18 months after lumbar spinal fusion, I finally feel like I’m on a steady upward trend. More miles, weight loss, and I’m hosting group rides again!
Happy Hundred: A Day at the Jesse James Bike Ride
I went into this week not knowing how the Jesse James 100 miler would go. I was out of town again for a decent portion of the week, and I’ve learned that work trips are hell on my back. My nerves were frazzled this morning, that’s for sure.
Getting Over My Fears
Last weekend I decided that I should go on my former normal Saturday morning group ride and try to get over my fears. It had been months since I had gone. The last time I went, I hammered to stay attached, got dropped, and ended up with back spasms. Not good. How did it go this time?
Too Afraid to Ride
I’m scared of riding right now. If I’m too busy to ride, I don’t have to test my body. If I don’t test my body, I don’t have to know whether I’m too broken.
Elimination
I’m in the middle of an elimination diet. Even though it’s thoroughly irritating to execute properly, I’m learning great things. Have you tried an elimination diet? What did you learn, and how did it affect your cycling?
Flow
Somehow I managed to have one of my worst rides, and one of my best rides, all within a span of a few days. The second ride got me into the blissful state of “flow” and I forgot just how good that could be.
Ride Across Iowa in a Day, Part 2
A group of 9 intrepid cyclists headed out in the extreme heat to tackle riding 300 miles across Northern Iowa in under 24 hours. Did we make it?
“Don’t do anything stupid”
I have an upcoming crazy / stupid / bad idea ride coming up. It’s one of those rides that makes people pause and say “wait, you’re doing WHAT?!” and I couldn’t be more pleased. This comes on the heels of my one year spinal fusion anniversary, and it seems like a fitting celebration if you ask me.
Ludicrous but Reasonable
Time flies when you’re busy. On some level I knew that the spring was quickly evaporating, and work travel combined with general life had kept me off the bike. Once we hit June I realized that my epic-stupid-crazy ride was less than a month away. Uh oh. Time to start training, or tapering, or give up, or something.
Let’s Talk about Depression
I have been hiding for a few weeks, and it’s time to talk. One of my goals of this blog and my Facebook page is to talk honestly about the highs AND the lows of life. I feel like it’s isolating and dishonest to only publish the good things when you’re publicly chronicling so much. That said, it’s high time I wrote this post about depression. The news of Kate Spade’s suicide was another reminder of how all too often we suffer in silence. I hope she had friends to support her in challenging times. Hopefully talking about depression a Read More