Latest PMC

Here's my latest PMC showing down times for broken collarbone and 2 independent weeks completely off bike for vacations.

Been a while....

It's been a while since I posted...April 1st was last to be exact. Probably started due to my collarbone incident on April 10th in a race in Hampton, VA at Langley Speedway. Last turn... trying to be safe... get taken out by some SOB and wake up on the tarmac wondering what in hell just happened.

Well after a few months of getting healthy and training too much I'm only now getting the knowledge I need to be semi-successful at being a better cyclist. I'll post more soon. Here's the bike in latest iteration.

Chickens & Collarbones

Went out on a ride Sunday out of Waller Mill Park in Williamsburg - a couple other guys and me. about 40-45 minutes into the ride we rounded a downhill corner when, low and behold, a chicken darted out into the road right under the front wheel of the guy in front. The chicken was about the size of a basketball and Dave had no chance - he went down hard. The end result was a busted collarbone and thumb as well as many bruises and cuts. Not a good day. He had surgery today - a plates and 8 screws. Too bad it's not October at the end of the season.

Busch Gardens Opening Day - (non-biking)

I mentioned last weekend that my family went to Busch Gardens. I followed that trip with a misguided distance ride prior to which I did not eat properly and thus semi-bonked midway thru the ride. Here are some pics from Busch Gardens.

Skateboarding

My son, 13 years old, is an avid skateboarder. He's pretty good. Here's a couple pics from a recent skatepark outing.

Bad Combination

There's a reason that it's good (IMO) to ride in the morning, especially when it's warm. Other than the obvious temperature-related issue one of the biggest hinderances to my performance on the bike is simply nutrition, or poor preparation of such.

Today was a good example. My wife told me that I was NOT going riding but was going to Busch Gardens (I live very near Williamsburg, VA) for opening day for season pass holders. Jack Hanna was there doing a special show with wild animals. Cool, I thought. Great show. After the show we walked around the park doing stuff here and there. It started out nice but got warm and sunny quick. I stayed until early afternoon and got home around 2:15 or so. I wanted to get in 60-70 miles so when I got home I got everything together and headed out the door.....without properly eating.

About and hour-and-a-half out I started to deal with some wind, was feeling kind of dry and thirsty,legs burning a bit... a bad combination of warning signs. 30 minutes later and I realized it was going to be hard to get home. I wasn't doing loops so that meant I had 2 hrs of riding before I could eat.

Lesson? Either ride early so you can control you nutrition or take some stuff with you - you will pay if you don't do either of these. Let's just hope it doesn't mess with me tomorrow on my ride.

Short Spin Ride in the Sun

Got out this afternoon for a short spin ride in the late afternoon sun. It's soooo nice to not be locked away in the basement doing a 2 hr Zone 2 base ride. May have a few more left but at least there's potential to get outside.