You're in a world of trouble....

If I'm your only hope......
Last weekend a couple of friends and I took the Foster Calm Wilderness First Aid class.
According to their website….Classes are fun with lots of hands-on skills practice. The emphasis is on making good decisions by staying calm and safe, doing a good patient assessment, and having good communication and leadership.

And to be honest, this is pretty much what I was expecting. Fun and interesting. What they forget to mention is that if you’re even a little bit anal, don’t like tests or really hate failure…..then you might want to skip this class.

It starts off easy enough. She talks, you write notes, she has leaders do demonstrations and you pay attention. So far so good right? Wrong! Evidently you really ARE supposed to be paying attention because before you know it she breaks you up into groups and has you doing what she been demonstrating.

Basically, she lays out the scenario….you’re in Moab UT, its 3pm and 90 degrees. You’re on your way down the trail and come across someone sitting there holding their leg and it appears they fell down the hill…..

Now, for most people this really isn’t any big deal. But I have to be honest….it really stressed me out. What if I don’t get it right? What if I misdiagnose and they end up paralyzed…or dead?

Luckily, In the team setting it all works out since if you don’t know there are a couple of other people there that you can look to for help. But, on Sunday when we broke into groups for the final scenarios, I was appointed leader which means I was supposed to know everything and the others in the team were there as support people.
And to make matters worse, we had a guy that was non-responsive and couldn’t help out by answering questions. I think we did everything correct, the problem was, it took us too long to realize the issue was diabetes and at the rate we were working, he probably would have been in a diabetic seizure if not worse. (looking for and finding the medic alert necklace would have helped)

So, now that I’ve taken this 16 hour course and I’m supposedly “certified” for wilderness first aid, You though, my riding friends, fishing buddies and backpacking pals, had better hope and pray that if you’re ever hurt in the backcountry it’s someone else that comes down the trail. Chances are good you’ll have better odds with a group of 10 year old cub scouts than if I try to administer first aid.

Forgot my ipod….and lived to regret it….

Last night, since the weather guy said there would be rain, I cancelled my mt bike ride and went to the gym instead (turns out he was wrong – big surprise)
As I was getting out of the truck and gathering up my stuff, I realized I forgot my ipod….No biggie I thought, I’ll just have to suffer through the crappy music they play there.

Now, I’m normally a really social person. I have no problem talking to strangers, I tend to be pretty outgoing and I like people…..(most of ‘em anyways)

The only time this isn’t the case is when I’m at the gym. I prefer to get in, do my thing and get out. Afterall, I’m suffering and I don’t want to talk to anyone while I’m doing it.
In order to prevent anyone from wanting to talk to me, I usually put on my ipod and headphones and pretty much ignore everyone. ….actually, it’s probably unnecessary since most people at the gym only socialize with others they know and I’m not there frequently enough for that to be an issue.

Well, last night, figuring the worst part would be the music they play at the gym, I went ahead without my ipod….
Well, of course after work is the busiest time to go and I couldn’t get a treadmill to run on, so I went to the stairmaster.
Interestingly, although the treadmills and the elliptical trainers were all full, there wasn’t anyone on the stairmasters. (maybe that's because they were created by satan himself and everyone but me knows that)

WEll, without any other options, I went to the end one, got on, set it for 20 minutes and started in…I wasn’t on there but a couple of minutes when an older lady got on the one right next to me (why when there is a line of 20 empty stairmasters she felt the need to get on the one right next to me I’ll never know) and it wasn’t but a minute after that, that she started talking to me…..(who does that?)
I tried to be polite, oh hi, yeah, it looks like rain…no, I’m not having a great time, no, I don’t know when the next zoomba class is scheduled…..I tried to act like I was concentrating on my workout but evidently she wasn't catching on.....and pretty soon she’s telling me that her husband just had bypass surgery, and she’s started going to the gym to prevent that, and if he’d walk the dog once in a while it wouldn’t have happened, and blah, blah, blah, blah…..finally I couldn’t take it and said I was done and had to get off the thing and go do something else…..

I mean come on……seriously???? I can barely breathe, I’m sweating like a fat guy in polyester at the disco, I can’t wait for this freakin thing to stop torturing me and she wants to chat????
At least pretend you’re suffering a little fer cryin out loud…..some of us have feelings you know and watching older women do the same exercise and not even break a sweat is really not good for our self esteem…..

So, in an effort to slip back into oblivion, I headed over to the weight area where in addition to the really bad house music they were playing, I was entertained by all the big muscle heads grunting and swearing and yelling at each other….come on man…one more…you got it….crank it out…..followed by the sound of barbells that weighed more than my truck being clanged about like they were toys…..yeah, I hate this place….

Now, If I could just get this damn blue dumbell off my chest, I’d get up and get the heck out of here……I knew I shoulda grabbed one of the pink ones....

Just out exploring....

This afternoon, Jer and I did a nice easy 10 or 12 miles on the road bike. Our goal was to explore what appeared on mapquest to be a really nice loop in that it was close, had little traffic and involved a couple of pretty decent climbs.

It actually started last Saturday when we found a new road (to remain unnamed) which turned out to be a really nice climb and was close enough that one of our riders will probably be turning it into his evening ride once or twice a week.
So, today (while at work of course) I looked it up and according to mapquest, the road we were on which we thought to be a dead end, connected to another road, which connected to another different road we thought to be a dead end.
So, with the street names and a general idea of where we were headed, we took off.

Well it turns out the road we thought was a dead end was actually....a dead end. And, the other road we thought was a dead end was...another dead end.....BUT, as we explored the new roads up on top of the hill, we stopped to talk to one of the security guys (that is supposed to keep us out of where we were) and he explained that eventually (probably a long time distant) the roads probably would actually connect.

Even more interesting was the fact that he pointed out that there were several trails in the area that probably made for an interesting loop on the mountain bikes...

Granted he did say no-one is supposed to be riding there since some drunk teenager crashed his four wheeler while tresspassing and now they're in some gazillion dollar lawsuit....but I'm pretty sure I saw him wink when he said we couldn't go in there and afterall if he didn't want us to try the trail why would he have told us about it....right????

So, although the route we hoped to find doesn't actually exist, we did have a pretty nice ride with about 1000ft of climbing, a beautiful evening and a lead on our next covert moutain bike adventure.
It's good to have a new place to explore since the high falootin golf course people in the Hayward Hills are getting annoyed that we use their golf course as the starting and ending place for our most recent newly explored area....

The common cold….never really very common

It’s funny that it’s actually called “the common cold” since it seems to hit everyone with different symptoms, different intensity levels and different durations.

Last week Thursday Deb woke up feeling kinda stuffed up and just not ok. Not bad, but definitely off. She went to work (spending the day doing that medical billing, coding, auditing thing that she does that I’ll never understand no matter how many times and how simply she explains it to me) and came home pretty stuffed up with a cough.

Friday she woke up sounding like someone had poured sand down her throat, had a full on cough and felt pretty much like crap. She stayed home. (btw, she also volunteered to sleep in the other room so I wouldn’t get sick – pretty awesome huh?)
I on the other hand still felt fine on Friday, went to work, came home, still felt good and got ready for a nice 45 mile ride on Saturday morning.

Saturday dawned cold and I had a “tickle” in my throat. Nothing more though, so the ride went off without a hitch.

Sunday, Deb still feels crummy, is coughing regularly, sounds like Demi Moore after a sex change and wants nothing more than to curl up on the couch. I now, am coughing a little, still kind of have a scratchy throat, but feel not bad.

Fast forward 3 hours to after church when we’re supposed to go to some friends to watch the Super Bowl. I come home to see Deb is obviously not going anywhere and I’m glad about it. I’m now coughing, feel pretty crappy and my throat hurts. We decide to bail on the party and Deb and I spend most of the day either napping or laying on our respective couches doing absolutely nothing….except coughing. Me occasionally, her….more than occasionally.
Actually turned out to be a nice restful day for both of us.

Monday rolls around and I feel great. One day down and I’m back in the race. Deb though, still feeling less than better, is stuffed up and coughing.

Funny how the same “common cold” is anything but common….

Picking your riding partners….the key to high self esteem….

196.0lbs

A couple of weeks back I rode with some of the guys I regularly ride with and was totally destroyed by the end of the day. Evidently, while I’ve been using the cold weather as an excuse to drink beer, shop for stretchy-pants, punch new holes in my belt and basically hibernate, they’ve actually been out riding. As a result, I spent the entire ride trying to keep up…..and it sucked…..

This of course shattered my confidence and self esteem. I’m supposed to be the one to wait on people, not the other way around. I’m supposed to be the guy circling back to check on the stragglers, I’m supposed to be the one cruising easily up the hill chatting and talking while my partners gasp and heave and suffer…..

So, being the ultra-competitive guy that I am, I did the only thing I could do to prevent this from happening again. I went home, deleted their email addresses from my riding list and began to scour my address book for new, less fit riding partners.

I know, I know. I can hear you saying “Gee Rich, why don’t you just get off your lazy a$$ and start training?” And you’re right. I could do that. And, while it would hurt and cause me no small amount of discomfort, I would eventually get back in shape and soon be keeping up with my buddies on the group rides…..
But I don’t have time for that. I need instant gratification so I did the next best thing….I invited my son in law out for a nice easy ride.

Granted he’s young and pretty fit, but with a new family, a full time stressful job as a police officer and a busy young person’s schedule, he hasn’t ridden since the last time I invited him out a couple of months ago….

And of course, our ride was anything but easy. I immediately got him redlined, and just so he couldn’t recover and get back into his groove, I kept the pace right up there where he was on the verge of hurling the entire ride. Sure, I’d slow down and look over my shoulder and ask ever so nicely how he was doing, but I never did slow down and I never really gave him a chance.

Needless to say, I feel much better about myself now……

Working out….

195.4lbs

Well, Saturday morning I woke up early and decided I should go to the gym to work out. In the past (pre-cycling days) this was a normal occurrence. In addition to going to the gym 2-3 times during the week at lunch, I used to go every Saturday morning.
Early Saturdays were a nice time to go since it’s never that crowded, I could get a good workout in, stop by Starbucks for a coffee and still be home before Deb got up and moving.

The funny thing is that I never used to feel self conscious going to the gym. I was there so regularly I actually knew some of the people, I had my routine down and I knew how much weight to put on each of the stations to get a good workout while not dropping anything on my face…..

This time though, was different. I haven’t been to the gym in quite a while and although, they keep pulling my dues out of the checking account every month, I hadn’t felt compelled to actually show up in a long time. So long in fact, that I felt weird…..You know, like at a party where you don’t know anyone and you’re not sure you were even invited….

And of course it starts even before you leave the house. What do I need, do I have a towel, water, where the heck did I put my membership card the last time I used it?
And then, once you walk in and hand the kid (seriously, he couldn’t have been more than 12) your card, he scans it, sees just how long it’s been since you’ve been and makes an innocent comment like….“you know we have completely different cards now…you can get yours updated if you come back during the week”

Anyway, I decided to start with the treadmill…..figuring that since I’ve been riding a lot this should be fairly painless……WRONG!
It wasn’t long before, convinced I’d done the equivalent of a marathon, that I started pushing buttons on the display to try to figure out how far I had gone…(btw, do you have any idea how hard it is to run on that little belt, gasp for oxygen, wipe the sweat that’s running into your eyes and push the button on the display at the same time – it’s hard trust me)
Well, it turns out that I had been running for almost 10 minutes and had gone almost 1 mile….are you freaking kidding me….only 1 mile???

So, after another 10 minutes of lumbering along, huffing like a freight train going over the continental divide and sweating enough to need my own cleanup crew, I made it 2 miles and thankfully pushed the button to stop that stupid belt before it flung me into the mirrors behind me. (exactly why are there mirrors behind the treadmill anyway, it’s not like I can look behind me to check my form….I can barely keep upright as it is)

From the treadmill, I moved over the weight room. Again, I used to be perfectly comfortable in here. Even with all the big muscle-headed guys grunting and yelling and lifting enough weight to bend the bar I was never really intimidated.

Today though, things were different.

How much weight should I start with, where should I start, should I use dumbbells or the barbells? Did that guy just snicker when I grabbed the smaller dumbbells? What if I drop it? What if I get it stuck on my chest and need help? What if my elbow goes out and it hits me in the face (hey, it could happen)…all of these things were going through my head as I began. Slowly though, things came back to me and although I wasn’t able to use nearly the same weight I had in the past, I was able to avoid the old lady’s rack with the cute little pink weights…..

About 30 minutes later, I was done. And by done I mean, I could no longer lift my arms, turn my head or even push the button on the water fountain to get a drink….so I decided to head home. (I actually thought of stopping at Starbucks, but the thought of climbing out of my truck and then having to reach up to put my money on the counter, not to mention carrying a venti coffee all the way back across the parking lot, dissuaded me from that idea, so home I went)

Well, here I am 2 days later and brushing my teeth and washing my hair still generate huge amounts of pain and the requisite whinning that goes with it. Putting in my contacts requires a sheer force of will since I haven’t been able to figure out how to lay my contact lenses on the counter and slam my head down hard enough to get them to bounce up into my eye…..(the pain from trying did take my mind off the fact that the entire rest of my body hurts)

They say this is supposed to be good for me…..I’m not sure I’m buying that…..

So, maybe I bit off a little more than I should have…..

194.4lbs

At least that was my thinking as we climbed the final hill before getting back to my truck on Saturday…..Li’l Evil is her name, wrecking tired riders is her game…..but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Last week, my buddy Jer was planning the Saturday group ride. It was to be a nice early season 24 mile loop out of Orinda with about 1800 ft of climbing. Should be no problem I think to myself…I know I’ve only been on the mt bike lately, but it’s only 24 miles and I climb almost that much on the SS mt bike every Thursday.

Then in a fit of genius (code for idiocy) I decided I’d ride to Orinda from CV which would add about 20 miles and another 1400 or so ft of climbing. I’d then get a ride back to my truck from Jerry. This would take it from a nice easy ride to a moderately good ride. Well, evidently my genius (idiocy) knows no bounds because I let Trace know what I was thinking and he upped the ante even more by suggesting we ride out there and back.

So, now we’ve gone from a nice easy early season ride to the toughest ride I’ve done in months….
And to make matters worse, Trace invited a guy I don’t know to join us. I don’t mind pissing and moaning in front of my friends, but a total stranger? It was here that I began to wonder what I had gotten myself in to….

Well, the ride started out cold. As we headed out through Redwood Rd there was actually frost on the ground. No worries though, the pace being set by Trace and Keith had me well into the red zone part way up the hill. While being a hindrance while climbing, my weight, combined with a lack of good sense, is a definitely benefit on the downhill…did I mention it was cold? I wasn’t actually worried about ice, but where I was warm and sweating on the uphill, the downhill was downright freezing…..that’s ok, it never lasts long enough to get really cold and soon enough we were headed uphill again and I was watching the other two guys pedal away from me as we headed up Pinehurst.

The route from Orinda out along San Pablo Dam reservoir, through Bear Creek and back past Briones Reservoir is a nice loop that includes a trio of climbs called the 3 bears. The climbs aren’t really that bad. The only problem is you can see the entire climb from the bottom of each one so it seems to go on forever.

After finishing the three bears and making our way back to the Orinda BART station we split off from the group in search of lunch. There was no way I was pedaling another 20 miles, mostly uphill, with nothing but a cliff bar in my belly. I needed REAL food. We rode into Orinda proper and found a hof brau where I proceeded to demolish the best roast beef sandwich and pasta salad I’ve ever eaten in my life. Of course, I’m pretty sure roadkill squirrel on a stick would have tasted amazing at that point.

Getting back on the bike after a nice lunch is always hard. I tried my hardest to convince the guys that since we were already right around the corner from a BART station, and there was another one a block from where we left the vehicles, there was really no reason to ride back through the canyon….unfortunately they weren’t buying it.

So off we went. Once again with me falling behind on the climbs and then passing them on the descents. At one point on one of the last climbs of the day, they even started circling back and offering encouragement…..come on Rich, you’re doing great, looking good Rich…..man, I hate those guys. How could they be so mean???
Now, I’m sure they thought they were being nice and supportive, but I really just wanted to stab them in the eye with my bike pump….

Well, after the last long downhill to the golf course we had a nice section of flat and then I had Li’l Evil to deal with and she almost did me in…..I never actually stopped, but I’m pretty sure there was a moment or two there where it looked like I was practicing my trackstands……all in all 64 miles and about 4800ft of climbing…..a perfect day!