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