Sleepless in Charleston

Got out on a good ride tonight, just Jay and I. Normally we have 6-8 guys on that ride but only us tonight. Got in a couple of solid hours then cruised on home. Riding the mountain bike with slicks on for awhile. Sold my cross bike and Cervelo still hasn't sent my road bike.

Later-DH

Tough commute to work this morning

I had to bring alot of stuff in with me this morning. Hope I have a tailwind on the way home!

Monster Mountain day

Got in a good ride today with Robert and Nathan. Got alot of climbing in on the parkway around asheville. Out for 5 1/2 hours. Very cold when we rolled out then very warm when we returned. Nice day for a ride. Was regretting the decision to wear the thermal jacket on the last 1/2 hour climb. I didn't feel great riding due to my legs being sore from increasing weights this week. Actually, I felt pretty weak for about 3 1/2 hours. Finally around 4 hours in the legs came around and I felt good again. That's about it- nothing crazy or too exciting happened- just a normal day out. Later- DH

Weekend Report

Built wheels all day yesterday. Went to the gym last night for some needed exercise. Driving all evening on Thur. and sitting in a chair all day yesterday had me stiff and sore. Felt much better after working out.

I'm sitting here at Robert's right now needing to get dressed to ride 5 hours. It's 33 degrees out; however, and I am putting it off as long as possible. Later-DH

Four Pair?!

Headed to the mountains this weekend again. Got packed up last night because I had to get up early and ride for a few hours before work. Maybe I was a little too tired. I looked over my stuff this morning. I'm only gonna be gone 2 days. This is what I packed: 4 pair of riding shorts, 1 jersey, 3 undershirts, 2 mismatched arm warmers, 4 (FOUR!) pair of sunglasses. 5 T-shirts, 7 pair of socks, no underwear, 4 hats, 2 gloves, 2 pants, 2 casual shorts, a toothbrush, shaving cream ( no razor), and a thermal jacket. And an MP3 player.
After a little re-packing I was set to go.

Got in a great ride this morning. 2 hrs with an hour of Tempo thrown in. Nice morning- blue skies and 55 degrees out. I felt pretty good all morning. Of course I had to have something go wrong before the ride was over. Flat tire within sight of the neighborhood. It would take longer to fix it than it would to ride home. You gotta be kidding me. Thought real hard about riding the flat in but did the right thing and fixed it.

The rest of the day has been uneventful. Cervelo told me my bike is shipping tomorrow. For the third time. We'll see what happens. Later- DH

Check out my new website

Just got a website for coaching up and running. Will probably change up the domain name soon to get rid of the blogspot designation. I'd like to get some tabs to different pages set up too. There will also be some pictures on the way and much more info.

Check it out: www.dhallcoaching.blogspot.com

Coming apart at the seams.

I've had an action packed weekend. Started on Fri morning with a trip to the Gym for an hour and a half of weights. Came back home and picked up Alex for a dentist appointment. Got that done and we loaded up the motorcycles for a trip up to Wambaw Swamp to ride.
The sand was wet up there , with all the traction you could ask for. We had a pretty fast ride until Alex went down and broke off the chainguide ( block ) off the swingarm and lost the chain. I got it back togather for awhile, getting us closer to the truck. Then the chain came off again and wrapped itself around the primary drive cog and jammed everything up. Fortunately we were close to a forest road. Alex walked the moto out while I took the trail back to the truck and came to get him. Rolled on back to Charleston. Saw Cloverfield at the movies and called it a night.

Robert and his family came to town fri. night for the long weekend as well. Sat morning was start of over 24 hrs. of pouring rain. Great- needed to get a long ride in. So we decided to ride the trainers for awhile and watch the Giro. Nathan came over and we all rode for a couple of hours. That was much better than riding by myself in the living room. Did 35 mins. of Tempo and cruised the rest of the time. Got some food and went to the movies again last night. That however, was not the highlight of the evening. For Kellie's birthday we all went roller skating down at Hot Wheels roller rink. The Watkins had all brought their own skates so I figured we were in for a schoolin'. Yup. Robert and Kellie proceeded to skate circles around everyone. We all had a great time ( even with a superman impersonation on my part ) and got home tired and went straight to bed.

I had to work today so Robert and I were up at 7AM to get in a four hour ride before work. 30 degrees and blasting wind greeted us as we rolled out toward the beach. My legs were sore from skatin' it up last night and took an hour or so to loosen up. Just in time to spent the next 2 hours in a headwind. More tempo riding than I would like but OK. We caught up with the Sun. group ride for a bit then headed back home. 10 min. later and I was out the door to work and here I sit. Doing nothing. No customers. Wasting the day. Anyways- Liza and the Watkins have arrived with my lunch and it smeels good. Got to go- DH

Busy, busy, busy!

There's been alot going on lately. I've started training in earnest. 15 hrs. a week right now with gym, yoga, and cold nightime miles on the bike.
Speaking of bikes, my Cervelo will be ready to roll early next week in time for a trip to the mountains.
Got by the doctor for another followup visit. Diagnosis: I have suffered an injury somewhere along the line ( perhaps when I went down in Greenville ) and have separated some muscles from my ribs. The doctor told me that is very painful ( thanks- I didn't know that ) and it takes a very long time to heal because that area never really gets to rest. If I can not breathe and lie still in the bed for 2 weeks it will heal fast. Otherwise, I'm looking at something like 37 years till it gets better. Thankfully, I'm alright when I'm riding. I just can't roll over in the bed without pain.

I'm also working on expanding my coaching services. I'm really excited about this. Stay tuned and I'll let you know when the new website is up and running.
Later- DH

I'm in control of the tests now!

I am conducting another test on myself. Since the experts can't figure it out I came up with a foolproof plan. In order to see if it is really my gall bladder or if it is muscular I have devised a plan to differentiate the two. The muscular pain is not present now. So... I need to see if food makes my gall bladder hurt. Then I'll know what to do. I have just returned from Krispy Kreme. I just ate a few (dozen) glazed donuts. I feel OK right now ( other than being competely WIRED from the sugar) but if it starts to hurt then yes-- I should have my Gall Bladder nixed. Now all I have to do is a four hr. drive to Asheville after crashing from the sugar. I'll let you know how my experiment turns out. DH

Weekend Outlook

I've got a pretty good weekend planned. Headed up to NC tonight to build wheels @ Cane Creek tomorrow and Sat. Suppose to rain here on Sat. and be sunny there. That will work out well as I need to get in about 4 hours on the bike Sat. morning. Hopefully this will be the last weekend on the Surly as my Cervelo is shipping to me this week. Can't wait to get on that.

On another note, got to the doctor yesterday. They still don't know what is wrong with me, but they do want to take out my Gall Bladder to eliminate that from the equation. So if I have a headache do you cut off my cabeza? Anyways- the doc thinks #1- gall bladder is not well. #2 there is some muscular/ skeletal problem around my ribs. These 2 things are working together to cause me distress. So... I got a rib X ray this morning and have another doctor's appointment on Monday with the 1st genius that couldn't figure out what is wrong with me. I'll post again with some more inconclusive results on Mon. Later- DH

Lab Rat

I feel like a lab rat. My week has gone like this:
Mon: 1 hr indoors on the trainer.

Tue: 2 hr ride on the TT/ track bike. Met Liza and we did the 5K resolution run in Charleston. Rode home.

Wed: Went to the doctor's and had an Endoscopy done. Got poked and prodded then got put to sleep and a camera in a tube went down the hatch and checked out my esophogus, Stomach, and large intestine. Everything was clear and no problems found. Doctor told me to take it easy and not exercise. With to which I replied " I ride my bike." That made no sense to anyone but it was ok since I was still on drugs.

Thur: 1 hr. AM again on the trainer. 4 miles PM on the treadmill at the gym. Spending alot of time indoors on various forms of the hamster wheel followed by scientific experiments.

Fri: AM - another medical procedure, another IV, 1 1/2 hrs lying still in a tube for another scan. 1 1/2 hrs ( outside! ) on the track bike to the gym ( back inside ) to find my maxes so I can set up my weight workouts. Ride home.

Sat: Got out for 4 hrs. Good to be outside for an extended bit of time. Did the group ride, nice day out, no January World Championships going on so it was a great ride. I kept HR at exactly 145-155 hr for 4 hrs. Drafted at the back pretty much all day. I am pretty sure I did the least amount of work of anyone on the ride.

Today: 1 hr AM ( back inside on the trainer ) PM: Headed out to Marrington Plantation for a 1 1/2 hr. MTB ride w/ Alex.

Headed back to the Doc. this Wed. to find out what Friday's test did not determine. Later- DH