A Bicycle Built for Three and a Party

I finally got the Burley Paso Doble freshened up enough to ride. I put brand new tires on it last fall but we never got out to ride it. Since my shoulder surgery in February, I didn't feel confident wrestling with the bike until recently. It really is like driving a semi with no power steering, and a weak shoulder is a real detriment. So, after installing the attachment for Katie's Chariot (for real--that's what her trailer is called) to the rear axle of the tandem, we set out for our first cycling triple threat.

Katie loves cycling (whew! my prayers were answered), so we set her up with her Camelbak (see my previous post with video footage) and some teething rings (3 down, only 17 to go! at least as far as baby teeth are concerned) and set off down the road. Soulmate looked back after a few minutes, and sure enough, Katie was fast asleep, head bobbing side to side with every bump.

We should have turned back after 30 minutes, but she looked so comfortable (if that's possible while sleeping in a semi-seated position with no neck support to speak of) that we pressed on to certain tragedy. Or at least that's what Katie wanted it to sound like when she woke up suddenly after an hour and a half and started crying inconsolably. We still had 30 minutes to go before we got home, so I decided to change my plans.

I had planned to ride leisurely with the family, which I had done up to this point in the ride, then I was going to go back out on my road bike and do 2 short time trial intervals as part of my training for my first (and last) race of the season, a time trial in early September. I finally got the OK from Bones, my orthopod, to race, and I thought I'd ease in with a time trial, which doesn't require riding in the peloton where crashes happen most often.

Back to the tragedy at hand: with Katie in full-throated cry in the Chariot, I worried that the County Child Protection Services people would follow us home and bust us, so I decided to combine my two 5-minute TT intervals into one long one, and get us home ASAP so I didn't lose my hearing and Katie didn't lose her voice. I got in a very good quality 10 minute interval well above my lactate threshold due to the very high motivation I had to finish the ride. Katie and my legs both survived the ordeal, and to celebrate, we attended the first birthday party of Yasmin, the daughter of one of my partners at the clinic.

As an aside, Yasmin's daddy is several years older than me, though her mommy is somewhat younger than Soulmate. As our daughters grow up together, they'll be able to trade stories about how senile their old man is getting. Neither one of us can retire, since the girls will still be in high school when we reach age 65. For all of you at my office who are already sick of me, good luck--you'll be seeing me around for a long, long time.

Anyway, the party was at Lake George's new community center and splash pad, so it was really fun. Katie loves having other kids around, and she really loves Yasmin. They were kissing and hugging each other like they've been girlfriends forever. Here are a couple of photos, more to come:

The "Hello Kitty" party hat is the first head covering of any kind that Katie has allowed on her head for more than 5 seconds. She left it on for the entire party, and looked disappointed when we took it off her head at home. I'm a little worried, because Hello Kitty is not one of my personal favorites as far as designer labels are concerned. I'm absolutely certain that Soulmate doesn't own a single item in that line. Oh well, we didn't have anything in purple or pink for 25 years, and those are the only colors Katie has in her extensive wardrobe. Change is good...

A little advice from the doctor...

I haven't blogged since last winter (see Mon Avis blog at http://bicycliste.blogspot.com/ if you are really bored), and since blogs about a year-old trip to Paris may strike some as a little stale, I decided to start a new blog. I didn't take any trips to Paris (or anywhere else) this year, so the gentle reader is stuck with tales of glory and heroism (or at least a couple decent crashes) from my summer of racing.

News flash: my wife and I are waiting to hear from the Chinese government regarding travel plans to adopt a little girl. We applied in the summer of 2005, our dossier was accepted January 12, 2006, and we have been waiting ever since to hear from China. According to the best estimates of our adoption agency, IAS http://www.ias-ww.com/, we are within a couple of months of getting our referral (which is a picture and medical report of the infant selected for us, and a paper to sign accepting the adoption). Once we get our referral, it's usually just a matter of 4 to 6 weeks before we travel to receive our little girl. DOC'S ADVICE: Keep your dial tuned to this station for ongoing updates.

Here's my road racing season in fast forward: bought a Scott Addict, trained with some really fast guys on the GrandStay Hotels team (the Swansons, Mean Dawg, Micah, Matt, Bell, Bagley, Coyle, Casper, BK, and Chia), got better and faster almost every race, took 2nd overall at the omnium race in the Master 35+ group (the hometown boys went 1-2), narrowly missed the podium for Rider of the Year for the M35+ category, and moved up to cat 2 with 28 points. Not bad for my second year of serious racing. The road has been berry berry good to me.

The MTB, on the other hand, has not been particularly good to me. Last December I fell really hard while riding a borrowed single speed on icy trails, and screwed up my left shoulder pretty badly. It still hurts to sleep on that side. Then in Chequamegon last month, I was in the top 50 or so on the asphalt before Rosie's field when some poor sucker went down just in front of me in the middle of the peloton. We were elbow to elbow, so I had to roll right over top of him, and I launched pretty good, landing on my left shoulder and ribs. I didn't hurt my shoulder much, but I managed to break my 9th rib. I went ahead and rode the other 39 miles of the race, and took 5 minutes off last year's time, but didn't break the top 100 like I wanted to. After that it really hurt to sleep on my left side.

Then last Saturday I took a sweet Giant Anthem Advanced out for a spin around the North Loop, and after getting cocky on a fully suspended MTB for the first time, I caught a pedal on a turn and flew off just like I did at Chequamegon, except that I landed on my right shoulder this time. Now I have two mildly separated shoulders (but I can still ride just fine--the only thing I can't do is lift heavy stuff that my wife wants me to move). Only now it hurts to sleep on either side. DOC'S ADVICE: don't pretend you can ride fast on a MTB when you really can't.

Maybe when I die and go to heaven (which may not be long if I keep crashing my MTB), God will let me ride really fast like Doug Swanson or Jim Bell. For now, I've hung up my CX bike for the fall and decided to order one of those Anthems so I can injure more body parts. No, I'm not going to the orthopod, and I'm not going to get anything x-rayed. DOC'S ADVICE: try to take more of your own good advice sometimes, and don't be so pig-headed.

At least I'm smart enough to stay far, far away from these LUNATICS!!!!>>>>>>>>

Stay tuned and see if I post any more updates from the disabled list.