Complaining

I've managed to not come on my blog and complain every day for the past two weeks about how terrible my ribs feel. And how my sternum keeps like popping. And if I raise my left arm my ribs click.
I tried to stay away from riding as much as possible, but who am I kidding... if I can do it, it'll be done. You'd think I'd be smart and ride my road bike, but no. But really I didn't ride too much... I don't want to be stupid.
Actually riding off road wasn't too horrible... it's the breathing that would get me. Trying to fully inhale was painful so it would always cut the ride short.
Not to mention there was a sort of fear of crashing that I never have. The thought of going down on my ribs wasn't a pleasant one.
The past two days were really painful. It was way worse than even the day after it happened. I woke up today and felt a lot better. I didn't even feel the need to dull it with pain meds. So I decided to ride. It still hurt and it hurt a little to breath, but I could. Too bad it didn't stay light out, I would've stayed out much longer.
I feel okay right now, not too bad... but I'll know how much better I am by tomorrow when I wake up.
This weekend.... what to do, what to do....

So....

Who is NOT going to Chequamegon?

No racing for me

It wasn't worth it. I sneezed a few minutes ago which pretty much sealed my no regrets. I'm bummed I didn't but I don't regret my decision. I'm more annoyed at my situation. It sucks being injured.
Lake Geneva is one of my favorite courses. It's technical and I do better at that type of climbing than I do at Palos type climbing.
Meh.

I still was able to see everyone so that was cool.

I don't even know what to write about so I'll leave it at I'm hoping to ride this week.
John'll be gone all weekend for Chequamegon.

Is there anyone not going, provided I can find a sitter, up for a ride down here?

Mesa, Swallow Cliffs, Palos? Or maybe I'll finally try to get to See Wee Kaw, depends on my ribs though.

Ow, my ribs.

Fuck. I'm so pissed.
I think I may have a cracked rib.
It sucks to laugh, cry, cough and OMG don't even mention sneezing.
It doesn't totally suck to breath, only when I breath deep.
For the most part I'm just really uncomfortable.
I'm going to pre-ride tomorrow and see how I feel.

I'm going to bed now because I'm so irritated. I took some prescription pain relief to sleep. I'm hoping to be magically be better by morning.

Rather

I can't even believe I'm saying this...

I have no desire to race Sunday. NONE. The weather is fucking fabulous and all the trails are MINT around here. I don't want to sit in a car. My ribs hurt. Climbing can suck it. I have lots more reasons as to why I don't want to race.

Right now I'd rather just stay home. I'd love to go on an epic mtb ride here, hang out with my kids and *gasp* watch the damn Bears' game.

ETA: I'm pre-registered which is a huge reason I feel obligated to go.
That and the majority of my friends will be there anyway, so my epic mtb ride wouldn't happen.

real quick...

I rode Swallow Cliff tonight. It was awesome. A-W-E-S-O-M-E! I can't describe the feeling I had riding through the illegal singletrack. I was super pumped! I need to bring people out there pronto to have that same feeling.
What pisses me off though is, well, at the end of my ride as I was heading to the lot I decided to check out the creek singletrack. I didn't remember if it went anywhere or it just stopped.
So as I was looking at the pretty creek and avoiding the down tree I hit another log I didn't see. BAM! I hit the down tree hard as hell with my rib cage and hip. I knocked the wind out of myself for what felt like minutes. It hurt, but I think I was more pissed that that's how my ride ended. And then to add insult to injury there was fucking ITCHWEED!!!
My left side is getting purple. If it gets purple enough I'll get a pic.
Sneezing sucks and laughing and coughing... but it's not bad enough to stop me from riding or anything.

Wait... It's Monday?

So weird... it's felt like Sunday all day.
Maybe it's because I've barely done anything this holiday weekend except get a couple bike rides in.
There were things going on this weekend, however I didn't want to commit myself to anything. It was nice not being on a schedule for once.
Saturday I ended up taking my road bike out. I hadn't been in awhile and I think I was still pretty worked over from the race last Sunday and the mountain bike rides I hit during the week. I clipped on my iPod and just headed out with no plan. It was pretty uneventful really. I felt like crap the whole ride; but I was on my bike so how crappy could it be?
Sunday... hmmm... Sunday. Yeah, I sat around all damn day. I had no desire to get up and get motivated to do anything. And I didn't even have the excuse of the internet because that was super boring all day. So finally I checked the CAMBr board and a friend of mine, Nancy, posted a ride for 3:30. Perfect. It's 2:50 now. So I quick loaded up and headed to the staging area. It ended up being Nancy, some other dude whose name escapes me, Cory and me. I felt bad the whole beginning of the ride, but by the end I felt like I shook whatever was making me feel flat off. We rode the old portion of Cemetery Hill. Holy log crossings. I love log crossings.
Monday (today I guess). I was itchin' all day to ride. I wanted to ride with John but that just wasn't workin' out at all. The neighbor kids came over to head over to the mesa later that afternoon. I thought about tagging along with them, but just didn't feel like it. I ended up taking a nap. I don't know what my deal was/is lately, but I've just felt tired. I woke up determined to get out of the house. Right away I grabbed my Twin Six bird jersey with matching socks and my iPod. I headed straight for the Mesa.
When I first arrived I felt, yes you guessed it, like crap. WTF? Anyway, I just kept riding. I started to feel really good right about rainbow bridge. Pat Benatar came on my iPOd. Coincidence? I think not. I felt really good and just started attacking the singletrack. I came into some corners WAY too hot testing my SRAM XX brakes. It felt good to push my skills a bit. I just wish I'd seen that one tree...



It ended up being a great ride. I came home refreshed and with a big smile on my face.
I didn't think it could get any bigger til I saw Zoe pimping her two wheels all by herself! She sort of had it a couple months ago but was all over the place. She hated it. She wouldn't ride anything but her Strider. Apparently today was the day cuz she was awesome. I'm so proud of her!

The Meltdown. Second ravine