Confirmed

that there is no Conquer the Canyons stage race this year.

Bummer...

I'm thankful...

for lots of things: special friends, silly dogs, being back on my bike after 4.5 weeks, long weekends, blah blah blah...

However, today I'm also thankful for NOT getting a ticket on my bike! I've had 3 sublime days of group rides, and its been fun (and painful..). Thanksgiving day's lake ride is usually a ride I enjoy very much, but going for a long ride after being off the bike for so long, well, maybe not the best idea! It became all about survival mode about 50 miles in, when there was still 1 climb to go :-). However, thanks to my great riding buddies, they waited for me to drag my slow arse up that hill :) (thanks, guys...). It had been a LONG time since I had felt that slow. But I made it, and 2 days (and a bunch of miles) later, I'm feeling much more like myself. My legs still aren't quite dancing on the pedals yet...but it's coming back. And I can still descend with reckless abandon :-). At least no one has to wait for me at the BOTTOM of a hill! Nothing like jumping back in with both feet.

Oh..back to the ticket story! On the way out today, we stopped at the first few stop signs. After Marco's post about stop signs...there has been a little movement underway to do our part and obey the road signs on the big group rides. And in one small town, where we ALWAYS get followed by our friendly local lawenforcement, we also stopped at the stop sign. There is, however, another sign in that town, that many folk have been told that if they go on the far right of the stop sign, it is ok not to stop... but today it seemed to be not the case. Soon thereafter, we were all pulled over. It was a HUGE group, maybe 50+ of us! Anyway, they made us wait awhile while they decided what to do, and after a lecture (and determining that there was a bit of confusion about whether it was OK or not to go around the stop sign on the right...), they let us go with a stern warning. Needless to say we were pretty careful from there on out...

Anyway, it is GREAT to be back on the bike! Hopefully all my riding buddies will bear with me while I get "back up to speed" so to speak... So far, so good!

Ciao!

Yipppeeeeee!

MRI REPORT

Procedure: MRI OF THE LEFT SHOULDER WITHOUT INTRAVENOUS CONTRAST

COMPARISON: None
INDICATIONS: Not provided
TECHNIQUE: A variety of imaging planes and parameters were utilized for visualization of suspected pathology. Images performed without contrast.

FINDINGS:
ROTATOR CUFF: The rotator cuff tendons are intact without strain or tear. No evidence of a full thickness rotator cuff tear.

MUSCLES: Normal
LIGAMENTS: Normal

LABRUM: The glenoid labrum is intact circumferentially

AC JOINT: There is a mild sprain of the acromioclavicular joint without diastasis or elevation of the distal clavicle

ACROMION: Mild downsloping of the anterolateral acromion (Type II configuration)

OTHER: There is a healing fracture involving greater tuberosity of the humeral head without displacement or distraction. There is a trace subacromial subdeltoid bursitis.

CONCLUSIONS: No evidence of rotator cuff tear. Healing fracture involving the greater tuberosity of the humeral head without displacement or distraction. Mild sprain of the A/C joint without diastasis.

11/16/2007, 15:51

What this really means is:

I NO LONGER HAVE TO RIDE INSIDE!!!! YEAH. No golf or swimming until January, but for now, riding is OK!!!

Dr. Ryu said my range of motion is excellent, and that it is safe to run/bike, but no weightlifting quite yet. And no crashing! I think I can handle that..

And just in time for the long Thanksgiving weekend!!!!!!!!

See you out there on the roads....

I guess I have to get a new helmet.

Ciao!!

53 minutes...

...would be the time that it takes me to run a 10k when I have only run 3 times in the past year (2 of those in the past week), and re-convince myself that indeed, I have really NO natural talent for running :-).

My graduate student, Kari, and I did the UCSB 10K Turkey Trot yesterday. My goal was to run the whole thing, and to not get last place. I managed to meet both of those goals :-). I ran a couple of times last week as cross-training exercise, and so when Kari mentioned getting a bunch of us together to do it, it sounded fun enough. However, by the morning of the race, that 'bunch' had dwindled to just me and Kari! Oh well...and considering Kari just raced a half marathon, I knew it was going to be painful :-).

Anyway, it was a good, condensed workout, and it just reminded me how much I love cycling :-).

The UCSB Rowing team put on a great race, however, with lots of support. Hopefully they made some $$ on the event. The weather certainly could have been nicer...but you take what you get!

Ciao!

On Knowing Secrets

Sometimes I sneak up on my dog, Aidan, when I get home...just to see what he's up to when he thinks I'm not looking (a good friend of mine gave me the idea--and it's just so much fun!). It's very comical, and maybe a topic for a future blog. However, I already feel like I'm being sneaky this week, without even trying! I happen to be on the UCSB Cycling Team Google Group. This is because I was going to go on some of their training rides, as they leave extra early in the morning, and I was planning on getting some big base miles in that way, riding with all the young whippersnappers (I don't believe I've ever used THAT word before...). However, this week it became more entertaining. Let me elaborate:

Yesterday there was a post on the listserv describing the training ride for Thursday. An excerpt of this email follows:

"...
Thursday ride leaves from Storke at 6:30 AM. This ride will involve
some climbing. We will head up .... and take ... back into
town. Climbing will be very controlled (please control yourself!),
and we will be back around 9 for people that need to goto class. I
will be riding longer for anyone that does not have class and can get
in the whole 3.5 - 4 hour ride."


This would be fine and all...but this said poster "who will be riding longer for anyone who does not have class"...happens to have MY CLASS at 9:30!!!

HMPH!!! How torn I am...I like cycling as much as the next bike geek...but it becomes slightly personal when people start blowing off MY CLASS (which you don't see ME blowing off to ride my bike...) to go on a 4 hour pre-season training ride! I feel a Thursday morning pop quiz coming on...

Inside information is funny sometimes...

Ciao!

girls and the art of bike maintenance...

I'm a girl. I'm also an engineer (well, I have a Ph.D. in engineering, but I'm not sure academics count as actual engineers....that is a debatable one), and I sometimes pretend to be a bike racer. I like the fact that when random people meet me for the first time, I am not easily stereotyped. That makes things somehow more fun! Although I didn't know a thing about bike maintenance just a couple years ago (I could change the tires on my mountain bike but that was as far as things went), I have eventually managed to figure out the way most things work on a bike (at least the simple stuff...). And this seems to have made me the go-to-girl for simple bike issues. This weekend, I was called from inactive duty to install a garmin for my friend. This was a pretty simple thing to do, install one cadence/speed sensor and mount the thing on the bike...and make sure it worked...but she felt the need to document it with photos, and so I feel obligated to post one on the old blog... Maybe if my day job falls through, I can (in her words) "get a job with Dave (my 'real' bike mechanic) doing housecalls for the needy and incompetent?"

Maybe I'm just nervous about the discussion scheduled for later today (sans me...) having to do with my possible promotion...and am pondering other career options. Just kidding, of course, as I have a pretty good gig going here, and I'm one of those people who actually likes what I do at least some of the time...so I shouldn't complain.

:-)

Ciao!!