It is strange trying to center yourself when you think you should be doing something and you are actually doing something else. The something else never seems as real and enjoyable because you want to be doing something different.

I haven’t been riding very good since I got to Austin. I had planned to do some big miles, but can’t seem to do any better than crack 50 and then I’m done. It probably a combination of a lot of things. I’ve been feeling sort of bad the last couple days. And have something going on with a tooth again. Plus, I seem to melt when it gets over 85, which is pretty common here now.

But, I still would rather be racing badly than not at all. That is strange to say. I wonder why that is? If I was racing badly, I would probably think, “Maybe I should go down to Austin, just chill, and do some miles until I feel good.” Sounds good now, but when you don’t have the option of racing, then you tend to want to do just that. Funny how the human mind works.

Austin has no bags. When you go to the store, auto parts, Home Depot, etc. they have no bags for what you bought. It has been sort of a hassle the last couple days. I need to stick a reusable bag in my car. Seems like a good law to me, but something you have to get used to.

I’m installing a dog door into a screen dog in Ann’s porch. It is slow going. I had a plan, but it fell apart when the plexiglass broke. Now I have a new plan, but it is going to take a lot longer and might look a little jerry-rigged. (I wonder who Jerry was?)

Ann has been out East and is getting back late this morning. She invited me to go eat with her, Sunday Brunch. I said sure. So, I’m going to try, for the first time in my life, of riding without eating. I hear that if you do miles before you eat then you tend to burn more fat or something. It doesn’t really make any sense, but I know I’ll be really hungry for brunch.

Okay, that’s about it for now. Feeling a bit uncreative.

Laying out the dog door project.

We don’t have outside seating areas like they do at Central Market here in Austin.

All the store here seem to be open a couple hours longer than in Kansas. It seems strange, but convenient.

I got the okay to start riding early because I convinced my doctor, Stacie, that I never fall training. I think I’ve fallen training twice in the last 25 years. This is on the road only, of course. Anyway, yesterday I spent nearly the whole day putting a dog door in Ann’s porch. I got out late, rush hour here in Austin. Not a good time to ride. I wasn’t planning to riding much more than 1 1/2 hours. I’ve been feeling tired.

I did a weird route out 2222, which is super busy after 5, then turned onto City Park and headed into the residential area. My phone showed there was a way to cut back over to 2222, up by 620. I turned onto a road that said dead end. I was a little concerned because I didn’t really want to ride 3 miles out of my way to just turn around. It was sort of weird, right before a cul de sac, there was another dead end sign. It looked like a dead end, but one of the driveways looked wider. It was marked with an address, but had a stop sign exiting. I road in and it was a little super short cutoff to the road I was looking for. It’s the first time I encountered a secret road, with road markings anywhere. Kind of fun.

Anyway, I rushed back to go to dinner with Ann. When I got back I normally take Bromont for a mile loop around the neighborhood. But, it was busy and I thought maybe I shouldn’t, but Bromont kept bugging me, so I did. He ran pretty good, but coming back our normal way, there was a couple walking two dogs, so I headed back a street early. Bromont got mixed up and got behind me. He was running in the grass, but a couple cars were coming at us. I slowed down and moved to the left to make sure he was going to be okay. I was riding less than 5 mph, looking backwards and hit a pothole. I was only holding onto my bars with my right hand, my bars twisted and I got launched over the bars. I landed on my right side, hitting my knee and, of course, shoulder. I couldn’t believe it.

I don’t know if I hurt it. I definitely did something to it, but it could be the same as if I just fell without surgery. I slept badly and it aches again. I can’t believe it.

Our roads in the US suck. They incrementally got worse until they are what they are today. 20 years ago, we wouldn’t except roads like this, but it happened to slowly, we forget what they were like.

The weather has been pretty bad the whole time I’ve been gone, so it was a good trip for missing that. It’s spring, so it is raining about everywhere in the Midwest now. I like that.

I’m heading back to Kansas today. I have to drop Sue’s bike back off at her mother’s house in Richardson and then am heading North. It’s 10 hours, so I won’t be back until later tonight.

The culprit. It wasn’t all that deep, but I was going slow, looking back.

Start of the dog door project.

Primed and cut.

FInished on the inside.

Curious guys checking it out.

Ann, with a oyster shot, at Sunday brunch.

I’ve been feeling pretty bad the last few days. On top of my shoulder regressing, it seems like I’ve gotten into the sometimes in the Spring funk. I used to not be able to recognize the deal, but I can now pretty easily. It’s not that I’m just riding beyond poorly, I have weird systems.

One is my left leg doesn’t work very well. Up by the hip flexor and also the hamstring. The 2nd is that I get a side ache on my right side, right under the ribs. And of course, I’m super run down. I did an ultrasound a few years ago on my side, but it didn’t show anything. Now I just think it is symptoms of bad allergies. I’ve been taking over the counter allergy medicine for a while now, but maybe I need to do something more, I don’t know.

I’m thinking of fasting for a few days. 2 or 3. I actually might just start today, since I haven’t eaten anything yet. I was just reading up on exercising while fasting. From what I read, it seems like that it should be okay. I’m just reaching for a method to get myself out of this allergy funk and I do think that cleansing you body by lack of food make sense intellectually. It wouldn’t be bad to lose a couple pounds either. We’ll see how that goes.

Yesterday I went out and rode with a small group. There were just 4 of us. It was super windy, well not super windy, but pretty windy, 30+mph. I knew by the makeup of the group that I was going to have to pull the whole time. I was hoping to get in 3 to 4 hours, but realized early on that wasn’t going to happen.

It is funny getting used to this power meter reading on my Garmin now. I hear all the different opinions about how coaching, wattage, plus Strava, screws up a training ride. My opinion, as of now, it’s just another measurement to use. It is kind of weird when all of a sudden someone goes to the front and starts hammering hard, trying to up their average wattage or knowing there is a Strava segment.

The first time I heard anything at all about Strava was at the Boulevard Road Race, east of San Diego last February. A bunch of college kids were pouring out of a A frame cabin and they were talking about if they wanted to beat some Strava segment, it was going to take a group effort, probably a couple guys on TT bikes. I was thinking how stupid that was. There are only a few Strava segments around Topeka. The times for most of them around here are always going to be dictated by the wind. Fast segments mean big tailwind. I did that yesterday riding up a hill West of town. I averaged close to 21mph up a mile hill. And I was riding pitifully the whole day. I’m not sure why I did it. Just because I could I guess.

I have a screen on my Garmin that just is speed and distance. I’ve been leaving that as my main screen for the last week. I hate ruining my ride messing around with numbers. The numbers are for later or structured training, which I hopefully won’t be doing anytime soon.

Yesterday, I was sitting in my kitchen and the next door neighbor came by. She had a electric chainsaw on a pole and was asking me about some oil it used. I told it she needed some bar oil, which I had, but that the chain needed to be tightened. So, I proceeded to tighten the chain. Her daughter was there. Here daughter spent the winter down in Mexico and sort of lives a transient lifestyle. She has a trailer she pulls behind a SUV and just moves around. Anyway, she was asking me how my winter was and I told her about my shoulder. She asked me if I ever did any reflexology for injuries. I told her no. Flash forward a few minutes and I’m sitting on my porch, with my socks and shoes off, getting reflexology treatment for my shoulder. It seemed strange, but I really enjoyed it.

Anyway, I told them that I wanted to take a picture of them and they said sure. So, since my mother isn’t around, and today is Mother’s Day, here is a photo of my neighbor, Mrs. Betty Warkentine and her daughter, Julie. I love the way she is holding the chainsaw on the pole. Sort of reminds me of a modern day version of the famous painting, American Gothic, by Grant Wood.

American Gothic, by Grant Wood.

How about that Tour of California finish yesterday? Man, did those guys look beat. That last hill must of been unreal. Guys were losing 10 minutes in 3 miles. It had to of been the heat. It was somewhere well into the 100’s. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, here is a link.

Yesterday, I got a bunch of stuff done. Worked on a car Bill’s car, which got smashed from behind and I’m getting for Michael Fatka. It is a 1999 Subaru Outback with 80K. Pretty reliable car. I put new brakes on it all around. The headlights were super foggy, plastic and I got one of those 3M buffer kits from the auto parts store. It worked crazy good. I’ll post some photos.

I’m in a rush now. I have physical therapy on my shoulder at 9 am. That is way too early for me. I told Burt, my PT guy, that it used to be that I was coming in for pretty much a shoulder and neck massage and now it is for a weight lifting session. Pitiful weight lifting, but still weight lifting. I liked the massage better.

Right after, I’m driving to Lawrence and getting a blood test. I figure since I haven’t eaten in two days, that would be interesting. I go to EconoLabs.com and it seems pretty cheap. I’m doing a CBC, iron, and cholesterol. If you have a LabCorp near you, the EnonoLabs work.

Then I’m eating. It has been 60 hours. I got a lot of flak on the comments yesterday about fasting for a couple days. I wasn’t doing it for any specific reason, just thought it might be interesting. Kind of like when Forest Gump decided to go run, for no “particular reason”. It is kind of fun trying new things out, switching it up a little. I am mildly surprised how easy it has been. No real hungry pains. The main issue is just not having the routine of eating and snacking, of course. It couldn’t hurt anything because I’m already in a Spring funk that seems to last into early Summer. I am going to go to an allergy doctor and address it though. I figure since I’ve obviously met my health insurance deductible, I might as well make use of it and catch up on some health issues I’ve been avoiding.

I’m going to eat at the First Watch. It is a chain, I believe. There is one in Lawrence. Pretty good breakfast selection. I’m not going back into eating slowly. Just gonna start eating, like when Forest decided to stop running.

It’s going to be 92 today here. Pretty warm for May, a record if it materializes. Nothing like yesterday in California, but hot enough. Okay, got to go.

Headlight before.

Headlight after.

New brakes. I don’t know why I keep posting photos of brake jobs. I think it is because just looks so nice compared to before.

I decided not to race this afternoon. I kind of tweaked my left hamstring a few days ago mowing and am not sure if all this seated climbing has been hard on it or what, but it doesn’t feel that great. Just another thing. That’s okay, because the riding out here is great.

Yesterday I drove down to the Manhattan Beach area to try to track down my friend, Ed Bauman. He is pretty much one of the pivotal influences on why I started racing bikes back when I was 14. He worked at the local bike shop that imported European bikes and that is eventually where I ended up. Anyway, Ed is an elusive fellow at times. Sometimes he is nearly clairvoyant, happening upon me at the weirdest times. And other times he is like a mountain lion and can’t be found. I was lucky yesterday though. He didn’t answer the phone, but when I walked down the stairs to his basement apartment, he was standing outside, cutting comic strips out of the paper.

Anyway, hanging with Ed is always enjoyable. You never know what is going to happen. He knows everyone locally and a lot of the people he knows are just as interesting as he is. The guy next door is a super machinist, makes custom titanium things for Steven Spielberg as well as parts for F1 cars. He does this out of his basement in a residential area. Ed actually lives in El Segundo. It is a weird area along the beach in LA. LAX is to the north, the sewage treatment plant to the west and the whole place is oil storage and refining. That being said, it is still pretty cool. And expensive, of course, as all beach areas in LA are.

We went for a ride down south to Palos Verdes. It’s kind of a rest ride, because you have to ride down through Manhattan Beach, Hermosa and Redondo before getting to Palos Verdes. Palos Verdes is super exclusive, a peninsula with awesome views of both the ocean and LA. Once getting up on the hill, the riding is pretty great. The June marine layer was sort of coming in and out yesterday, so the beaches were pretty full, but not crowded. The ride was great people watching.

Today, instead of racing, we’re going up to Vista to go to a BBQ at one of Sue and Don’s friends house. There is a big MTB ride going, but I can’t do that yet. So, I’m going to go for a road ride up there. I guess the riding is pretty unreal east of I-15. Rice and Couser Canyons are supposed to be really good riding. I guess they were sort of undiscovered until Tejay or someone at the Tour of California this year did an interview and raved about how great the riding was there. After that, there was a influx of riders coming up from San Diego to ride. I’m coming from Kansas, so I guess it isn’t much difference. Okay, that’s the plan for now. Should be a pretty nice Sunday. I hope you have a nice one too.

This is my friend Ed Bauman.

I saw these sterling silver pant clips at Ed’s place. I had a pair too. We won them at a parking lot criterium, at a shopping mall in Kansas City back in the 70’s. I wonder where mine are?

We did a lap of El Segundo and this is the back of one of Ed’s friend’s places. It kind of looks like New Orleans.

There was a beach volleyball tournament going on in Manhattan Beach when we rode by.

One of the views from Palos Verdes.

Ed gave me a little toy VW pickup truck he had. I bought my VW pickup from Ed for $400, back in 1977 I think.

This pants style is completely ridiculous, but you see it a bunch out here.

Today is the Summer Solstice for most of us. Well, maybe not, I’m not sure. It is for anyone living in the Central or Eastern time zones, it was yesterday for Mountain and West coast. Europe is obviously today. Anyway, today will be the most daylight of any day this year, in the Northern Hemisphere. I guess that is a good thing, but maybe not for me.

I woke up feeling a little under the weather. Probably mostly from my own doing. Some of my friends from high school dropped by last night and there was a fair amount of wine consumed. Too much by me. My high school girlfriend, Sara, was in town visiting her mother. She lives in Genoa Italy and doesn’t make it back to America nearly often enough. Anyway, it was great catching up some, but I’m moving pretty slowly this morning. I have physical therapy in 10 minutes, so I need to get the fog out. My arm is working very mediocre. I’ve been doing some PT the last week while I’ve been traveling, but my shoulder has been aching a lot.

I am racing today at 7:15. It’s going to be an effort. It rained some last night and now is going to be 95. Talk about muggy. I haven’t done my heat acclimation training, so I guess this is the start of it. I doubt the wine consumption is going to add any benefits in this re-guard.

Okay, I’ll try to post something more relevant later. I’m moving kind of slow this morning.

Summer Solstice has historically been celebrated by festivals and rituals, with themes of religion and fertility.

Sara’s daughter, Yo, playing Vivaldi’s Summer for me. How appropriate since it was nearly exactly Summer Solstice here in Kansas.

Not the best picture, but this is Hudson Luce and Sara. They hadn’t seen each other since the mid 70’s.

Watching Yo play the piano. I could have done this all night.