Archive for October, 2009

It’s 3:56PM on a Sunday afternoon, and I’m sitting in my apartment without any pants on.  This is primarily due to the fact that if I did happen to be wearing pants, they would be rubbing against my still raw road rash from a nice little spill I took yesterday.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks, but I’m not much worse for wear.  I started off by coming down with a nasty cold/the flu/sinus infection that took me mostly out of commission for more than a week.  Somehow or another I didn’t miss any work, but four days in a row during the week prior to this last one, I came home and was in bed asleep prior to 6-7PM, and wouldn’t wake up until 7 the next morning to go to work and repeat the process.

That didn’t stop me from going to hear ex-pro Joe Parkin talk on Friday night last week.  Nor did it keep me from seeing Mucheazy while he was in town last weekend up from San Francisco – an evening which turned into going to bed at 5AM after being the “sicko” and therefore default designated driver.

I tried to get back to workouts early this last week, but my energy level still wasn’t back.  On Monday, I jogged a mile (I’d been running 5-6 on a weekly basis) and my body decided it was done.  By Thursday, I was starting to come around and managed to feel pretty good during a plyometrics workout.

This weekend was mostly back to business as usual.  Friday night was a blast – carving pumpkins with Chris, Karey, Derek, Leeann, Kennett, Quinn, Gavin, and more – followed by going out to the bars, dancing, and generally creating chaos.

Yesterday I woke up after crashing on Derek and Leeann’s couch to a delightful pancake breakfast.  The weather was too good to not go for a ride, so Derek and I set out on our cross bikes into Forest Park.  Leif Erickson drive was a great mix of mud, leaves, and puddles that made for a slippery fun time.  I tore through corners and stayed upright the entire time – until I got to the only stretch of the road that is paved (and is less than a quarter mile long).  I was riding squinting into the sun and was headed around a corner at probably about 20MPH but had to avoid a couple of runners.  The next thing I knew, my back wheel had completely come out from under me and I slid a good 20-30 feet on my left side on the wet pavement.  I should have seen that one coming, wet leaves on pavement and all.

The damage to my shorts and knee warmers was minimal, but as is usually the case, pavement did more damage than the lycra would suggest.  I’ve got nice road rash on my hip, knee, shin, and a bit on my elbow, but nothing beyond some surface damage.  As you’d know if you’ve had road rash before, the shower following the ride is… you could say… “fun”.

I made a quick turnaround to head right back to Derek and Leeann’s place where I met up with Leeann for a photoshoot.  She wanted some flute-related photos for a website, and I wanted to get more experience with portrait photography, so we walked (I hobbled) to some interesting spots near their place.  I’m pretty happy with how things came out.

A few more on Flickr – all in all I came up with about 30 photos I really liked.

Following that, we met up with everyone (Chris, Karey, Derek, and Leeann all live in the same building as of last month) for sushi before heading over to JLV’s place for his belated 30th birthday party.  Not surprisingly, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, oversized belt buckles, and Guitar Hero
all made appearances.

Today – a three hour ride in the morning to keep the leg loose, editing photos, drinking hot chocolate, reading a book, writing this post, and more!  I had originally planned on heading out to the cyclocross race, but fresh road rash and cyclocross just doesn’t seem like the greatest combination.  I’ll make it out for a race here sometime in the near future – perhaps next weekend for Halloween ‘cross.  I just need to figure out my costume.