Hey, I'm Trying to Sleep Here

198 pounds....

The weight isn't going anywhere when you aren't trying to lose it. Also, I'm catching a cold. Runny nose has been happening for 2 days now. I guess my sore lymph nodes in my neck the other day should have been an indicator.

Here is the look that Mr. Worf aka "The Old Man" was giving me this morning while I was doing my yoga and stretching.

I'm a Shoveling Man, oh yes I am

198 pounds....

The weight is there, but staying steady at the moment. Less intake would help this I have a feeling.

Here is a picture of what I look like shoveling snow this morning. You can't tell in the picture, but I have come up with a way to stop my ear buds from falling out. Duct tape. Yup, I now look like some race car driver with his ear buds taped to his ears. In my case, my duct tape is clear so it's hard to tell that I have it on. It worked like a champ though and I will be using that method much more until I can get some in the canal ear buds. Needless to say, as the sun came up, I starting sweating a ton. The chocolate in my ice cream last night didn't help either. For those not in the know, I'm allergic to chocolate, it raises my body temperature.


This much done along with the walk in the front and half the deck in the back for the grill. I'm one of those odd guys that grills all year round.

This much to go.

This is the view into the garage. Hey that looks like an S-Works in there. It is an S-Works in there. Quick photo of the new bike.

Some days life's a bummer, then.....

196 pounds....

The Fat Loss week is going well. I've lost 4 pounds and I'm feeling better so hopefully it will continue. The headaches have calmed down some and the sugar cravings are just about gone.

Some days life's a bummer like this.

Mr. Worf had a relapse this past week and could hardly walk on Monday morning. We were starting to see signs of it on Sunday night, but it was full blown on Monday. He had slipped a few times on Sunday on the slippery floor and outside on the ice. So I have a feeling that was part of the problem. I took him to the chiropractor Monday and Tuesday and by Wednesday he was back to his old self.

Then, some days are like this.

Rosie sleeping and smiling all at the same time. It is really hard to see her eyes when her hair is this long.

Then there are days that are totally awesome and you get this delivered to you by FedEx.

Ernesto Marenchin "SoloGoat" send me these. I have a 24 Solo poster that I'm getting people to sign. When I was at the Nationals up at 9 mile I missed seeing Ernesto because he had crashed and broke a rib. So I emailed him and asked if I could send the poster to him. He said it wasn't a problem and asked if I wanted some number signed number plates. Needless to say I didn't say no.

I'm now an S-Works Epic Owner

198 pounds....

This week is a Fat Loss week and it is going good so far. Nasty headache today though. Not sure if it is caffeine or allergy related. Either way, it has been sucky.

I bought a 2007 S-Works Epic this past weekend from this guy. I bought it after watching how he took care of it up at the Cheq 40 race. We happened to be staying with the same people that weekend and met by chance. At that time I asked what he did with his bikes at the end of the year and he said that he usually sold them. I mentioned that I would be interested and he contacted me last month about it. And presto, chango, I'm the owner of a really nice bike.

When I get a chance, I'll post a picture of it. He has done some pretty nice mods to it, seat post, stem, handle bars. Not sure if I'll keep them or not since the seat post is a straight one and I currently use the Thompson swept back one that originally came with the 2007 S-Works. The handle bars and such I'll have to see how they feel before making a judgement. I guess the same will have to be done with the seat post. I need to talk to some guys that do bike fits and see what would be the most comfortable for me. This will be the bike that I attempt Trans Iowa on so I better have a nice fit going or I'm not going to be happy after a few hours.

The first big obvious thing about the bike is that it is way lighter than my current one. I'll do the scale thing later and let you guys know. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 10 pounds.

Blah!

198 pounds....

What do you expect after finishing the Master Cleanser and then eating a steak? I gained back some of the weight, but I guess a good thing is that my cravings for sugar are gone. No soda or candy bars here.

Now I just have to figure out a better way to work with my allergies and prescriptions. I don't want to be on medication everyday. One reason is that my blood pressure has slowly went up over the past year and I'm trying to figure out which prescription is doing it. I didn't have this problem before all the allergy medications. Barb is able to take my blood pressure so we will be keeping a close eye on it. Also, I will be starting a log on it to see if we can figure out what is the trigger.

So the past couple of days have been sinus headaches and finally today I have broken down and taken a Claritin in hopes of it helping. If not, Tylenol will be not far behind.

Work is work and school is school. I did get back on the bike for some spinning yesterday. Been trying to let my left knee heal some before getting to my Off Season Graeme Street Training. My left knee has been slightly swollen for the past month and pretty tight. I have been doing some stretching and last week during the fast I didn't exercise at all. Yesterday's workout felt nice and seemed to stretch the whole body out. It was pretty noticeable throughout the day.

NASCAR season is over and Jimmy Johnson wins another points championship. Darn. I guess Daytona isn't that very away after all.

Say What?

197 pounds....

I stopped the Master Cleanser on Saturday because I felt like absolute shit when I got up. The day before I felt bad until I started moving around and such. But Saturday was much worse. I was either detoxing like mad or was getting sick. I broke the fast and started eating soup. By the afternoon I felt much better which was a good thing since Barb and I had tickets to go see Alter Bridge. If you get the chance you must go see them. They are very good live. I was quite surprised since I have been so babied by seeing the likes of Dream Theater, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and such.

Did I mention that I finally rode a century. It was a gravel century but that is what makes it so special. Last month I did the Trans Iowa tune up ride and was able to get in over 106 miles that day. Woohoo!

This is a short week. We will be heading up north for Thanksgiving. We are even taking the dogs. So it should be an interesting trip.

The Master Cleanser Day 5

194 pounds....

Day 5 has been tough. Felt like crap this morning and have been sluggish all day. Today must have been a big detox for my body considering what I was passing this morning after the doing the flush.

I have officially entered Trans Iowa v4. Woohoo!! If nothing else I will ride more in one day than I ever had in my history of riding. It is hard to believe that I only started racing mountain bikes 2 years ago and got back into riding bikes only 2 years before that. Yup, I've only been back riding bikes for 4 years. I guess I should be quite pleased with all that I have done in such a short time.

The Master Cleanser Day 3

198 pounds....

The Iceman has come and gone. I was able to finish the race in 2:38:40. A nice improvement over the 3:01:49 from last year. Now if I can only continue that much improvement over the next couple of years and maybe get below the 2 hour mark.

The Iceman Cometh

That is all that is needed to be said at this moment.

Have been busy doing things and riding. If I get a chance, I'll catch you guys up on that later.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today, Fluffy, my old poodle friend, past away. To this day I still miss her and keep expecting to see her looking out the front window when I come home. The funny thing is that Worf now is occasionally looking out the window for me when I come home. It just sort of tears my heart out when I see it, but how is he to know. He is probably looking for her also. She used to love to bark at squirrels and cats. I can still remember her playing on the couch in Kenosha looking out the window at the squirrel that used to play with her. Or the time that she escaped out the back in Memphis and just sat by the parking lot watching people go by. She didn't run away or cause trouble. Or the one time that Barb had her up north and Barb totally forgot about her being outside. Only to find Fluffy sleeping under a tree in the grass just soaking up the sunshine.

And with this past week of Mr. Worf being sick with the possibility of not recovering, it has made me appreciate him more now that he is all ok. I gave him a big hug today and whispered Fluffy's name in his ear. He seemed to perk up and look around, wondering also where she is off to. We both must miss her.

She had been my friend for over 17 years. So today we will remember her and hope to see her someday at the end of the path. Many hugs and kisses will be exchanged. I can't wait till then....

Cheq 40 - 4:04:49.8

194 pounds....

Still the same weight, maybe I can get going down instead of up.

The Cheq 40 race was this past weekend. I ended up going solo since Mr. Worf had a strange injury happen a few days before leaving. He could hardly walk on his hind legs and was having a tough time with everything. Barb elected to stay home with him instead of having him boarded. That also meant that the girls would be staying home with her.

So Thursday rolled around and I packed up the Neon. I headed up north to my parents place in Catawba for the night. Chatted with Mom and Dad and caught up with Vinnie on how he has been doing since he has been battling shingles.

Friday morning came and then off to Ladysmith to visit my brother. His Corvette has been going thru more modifications and is looking better than it has in the past. We did go out and pound it some on the county roads. One thing that I will be doing before we go to Road America is to get a neck collar. If he pins it and you're not ready, you head is snapping back real fast.

After spending time with Tim, it was off to Hayward to meet up with Ted and Andrea at the New Moon bike shop. Nice shop up there in the middle of no where. Then off to Telemark Resort and the house that Ted has been renting for many years.

I did a preride with Sonjay and Ty of the last 4 miles of the course. Pushed pretty hard during that time since there are so many hills. It was decided after this that we would be prestaging our bikes race morning at 6:00am.

5:00am came and off we went. Surprisingly, we were not the only ones out there at this time. And it was cold, very cold. We headed back for more sleep. I did my usual no food before the race while everyone else was doing their normal things.

The race went quite well for me besides having 2 rear chain sucks. I have never had this happen to me before. The chain jammed between the spokes and the cluster, not once, but twice. I'm not sure yet if I have a mistuned rear derailleur or what. I finished the race in 4:04:49.8. I would have been somewhat faster, but probably not much. I started the race with my shell on and that was WAY to hot. That forced me to stop and take it off. Later at the fire tower hills, I ended up walking quite a bit of those which didn't help much. I was on track with my Hammer products and the body overall felt pretty well. I did cramp some at about the 3 hour mark and needed more Endurolytes out of sequence, but they did their job for the rest of the race. I also stopped and gave another rider some Endurolytes since he was cramping up big time about 2 miles from the end. I then stopped again when a love bug got under my sun glasses and was bothering my vision big time. When I went to get it off the glasses, I dropped them. I was lucky enough to have them not get squished by another rider. By the end I was spent. I might have left some on the table, but not much. Overall, I am quite happy with my first time at this race. Hopefully I will be able to compete it in again next year.

I know I will be gearing my training for climbing before Iceman. Graeme Street has a 4 week climbing training plan that I will be doing once I am done with this week of recovery.

Congrats to all I know that were there and that competed: Ted, Ty, Christine, Carlos, Greg, Mike, Russell, Bubba, Rick, the other Mike, Andrew, Shawn, Connie, and Sonjay. Thanks to everyone for a fun weekend.

I even got to meet Gary Fisher. That was pretty cool.

Cyclo-MTB Week 2 Day 4

194 pounds....

Some weight came back, but I'm feeling somewhat better. I will need to work on my diet and eating habits to get back down below 190.

I have been working on Cyclo-MTB in preparation for the Cheq 40. Core training and intervals to help me out. My legs hurt, my arms hurt and my core hurts. I guess it's working. Next week will be a Peak week followed by a Race week. The summer has been flying by. After the Cheq 40, I will do a recovery week and then on to the 5 week Cyclo-Speed routine in attempts to get my ass faster on the bike. No matter what, I will be doing better than I am now.

Did you hear that Guitar Ted is going to be rerunning the 100 mile plus gravel ride known as the Guitar Ted Death Ride on October 27th? I think that I might venture down to Iowa for that ride if I'm able to dig up some lights by then. I'll be working hard on that so that I can go do my first century. And what better way to do the first one, but on the dirt.

The Master Cleanser Day 7 (part 2)

I caved in and broke the fast. It is nice to have made it 7 days, but it is even nicer to be back and eating food again. This week will be back to normal with workouts and such then. That will be nice.

Now I will have no problems with going out with John and getting some riding in this next weekend. We are also thinking about doing Levis/Trow Mounds Trails during Labor Day weekend. That would be cool since I haven't been up there before and IMBA has classified it as an Epic.

The Master Cleanser Day 7

188 pounds....

Nothing lost yesterday. I guess that happens when all you do is sit around and do laundry all frackin' day.

The body is somewhat better but still not happy. I think things will be better once I can get back on the bike and do some hard exercise.

The good news is Trans Iowa is on again for next year.

More rain, which the grass is loving, but the NASCAR race is hating.

The Master Cleanser Day 6

188 pounds....

Another day, another pound. The body is still feeling it. My head has not been happy with my sinuses. I still am having cravings though. I almost went out and got myself a Starbucks coffee today, but in the end I just got one for Barb instead.

At this point I will only be doing this for 10 days. I need to get back to training and getting ready for the Cheq 40 in September. Hopefully this will help out with sugar addiction issues.

Surprisingly, it is raining here. I wonder what Don at WORS has done to Mother Nature to have her be so pissed at him. I do believe that there has only been 1 race so far that hasn't seen rain.

The Master Cleanser Day 5

189 pounds....

Now that's how to take off 10 pounds in 5 days. Whew.... I really could go for a bagel or something for breakfast. But not today. Not for at least 5 more days.

The body is still passing mucus and such. My knee joints ache some and the body is doggie. Hopefully this will go away in the next few days. I'm not as cold as I was during the first one of these. Not sure what's up with that. Maybe it's because that one was during the winter and this one is during the summer. I don't know.

Barb and I have ordered tickets for the Harley 105th birthday bash. I figured what the hell, since it will be here in town we might as well go and see what it's all about. Tickets were cheap at only $65 considering all that you get. You can find out more on the Harley website.

The Master Cleanser Day 4

191 pounds....

The pounds are coming off which is nice. The body is not happy today though. My head and various joints ache. I think things will get better as the day goes on, but it sucks big time when the day starts that way.

Visited Dave today for my Thursday massage. That is really what the body needed. I also visited my chiropractor and again, that is really what the body needed. So day 4 continues and hopefully things will go well.

The Master Cleanser Day 3

193 pounds....

I guess the first day was just a teaser. The second day went ok but I really could have gone for some oatmeal with blueberries and peanut butter. Otherwise I made it through ok.

Today is the same. I get some food cravings and then I remember why I'm doing this and drink some more lemonade to help kill the hunger. Oh, I did cheat on the first two days by having some Maple Valley Maple Syrup candy. Is that a bad thing? Then today I had one stick of gum. Just needed something to chew on.

Work is work. Left wrist is still sore, but tomorrow is massage and chiropractor day so that should help some.

The Master Cleanser Day 2

194 pounds....

I lost 5 pounds in one day. Whoa! Overall yesterday felt pretty well. No big real issues. No headaches or sinus issues. Does that just mean today is going to be sucky instead? I guess I will find out as the day goes on.

Overall things are well. My body is still sore from the race this past weekend. The left wrist is still yelling at me and my neck and shoulders are stiff. Otherwise just kinda lazy and slow. As most people would say about me, that's pretty normal.

The Master Cleanser Day 1

199 pounds....

No wonder I feel the way that I do. I weigh more now than when I detoxed last time. Yuck!

We will see how bad the headaches and withdrawals are today. I have a feeling this is going to be tougher than the last one that I did.