That’s how my legs feel.  Like a big pie of jello.  Last night I did about 2 hours on the single speed which brought the days total to over 3.5 hours.  It was quite a good day.  It was rather humid hear yesterday and with everything I ate and drank yesterday, on the commute home, a strange feeling came over me that I haven’t felt in a few years..I bonked.  Such a good time.  I guess that means I am doing something good on the bike, I guess.  Either way, the ride was good and I wouldn’t change anything.

Today I rode the road bike to work as I am either going to do some hill repeats to work on that or will just do a nice recovery ride.  I haven’t decided yet.  I think it all depends on this weekend.  On one of the days I plan on testing my body to see how it reacts to stopping and starting.  I figure I will go for a 2ish hour ride, then come home, prop up the feet for 2 hours and head back out for 2 and so on and so forth.  My teammate and I decided that we think 2 laps at a shot would be best because of warming up and settling into the grove, so that is why I will be doing 2 hours at a shot, as each lap takes roughly an hour.  I won’t be pushing it at complete race pace, but I won’t be “lolly-gagging” around either.  I want to see how the body reacts and my nutrition needs and such, plus make sure my lights and such work completely.  It is going to be a good time for sure.

I must say I do love riding my bike….I don’t know if its the single speed, the 29er tire, watching the tour every moment I am at home or that I have been off the bike for a little, but either way, I am really enjoying myself…

Last night after work, I went for about an hour or so ride on the single speed, came back to the office, gathered up all my stuff and commuted the 20 minutes home.  Altogether I put in about 2 1/5 hours on the bike.  Sure the most of it was commuting with a couple hours between the 20 minute commute, but still, it still counts as quality time on the bike when I am pushing the bike as hard as I can to help simulate race pace or faster.  I know that after 20 minutes the pain will stop, so I push harder.  Plus I do carry things with me ranging from extra clothing, water, and I have been carrying one of out distributor’s catalog with me.  I figure that extra weight might help, but probably not.

The legs were sore last night, as expected, but this morning when I woke up, they felt fine.  Time to push the bike hard again this morning.  I did take quite a tumble last night, so I have 2 cool bruises forming on both shins from them hitting the pedals.  There is nothing like riding along at like 20 mph and then all of a sudden finding yourself laying on the ground without knowing what happened.  I must say that is one reason I like road biking.  I haven’t fallen on my road bike yet, knock on wood, but have fallen many times on the mt. bike and it is never fun.

For what its worth in my own mind, I have convinced myself I am ready to tackle the 24 hour race, and with 2.5 more weeks to go, I will be 100% ready and confident we will not only finish strong, but be a stiff competition for the other 2 man teams..

Last night did about a 1.5 hour ride and this morning I have been out and about for a little.  I like the commute to work, which ends up being about 20 minutes each way if I take single track the entire way.  So this morning already I have over an hour of riding time in, plus I think I will take an extra hour or so spin before I head home via the 20 minute commute.  Plus if Kelly is interested in taking the road bike for a spin, when I get home, that might happen too.  If not, then it seems like I am mowing the lawn.  I am really working hard to get myself into shape for this 24 hour race…..maybe a little to late, but I am going to give it one heck of a shot.

Well, I am back to the home office from a great weekend at the US Nationals at Mt Snow.  Great weekend for racing.  Adam Creig took 2 national Championships, the Super D and Cross Country, and there were MANY folks on the the podium that rode Michelins.  It does make me feel good having all the athletes come back to our truck telling me that the tires made all the difference.  They might be bowing smoke at me, but either way, makes me feel like I made a bit of a difference in their race.

I am back home and back on the bike.  I did get a ride in at Mt Snow and with all that rain they got, it was rather gnarly.  I did a nice 40 mile road ride last night and tonight I will head out on the mt bike just to keep the technical skills up to par.  Weather has been rather warm these past couple of days, so I think that I am going to get the trainer out and ride in the morning doing the Spinervals workouts.  That way I get to stay cool and get a quality workout done in the morning, then I can go for a nice light cruise at night.

Yesterday I went off to try 2 hours on the bike and see how I felt after it. I left after work to piece together a 2 hour ride without many hills, as I wanted to see the endurance, not the hill climbing ability, as I already know I am no good with hills. 30.1 miles, an average of 18.5 mph and 1:40 minutes later I was back at home with both quads locked up by cramps. I did a fairly hilly route, plus the hill up to my house is nothing to laugh at, and I am happy with yesterday’s effort. I will do a nice light spin with the little lady tonight and a quick spin tomorrow before I head to Mt Snow for the US Nationals and try to do a bunch of riding when I get there. Because of how many tires I will need to drag with me, it seems I will only be mt biking and not road biking, which is completely fine with me….

Yesterday, weather wise, was kind of awful. I spent most of the day watching racing. The morning was the daily installment of the Tour and the evening was the Nascar race. Luckily between the 2, the weather broke, things dried and I got out on the bike again. I must say it was rather nice. I didn’t try to push myself to hard or work to hard, I just wanted to spin the legs being it has been 3 weeks since I have been on a bike and only been out of surgery for less than a week. I must say, with my personality that it was hard not to want to ride hard, but I did my best. I did about 18 miles averaging 18.04 mph which I thought was ok. I certainly did lose a lot of fitness. With about a month to go until the 24 hour race, I have a bunch of work today. I think this week I will start of slow, building towards the weekend, and then next week, hit it hard, really hard, for 2 weeks. My plan is simple. Ride hard and ride often.. Being this is roughly 75% carriage roads, I plan on doing most of my riding on the road bike. I feel like my technical skills are alright so the mt bike will be put on hold for now. I figure to make up sometime , I will dig out the fixed gear and really work the legs. I suspect some good times will follow in these next couple of weeks.

Well, the surgery went well.  I am not in recovery mode.  So on Monday, they went in with some lasers, blasted up the 6mm stone and sucked out as much of it as they could.  Monday I came home from the hospital and watched the tour.  Tuesday, stayed at home and watched the tour.  Wednesday, came into the office for a little, but was in too much pain so went back home and watched the tour.  Yesterday, I went into the urologists office and they removed the stint that kept the ureter open.  That wasn’t as much fun as it sounds.  Today, I am ok, but am still in quite a bit of pain.  I am on some pretty heavy meds and really can’t do much.  I am actually getting restless sitting at home.  That and being tired of peeing blood all the time.   Thank goodness for the tour being on.

As far as the bike, it is killing me being I haven’t been on it for more then 3 weeks at this point.  Kelly comes home every day from work and goes for a ride, just leaving me there.  It almost makes me cry.  It seems as if by the middle of next week I should be able to start back up road biking.  I am thinking that I will just ride the trainer for workouts instead of riding outside, as that will focus my efforts a lot better than just riding.  I am really concerned about the 24 hour race being I have spent so much time off the bike.  Seems as if I will just have to put my head down and hammer through the race.

As I read over this post, it seems as if it isn’t the best post I have written, but it is the best I can do at this point.  Maybe the meds are starting to get a hold of my mind.  Sorry..

Monday morning, 10:45 am….doomsday for the kidney stone….and boy I am excited.  Nothing like a room full of doctors and nurse’s working around “little Mikey”.  I think that is the part I am the most nervous about.  “the boys” are going to be man handled and I don’t like the sound of that.  Something else, the nurse told me today that the stint might be in for up to 3 weeks, unlike the doctor telling me up to 3 days.  Thats a bit of time difference wouldn’t you say??

Also they told me I might want to think about a living will or think about who has power of attorney in case something goes horribly wrong.   Umm….I thought this was a simple little routine surgery..sure sure, they are just “covering all basis” but still, I don’t like the sound of that…any takers who ant to be in charge of me in case I turn veggie??  yea, probably an internet poll isn’t the best and I should let a family member do that.  good thinking mike..

Well, its official, I need to get surgery.  In fact I already have it scheduled for Monday.  After that, I think recovery time is like 3-4 days.  Needless to say, I don’t think I will be able to do the practice run up Mount Washington next weekend.  I haven’t been on a bike in about a week and a half now, plus the next week of not riding will make the trek up Washington painful.   I am throwing the white flag in already.  With all of this, I should be able to get back in some sort of shape in the next month for the 24 hour race.  Either way, the next week has a bunch of couch time scheduled.