Steve Tilford

Yesterday I spent pretty much all day in the drizzle cutting hedge. And by hedge, I mean hedge row, which is much different than bushes. Hedge row is mainly made up of Osage Orange, which a really hard wood. And it can be pretty thorny, like almost impossible to touch thorny. The is a saying about an Indian would trade two horses for a hedge bow. Shows how much they valued that. Anyway, it is really hard, like sparks fly sometimes when you cut it.

This project really started Monday when I drove out to Tonganoxie Kansas, which is an hour Northwest, to deliver a table to Vincent’s mom’s which I’ve had for the past couple years. The table is giant and is 100 inches long, which barely fit in the van with both rows of seats. Vincent’s mom is from Holland and, of course we had to stay and have lunch.

Then we went to Lawrence I and borrowed my team leader’s, Matt, dump trailer. It is awesome and holds a ton. Plus it hydraulically dumps, which is key.

Then to cutting. I left my good Stihl MS200t chainsaw in Ames a couple weeks ago, so borrowed Matt’s, self admitted, junky Echo saw. And it is junky. Buying a chainsaw, if you’re going to use it for a lifetime, then buy a good one, like a Stihl. Home fix-it store saws don’t stack up. I actually have all the parts to assembly another Stihl arborist’s saw, I just haven’t put them together. I’m not sure if it is going to take an hour or a day, so I’ve sort of avoided the project.

Anyway, the hedges were an effort. Lots of vines growing between them, which made it cumbersome to remove. And then the thorns, ouch. I had to partially mulch the trees in the trailer to get them all in. And they aren’t all in. I ran out of light, having cut for over 6 hours.

I probably only cut for 5 hours, since I spent an hour screwing with the Echo saw and then the downtime waiting for Trudi as she borrowed Bill’s Makita chainsaw. I had never heard much about Makita saws, but Bills seems pretty good.

I was wearing work boots, with steel toes all day and my Achilles tendon had been aching since the cross race on Sunday. Since I haven’t planted my right foot onto the ground at 20 mph, it probably shocked my whole leg. At least my tendon and knee a bit. The work boots weren’t optimal for this issue. It isn’t like my tendon hurts, it feels more like my sock is bunched up and rubbing on it, even when I am barefoot. And not all the time, just every once in a while. Pretty weird symptoms.

I talked to Stacie and she seems stumped. I’ve been icing it, ibuprofen and Flector patches. This small things scare me nowadays. I guess it is better to be cautious than not.

We’ve been riding on Mondays and Wednesdays at dark, on the rail trail, which is primitive, with lights. It is pretty dead flat, but is actually turning out to be a pretty good workout. Riding at night, on a tree lined trail, seems so fast. As soon as we are going over 20, it seems like 30. Plus it has been pretty windy each time we’ve ventured out. The trees provide protection, but it is still hard. Guess this is my cyclocross training for the week.

The wind is blowing right now already. I got a text from Vincent and he said that it is the windiest that he has ever felt in Arvada this morning. Like he can’t stand up in it. Street lights down, trucks overturned in Golden, the whole deal. I have to admit, the wind on the front range near Denver is out of control sometimes.

Anyway, I’m back to tree and bush removal this morning. It is chilly, in the 40’s, plus the wind. Not the best day for it, but I don’t get to pick that. I have a couple more days of this scheduled, so I’m going to say it is cross training for cross.

Table delivery.

Little lunch.

Flexor patch on my tendon.

Got the trailer at Matts.

Job.

Partially done. Couldn’t take a finished photo because it was dark when I was mostly done.

This week went pretty well so far. The only problem is that I’m pretty beat. I did take a day off the bike, Tuesday, which isn’t normal for me. But I’ve been doing pretty hard manual labor for 6-8 hours a day, then jumping on my bike and training pretty hard, so I’ve been almost too tired to sleep.

Today I woke and just would have just liked to stay in bed. I hate being exhausted for race weekends. But no, I’m driving to Tulsa in a couple hours to race cyclocross down there tomorrow and Sunday, if I choose. Right now, I’m only committing to Saturday, but I hate passing up on a 2nd race day. Just depends how I feel after tomorrow.

I can’t seem to convince anyone else to go down with me today. Joseph is driving down tomorrow. Catherine is flying in from Seattle late this afternoon and says she is going to drive down in the morning, but I’d give that less than a 50% chance. Her work weeks are as strenuous mentally as mine was physically. She quit her job there and getting her old Topeka job back at the end of the year, so lots of ends to tie up and personality issues.

Yesterday was clearing brush for a few hours when I looked at my phone and there was a text from Joseph saying he was riding towards Topeka on gravel. It was 30 minutes old. I texted him back I was cleaning up and jumping on my bike. It is a strange thing when you are dragging mentally, and physically, then all of a sudden, when something that comes up that you want to do, your mind and body are instantly in a better place and you rally. I wonder what the human body is doing to switch speeds so quickly?

A cold front came through the midwest and it dropped down below freezing last night. The high tomorrow in Tulsa is supposed to be in the mid 40’s. I’ve raced down there this time of the year and it was in the 90’s. 40 over 90 anytime for cyclocross.

I’m taking my computer to the Apple Store in Tulsa tonight to get it looked at. I think there is a recall on the video card, so they are going to have to ship it somewhere to fix it, but we’ll see. Posting here has been a drag this past week.

Okay, I should go out and see how my tire gluing did last night. I bought a bunch of Vittoria cross tires and they are hugely defective. They blow out at the valve stem by just pumping them up. I found this out after gluing two on. So far, 3 out of 4 have catastrophically failed at the valve stem. I can’t believe they would even put these things on the market. I bought them from Steep and Cheap, which is Backcountry out of Utah. Too good to be true. So, don’t buy these. We’ll see how the return goes.

I have a bunch of good tires, FMB’s etc., but am saving them for later in the season when I’m a little better and more serious. Right now I’m just paying my dues. Plus, racing cross in Oklahoma has been a recipe for flatting. I can’t count how many great tires I’ve flatted racing there. Mainly on goatheads. I sure hope that isn’t an issue tomorrow. Most the guys down there run tubeless tires with sealant. I don’t have any that aren’t clincher. I’m taking those just in case.

Okay, I need to unhook the trailer, clean out the tools and reload it for bike racing. It is around 30 and super windy. Seems like fall/winter came in instantly. Yesterday I rode in short. Kansas weather.