recovery – Ogrehut.com

Winter Blues and Recovery.

Ok, seems like every year it gets harder and harder to ride in the winter time. This winter seems a little colder and wetter early on than the past few. This is generally good news around here since we’ve had a few dry seasons, but it does make it a little tougher to ride. I used to be pretty gung ho about winter riding.Â The last couple years the idea of riding in the rain and cold has lost it’s appeal. To make things worse, after avoiding the scale for a couple months I finally weighed myself and discovered I’m at a 2 year high.

So the problem is, how do you get back in shape when you aren’t motivated to get out and ride. My solution has been twofold, short high intensity exercise and radical diet change. Continue reading Winter Blues and Recovery.

A Little Bit Insane

I had an appointment scheduled to have my staples removed on Friday but my doctor’s office was CLOSED how lame is that? So by Sunday my staples were driving me NUTS so I did what any slightly insane person with reasonable pain tolerances would do…. I pulled them out.

I don’t recommend you do this yourself, but I boiled some wire snips and some forceps over the stove then proceeded to pull them out one by one. The staples curved in a bit so I had to snip the top then pull the staples up then sideways. Overall it took about 30-45 minutes and was not particularly painful. No gushing blood, and the leg feels much much better now that they are out. The gory pictures.

I am also now completely free of pain meds which is good news. My sleep is a little off now because my body is expecting that little extra helper for snoozing but overall the pain is manageable and I’m liking the pill free lifestyle.

Physical Therapy (finally) starts tomorrow. I’m doing out-patient PT at a clinic, hopefully they will be at least a little familiar with cycling and physically active people.

Boggs Ramblings and Post Mortem.

Last week someone offered me free entry into a race near Clearlake, CA at a great park called Boggs. I’d been thinking of going to the race and getting the free entry sort of tipped me over the edge. The race is a 24 hour endurance race.Â I did a solo entry and figured on taking it easy and just seeing how many laps I could in 24 hours. Never really thinking in terms of it being a “race” more just an endurance event.Â I started out at a fairly moderate pace. The first lap was a pokey 1:12 minute pace. Between laps I recharged my nutrition and did a little tuning of the bike.

The second lap was more fun than the first. Folks were spread out and I was rolling at a good pace and chatting with other racers. Nearing the end of the lap, there is a long climb then a really fun section of singletrack. It’s not very challenging, in fact I often recommend it for beginning riders. It’s called Gail’s trail. Primarily just fast, smooth rolling trail with occasional easy to avoid rocks or trees. The only tricky bit about Gail’s trail is the fact that the edges are soft and covered with slippery pine needles. I was cruising down Gail’s at a good clip, really enjoying myself. I’d just passed someone and the fun meter was set to about 8, then my front wheel found those pine needles. Continue reading Boggs Ramblings and Post Mortem.