While I'm away...

Here I am in france for the plouay world cup on saturday, trying to type on a french keyboard. Just to demonstate the different key placement I'll type something as if it were an english keyboard...

ze zent for q long ride todqy qnd ze got rqined on qnd it zqs reqlly zindy
we went for a long ride today and we got rained on and it was really windy

so if thing begin to make zero sense, that is why. We are currently in the same place as last year before world's so at least it's a bit familiar. the other girls are over here until worlds sept 21-24 but I am heading back home on monday until the sunday before worlds, lucky me! I would definitely "lose it" if i had to stay here until then. phew!

actually, lucky trinity cause while i'm away she's up at my mom's house doing some fun stuff. she went to plunge, an indoor waterpark, lotsa fun. She has also realized her dream of riding a horse! well, it was actually a pony but whatever, more her size. Many thanks to Ashlee and Liza in helping her with that one! below are some photos of it...


she doesn't really look like she's achieving her dream here, maybe a little nervous or perhaps just in awe, could be. that's greystay she's riding. the equestrian helmet totally completes the look even though she's missing the neat jean jacket she bought for the occasion. she really wanted a cowboy shirt but we couldn't find a western styled shirt. oh well, the pink will have to do!

so, i did bring a camera here en france. now if I could only remember to take it with me when i may have a photo op, like riding or out to the cafe. so, hopefully i'll have some pictures to post after the race. I sure know where that backspace key is now that i'm using it all the time...

charlotte

This past weekend the team met up again in Charlotte for the Bank of America criterium. it was great to see (almost) everyone ('cept dotsie and sima) again.

I almost didn't make it. When I left for the Buffalo airport friday afternoon I forgot to account for delays at the border due to it being Friday and a long weekend here in Canada. oops. I kept cool and parked the car quick and ran to the check in counter. I arrived about 25 minutes before departure. As I approached I wheezed out "can i make the 7:20 to detroit??" the agent said "oh yeah, no problem". Then as I started the check-in she said "oh, is that a bike?? Oh, I don't think you'll make it..." I literally threw the $80. for the bike charge at her and said "please!". they put it on an elevator and I didn't expect it to make it with me but it did! that was a relief!

The race went well. I didn't know what to expect since I hadn't raced in a while. It certainly was shock at first but I settled in. I didn't feel as fast as I felt in June but when there's a job to be done you gotta do it and see if you're still breathing when it's done. Of course, when you have such great sprinters like Tina and Gina (note to self, if i ever have another daughter her name must end in "ina" if I want her to win a lot of races - tina, gina, ina - very fast peoples, at the very least it must end in "a" - there are some fast lauras out there too) you just have to deliver them to the last corner and let them do their thing. I don't know how they do it but I have a lot of fun delivering them. Anyway, so that's what we did. Great job tina and gina! And extra props to gina for going out there and winning the mental battle against a race that wasn't so kind last year. you are a champ.

So, while I was away I missed my brother in law's graduation party. It was hard to miss that but congratulations andrew for graduating with 'high distinction' from computer engineering, hard work does pay off.

I also missed a great day that chris and trinity spent at christie's conservation area with a bunch of friends and their kids. and trinity, that's what camping is all about. trinity wants to go camping because a friend of hers was going this weekend and in trinity word's she gets to "do all the stuff you could ever dream of!!!" pretty funny.

and the 3rd thing I missed this weekend was a family reunion at my uncle neil's and aunt maddy's place. It's a fun time and congrats uncle neil for finally winning the games competition, it's about time!! My uncle bob and aunt sharon dropped by too with a boat that is pretty special. My dad refinished a 1956 Shepherd wooden boat back when I was almost a teenager and my sister, brother and I had a small hand in helping. We drilled the wooden plugs for the screw holes on the drill press for him, my brother helped glue and hammer them in. We had some fun water skiing with that boat and it's got tremendous sentimental value to me. shortly after my dad passed away my uncle bob (dad's bro) bought it and is using it now. I'm so glad he has it and is using it. I need to go visit him and have a ride and a ski. I haven't been in it since I was 15!!

anyway, enough sentimental rambling. today is a holiday here and I have an easy day then maybe we'll go fishing! trinity landed a big catfish last time, it was soo cool. here's a pic of her waiting for a bite.

check out the styling rubber boots! fishing is fun and we always do catch and release cause trinity loves animals so much she couldn't kill one. Now she's watching fishing shows on TV. scary.

well, that's all for now. sorry no pics of charlotte, hopefully next time.

Okay, this story is getting tiresome so I’ll be finished with it now.

So, after the first draining on the Friday (13 days after crash), I was feeling good and decided to do a local one day, 2 stage event on sunday. I did a 15km TT in the morning then a 60km road race in the afternoon. The TT went well, I was 2nd behind Merrill who is always strong. The road race was okay too. I got in trouble with my doctor on Monday as she said “riding is good but not intense riding and what if you crashed on it again, you could do some big damage” I was like “but there were only 10 people in the race and it was all left hand turns…”.

Anyway,the hematoma was filling up again so we decided to lance again on Wednesday morning. We did. Driving my mom home later that day I started to feel feverish. It kept getting worse and by the time we got to her house I laid down on the couch with 2 blankets and shivered (no, my mom doesn’t even have air conditioning). Finally I agreed to let my sister take me to the hospital and they checked me out and said “yep, it’s infected”. This doctor conferred with another and they decided the best thing to do was to “pack it”. That is, pack it with mesalt gauze to draw out the fluid and let it continually drain and not fill up. This meant daily visits to the wound care nurse along with 10 days of antibiotics. Fun stuff. I got used to the daily unpacking, irrigation and packing but it meant no swimming and no proper shower at first. I have a good dressing on it now that I can shower with. This dressing is something most cyclists would covet for road rash, it kicks tegaderm’s butt! Actually, most cyclists, if given the opportunity would pillage that wound care clinic, lots of good goodies in there!!

So, the up side to these happenings is I won’t have a growth hanging off my hip for a few years (if not forever) but the down side is I couldn’t go to Altoona because of the daily visits to the nurse. I also had to take some time off to let the 3cm radius pocket to close a bit. I took 9 days off and it did close a fair amount in that time. I would say it’s been a little slower healing since I started riding again. I’m down to 1.2cm radius now though and every 3 days to visit. I’m hoping to have only one or two more visits left.

So, I am training again, lots. I have committed to going to worlds in Austria so that means I must ride. I don’t know what I was thinking when I made that decision but whatever. Two months left in my cycling career then a BIG party. I am struggling with a training prescription that calls for “double days”. I am waaaay too lazy for double days…

I guess I'll deal, only 2 more months after all then I can finally get all the things accomplished that I been wanting to do forever, or not. That's a big list. Anyway, in the meantime I've posted a picture from I don't know when (a few years ago, it could be anytime between 2001 and 2003). It's from the Plouay world cup when I was staying at the same hotel as Jaja and so was Catherine Marsal (who is a friend of his) so I got a photo with him. He was pretty cool and I have always been a fan of his, I'm such a groupie. Not really a groupie but it was pretty cool.

That's all for now. I have Bank of America in Charlotte N.C. this weekend. It'll be nice to see the team since I missed Altoona. I hope they remember me.