Another week has come and gone. I had high hopes of some good mileage for the week but they didn't always happen thanks to Motha Nature's bad attitude where she threw a couple days worth of hail spitting, tornado producing thunderstorms at us. Luckily it meant I was missing out on a couple days of commuting and not one of the longer rides reserved for my days off.

Left my sunglasses in Jenn's car.  Had to kick it old school for the day.

Horse Country

This sign means only one thing, Fun Riding Ahead!

Remind anyone else of the Tree of Life at Disney?

Proper recovery is key.  Fresh fruit, frozen fruit, 3 scoops of Powerbar recovery, 2 scoops of ice cream and a splash of milk

And for dessert, Grilled Bananas with ice cream

Lost and Found

Like many of you I often miss place items I "need". It is usually when timing couldn't be any worse, as I am rushing out the door. My keys used to be hard to keep track of but I found a real convenient place to keep them, the front doorknob. Jenn doesn't like it but it certainly speeds up my ability to locate them as it is the first place I look. The second place is where they are supposed to be on the key rack before I start tearing the house apart. A few weeks ago I lost my favorite pocket knife. Last week I lost my Ipod. I found it. Then I lost it again.

3 years ago Jenn lost something most of you (not us because I embraced losing mine many years ago) dread losing, her mind. It has been a long hard road of searching everywhere for it but it is still gone. I can tell she misses it sometimes. I try not to let her know but I have caught her just staring at me a few times recently. At first, I would try to figure out "What I did not do?" as it is usually what I don't do that gets me into more trouble than what I actually did. Then I remembered a special anniversary coming up. That's right 3 years to the day she was blinded by both my bald head and the bling and said "yes". I would appreciate if you see her mind just laying around somewhere you leave it there and don't tell her where it is. I have kinda gotten used to her being around all the time.

With the birthday celebrations in the past I was hoping to be able to settle in this week and get some riding done before I started traveling for the week.  That didn't happen except for on Tuesday where I was able to get in a quick 40 after work along side the TnT crew.  I had the time and the weather to do it on Wednesday once I got back into town but my lower back has been plaguing me for about a week now so the ride didn't happen. 

Thursday brought a day trip to beach where I was reminded that like NOVA drivers, the peeps at the beach should also all have their licenses revoked as they cannot get through a single rush hour period without hitting someone else.  It took me more than 54 minutes to go 4/10 of a mile and then wa-la I was cruising the highway at faster than posted speed limits.  Not to the other drivers, the speed limit was raised on 64 to 70mph quite sometime ago, its OK to go faster than 60. 

The time in the car brought on more back inflammation which meant Thursday night and all day Friday was spent going in and out of consciousness while trying to keep my back as still as possible.  Thanks to the world of the Interwebs, yesterday wasn't a total failure however.  I was able to conjure enough strength to place an order for another RAAM documentary called, You Need No Victory, To Be A Winner. 



I had seen the preview a few months back but unfortunately, there wasn't an American coded DVD available and my PS3 won't play the EU coded bike pron.  Last week, I read a review of the movie over on UltraRaceNews. It is now being sold by a brand spanking new company who no customer reviews over on Amazon.  I took the chance and ordered one yesterday, who knows maybe they will throw in a special something something for being their first customer...

What I do know is I am not making my dream of racing RAAM any easier.  Later this year, I still have to get my qualification while playing in the Adirondacks and then the true test of endurance begins, convincing Jenn that the race is a good idea.  Her reply when I told her I ordered the film, "You don't really want to do RAAM do you?"  Hmphh...Good thing I don't always listen to the words that come out of her mouth...

Only as old...

The ole adage says "You are as old as you feel."  This past Saturday, I turned another full year older which officially makes me 3_ but I feel like I am 87.   Each and every morning I wake my body reminds me I am not getting any younger.  Aches here, pains there.  A very small part of me wishes I hadn't and didn't continue to abuse my body as hard as I do.  But that is just who I am.  I enjoy pushing myself to what I perceive is my limit which I will only ever fully achieve once in this lifetime because once I reach it the proverbial rubber band will snap.  It will then be up to friends, family and doctors to put me back together again.

Lucky for me, I have the best set of friends and family anyone could ever ask for.  Those that were in town were able to gather for a small celebration Saturday evening.  One person who was not invited but somehow found out about the party via a highly complicated and elaborate email hacking ring was Mother Fphin Nature.  She was not happy to have been off of the guest list.  She sent a string of thunderstorms full of rain, hail and tornado like winds.  She must have forgotten that I too am slightly computer savvy and was able to see all of her attacks coming well before they got here.

I channeled my Native American ancestors (I'm sure I have at a least one right?) who told me that if I lit a fire at night the thunderstorms would stay away or maybe we had gotten to the point in the story of how to keep coyotes away.  Not being able to remember, I filled 2 chimneys up with charcoal and set them ablaze.  After seeing the way the heavy storms veered away I am certain that not only are coyotes afraid of fire but so are thunderstorms.

With the weather behind us, we could now get down to the business of grilling and acting a fool.  I did the grilling and everyone else took on the task of acting a fool.  The night consisted of human beat boxing, dance offs, synchronized swimming, thoughts of rowing the canoe down the river (ahem, creek) and a few rounds of flip cup racing.

Thank you to everyone who came out and a special thank you to my best friend and wife, Jenn!  At least for one night I felt 30 something again and not 87.  Now where is that Advil bottle?!

Ride your bike

"If we all road a bike, we would all look better in lycra."

Do you remember...

Do you remember as a kid spending so much time over your friends house that it seemed as if it were yours?  Having a second mother after you were accepted into their family as one of their own?  Maybe now as we all get a little bit older your house is becoming that house for your children's friends. Growing up, Ashley's house was that house for my wife Jenn.

For as long as they can remember, Ashley and Jenn have been best friends.  Growing up they were inseparable, spending days and nights over each others homes.  When you spend so much time with someone you cannot help but become just as close with their family.  Toni (Jenn's mom) and Debbie (Ashley's mom) accepted and treated each others daughter as if they were their own.  As Jenn said, "Her family was my family and my family was hers." 

By now you are asking yourself why am I being told this?  What road are we about to go down?  Sadly, back in 2005 Debbie was diagnosed with cancer of the colon and has been battling everyday since.  Always the fighter, Debbie has undergone several different treatments over the past few years in hopes of ridding her body of the unrelenting cancer.  Many of these treatments like chemotherapy where developed by the doctors who were funded by the donations raised by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).  Last year Debbie passed the 5 year mark since she had been diagnosed which only about half colon cancer patients get to experience.

Jenn and I would like to ask you to join us in the battle.  This summer Jenn will be attempting to complete her longest triathlon to date.  The Nation's Tri is held each year in our Nation's capitol, Washington D.C.  and is an olympic length distance.  She will be doing 1.5k swim, 40k bike and finishing with a 10k run all in dedication and honor for second mother, Debbie.

How can you help?  I'm glad you asked!  With just a couple of mouse clicks you can make a big difference.  Start by clicking here http://pages.teamintraining.org/va/nattri11/jcwelch From there you can read Jenn's page and make a 100% tax-deductible donation to the LLS.  We have set a goal of raising a minimum of $2450 before Jenn takes the starting line.  If you prefer, send a check made out to LLS to:

7512 Brightridge Rd, Chesterfield, VA 23832

Every dollar DOES make a difference…. And no donation is too small.

If your company has matching gifts, please take advantage of this to make your donation go further! Just let me know so I can send you the necessary forms.

Thank you,  Now Click, Read, Donate!

Wanna go that way

With things still a bit crazy at the shop, I had to go into work for a few hours mid-afternoon.  It gave me the perfect opportunity to try out a new route to work.  The last couple of times I have had to cross the Huguenot bridge has left me cursing everything about it.  Since they announced that a new bridge was going to be built the current one has seen very little maintenance.  It's full of big potholes and their idea of fixing them is overfilling them so now it has huge mounds.  It just isn't much fun to ride during high traffic times which is when one would normally commute.

Looking at the map I found a way to get over to the Nickel Bridge.  Not being too familiar with that area and only having negative memories of a couple sections of that route from when I was younger, I felt it would be a good thing to roll through in the middle of the day when not too much was going down.  I was quite excited to find out there really weren't any bad sections.  Hell the sections I thought might be a bit rough ended up having nice newly paved roads with shoulders.

Once on the bridge, I stopped for a quick photo of the river from a different perspective.   You can see the Huguenot Bridge off in the background.  You can also see the tower at the carillon which was were I wanted to go .  A quick jaunt down Grove and I was 3/4 of the way to work.  The rest was the same it always is.

 

Hug-a-nut bridge upriver

 

 Heading in that general direction

The ride home was a bit more work.  The wind had started to pick up out of the South and I hadn't eaten too much.  I was planning on grabbing lunch before I left but when it came time, I just jumped on the bike and headed back home.  By the time I had to make the climbs back through the Boulders and up Newby's Bridge my legs weren't having it anymore.  I knew what the problem was but since I was so close to home, I didn't bother eating anything more on the bike. 

I paid for that decision the rest of the evening as the sluggishness of malnutrition and dehydration set in.  After recording my daily eats and workouts into Training Peaks it would come to light I wasn't anywhere close to eating properly which I didn't really need too much help figuring out.  My caloric intake was a negative 4646.  Sounds high but when I only took on 300 calories for breakfast, no lunch and then a small dinner it isn't that far off.  It's no wonder I am so hungry today.  Time for lunch!