Author Archives: Steve Tilford

Another Birthday

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

Today is my birthday.  Another one.  They keep coming in constant procession.  I’m not normally too big on celebrating birthday.  Still aren’t, but this one is a little different, I think.

This head injury deal has made me appreciate life a bit more.  Not that I didn’t appreciate life a lot already.  It is just that when you might have come close to not having it, you tend to pay a bit more attention to it.

I’ve already lived a couple years longer than my father.  When he died, I didn’t really take into account how old he was and how much potential life he had left.  You don’t do that when you are young.  At least I didn’t.  Now is a different deal.

Both my mother and father aren’t alive.  They lived their lives and I didn’t have much control over them.  They were great parents, but rotten on their own preservation.  They aren’t alone in that category.

Maybe I’m not so good at it either.  Maybe I am, I guess I won’t know that for a while.  I do know that I like living and would surely be disappointed if I quit doing that shortly.  But, it is life, and as we all know, we ultimately don’t have all that much control over the endgame of that.

I have a doctor’s appointment in a couple hours.  Guess I’m going to try to retrain my eyes and ears to work together with my brain better some.  Plus, get some more ear crystals to go back to where they belong.  Seems a little weird, but I tend to be more dizzy after I leave the dizzy doctor than before I went.  Maybe it is like getting active release or something.  It might hurt initially, but is good for you in the long run.

I try to ride my age in miles on my birthday.  I had a friend that used to do that running.  He did that until he was around 50, then switched to kilometers.  Anyway, I haven’t done it in a couple years.  I should skip it this year again since I have a bad head cold, but sort of feel like riding.

Catherine is taking half a day off work, plus Bill is feeling a little better from being sick, so we’ll probably just ride over to Lawrence, just some coffee and ride back.  That is the correct mileage. It is supposed to be nearly 70 degrees today and tomorrow.  I’m not sure we’ll make the one mile for every degree temperature winter rule.  Maybe, but maybe not.  It is supposed to be windy and when that is the case here in Kansas, it is pretty windy.  Should be fun either way.

Okay, I didn’t sleep much last night, from coughing most of it.  Think I’ll try to sleep another hour before heading to the doctor.   It is my birthday, I should be able to sleep in.

Nice picture someone made.

And then I got an email with this, early this morning, like last night. Seems appropriate.

 

 

 

Over 1000 miles for the Year

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I know, that isn’t a very impressive title.  A 1000 miles by early February is nothing special.  It is this year, for me, because I am fairly surprised that I’m even riding by now.  A couple months ago I wouldn’t have been surprised if I was still told not to ride my bike outside.  Head trauma isn’t something to mess around with.  I’ve learned that the hard way.

Yesterday, the weather cooperated and a few of us got out for 70 miles.  That is about as far as I can ride now.  I’ve been riding bigger miles, early season, recently, but that isn’t possible as of now.  Plus, I have a chest/head cold thing going on, so it isn’t a great idea pushing it from that perspective

Last night was a trifecta astronomically.  A full moon, a moon eclipse and a comet passing close to the earth.   I guess that is special on a birthday, but I’m not sure what.   I’m into astronomy, so it is cool.

Today it is supposed to be nice too.  In the 60’s.  That isn’t really normal for February in Kansas, but it isn’t that unusual.  It is nice for my working friends to have good weather on the weekends.  This weekend it is exactly that.

Anyway, I’m gonna keep plugging away.  It is a bit frustrating.  Tweaking training isn’t the easiest thing for an older athlete.  I think I’ve done a fairly good job of it my whole life.  But having to change training because of an injury that is super foreign, and quite unknown, is a little more difficult than the normal broken collarbone, etc.

I still hate wearing a helmet.  I guess I need to get a winter helmet and the another one for the warmer weather.  For some reason, unknown to me, when my head gets cold, or just gets hits by cold wind, my head aches.  It sort of feels like it is still fractured, which, I hope, it isn’t.  My helmet is too small to fit even a thin hat under it.   I’m pretty glad it is 1/2 way through winter.  In March, the weather normally gets a lot warmer.

Okay, I’m just babbling.  I feel sorry for all of the cyclists that live in the Northeast.  Big snowfall there that is going to be on the ground for a while.  I guess it is winter still.

This is Amanda Coker. She rides around 1000 miles every four days. She is on schedule to smear the World Record of most miles ridden on a bicycle in one year. Man or woman. Her distance per day and average speeds are incredible.