*wool ride,  I have found the perfect ride and the perfect ride buddies.  This past Wednesday, was especially great.

Before we ended our ride in the dark, our "training" grounds were bright with changing Aspen. Though I was constantly dropped (I was just enjoying the scenery more than the others), I enjoyed every minute of it.

The steel*wool "creators", Whit and JH, are the most skilled riders I have ever seen.  Give either a bike, any bike and they will amaze you with skillz.

Singlespeeds, singletrack, changing leaves, flat tires, pizza, beer, biryani, and laughs.  A lot of laughing (especially when JH endo-ed going less than 1 mph).

It's fun.  Bring on next Wednesday.