Photos

Evan's been creative and cutting my head off again. But atleast I got some photos out of it.

Progressive return to riding

A return to the bike, although it's not so much that I'm feeling on top of the bronchitis....more so that I'm over not being on the bike. My chest still rattles when I cough, and most breaths feel like I've got a mobile phone in my chest that's stuck on vibrate, but I'm returning to riding after 5 weeks off.

Brett and Roz bradley (and baby Gus) came to stay for a week, as Brett was racing the Coffs Mountain Marathon and it was a great opportunity to catch up with them.

Under direction from the physio I'm restricted to short rides every other day so as to not flare up the tendonitis in my knee after so long off the bike. Tuesday presented us with the warmest spring morning yet, so a cruisy 40km ride was the start of many. Thursday was a flatter town 40k's. And Saturday started out as a nice cruisy 60km roady to Mylestom and back, however having caught up with a road tandem, it was on. They had the weight advantage on the decents, so we jumped on the back and then took turns on the flatter and hillier sections. It was a harder ride than expected, but great fun.

Next week will ber similar again, aiming for a longer ride next weekend.

2008 a write-off...but bring on 2009!!!

2008 has been a really difficult year for me. Firstly tearing the cartilage in my knee, and subsequent surgery, that kept me off the bike for 5 months. (What seemed to be) a slow recovery and intense rehabilitation followed, only to be marred by a fall in my first competitive event. The fall resulted in tendonitis in my dodgy knee. 5 weeks later, still restricted to easy, relatively short rides, I went into the BMC 8 Hour with virtually no training and pulled off a win. With only a minor flare up of the tendonitis, I was feeling like things were looking up for me. I should have known better - a week later I had the 'flu which developed into bronchitis for the last 4 weeks and haven't even touched the bike. And just to top off a fine year, I have injured my shoulder which has resulted in having no strength in my right arm....more rehab exercises. At least I feel like I'm getting my moneys worth out of the physio - 3 injuries attended to at the one visit.

Once again I have had to re-think my goals for 2008, and have pretty much written off any competitive events. Instead, I have chosen to use 2008 as a life lesson (still not sure what I was meant to have learnt), and have entered events that can be used as 'building' events, rather than aiming for any wins. And these just so happen to be in Western Sydney and Victoria, where I'll be visiting and racing with all my old riding friends!! : )

Being the anally-retentive control freak that I am, it's been really hard to accept that I don't have control over everything in my life. Things happen, and I'm having to learn to accept this and be flexible.

So, I plan to enjoy the remainder of events for 2008, I'm getting excited that the weather has finally hinted Spring is here, and I'm looking forward to getting some k's in the legs, although going on this weekend's efforts of 2 x 2hr rides, it will be a slow progression. My lungs burnt the whole way, and I had no strength in my legs. But we've all got to start somewhere....