Manchester State Forest

Since today's 13 Hr. race was rescheduled on next saturday, Brad and I drove up to Sumter to go for a ride yesterday. The trails were in great shape and very fast. Nice day, we got in 3 hrs. for around 35 miles. Rode tempo for the most part. Had to kick it up to race pace for a few minutes on Cambell pond trail to see how the legs were doing. They are good to go for next weekend. Later- DH

I just wanna ride!

Yeah- I'm sitting here with nothing to do. It's raining out. All I want to do is go for a night ride tonight. By myself for a couple of hours out at the trails. Quiet, smooth, in my own personal tunnel of bliss. Not gonna happen though. Guess I'll ride the rollers. Again. I'll just have to close my eyes and imagine.
DH

Diagnosis

Still looking forward to Sat.'s race. Babying my leg by riding easy, I want to go out to the trails tomorrow and drill it. Better not. I'll be raring to go for this weekend though.

Got back started with my chiropractor from a few years back. Had some X- Rays, assessments ,and other scans done on Mon. Went back today for the diagnosis and to figure out what to do. He didn't really know where to start there are so many problems. Most stem from the 7mm leg length discrepancy. My left hip drops and causes pain in the right. This explains why my right leg has been junk the last couple of years. An orthotic will solve a good bit of this.
Another area of concern is my neck. There has been so much trauma over the last 32 years that my neck is not bent right. There is suppose to be a nice curve in the spine there, but 2 vertebrae are curved then the next 3 or 4 are straight. Basically, he told me that I REALLY don't need to crash anymore. Multiple whiplash "events" have wreaked havoc around the base of my skull. Maybe that is why it creaks and groans every time I turn my head. This can be fixed with adjustments and exercises that I can do. He mentioned traction exercises too but that is a last resort.
Then my back is jacked up around T12 -14. He didn't mention anything about my gallbladder problems in the last few months but I did some research and that is the area that is connected to the gallbladder. Possibility there.
Anyways- Now I know what the problems are for sure and what to do about the problems. I feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel now and I will soon be able to train like I should and take care of business.
DH Out.

Weekend Outlook

This weekend will hopefully be better than last. Racing in the Baker's Dozen 13 Hr. race this weekend. Gonna race the 2 man team with Brad. Never done a duo before. Should be fun. My legs should be fresh, they felt great last Saturday in NC. I haven't been riding a ton this week, trying to ease off my right hamstring- it's a little pulled right now. Got some time in on the rollers tonight and it felt better.
My new mountain bike fork will be in on Thurs. and I'm really excited about that. I got a Bontrager Switchblade fork. Gonna ride rigid singlespeed for a bit. It just feels better. The bike is so quiet, simple, and light. Most of the time I think the rigid fork is just as fast as the suspension. Most of the time. I like the singlespeed as well, it makes me ride harder up hill- can't ease off and spin. The only drawback is on the flats getting spun out. Fortunately, I am a road sprinter and can hold high RPMs for quite a while.
Anyways- looking forward to this weekend, driving up on Fri. AM to pre-ride and hang out. Brad managed to reserve an 18th century Huegenot cabin for us to stay in. Should be a fun weekend.
I'll let you know. DH

Assault on the Carolina (Just one)

Left yesterday for the mountains. Stopped by Sumter, SC to do some moto riding. Went out to Manchester State Forest to ride. Rode there in 02' but haven't been back since. Remembered having a good time when I was there so I was looking forward to going back.
I had a great time. Fast trails and I was riding smooth and having a great time. Did 60 or so miles ( 3 hrs.) The last lap was pushing it as I was getting tired and starting to make mistakes, so I decided to call it a day and head on up to Asheville. Rolled up at Robert's ready to relax. Robert was dressed to ride and made me ride my bike. I didn't want to but felt better after a short spin. Nathan, Jay, and Thaddeus showed up around 10:30 and we hit the sack.

Assault on the Carolina:

Woke up to a VERY rude alarm at 7:00 this moning. If that wasn't bad enough I was also hearing the sweet sound of a torrential downpour. Great- I love racing in hard conditions, but a charity ride cruisin' with friends in a downpour- not so much. Anyways- rolled down to Brevard High School for the Assault start. The rain stopped long enough to start the ride and we rolled out nice and mellow. I was actually feeling really good today and rolling comfortably in the lead group. I told Jay I'd ride with him so I figured I'd ride hard till the top of Walnut Hollow then double back for Jay. However, it wasn't my decision. Broke a spoke on Country Club road and had to stop. Robert doubled back instantaneously. I wrapped the broken spoke up around another, checked to see if the wheel would turn, and we were off. We rolled easy for awhile and Jay along with a small group caught up. We had a nice ride for a bit. As soon as we got over the Continental Divide however, the bottom fell out. Torrential downpour of epic proportions ocurred. Hail, dropping temps, and water running down the road made the descent on 178 very dangerous. Not to mention that my front brake was disconnected so the wheel would roll. A fact that I had forgotten until I hit the brakes in the first switchback and nothing happened. I was getting colder and colder and we still had another 1/2 hr. of downhill left before we could warm up by climbing. I stopped at the state line and waited for the other guys to catch up. I proposed that we head back up the mountain to get warmed up then head back to Brevard. I didn't even finish my sentence and everyone was u-turned and left me standing. Instant warmth once we got rolling. Saw some other guys I knew and they joined in as well. Looped back through Rosman and on to Brevard. The rest of the ride was great once we got out of the deluge. Made it back, cleaned up and waited for the others to get back. My other teammates rode well getting back at the front 3rd and 4th ones in and anothr in the top 10 as well. Sycamore cycles had a good showing in the top 10 as well in a very strong field today.
Even with the bad conditions, the Assault on the Carolinas is one of the best around and I had fun anyways. Seems like every other year the conditions are good. So- I guess next year will be nice. Better be beause I'll be back again. DH

Updates

I've been pretty busy lately, so it's been awhile since my last post. Finally have gotten some sort of consistency going with the bike. 400 miles/ 23 hrs last week. Hopefully this week will be the same. Headed up to NC this weekend for a long MTB ride Friday and to ride the Assault on the Carolinas event this Sat. Whole team is going so it should be fun. Great event, great course, and I know a ton of people that ride that one. Hoping for good weather, you never know at this time of the year. Plenty of good weather here lately, got some tan lines going finally. Also have a black eye to go with the tan ( freak screwdriver accident ). Resting as much as possible today. All I want to do is sleep. Later- DH

Yellow Death

The yellow death is falling from the trees now. Having a hard time with the time change. The guys that ride after work are lovin it but I ride in the morning. Getting up an hour earlier is still a pretty bitter pill to swallow. Still cold in the AM here. Gets up to 70-75 degrees by lunch but those morning rides are still cold. Had a good one last night, got out on a solo night ride over to Mt. Pleasent. Did a few hill repeats on the bridge. Tons of people out with the time change and all. Got in about 3 hrs/ 52-53 miles. Last time over the bridge felt the fastest ever. Started raining after an hour or so, sprinkles on and off. It felt pretty good so I kept going. Got done around 8:30- about 2 min. before the bottom dropped out.
Hard to get up this morning. Shook the cobwebs out of my head and was on the bike 10 min. later- that's pretty rough. I don't recommend it. Got warmed up after 1/2 hr. and felt OK. I've been going pretty hard the last 2 days so I planned on having flat legs this morning. Propper planning= propper execution and I executed the flatness perfectly. Got in a couple of hours and felt better when I got to work. Couln't really remember anything from the ride when I got there. I knew I was doing alot of thinking while I was spinning along, but I didn't know I was that wrapped up in it! Gotta get out on the mountain bike so I'll have something to pay attention to.
Healing up well- elbow is still in pretty rough shape, but I am not stiff and beat up feeling anymore. I am thinking about getting a T-shirt made that says "Yes, I did crash in a race last weekend." ( see back for a detailed explanation because I'm not going to explain it to you.) I think that would cut out some hassle with customers at work.
Anyways- got to eat now, gonna try to get another 2 hrs. in on the way home. Later-DH

Windblast 2008

What a windy day. 30mph. sustained wind. So... I decided to go for a long motorcycle ride instead. Got suited up, stopped by ChicFil-A for some biscuits and headed south. I had a map and just went. My route crossed the Sat. group ride's route and I caught up with them ( all 3 ) at the Hollywood gas station stop. Chatted for awhile about how my moto was a much better idea this morning and they headed off. Got a drink, fueled up, and headed off toward Edisto Island. Never been there so I thought I'd check it out. A half an hour later and I was on the beach. I'm sure Edisto is cool in the summer but right now it was kinda creepy. First off- it's waayy out there in the middle of nowhere. Then there are miles upon miles of great beach houses. They were all empty, a ghost town. I was maybe 20 people the whole time.
Stopped on the way back to get some photos of the "Serpentarium". More creepiness- a snake house in the middle of nowhere. They were closed or I'd have gone in to see snakes and totally freak myself out.
Got in some great dirt road riding and some off roading as well to round out the trip. Got in about 4 1/2 hrs. and 200 miles.
Time to clean up and get some food. Later-DH

Summer Plans

Sitting around looking at racks and bags for bikes. Something I never thought would ever go on my bike. I am making plans for this summer , however; I will need bags and racks to pull off said plans. Don't really want to spill the beans yet but I'll be riding a ton of trails way up in the sky come July. Later- DH

Lucky # 13

The ominous feelings began last Friday. I was headed to Albany, GA for the first stage race of the year. I got online to check start times for the time trial on Saturday morning. I printed out the start list and highlighted all the start times of my teamates. Then I noticed it. My race number for the weekend was #13. That can't be good. Everyone told me to not worry, that was lucky. I figured I'd do the traditional thing and run the number upside down and I'd be fine. Besides, it was my 32nd birthday this weekend so nothing bad could happen. If it was my 31st -I'd have stayed home.

Anyways, we loaded up the megavan and trailer to capacity with Liza, my team, and myself and headed to Albany. The trip was long but we watched movies the whole way so it was not bad. Checked into roach motel and tried to get some sleep.

Time Trial:

I couldn't run my number upside down. That didn't bode well. Good course for me, 3.2K with 16 turns. About 80 guys were in the Pro race andd some were straight from the Tour of California. No problem- I get the countdown and blast off up the street, around turn one and head to head with an oncoming vehicle at 30 mph. Volunteers were running everywhere, the truck didn't know what to do and I didn't have any time to react. I squeezed around in the gutter on the far side of the street costing me valuable seconds and most importantly messing with my oxygen starved brain. Blew another corner further in for some more lost time and rolled in to finish 40th. Nathan had a good ride finishing12th for our highest GC position.

Crit:

Nothing exciting here. 8 corner, 30mph Avg crit. I felt pretty good and was having fun with all the corners. I rolled in 23rd for our highest placing. We all moved up to top 20 in the GC with Nathan in 10th now.

Road Race:

I was looking forward to this one. Rolling 96 miles should be a good day. Got things started quick with a break on the 1st lap. Cleve and I rolled up the road about 5 miles in. Got joined by a super strong guy a couple of miles later and we rolled out. I wasn't wanting to stay out all day, the intention was that when I was caught, Nathan would counter-attack. Cleve broke a derailleur cable and was gone, we were now low on horsepower after 15 miles or so it came back togather. After a flurry of activity, a break went again, this time with Nathan in it. One other guy in the top ten was present and no one else had a strong enough team to bring it back. If the break stays, we win. A good situation. Starting the last lap the break had over 4 minutes. Done deal. We roll into the feedzone waayy too fast on the last lap, a break is forming and the feild is chasing. I know we are too fast and try to slow so I can grab our feed bag as we are all out of water. I see Jay and the bag, grab it, and I'm on the ground at 30 mph. Got hung up and dragged down, lots of guys crashing now. I'm curled up and getting run over and slammed into for an eternity. I'm starting to wonder if the everyone looped around and they are crashing into me again. Anyways, It's over and there are guys scattered all over the road, one guy is not moving and leaves by ambulance. Everyone else is dazed and bleeding all over. I'm not too bad off, alot of abrasions on the right side but OK. Crunched a carbon wheel too. Liza and Nathan help me out of the road. That's right- Nathan who is suppose to be 4 mins. up the road. I inquire abou this and he had the same thing happen to him. Feedbag- ground correlation. So we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Had the race locked up and now nothing. Happy Birthday sucker! Long ride home an lots of sticking to the sheets now. Later- DH

Back on track

Last week was a rough one. Took me all week to recover from FL. Normally I recover in 3 days or so from a 12 Hr. race. This time however, I think there were other issues in on the delayed recovery. Rode a couple of times last week, trying to get the new road bike dialed in. I know it is set up right but I've been on the mountain bike for the last month and the Cervelo still feels weird. It'll feel good soon. It better. I'm headed to Albany, GA this weekend with the rest of the team for the GA Cup opener. Sat morning we have a 3.19 K prologue Time Trial, Sat PM is a 50 K- 8 corner Crit, Sun morning is a 148 K road Race. I've done NO speedwork or even gone anaerobic for more than a minute or two since Cross Nats. It's gonna hurt. The TT will be fine, the crit will be a life or death situation, and I am looking forward to the road race. Suppose to be good weather so hopefully I'll get some tan lines before I come home. Gonna do what I can to help my team and get some miles in.
Got to Yoga last night and I feel so much better. Should have gone last Mon. as well, maybe I'd have felt better later in the week. I was afraid to go last week, hurting like I was. My legs may have given out , I'd have fallen over , and knocked some other people over.
Had a nice day on Sat. Liza had an 8 K run out at Folly Beach so I went with her and cheered her on at the mile markers. She did well, right at the time she was shooting for. She out sprinted my Doctor at the line. No, he still doesn't know how to fix me.
Anyways, we got downtown in the afternoon to walk around and eat lunch. Nice day for it, 75 deg. and sunny. Got home and I cleaned up the garage for 4 hrs. Would have been 2 hrs. but I had to rebuild my clothes dryer before I could get anything else done ( long story ).
Got to go- DH

12 Hrs. of Chaos

Looonnng story short: 12 Hrs. of Santos- Started OK-2nd for 2 laps. Felt bad, Front tire exploded, fixed it, too much time in the pit fixing bike at the end of several laps.(wheels, brakes )Legs feel terrible. Going backwards. Back around 30th place now. Meltdown. Forget it. I'm out in 4 hrs. I quit, can't do this for 8 more hrs. Take off jersey, eat some food, relax.

Not gonna work. Not Me.

Back on the bike sans jersey( too hot ). My A game shows up out of nowhere now. 40th place to 7th place in 6 hours. Flying now, fastest lap is the 11th one. Still chasing down the leaders, they know I'm coming too. Crash really hard. Thought I broke my hip. Hurts, but I can still pedal. Run out of time and end up 4th. One off the box.

Should be top 5 in US Ultraendurance rankings now.

Gotta get a spare bike!

Feel like I've been run over by a bus now.

Later-

Virus

Sorry folks,
I had a good post with pictures and everything from FL. Some jerk commented right away with a virus attatched to it. So if you read the comment it infects your computer. Had to delete the post and comments. I'm not looking forward to retyping it - it was a long one. I'll get the details out soon. Later- DH

Last day before FL

Got the Cervelo built last night. I think it will work out pretty good. Have to make quite a few adjustments and it'll be good to go. That thing is definitely light. 15.5 lb. w/ pedals. When my Red group shows up I'll probably lose another 3/4lb. to a full lb. I don't think I've ever had a bike that light. Wonder how it will ride?

Anyways, have some packing to do to get ready for departure tomorrow. Have to set up some spare wheels and load up the pit equipment for Brad and I. Feeling pretty good going into this race, I've always done well there and have no reason to expect anything else this time. I did find out that one of the top guys that I thought was coming is going to another race. Bummer, I really wanted a shot at him. I'll get my chance at Nationals hopefully.

I'd love to write more but I need to go get some breakfast now. And then some more, and then some more. That's probably my favorite part of 12 hr. racing- I can eat whatever I want in the days leading up to an event and it probably still won't be enough. Later- DH

Big day today

Lots of stuff goin' on today.
Got the Yeti ready to roll for an all out assault on Santos, FL.
My Cervelo Road bike FINALLY came in. Have to get that built up tonight. I'll post some pictures soon.
And most importantly---
The Tour de France organizers pulled out the " I aint gonna touch you with a 10 foot pole rule" and excluded the Astana team from the tour this year. About time someone had enough of dealing with bad reputations. This does however exclude 1st and 3rd place riders from last year's tour. Ya lay down with dogs boys, ya get up with fleas!
I've got to go build a bike now- Later-DH

3 more days

Only two more days of work and I'm outta here. Fun and sun on the horizon. On a different note- bad luck has befallen our relay team for the 12 hr. One by one the members have fallen to the following: 1. Broken collarbone, 2. Pnuemonia, 3. Funeral ( not the team member ). So it looks like Brad is the sole remaining member and will be forced to race solo if no one else steps up. Not that there is anything wrong with racing solo- but if you are not planning on it it is another thing. Fortunately there is still time to get prepared. We are both still excited however, and my excitement grows by the hour. I just wanna race my bike!

Check this out:
I devised a formula to determine the races I want to do this year are worth it.

Hours Riding on the trip > Hours Driving X .75

This applies to most races. National Championships and " classics " races don't count because they are worth the drive regardless.
Gotta go ride- Over and out. DH

Friday Can't Come Quick Enough!

Had a pretty good last 4 or 5 days. Got alot of mileage in over the weekend up in the mountains. Thought I would be tired and wouldn't be able to do my tempo workout this morning. Very windy out but I felt pretty good. Didn't have to work real hard to keep it in my Tempo zone and the interval was over before I knew it. I'm really excited about racing in Florida this weekend. They have the best courses down there and the terrain suits me well. I'm feeling pretty good now, my bike is running great, and the weather is looking great at 80 degrees and sunny. We have a large group going down this weekend with a shop relay team and I'm racing solo of course. We'll be camping out for 2 nights and it should be a ton of fun. The only question now is do I go all out and bury myself trying to win the race and be blown for a month? Or do I ride like I'm down there to train and save myself for more important races? I am going to race- and once it starts It will be hard to hold back! Guess it depends on how I'm riding. If I'm running near the front I'll have to bury it, sometimes you gotta go for it. Stay tuned to find out.

Finally some nice weather

The whole last week has been great weather down here. 80 degrees and sun out today. It's good to be able to take advantage of that and get some good base mileage in. Still don't have my road bike yet but I kinda like riding my mountain bike everywhere. I've gotten in about 200 miles or so on it in the last 5-6 days. May just ride it for awhile. Training has been going well lately, finally sleeping better and the abdomen pain is getting easier to control. I'd like to think it doesn't hurt as much because I am getting exponentially tougher daily, but I think it is the Yoga that is really helping me out. If I skip a week then I feel like crud and don't sleep at all. That stuff keeps me right. Got in a very nice ride this morning , gonna get a couple more hours in tonight on the group ride. It's off to A-Ville again on Thursday for some more wheels. Looking forward to the mountains. Hoping to get in at least 4 hrs. daily on Fri. and Sat. We'll see. Later- DH

Weekend Photos

Went to Manchester State Forest to ride MTB on Fri. Road Group Ride on Sat AM, Moto at Wambaw Swamp in the afternoon, and MTB at Marrington early Sun. morning before I had to go to work. Pretty good weekend.

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

The Holidays Are Almost Over

Made it through Cristmas without incident. Drove up to ATL on Sat. for celebrations with Liza's side of the family. It was a good time, everyone behaved, and a good time was had by all. Drove back Sun. morning to be at work by 12:00. Monday my side of the family came down for Christmas. We all had a good time, good food, and presents all around. It was good to see everyone this holiday. Have to make it through New Years then regular life can resume again. We are going up to Asheville for a little hiking, artwork, and a cabin at Hot Springs for Liza's 2nd 29th birthday. Should be a good time. Only one week to go and I can get back to training. I've gotten to where I don't even bother trying to ride over the holidays anymore, everything is just too stressful to be able to fit it all in. Leaves me feeling ready to get some miles in come January though! If I don't post again before 2008( i'm sure I will though)- Happy New Years. Later- DH

Endoscopy?!

I don't like anything that begins with endo. Last time I endo'ed my bike I almost broke my face. Actally, I cut open my knee and had to get stitches. Anyways- I had my doctor's appt. this morning. He thinks it is gall bladder related. Sending me for another scan on the ol' GB and also scheduled me an upper endoscopy on Jan 2nd. He wants to go ahead and do all these tests, find out what is wrong , knock it out and let me get to training. I like this guy- I didn't have to wait at all in the office. He was standing in the hall waiting on me- got me in and out like that. I got some Nexium samples too. Hopefully that will help.

Got some news on the bike front too. Since I am gonna be riding a red Cervelo, I decided that I need some Red components instead of the old DuraAce parts. I placed the order today and should have my frame and my parts sometime before the turn of the century.

Have to get some sleep- gotta drive to ATL tomorrow morning to " celebrate " Christmas.
Later- DH

2008 Scheduling

Changed a few things for 08'. I wanted to race the NC Winter Cup CX series in January. I'm not tired of cyclocross yet and want to keep on racing. Problem is that I'm pretty out of shape. Since racing doesn't really get you in shape I decided to bag that and get down to training. Lotsa miles will do me more good than racing in January. Plus- I forgot how tore up my lungs were after nationals. Don't need that again for awhile. Sooo... I probably won't race till sometime in March or perhaps April even. I'd like to get all my base work done before I race. No high priority races until july so I'm in no hurry to go hard. So I'm gonna take it easy until Jan. 1st or so then get to it. From now until then I'm gonna ride when I feel like it and have fun. Later- DH

CX Nationals Photos

Back home

It's good to be almost home. Drove straight in to work this morning from KC. Long story short- Started the race after a #127 call up out of 168 riders. I was about 8-9 rows back at the start which led to about a 3 1/2 minute gap to the leaders after the first lap. 2nd lap was better as gaps were opening. The course was extremely slippery and technical due to ice and mud. Thank goodness for that. I was riding well and moving up 15 to 20 positions each lap till 3 to go. Apparently instead of pulling racers when they have been lapped the UCI pulls them when they are 1/2 lap down. Anyways, got pulled with 3 to go, finishing in 66th position. About 3-4 min. later Page and Tim Johnson flew by going at it. Tim pulled it out due to a dropped chain on Page's part. I felt bad for getting pulled till Liza told me that the race was so blown apart that they were pulling people off after the 1st lap. Anyways- packed up and left Mon. morning for the long ride home. I'll try to get some pics. up tonight. Later- DH

Raceday

Got out to the course yesterday for some practice. Got in 2 laps and my bike was unrideable. Completely frozen. Broke through the ice in a few spots and got muddy. The mud froze and then my levers wouldn't pull any cable, no gears, then no brakes. I couldn't even reach down and manually move the individual components by hand. Not even a micron. Then, my wheels froze. Wouldn't even roll. I grabbed the front wheel around the tire, rim, and a few spokes and yanked on it. Nothing. By this point my ski goggles were frozen up too so I called it and went back to the van. Snow continued to fall all day. Seven inches to be exact. Did get to watch one of the most exciting races I've seen in awhile. Bjorn Sealander and Jaime Driscoll put on quite a show in the U-23 race with Bjorn pulling out the sprint after a dramatic last lap comeback to win the National Title.

Today is raceday. It's 14 deg. out with a windchill of 5 deg. There's a ton of fresh snow and my legs are stiff and stale from not riding enough yesterday. Bring it on. DH

CX Nationals Update

Still trying to find a way to upload pictures. Got out to the course today to watch some races and see #1- how the course would change during races and how changing temps. would change it and #2- how the racers were handling the course. Got what we needed and left to get some lunch and run some errands. Got out for 3 hrs. on the bike. Headed north on some quiet rolling roads. Everything was completely white up there. Very cold out but it felt good to ride and after an hour or so I loosened up and started to roll out. Headed back to the hotel to shower up and go get dinner. The high looks good tomorrow- 21 deg. and another 3 to 7 inches of snow. At least the mud will be frozen instead of deep and sloppy! Got to go- I'll keep trying on the pics. Later- DH

We made it to KC

Well- we made it out here after 24 hours in the car. Made stops in NC and a 12-2am ride in TN. Got here and rode the course. It is the worst I've ever raced on. I've raced in alot of conditions in hundreds of places and this is by far the most miserable. Everything here is covered in ice and snow and it is 20 degrees out. The course is 10 feet wide and 6-18 inches deep in mud. I would say some sections are faster to run but it may actually be harder to stay on your feet than to ride. The bike doesn't roll at any point. You point it downhill and have to pedal pretty hard to move. The uphills are rideable but your tires dig in and scoop up globs of mud and grass and fling it. Every 4 th pedal stroke propels you forward while the other 3 fling crap all over the place. Don't get me wrong- I love racing in the mud. I race well in the mud. But this is gonna be something different. If the course doesn't improve the Elite National Champ will race for and hour and only ride about 12 miles in that hour. The course is that slow. We are going to go watch some races in a little bit to see how people are handling the course. Hopefully with the sunny weather and wind over the next few days will dry out the course and it will get a little faster. Faster in the straights that is. I hope the turns and off camber sections stay gross though, I am hoping for a technically hard racecourse to even out the fitness gap between me and the rest of the guys. I'll post again this afternoon. I have a ton of pictures that I want to get on here. Later- DH

On to the Gastroenterologist

Amazingly enough, the CT Scan yielded no solid results. It did however rule out any problems with my major organs and affirm that there is nothin' in there that is gonna take me out soon. Solving the problem of where my pain is coming from is another thing. I'm waiting to find out when my appointment with the Gastro Doc. is. By process of elimination, if it isn't gastro related then it can only be muscular. Getting closer anyways. Also not gonna kill me to train. Doc said if I'm ok with the pain then I can get to training. Copy that. To quote the great Swayze " Pain don't hurt."- Roadhouse. I'm looking forward to training, all my riding has been done so gingerly lately. I've been tiptoeing around. Time to roll now! I have however worked up to 5 hr. rides on the CX bike now, so I can't be too bad off.
Anyways- off to Nats in a couple of days. I'll keep everyone updated daily on that. Later- DH

Nastiness

I picked up my CT Scan "prep" kit this morning at the hospital. My appointment is @ 8:00 tomorrow morning. They gave me 2 big bottles of Barium Sulfate that I have to drink. One tonight and one tomorrow morning. I'm not looking forward to that. It looks like chalk. Who knows-I'll be optimistic- it may be the best stuff ever! Yeah- drinking dye- got to be good stuff right? I'll let you know. DH

Massive Excitement

Got to see a car on fire in front of the shop today. A rich kid rolling down the road in his brand new Corvette feeling all kind of important stops behind an eighteen wheeler in the turn lane right in front of the shop. Boom- bursts into flames. Kid runs out. We run out with fire extinguishers. We can't get across the lanes of traffic however because of the morons who won't stop and let us across. Instead, they slow down and stay near the fire instead of getting away from it. Finally we say forget it, the whole front half of the car is on fire now and I'm not going to get any closer cause that thing is hopefully going to blow up any second.
Enter mister official " I know what I'm doing here" guy from the Mercedes dealer next door. He strolls in to take control of the situation. I feel the authority in the air- it is almost palpable. Or maybe that was the melting plastic of the burning status in the road. Anyways we now turn to heckling Mr. In Charge as he walks up to the burning car. No more than 10 seconds later, a small explosion rips out of the front of the car sending Mr. In Charge fleeing for safety amidst the calls for a Darwin Award Nomination. Shortly thereafter the Fire Department showed up and there was nothing to see here anymore. The rest of the day will be a letdown now. DH

Plan A

Here's the hairbrain plan for Cyclocross Nationals next week: I am driving to Asheville to pick up Robert and head west next Wednesday. Here's the hairbrain part: we have decided to bring our mountain bikes as well and ride in every state we get to when we get there. I looked up some trails that I don't know and we have a plan. It goes like this:
Wed- I ride for an hour here in SC. Work all day. 5:00- drive to A-ville and get Robert. Ride Bent creek @ 10:00pm, knocking off NC. Head west- Nasheville at 2:00am knocking off TN. Land between the lakes in KY by sunrise then on to Vienna, Ill by 9:00 to take care of that state. On to Missouri- Columbia to be exact by early afternoon. Then finally rolling into Kansas City around 4:00pm to register and ride the Nationals racecourse. Probably crash out early Thur. night and sleep for a long time. Friday will be wide open all day with a couple of practice sessions on the course. Robert will race on Sat. and me on Sun. Back in the van and drive home Sun. night and Mon. I did a trip before where Me, Alex, and Scott rode in every state we came to. Did NC, SC, AL, GA with 3 races involved. This took place over 4 days and was a ton of fun with alot of good riding. This will be 7 states in 30 hours. That's alot to do in a short amount of time but it will be a good trip. I've been riding again for about a week so I'm not looking to tear it up in the race, if I get in 40 min. before being pulled I'll be happy. I might as well ride as much as possible to make this trip worthwhile. I'll post throught the trip on how it's going. Later- DH

Feeling a little better

Had a long weekend this time. Drove up to Asheville to build wheels for Cane Creek. My new track wheels were waiting for me along with some other goodies so I got those mounted up quick. They are very cool wheels, thanks for the support Cane Creek! Anyways, got to building wheels- long story short- got 64 wheels built. Also rode with Robert at the Mellodrome for a couple of hours Sat, then downtown for awhile too. Felt good to be riding again. Saw some very "interesting" college football Sat. night. Rode with Robert again on Sunday @ Bent Creek on a borrowed cross bike. Nice day out and the trails were in very good condition. I felt much better and actually got some pretty hard efforts in without hurting myself too bad. Got done there and made the long drive back to Charleston that night. Weekend over.

This week I have alot going on as well. Friday I get a CT Scan at the hospital. I go in on Mon to the doctor and hopefully they will be able to tell me what is going on. Cross your fingers! DH Out.

+ and - day

On the positive side of things, I've got a cool new bike on the way. I'll be riding a Cervelo Soloist Carbon built with a DuraAce kit and deep carbon wheels next year. Probably the nicest bike I've ever had and it can't get here fast enough.

On the other side of things. Got the results of my MRI and I don't have gallstones. In fact, the doctor has no clue what is wrong with me. I'm going to get a Catscan next, then go back to the "doctor". That should happen fairly quickly- say within the next three years or so. I'll post again when I know something.

Meanwhile-I'm off to NC to build some wheels this weekend. I'm also getting some cool new track wheels that I want to try out too. Later- DH

Because I can

Last week was a good week

Time to start another week. Feeling so-so, I'm going back to the doctor on Friday. Hopefully He'll have some kind of definite word about what's up with me. On a good note- had a great week last week despite the pain. We left Wed. night for my parent's house in Atlanta. Liza had signed up to run the Atlanta 1/2 marathon. It was at 7:00 am on Thursday so we got in and got to bed ASAP due to a 5:00 am departure the next day.
5 am came waaayy too early, Liza got up and I tried to sleep in but that didn't last too much longer. My dad drove us up to the start since it was only a few miles from their house. It was still dark out and we parked, then walked with Liza up to the start line. I have never seen so many people- there were thousands of them. Another impressive sight was the row of Porta-Johns- probably 50-60 of those too. Anyways- The race started and so did the rain. Right on the word go the skies opened up and it was on. I felt bad for those folks for a few moments then got over it real quick when I was reminded how much racing I've done in the rain.
Long story short- rained the whole race. I got out on the track bike and saw almost 1/2 the race, a sea of people as far as you could see- pretty cool.
Liza did very well-she felt good and ran 35 minutes faster than the time that she wanted to beat.
She got done, got her medal, and we headed off for dry clothes and a great Thanksgiving lunch at my parent's.
Didn't want to leave my parent's but we had to make the rounds while we were in Atl. so we rolled down to Liza's dad's house for Thanksgiving dinner. That was fun as well, got to see everyone and eat some more good food. Left there and blew back to Charleston by 11:30. Long day to say the least.
Hung out with Alex Friday. We wanted to go ride the motorcycles but were having trouble borrowing a trailer to haul them. So we went mountain biking with his friend Jared. I then did some hard core couch surfing all afternoon.
We still wanted to ride moto Sat. morning. After no trailer on Fri I decided that I was sick of borrowing other people's trucks and trailers to get things done, so I would buy one. Liza found a good deal on one in Summerville, so we rolled up there and got it. Came back home and loaded up the gear and motos and Alex and I were off to Wambaw Swamp to ride.
We got in about 20 miles that afternoon. Had alot of fun. Alex fell probably 15 times. The learning curve for riding a motorcycle in deep sand is very steep however and he was riding well in no time. We had fun but Liza and I had dinner plans so we headed back home.
Got home, showered, and met Liza at some friend's for some football games. This part of the weekend was terrible. Georgia Tech lost with a well engineered last quarter meltdown ( pun intended ) and South Carolina made one too many mistakes and ended up loosing to a mediocre Clemson team. I normally would not have cared but I hate all things Clemson so I had to pull for South Carolina. We were watching the game at Mike and Heather's house. Mike went to USC and I think he had a mental breakdown during the game- it was pretty funny.
Yesterday was way too short as usual. Wake up, eat breakfast, Barnes and Noble for 45 mins. and then go to work @ 11:30. Work dragged on forever. Weekend was over. So is this post- gotta go to work again. DH out.

I am David's ailing Gall Bladder

Went to the Surgeon today to find out what is wrong with me. He doesn't know. I did get to lay down on the table while I was waiting for him. I took a very good nap- I was out cold when he came in. He then asked me what was wrong, felt around on my abdomen, told me he didn't think it was a hernia and said I needed to go get an ultrasound tomorrow to really figure out what is wrong. He was interested in what was going on with my Gall Bladder. Does a Gall Bladder make stuff lump up under your skin? Anyways, I am going to the Hospital for an ultrasound tomorrow, then another appointment with the surgeon next friday hopefully to find out for sure what is going on and when I can start training again.
I did go to a Yoga class tonight. 1st one ever- it was pretty cool- I can see the benifits with flexibility and balance. Will have to work a class a week into my schedule.
Bonus Points: Name the movie that gave me the Idea for the title of this Post. DH

I'm just here for a referral.

Took part in the Moron-a-thon that is the local Physician's office yesterday. I got poked and prodded, questioned, and X-rayed. Then the diagnosis I had been eagerly anticipating:
Doc: Umm- Yeah- It's definitely musculo-skeletal related.
Me: Reeeally?
Doc: Probably a Hernia.
Me: Would you like to know what kind of Hernia it "probably " is?
Doc: I'm going to have to set you up with a specialist.
Me: That's what I'm here for- just to get a referral.
Doc: I'll call and set up an appointment for you. In the meantime, do you need anything for the pain?
Me: Nope. I'll manage. Are you trying to get me hooked on pain pills?

Anyways- I'm hurting worse than ever now due to Mr. Hamfist pushing on my insides and haven't heard anything back about an appointment. This all proves my suspicions that if you have the internet and a bit of common sense you can do better on your own opposed to going to the doctor. But you still need a referral. DH

I'm on two wheels one way or another.

Since I can't really ride my bike right now I went for a motorcycle ride the other day. It doesn't cause me as much pain in the abdomen and I can still go fast and have fun. Rode up the coast about 60 miles to Francis Marion Natnl. Forest. Great day out, sunny and 60 ish. My destination was the Wambaw Swamp Cycle Trail, 40 miles of singletrack for Moto and ATV use. I got to the trailhead and was pleasantly surprised to find out I didn't have to pay to use the trails . Since it was Vetran's Day, it was no charge- Thanks Grandfathers! Consequently, there were a ton of folks camping and riding up there. I rode for awhile and met up with a guy fro Summerville that was solo also, so we rode togather for awhile. He was faster than me, but that was good, I rode faster and had more fun. Took a couple of spills due to worn out tires on deep sand. Fortunately, you can crash at 30mph in sand and not even feel it, it's like a pillow.

Anyways, rode for awhile, then blasted back down hwy 17 to Charleston. Picked up the family and we headed out to Folly Beach for a late lunch overlooking the ocean. Going to the Doc. today to find out what is wrong w/ me . Later- DH

Pictures!

After catching alot of grief over the last few years from teammates and others I ride with I have finally bought a new saddle and retired this one. I didn't see anything wrong with it, it was very comfortable. I had lots of miles on it ( as you can see ). However, it does bruise my forearm badly when I put my cross bike down to remount. This leaves me with a nice green arm every race. I did replace it with the same thing so hopefully It'll be good for another 50,000+ miles.

Photo #2 is of the cross bike. Love that cheap steel!

On the Disabled List Again

I have been having abdominal pains for some time now. Last Thurs, ( if you have been reading) was the worst pain in some time. By Fri it had gone away a little, I did the 12 hr. race on Sat- it hurt but was manageable. Sun. and Mon. it seemed a little better, but has now been steadily getting more uncomfortable. I have also been getting weaker on the bike as well. Just got back from a 4 hr. 120 bpm Heart Rate ride- shouldn't have even felt like I rode but it was all I could do to get home. Couldn't breath right over 135 hr. Anyways- I've been researching and talking to some people with medical backgrounds and have come to a conclusion. I am 90% sure that I have an Epigastric Hernia. That would explain alot. That bulge that I felt last Thursday could have been part of my intestines pushing through the abdominal muscles. I think I will skip the Swank 65 race tomorrow- might not be a good idea. I'll go to the Doc. this week and we'll find out what's up. Later- DH

New Look

Freshened up the ol ' blog. Still need to add back the Race Schedule and Links, I'll get to that soon. Stay tuned- DH

Got it done in Charlotte

Loaded up the van on Fri. and Nathan and I headed up to Charlotte for the Tree Shaker 12 hr race. Got to the racecourse @ 4:00 ish and met up with a local that wanted to show off his course. Dude was all kind of fired up so we followed him. Got in a couple of laps and felt alright. My legs were still a little sore from Thus. morning's hard ride but I figured (hoped )they would come around. Anyways, split there, picked up registration, ate, and headed to Arleigh's for the night. One thing that was apparent after pre-riding was that it would be a hard race. The course was bumpy, tight, and either straight up or straight down. It would be really hard to get a good rythm going.
Race Day
Great- 40 degrees out at the start. Ran my but off in the run, 2nd into the woods. Passed the leader on the 1st downhill and opened a good gap. Behind me was a small group with Nathan, Z, and another sketchy guy. Z came across to me and we rolled off. Never saw anybody again. Nathan was riding strong as well, securely in 2nd spot and pullin away. I had a few so-so laps before finally getting into a good rythm and putting down 4-5 solid laps to distance myself. After 14 laps, I was wondering how much time I had so I rolled into the start and was told I was 2 laps up on 2nd. There was only 20 mins. till cuttoff and I had been riding for 11 hrs. Consequently, I didn't feel like riding anymore than I had to (and since it was impossible to be caught ) I called it a day. Nathan's fork unfortunately blew up 11 laps in and he had to bag it. That's too bad- we were running away with the race and it would have been cool to be 1 - 2.
Anyways, packed up , split, and tried to get a shower and sleep. Later- DH

Headed up to Charlotte

Leaving for Charlotte in about 4 hrs. for the Tree Shaker 12 hr. tomorrow. The legs feel pretty good and I should be able to roll it if the rest of me holds up. I had an alarming moment yesterday after eating breakfast. I've had some kind of ulcer or pain under my ribs for six or seven years now. It hurts if I get really stressed out or eat too much. Lately my back has been hurting too, directly across from the pain in front. I can deal with it, eat right and stay mellow and everything is fine. Yesterday though, I got a terrible stabbing pain ( it almost took me off the stool I was sitting on ) under the last rib. Then this hard "thing " the size of a pack of lifesavers candy pops up under my skin. So I push on it and after 15 seconds or so it goes away. I am then feeling dizzy and sweating my butt off. Pretty much stayed that way all day.
I got in 10 or so hours of sleep last night and feel much better now, ribs are a little sore but I'm gonna take it easy today and hopefully I'll feel great tomorrow. I better, or it 's gonna be an extra long 12 hr. race. Anyways, got some packing to do. Later- DH

Sooo Tired of Driving

I've been home One weekend out of the last eight. Driven up I-26 six times recently. However, I did have a productive weekend. Got alot of great riding in the mountains done, the house is no longer mine, built a bunch of wheels, watched Alex get 3rd in an inline competition, saw some of the Halloween Festival in Brevard, and did a beautiful 5 mile trail run. Great weather , friends, and scenery- now back to Charleston till next Thursday's drive up I-26 again. I have a 12 hour race in Charlotte that should be fun. I like riding myself senseless every now and then so it should be good! DH out.

Another one for the " I'm never gonna do that again column."

I'm sure everyone has noticed the beautiful full moon that has been coming the last couple of nights. I too have seen this. Last night I decided to take Liza out on the motorcycle to cruise out at Folly Beach. We took off about 8:45. It was a great night out, clear and cool with a nice breeze. We got out on Seccessionville Rd. and things went downhill. I knew I needed gas for the bike but I still had the reserve and plenty of time before that ran out. Anyways, sputter, sputter, the bike comes to a stop. No problem, I'll turn it to reserve and we'll be off. One problem- I was already on reserve when I ran out of gas. Time to push. The gas station was a mile and a half away at the Piggly Wiggly on Folly Rd. What started out as a nice evening became a humid, hot, sweaty hike while pushing 260 lbs. for 1/2 hour. Finally we saw the neon oasis of the Piggly Wiggly ahead. Filled up, blasted home, got a shower, and went to bed. Yup, I'll never do that again. DH

Weekend Wrapup

Loong weekend is finally over. Drove up to Asheville Fri. night and stayed w/ Robert and Kellie. Saw a flipped over RV towing a flipped over Jeep about 100 feet off the road on I-26 outside Columbia. At least the moron managed to get that thing off the road before he took out a bunch of other vehicles. Anyways- made decent time to Fletcher where the weather was nice and cold. Got up Sat morning to drive over to Johnson City, TN for MSG Cross #2. Nice ride up- beautiful leaves and a crisp clear day- that is one of my favorite drives around. Almost blew up the gas station when Robert hopped out of the van before taking it out of reverse, but everything turned out all right. A little too much Krispy Kreme excitement I guess.
Race- Great course, rolling and fast with 2 sets of barriers and a sand pit too. Robert did his first cross race and while we were expecting some carnage, there was none - he rode well and I was next up so I got my warmup on and got ready to race.
Actually had a field of nearly 20 racers in the Pro 1/2, with a good bit of heat showing up. Will Black, Dan Timmerman from Kodak/ Sierra Nevada, Andy Applegate, and a few others indicated this was gonna be a hard one. Yup- the race started fast, then went faster. I settled in around 10th for a few laps, waiting for the fast start to take it's toll. Sure enough- 2-3 laps in and people were blowing up and making mistakes. By the halfway point I had moved up to 6th and was feeling pretty good. I stayed here for the rest of the race. I wasn't gonna get caught and wasn't making time on 5th so I felt pretty good. Then another problem presented itself. Dan Timmerman was about 1/2 lap up on everyone else and closing on me fast. I was gonna get 6th no matter what but I really didn't want to get lapped so I had to turn it on pretty hard. The last lap Dan was about 20 sec off me the whole way and closing fast near the finish. I gave it all I had left and held him off by about 10 feet or so. That done, everyone behind had been lapped so they were done. I could relax and all I had to do was finish the lap and I was good to go.
I was hurting so bad after that race, I can't remember being in pain like that for a long time. My legs have not been strong enough in the last couple of years to make myself hurt that bad- so I guess that's good! Another good thing is that Applegate usually laps me at those races, this time I was less than 2 mins. off him.
Clean up, pack up, eat, and grab my check and we blasted back south to Asheville.
Had a great dinner at Marco's pizza, got some DQ and called it a night.
Got up this morning and drove to Brevard. Another beautiful fall morning 40 degrees or so out. Robert and I headed out on a ride for a few hours while Liza tied up some loose ends and cleaned the house. We loaded the trailer when we got back, ate lunch and got everything else out of the house, picked up Alex and blew town for Charleston. So long Brevard- It's been real and it's been great, but it hasn't been ( well- you know the rest). 4 hrs. later and alot of stupid drivers later and we are home and ready to put this weekend in the books. Later- DH

Overdue Update

I've been real busy since the last post. Here's what has been going on:
1. We got a contract on the house and will close next week.
2. Race the Greenville Classic crit last weekend and rode very strong. Top 10 all race long and didn't feel as if it was a very fast race. ( I was assured by teammates that it was very fast though) 5 laps to go and the guy leading into turn 3 crosses wheels on #2 - big crash and most of the top guys go down. No free laps with 8 to go, so bad luck there- game over- thanks for playing. Fitness is good however.
3. Still getting settled into Charleston
4. Going to Johnson City Saturday for my first Cross race of the year. Feeling fast but a little rusty- I'm sure I will smooth out the technique soon.
I'll post more soon- gotta pack for the weekend, Later- DH

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, and then some rain.

OK, I'm sick of the rain. I've done about 10 hrs in the rain the last few days. Did 1 min intervals this morning in rain so hard I thought my eyeballs were gonna get bruised. The morning started nice and misty but by the time I was halfway out the bottom dropped out. Ended up with my feet underwater at some points due to the flooding. That's great for the equipment. Fenders, lights, little caps, and rainjackets- fun. What a harsh contrast to the past weekend's sunny weather.
Speaking of last weekend- had a great time on St. Simon's Island for my Cousin's wedding. Started Sat off with about 80 miles, did half of that with my Dad and Uncle. That was a fun ride, I like riding with those guys whenever I can. Sat. evening was the wedding and it was a doozy. Beautiful area and ceremony, then the reception on Sea Island. The whole famile was there together for the first time in a long while. We ate great food, socialized, and danced late into the night. Everyone had a great time. I also was treated to the sight of my dad doing the Robot on the dance floor. Good Stuff. Going to Brevard at 6:00 am tomorrow for some mountain riding and to move the balance of my stuff down here. Till next time- DH

Nice

Productivity

I've had a pretty good week this week. Lotta miles and hours, Muscle Tension Intervals on Mon. ,then 30 min run PM. A good hard group ride on Tues let me get some solid threshold work in. Recovery ride on Wed AM, 40 min run PM. Got up this morning feeling a little worse for wear but once I got riding felt strong. Then I proceeded to drive myself into the ground. Did 1 min. intervals- all out, everything I had. Then I spun easy for 6 min. Then a min. all out, rest for 5 min, then 4,3,2 ,and on down to 1 min on, 1 min off. After that it was all I could do to stay on my bike and make it home. It will be worth it in a few weeks.

On another note, I had an epiphany yesterday. I realized why everyone is so aggro when they are driving around. What I figured out is that everyone is angry because they got ripped off when buying their cars. I bought my van in North Carolina. I payed the same price as one that was purchased here. Mine however came with a rearview mirror and turn signals. Cars purchased in South Carolina cost the same but apparently don't come with these items. This leads to animosity between drivers with a complete vehicle and those that have been ripped off. I feel sorry for these people, they need to do something to remedy this situation. Later- DH

Weekend Update

I've been really busy this week so here's a quick update.
Fri: Drove to Charlotte for Sat. MTB race. Stayed at Arleigh's- thanks for the hospitality!
Sat: MTB race- Smoked everyone on the running LeMans style start, got the holeshot and rolled it. Got caught at the end of the 1st lap. Got passed and was down 45 sec or so by the 3rd lap. Came back. 1 lap to go, I'm 15 sec back and closing. Got the leader in my sights when we hit lapped traffic. The leader squeezed around a group of women before the singletrack and I couldn't. That was the race right there. After I got around I drilled it as hard as I could but couldn't make the time back up. Anyways- A good race, I felt great and rode very well.
Sat afternoon I met up with Liza and her side of the family for her grandmother's 90th birthday party. That was a good time as well. Drove over to Brevard for a late dinner w/ Chris and Kent. Chris just returned from the World Cup Finals in Slovenia and was exhausted as was I so we called it a night and went home.
Sun: Loaded up the trailer with motorcycles and as much furniture as I could hold in the morning. Went on a nice mellow ride @ DuPont with Chris, Wes, and Horse Jockey. Great day and a fun ride. Much better than the 4 1/2 hrs back to Charleston that followed. Alex and I unloaded the trailer and van and hit the sack for some much needed sleep. DH out.

A Little Slice of Justice

Rarely do I ever see anything that involves automobiles while I am riding that makes me happy. However, today was a special day. I was riding along minding my own business out on County Line Rd. this morning about 9:00. I was cruising at 24-25 mph, straight road with no traffic. A white budget car (Kia or Hundai or some junk) buzzed by me so close I could feel the side mirror brush the hair on my arm. No traffic anywhere and plenty of room. I signaled to him how I felt about this ( not a great idea- It'll get you in trouble sometimes but a kneejerk reaction nonetheless). Then ( the good part ) a huge red dually pickup cruises by me ( giving me plenty of room ) and guns it to catch up with the car. He passes the other car rediculously ( and deliberately close ) mainly in the right hand lane, and cuts back in too soon running the other car off the road. He then slams on the brakes until the other car gets back on the road , drives really slow and won't get out of his way. I was a safe distance back watching this go on for a few miles. Yeah- how do you like that! I don't know who was driving that truck but that made my day. Later- DH

Bluetooth Equipped

I'm really glad to be back in the bike shop. However, I am constantly surprised at the rudeness of humanity. If another customer comes in here talking with a headset cell phone on I am going to flip out. There are only three acceptable scenarios for this: 1. You are an air traffic controller and are at the present time landing a plane. (1b. you are flying the plane) 2. you are in the Space Shuttle or either in FL or TX talking to the Space Shuttle. 3. You are directing an air strike on an enemy position. I have seen no evidence of any of these conditions existing so I will continue to do everything in my power to reciprocate this rudeness upon these aforementioned individuals. DH

Progress

Went out on the group run from the shop yesterday. We had 8 people show up to run in the rain so we headed out into the neighborhoods behind the shop. The greenway was muddy so we ran pavement. I was pleased that it was much less painful to run than on Monday, even though I was on pavement yesterday. I was also pleased that I was not breathing as hard as some of the others out there. I feel much better today also. Got a good ( foggy ) ride in this morning with Jay- rolled out @ 7 am into the fog. By 9 the sun was out and it was a beautiful day. Now it's gonna rain again. Hopefully It'll be over in the morning in time to ride again. Later- DH

Charleston Pics.

Here are some assorted photos from rides and places in Charleston.

Specificity

With cross seson coming up I decided I need to do more running this fall to prepare. This is always my weakness in a cross race so I'll address this and work on it. Got some cool new running shoes and planned everything out. Ran for 20 mins. on the greenway last night. Took off from the shop. Everything started off alright even after leaving the running shorts at home and having to run in cut-off Dickies and no shirt. Felt like an escaped convict running down the road. Anyways- this will take some getting use to- I can race my bike flat out for 12 hrs. or more but after 20 mins. of running I feel like the victim of an assault and simultaneous car accident. Back to the bike tonight, then more running tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. DH

I can see the form way out there... But it is getting closer!

Another great week of riding is over. 20 + hours in, 370 miles. Lots of solid mileage, rode hard on Tues, then had a productive weekend 4-5 hrs each on Fri and Sat. Good group ride on Sat then a trip to the beach with Alex in the PM. Getting my tan back and slowly losing weight. I'm really looking forward to cross season now as I should get rolling somewhere near the end of October. Gonna start running tomorrow so the next couple of weeks will be tough with that going down. Watched some good football games yesterday too, the good Tech won, bad Tech got crushed, and Georgia lost to SC. I wish GA/SC could have both lost but it don't work that way when they play each other. Anyways- looking forward to another solid week, gonna be up at my summer estate in the mountains next weekend, then kick back with a rest week after that. By the way- Carbon Race wheels for sale- CHEAP! any takers- lemme know, I need to get up some $ to get through cross season. Later- DH

Go Time

Did the Tues. night group ride tonight. Fast as usual, felt pretty good- Felt out of shape but my Power Tap said otherwise when I downloaded it. I haven't had too much of a reason to ride hard this year with being hurt or sick for so long .. but that changed tonight. There are some new guys ( very fast guys ) that are riding against me specifically- attacking right after I take a pull and whatnot. Some typical Roadie stuff that needs to be dealt with. So yeah, me and D.L. are all kinds of fired up now and ready to cut heads. Guess we'll all have to get faster. Give me a couple of weeks and it'll be - as they say in wrasslin' ON!

Other than that everything is going well- lots of riding, a couple of 4 1/2 hr days back to back this weekend were good- feeling better than I have all year. Probably better than a couple of years. Back pain is gone and my leg speed is starting to come around. Leg injury sustained last weekend got pretty ugly after a couple hundred miles in the rain this week and required some minor bathroom surgery to look like something human again. Gotta keep that thing clean. I'll post later to keep everyone informed on how the warpath is going. Later- DH