Category Archives: Personal stuff

Le Tour is just 6 weeks away…

Personal stuff, Ride reports (not Tu/Th), Tdf trip planning

Tough to know if I’m ready for France. Actually, not so tough at all. I’m ready. Whether that means I’ll be as strong as I’d like to be is almost irrelevant. I’m ready now. It’s been a tough past 4 or 5 months, but I’m beginning to ride a bit stronger, the weather is getting a bit better week by week, and the coverage of the Giro is getting me into the mood of, well, being someplace else.

I could, perhaps should, feel bad about leaving the shop during July, when things are pretty busy, but I’ve got a great staff in place, led by BeckyJ and MikeF. I’d just like things to settle down just a little bit and seem normal for a few days at a time, instead of what seems to be a constant feast or famine. And of course it would be nice if the various health issues in my family would stabilize too, like Kevin’s final epilepsy surgery (now scheduled for June 6th, a fair amount later than I’d expected) and Karen’s chemo for her thankfully-not-metastasized breast cancer.

Right, the ride this morning. Karen, Karl, JR, Marcus, George & Eric. First ride with temps getting to 60+ by the end; I actually felt slightly overdressed in base layer and leg warmers! Nothing too fast today, which didn’t bother me.

Now back to the Tour de France. I got thinking about some of the past years, and the theme music that, I don’t think, has been equaled since. Like what’s below.

I know what follows is Phil Ligget and his, to many, tiresomely-repeated phrases and perhaps excessive rooting for the home-town riders (for broadcasts in the US, that would be riders from… the US). I never thought that was so bad, to tell you the truth.

I am so ready for France. For the long flights, for the transfers from CDG to Montparnasse train station, the long train ride to Lourdes, several days in the Pyrenees followed by a train to Avignon, seeing the Ventoux stage on Bastille day… it’s like a comfortable old shoe. It’s nearly as much routine as my Tuesday/Thursday ride up Kings. Time to play the “good” theme music once again! And to get ready for what, to me, has become the “sound” of France; that set of tones unmistakably associated with French trains…

The days are just packed… (apologies to Calvin & Hobbes)

Personal stuff, Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

It started like all Thursdays start; the alarm clock goes off at 6:55am, I walk into the kitchen and turn on the coffee maker, use the bathroom (while checkout out the latest bike racing info on the iPhone), get dressed, go into the garage and air up the tires on my bike, drink my coffee while eating some sort of energy bar (whatever’s available, only requirement being that it can’t contain raisins), make a bottle of drink mix (which I rarely drink any of on my morning rides), grab my lights and computer that charged overnight, one last quick stop in the bathroom and then head out to ride.

Except that normally I’d be getting Kevin going too, instead of trying to figure out when to visit him at the hospital while he’s somewhere in the middle of a 4-week process involving planting 80 electrodes into his brain, inducing seizures so they can study what happens, removing the electrodes, coming home for a week, then going back in to have a fancy miniature computer installed into that same brain. Yeah, doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me either, but I do miss riding with him. 🙂

It was an easier ride than most mornings, and not sure why. Karl, Karen, JR, Scotty… I think that’s everyone.

After the ride, another ride, to the shop, to help more people… ride. I think there’s a theme here. After work, another short ride to the hospital to check up on Kevin, then finally, at about 9:30pm, back home again. Tomorrow (Friday) morning, it’s back to the hospital again, this time to drop my wife (Karen) off to have a “port” installed for her upcoming chemo treatments, and while there, check up on Kevin who will be, about the same time, having a procedure to remove the electrodes from his brain. After that, back to the shop, help more people with bikes… rinse, wash, repeat.

It doesn’t seem all that unusual; it’s my new normal. Is there going to be an empty feeling once Kevin’s procedures are done and Karen’s once-monthly chemo treatment just becomes part of a routine? I’m kinda looking forward to finding out. 🙂