Sunday was Team Seagals annual
Death by Hills. As usual it was a blast and one hell of a turff ride! Here is the
Gramin link. The last two years I have been unable to attend. Two years ago I was out of commission with a little "stubbed toe" we will say, and last year I went all cards in and made the hustle out to Utah for True Grit.
So this year I decided to make it worth my time and do the old commute on my purple All City Nature Boi SS from my house 20miles out to the DBH start finish parking lot. This was the biggest ride of the year so far for me and the only other big ride I've done was a very windy hundo a few weeks ago on my late 90's dumpster find Litespeed road bike. Yes it is a geared bike and yes it was truly saved out of a dumpster, or recycle bin actually. I've been skateboarding at the park up the street and O.R.B.ing lately too, but riding trails and skating I feel doesn't really compare to a crazy long day in the saddle.
Moving on to some highlights, I caught up to the group of about 80peeps at Strove Frodeman's neighborhood about 10 miles into their ride and 30miles into mine. When I got to the Mceedeez gas station out by the Six Flags I remembered that b-fast was served all day and having the appetite of a 1920's body builder I went for the Sausage Eggee and Chz McMuffin meal with fountain soda. The kinda meal I only eat if I have 80+miles to go of relentless hills. Long story short some nice lady gave me $5 and insisted on paying for my meal. No clue why! I only had a short conversation with her and family in line about my blowed out Bonty shoes. As being not a man of money I gladly accepted and gave hi5's and many a thank you's.
Got going again and then found a unopened gel pack on the road halfway up Allenton Rd. Another SCORE!
Blah blah blah blah I finally catch up to my gal Cassie. She's riding her new purple Nature Boi, too, however she calls it Durst Burnny(think dust bunny). She tells me shes having a great time and riding ss was mosdef the way to go! Back story is she's been torn between her geared and ss bikes, but decided at the end of the day she had way more fun on the 1speed. We rode for a good while until we had to part cuz I was still planning on a return bike ride back to the city.
At mile 77ish I made a stop at the BP to eat salty chips and top off the bottles. D-Rock and Matt Hayes showed up and I finished the remaining 16miles with 'em to the parking lot. Where Cassie was hanging out. We chatted and decided upon pizza and beer for dinner, and beeing the sweet gal that she is let me ride home to get my last 20 miles.
With 14miles to go I was bonking hard and needed sustenance. So I stopped at the Shell station and found the golden ticket. A 69cent iced cinnamon roll with !!!500!!! calories. I rejoiced giving the the kid the last of my change and exchanging silly comments about the saturated fat content. Homeward bound I truly was, and though I can't really say I was as happy as a clam I was in much better spirits after that 69cent packaged saving grace.
The day ended with 125 hilly ss road miles on the Purple Nature Boi, pizza, cold beer, and the Kuddle Krew. My hip was pretty blown out feeling and my knee on my lerft leg has been givin' me guff lately, but all in all I was surprised with my self for kicking the miles out. The last few months I haven't really been kicking out the miles like in previous years. I definitely was also leaving the option open for a ride home, but the motivation of not letting D-Rock 1up me help push me thru, wink wink.
In other news! speaking of my hip. I made a appointment today to get the hardware taken out of my leg. I did as the Doc said and gave it a year, and then a 2nd. To no avail the pain in my hip just keeps getting worse. I was always given the option of hardware removal after 1 year and was told it affects some peeps and others have no ish. Me, I've got issues and think the shit in my leg hurts and is only holding me back.
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| My leg is pivoted out. Like a frogs leg. |
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| Straight on view. |
These are the xrays taken just last Thursday. Yeah, imagine all that shit rubbing around inside your skin every pedal stroke. It totally surks! In less than a month though I get it taken out, which will be rad. It will be 6 weeks of "doing nothing risky", and the first week of just taking it easy. Its also a out patient procedure so I will be in and out that day. During the hangout sesh with Dr Jim he said it looks like the screw down at the bottom is backing out. Guess that means my body doesn't like it?
Anyways, that and me skateboarding a whole bunch is about the only new news I got. I'm still on the fence with what I want to do with racin' this year. I'm really lovin' skating right now, and I also want to get the muscle in my bum leg built up to equal my good leg before I race the bike again. Yeah, my lerft leg is significantly smaller than my right. Its kinda funny, but sucks for needing that strength for racing the big races. What-evs, I have faith that things will work themselves out and then I will be stronger than ever. Hell, last year was probably my best year ever, and that came with a lot of pain. I'm curious to see what happens when that hardware is sitting on the shelf instead of inside my body?
Insert stupid saying here "Only time will tell?"
-peat
