Island therapy

This past week was supposed to be a relaxing getaway full of sun, sand and saddle time.  I keep telling myself, two out of three isn't bad.  Looking back to recent history, I cannot remember the last time I had been so relaxed.  Not a worry in the world once I stop worrying about my level of fitness and health.

The first day down here, I did some running on the beach.  This wasn't your typical "let's go for a run" type of run.  You all know I wouldn't say or do such a thing. Instead, it was just a few short pain free minutes (maybe 20) of throwing the frisbee with Todd.  The following morning was a different story.  My right hip flexor started to yell obscenities with my every attempt to move it.  I tried to reason with it, explaining this was a family beach and those kind of words would not be tolerated. I even tried smacking it around a bit.  That didn't work either.

With this slated to be a heavy mileage week in preparation of the upcoming ADK 540, I got on my bike and headed out for the better part of the morning.  I wish I could report the ride was a success but it was anything but.  I quickly became frustrated as I attempted to break the world record of completing the most missed turns in the first half of a ride.  At the same time, the hip pain had now stretched all the way down the outside of my leg.

At one point it was bad enough to bring me 79.9% of the way to mentally breaking.  Instead of crawling into a ditch to cry, I turned the wheel towards home and bagged the rest of the ride.  The ride ended up, being less than 5 miles shorter in that direction.  The original route would have been more scenic but without the mental fortitude it certainly wouldn't have been more enjoyable.

Fast forward through two days of extreme hip therapy consisting of hours upon hours of sitting on the beach perfecting all my amazing tan lines. What most people try to avoid, I usually excel.  My crisp, sharp lines of differing color on my skin would make any cyclist proud.

Yesterday, I awoke and my hip had stopped yelling at me so I decided to take a few laps around the island.  The plan was to ride for as long as I could go without feeling any pain in my hip.  That lasted close to 4 miles.  Frustrated, I finished up 2 laps of the island which are similar to extended loops of Westcreek but without any sort of change in elevation just flat, mind numbing miles.  And yes, I do realize Westcreek doesn't have any real elevation change but it does require me to use the rear shifter twice every 6 miles.  So I went back to the self-prescribed beach therapy.

Like my new do?

It looks as if I will be giving it one more crack this morning when the other 8 members of the house take to the road for a few laps of back and forth action.  If only the superpowers of the flat, straight roads could be used for good (hip numbing) instead of evil (mind numbing) my world would be perfect.

Getting Hitched

Last week while Jenn was out of town, I had ordered a hitch to be mounted on the back of the Highlander. It arrived but was too heavy and awkward for my little man arms to lift, hold and bolt into place all by my lonesome it had to wait.  Yesterday, the weather was extremely nice for a Saturday afternoon in August and it was decided today was the day to get hitched once again.

Now the reason I decided to have one delivered to the house and not "professionally" installed by a local dealer was the labor rates.  More than one company quoted me ~$150 to have it installed.  I stopped calling after that and watched a Youtube video.  How hard could it, I just watched it on youtube.  

The instructions provided with the hitch stated a professional install would take approximately 20 minutes while a novice install would take 40 minutes. After crawling up and under the rear of the car to make sure I knew which were the appropriate holes to be filling with my bolts, I decided 20 minutes was certainly achievable.  I laid out the toolbox to find I had misplaced one of my ratchets.  Of course it was the one I needed to install this hitch in 20 minutes or less.

A quick run to the local Home Depot store was now necessary.  I entered the store with a very short list of needs and a long list of "needs."  Some of you may call those "needs" "wants" and I could get go on to explain to you the differences between "needs" and "wants" but its a losing battle.  You just wouldn't understand if you don't already get it.  Somehow, I left the store with only those needs and nothing from the "needs" list.  This was a first for me.  One that must mark a new level of maturity or just an extreme amount of focus on the task at hand; install in less than 20 minutes.

Once back at home with all the appropriate tools in hand, Jenn was summoned to come out to help and the timer was started.  From there, the job went by in a flash.  We crawled under the car, lifted it into place, started the bolts in the holes and tightened those bad boys down.  12 minutes and we were done. 

  

We didn't even have to use a 2x4 like the "professional" in the youtube video.  Jenn's joking reply was that we obviously did something wrong if we didn't have to use one.  With the utmost confidence in my ability to do simple tasks, I offered to go out and hit the hitch with a 2x4 if it would make her feel better.  Having seen my mad pinata striking skills and not wanting her vehicle dented, Jenn asked that I not swing a 2x4 in the vicinity of the hitch or car.  I can't say that I blame her.

New SRAM drivetrain or lunch?

Shifty bits it is

Now its time to figure out what's for lunch

Ramping it up

With the ADK 540 quickly approaching, almost one month away, the miles and saddle time are really starting to add up.  Well they should be increasing if I were following anything that may resemble the slightest bit of a training plan.  But I'm not and neither are the miles.

With Jenn in Washington (the state not the district) until Tuesday with her mom, I have been on pup sitting duty.  Wednesday Sage, Petra and I were joined by our good friend Dusty aka Doodle aka Dustball aka ... I'll just stop there.  Just like all of our beloved pets he has a million nicknames and answers to only one of them.

Dusty and Raven staring at each other through the gate

Dusty has been having some issues with the strength in his hips and cannot walk up stairs very well.  This didn't bode well with me because I have been having some issues with the strength in my back.  I woke up Thursday morning with a very tight lower back from trying to pick up Dusty's massive 100+ pound Husky self and carrying him down the stairs so he could relieve himself in the lawn and not on the carpet.  Knowing my back would not hold up to 5 more days of that, I built a ramp leading off the front porch.

Yep, its our old front door.  Works like a charm

Thursday afternoon, I got in a short ride across town.  I had to ride over and provide a lift to the airport.  My lower back had tightened up to the point where everything in the back of my legs were also quite tight which is why I decided to not take a ride yesterday.  At this point in the game it's also probably best that I rest any injuries so they do not become long drawn out nagging ones.  They say with age comes wisdom, could this be the start of it?