The Red Bicyclette......shorts

Oh yes.....I wore RED bicycle shorts today. They would not be the bib shorts that I would choose to wear in a group ride, but I was the only one in the group today. The real reason for my red bicycle short wearin adventure today....was that I kept forgetting to do the laundry the last several days....so, I really had nothing else to wear. So, I decided to make it fun for you, the viewing audience.......there probably ain't many of you out there...but, in my little world....there are a lot of you out there.....way out there! :D
I knew today was going to be a short ride, so I had to put some intensity into my ride.....and I need to get used to it since I won't be riding that much over the next 6 weeks. "No Time? Go Hard" according to Mr. Christopher Carmichael. So, I did...some intervals...the Under Overs, 2 minutes sustained max then 1 minute puke. And, I did them in my little red bicycle shorts.

Actually, what I have heard in hushed tones in small circles is that chicks secretly dig it when guys wear red bicycle shorts. If you search the web, there are some disturbing pictures of guys in red bicycle shorts. Uh, much more revealing than I care to be.

Anyway, I had a lot to do today, so a short ride was in order. Much of my "doing" this weekend has been focused on the anticipated arrival of my daughter next weekend. Her room is ready and I have a few other things I think she will like when she gets here. I'm not sure exactly how focused I want to be on biking. I'd like to keep some form so I can compete in the fall and winter....cyclocross maybe? Last summer I did a lot of fixed gear at the track and the road bike races at the track.....once a week kept me hot for the fall.

Today there was a huge draw of my physical being to a place along the parkway where I just like to go and sit and watch the view. Every year just before my daughter arrives and after she leaves I just go there without planning it, strangely enough.....to this place that I just enjoy. I just like the view and the mental release it does for me. Surprisingly, it is just inches off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. There is a wooden fence to sit on and watch the terrain. Today was hot....didn't stay long...but, it is my transition portal to the next phase of my year.....the most special and meaningful time of my year. A summer hanging out with my daughter.

Bakery Ride: June 23rd, 2007

Why do they call this the Bakery Ride? Uh, it is because we meet at Fuddruckers.....? And THEN, we ride on the sidewalk to the Asheville City Bakery .....and run pedestrians off the sidewalk...or something like that. Idiots! Maybe collect a few more cyclist there. Then, we head out. Well, that is the way is usually starts....or, at least when I show up for this ride.

The Bakery Ride was kind of started by, then Health Net - now Toyota United, Justin England who wanted to have a winter training group ride here in Asheville (when he lived here in 2005 & 2006) on Saturday mornings. Justin is living (at elevation) in Boulder, CO now....but the Bakery Ride still goes on without him. The ride usually happens through the season when there is not a race in the area......and/or it still happens and non-racers show up. In the winter, the Asheville elite show up. And for me, just the average Frank, it is pretty cool to ride in such company.

Well today, about 7 local jokers and 2 out of towners showed up.....actually one of the out of towners just moved to the area from Raleigh. Over the last few days I had very little motivation to ride the bike....maybe a bug or something. So, last night I didn't think I would actually show up after getting an invite from Hairy Legs Fred (the Angry New Yorker) who is just a "stich".....I mean a hoot....to ride with. Miraculously, after only a cup of coffee this morning (instead of my 3 to 4) I left my little pad and headed to Fuddruckers......to meet the few people that I knew would be there.

I am glad that I did. The ride pushed me and I hung on. Any ride is enjoyable when Fast Eddie is there. Art is such the good samaritan, helping the lost Floridians with friendly directions.....and also talking peaceful conversations while a dog owner assists us with a dog bite.....yes, we had a dog bite today, luckily Ruco (?) had his shots and the owners were very friendly and helpful. Anytime you ride in Madison County NC, just take dog mace. There are no leash laws.

At the end of the ride I was beat.....and I could feel my couch reaching for me for an after ride afternoon nap. My computer showed about 4:01 hours, 67 miles, 4271 feet of climbing and 16.4 mph average. Most of the ride I did not know where I was....there was a long gravel road and few nice short climbs...."how'd we get here?". But, those are the best kind of rides.....as long as someone else knows where we are. I guess I could find my way home if I had too.

The Complete Guide to CLIMBING (By Bike) - John Summerson

Years ago a met a cyclist named John Summerson on the King of the Mountain list serve. He checked out my Southern Appalachian Road Climbs web site and then asked me to review some layouts, maps and text of his upcoming book, The Complete Guide to CLIMBING (By Bike). I said, "sure!" I was honored to have been asked by John to review it. Well, John just sent me a copy of the book. I was thrilled to see my name is in the Acknowledgments section.

Be sure to pick this one up. It highlights the 144 climbs across the USA. It also includes a top 10 list of most difficult climbs.

-Frank (wishes he was a climber, but he's a sprinter instead.)

DON'T Let me NOT be Frank.

Rob - You should post....."It isn't NOT about the bike." .....in reference to a future blog post.

What a weekend of fun. We bailed on the 115 mile Cherohala Challenge and settled for an epic 20 mile ride up and back to the top of Yellow Creek gap. We had just climbed this climb in the middle of May during the "Cherohala-Fontana" version of Climbing Camp. I never posted anything because I don't have the pictures yet. ":o

As we were driving to our ride start, we were descending down the Cherohala Skyway from Hooper Bald and we started seeing many many many cyclist coming up the mountain riding the Cherohala Challenge. Frank (that's me) was in rare (old) form this weekend......."we should, like, park down at the bottom of the climb and then ride up the climb (with our fresh legs), dropping all these cyclist....giving them 'the look' and attack them up the climb".....their poor souls looked WASTED. The cyclist who we were seeing were the last batch of 75 or so of 400-ish starters who were at their 70-ish mile marker. They had just started up the long 13+ miles of the Cherohala Skyway. "We could like, sit on their wheel....and pretend we are talking to our team car...'sure Johan, attack now?'....then just drop them". Then, we see a guy on the side of the road stopped and bent over his bars......Frank's true form come out. "hey man, you okay?....there is a rest stop just up the road around the next turn" (there really was). Then, we started honking the CAR HORN OF ENCOURAGEMENT for the remaining cyclist encouraging them up the climb, fists pumping in the air. After several minutes of seeing cyclist after cyclist struggle up the climb, Frank says,....."let's tell them, that they are 'almost there' when we pass them...". LOL. We continued to honk to them waving our fists in the air. "you can do it, mon". .....man, I wish I had my cow bell. Venga, venga, venga.

We got our lazy wine-drinking camping-butts on our bikes and ascended up Yellow Creek. I wanted to show Rob this climb, "it is really steep". He had just returned from Italy......and climbed the Zoncolan....he later said, "Frank, I've been climbing steep climbs for the last 3 weeks in Europe". Why should I think that Rob would find this hillbilly mountain climb incredible after that trip? I just don't have any idea what I was thinking. ....thanks for the cool Giro shirt. "I'll wear that to work next week".

Anyway, I watched the 145-pound Rob climb away from me with his seasoned Zoncolan legs.....and his American painted Colnago....with a TRIPLE, with like a 30x32 for his lowest gear against my SRAM 39x26. He climbed away from me....spinning through the 15% section...and then when the climb dropped to around 8%. I eased my way up to him slowly...he never looked back to see where I was. I targeted the last short pitch of a few hundred meters to catch him. It jumps up to about 10%. I shifted up two gears to eventually close the 250m-ish gap....but, to only just miss his wheel and a bike length across the finish....he heard me coming.....he never looked back the entire climb to see where I was.....I WAS WASTED....circling the top of the climb for some relief. He got me. What fun.
We got back to the campsite (Andy's 27 acre mtn property @ 4400' asl) and fixed us up a good ole stir fry frenzy. "All hands on deck" we are cuttin the vegetables and cooking them over the fire with steak and chicken. Everything was awesome. Along the way we started talking about "double negatives" and that is where the motivation for the title of this post was derived......DON'T let me NOT be Frank. I was frank that night, I guess. There was a lot of frank conversation, laughing, razzing each other, laughing, something something about Frank's Blog.....I can't remember much of the conversation right now.....but, recall that I was retaining my rare form from earlier in the day when we were passing all those cyclist climbing up the mountain.

Andy Z., Rob, and Me

Many dark hours and four smores later (11:30PM), we finished off that night with a late night drive to the top of Hooper Bald. It was a clear night and the Milky Way was laid out above us. There were two guys up there with telescopes looking at Jupiter, Saturn, etc. They showed us those planets and the Globular Cluster M13, which was directly overhead. The Milky Way looked like clouds in the sky....if I could only touch. Saw 3 quick meteors.

Rob, Stephanie (hammock), Debi (banjo skillet) and Andy

Woke the next morning (Father's Day)....slept like a rock! Always start the day with coffee. Not a whole lot else to report....uh, we didn't NOT not do a ride. Odd for a Sunday with no ride. What do I have to train for? Took out a few trees (Andy is clearing space for a cabin) and went home. Hit the slushy mart on the way home and purchased $10 worth of lotto tickets.

-Frank

Far away Father's Day

Me - "Hey Dad! Happy Father's Day. Yes, we are in the woods camping and riding again."

I called my father in Ohio around 11:30 AM from a remote location off of the Cherohala Skyway, near the TN and Western NC border.....where my verizon phone gets a really good signal. I wondered, "when would my daughter call me?" It better be before 9 PM, like last year!!!!

Noon - no call.
1:11 - no call.
3:42 - uh, still no call.
5:20 - I texted her mother "IT IS FATHERS DAY."
6:15 - Arrived home.....still no call. :-(
7:30 - Turned on the shower to wash the woods off my body.....still no call. I let the water run...knowing darn well....."as soon as I get in the shower, she will call".
7:34 - I'm naked (picture deleted), I am pulling the shower curtain....."ring, ring, ring". It was her.

(Yes. I put some clothes on!)

Dad - (pretending to play dumb) "Hey, honey, why are your calling me today?".
Em - "uh, because I am".
Dad - "oh, okay, "....we started talking
Dad - "i got a copy of your report card". (It had ALL A's, more A's than I ever seen in all my years of schooling). "You got all As."
Em - "I got an award from the President.
Dad - "of the United States?"
....we talked some more.... about the summer, "yeah going swimming a lot".
Dad - "do you want to ride at the track this summer?"
Em - "Duh, YEAH!".
Dad - (thinking, I love it!) (can't wait!)
Em - "if we go swimming more, I will ride more". (okay, ms. negotiation......she did get all As...)
Dad - "you got it, how about camping and swimming?".
Em - "yes".
Dad - "so why did you call?".
Em - "Because, it is Father's Day". :-D
Dad - "I love you, miss you, can't wait to see you.".

:-D

The path of (my) life....

Is it not a shame how most of us go from innocent little children to stressed out adults. Here are some picts of some good days!


I LOVED playing in the dirt with my Tonka trucks and matchbox cars. Tide box? I dunno.


My cousins.....which one is me?


Metal Head Banger throwin down some Slayer!


Me, a Dad, and starving graduate student.


Yes, I am in that tent. Cheah Bald Winter 2005.


"Dad, the race is over, can we go home now?"


Follow me to Mount Lemmon AZ.

June is time for dance recitals.....in Ohio.

Each year, for the last 7 years, I drive to Ohio to see my daughter perform in her dance recital. We also get some time together to plan our upcoming summer together. There is no doubt where my focus is when I am with her. She has grown up so fast....too fast.... Soon, she'll be too cool to hang out with Dad. She made me sell the Burley tandem. But I have a surprise for her that I've been building over the last few months. I think she'll like it.

Me racing last year at this time.

I've been back on the bike, riding and things are going well. It is weird to have my spring not be focused on racing bicycles. I'm not sure where my motivation is right now......but, I do remember what it feels like when pumping out the high intensity. It is an addiction. I'm getting my sprint back slowly but surely. It is the zone 3 recovery that I'm having problems with. We'll see how well I'm going at the track tomorrow night.

A pict of me last year in a race in GA.

Life is to short to worry.....

It is like this Eddie McFreddie. Now, life isn't easy getting through. Everybody is going to make things tough on you. But, I can tell you right now that if you dig what you do, they'll never get you down. Because, life is to short to worry and life is too long to wait. It is too short not to love every body and life is too long to hate. I mean, a lot of men haggle, finagle all the time, trying to save a nickel to make a dime. But no, not me....no-sir-ee, I ain't got the time.

Some lyrics by Todd Snider.

Cherokee Climbing Camp May 2007

One of my most favorite things to do is go camping and take the bike with me. So, my friend Rob from Atlanta and Debi and I met in Cherokee, NC to do some climbing and camping. We camped at the River Valley Campground, which actually was very nice.....I hate campgrounds because of all the noise and how close you are to other people.....but, this was a very pleasant experience for all of us. There was no crowds or loud noise/music playing in the campground. We arrived on Friday night May 11th. Our Saturday plan was to ride the very busy US 441 up and over Newfound Gap from Cherokee into Gatlinburg, TN. We would then turn around and come back over Newfound Gap. On Sunday we were to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway to Balsam Gap then turnaround and descend back into Cherokee via US19. The total weekend riding was 130 miles and over 14,000 feet of climbing. US441 is not recommended for bicycle riding on the weekends. There is way tooooooo much traffic. The parkway was a total joy and there was hardly any vehicles on the road. The climbs on this section of the Parkway are nice long and a challenging grade. Great views are everywhere.

Enjoy the pictures.

-Frank

Back on the BiKe

It is the end of April already. Gosh! What happened? Where did March go? Oh yeah....It feels like I slept for a month.

Anyway, Tuesday was my first ride back on the bike. Instead of taking it easy and doing a nice flat short ride, I took off to my favorite route. I went up the Blue Ridge Parkway from the Folk Art Center to Bull Gap. Then I turned around and climbed up the back side of Town Mountain road. So, this is probably close to 100 feet of climbing per mile. That is the best kind of riding and the most therapeutic (for me). I even used a 12x25 cassette instead of changing out to a easier gearing, 12x27 tooth cassette. I felt the bigger gear on the climb. I was riding a 12x25 comfortably before my surgery. So, I can tell exactly the ground that I have to make up. I'm not going to race to get my form back. I just needed to know where I am in my fitness right now. There is a little work to do.

I have targeted at least 2 centuries in the month of June. The Cherohala Challange (115 miles with more than 10,000 feet of climbing) and the Blood Sweat and Gears (more of the same). I've never done the BSG before. This will be my first time. It is a ride near Boone and there is a lot of good climbing there.

In the interest of my Southern Appalachian Road Climbs website, I've been working with Google Maps "My Maps" to create, duh, MAPS of the climbs for my web site. The climbs that I have created so far are Town Mountain, Brasstown Bald, Hogpen Gap, Wolfpen Gap, Woody Gap, and Santeetlah Road Gap.

I am hoping to link the climbs from my website to these Google Maps pages. There are pretty cool. I am doing a little work on my web pages in Dreamweaver Studio 8. I'm still trying to learn the software....and there seems to be a learning curve for me, which is unusual. I can usually pick up software pretty quick, but this is a new challenge.

So, I do feel good on the bike. My neck is still healing and I can feel some tenderness, but the ride feels great. It always does. I won't be riding in a tight group of people until I feel 100%. So, probably no racing until the summer. My first target is the Fletcher Flyer ride on May 20th. It does not have a lot of climbing and is a good 1st ride for me.

I've been back to work for 3 weeks and each week gets better.

The books that I've been reading over the last several weeks:
Johnson's Notes on the new Testament
iPod Fully Loaded
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and Flash 8 Visual Quickstart Guides.

I did go to the Tour de Georgia over the weekend. The Sunday road circuit stage in downtown Atlanta, GA was great. I took several great pictures. I hope to post some of the to my website. You can watch the last 9 minutes of the final stage on YouTube.

All for now.

Final leg of recovery

Well, I finally made it to my home on March 26th. I have really improved since then. The first few days at home I just relaxed and took it easy. I got real comfortable sleeping in my own place and my own bed. It was nice.

I ordered some new software to start working on web pages and went through a few tutorials to get started. I need to revisit that in the next few weeks and make some progress.

On April 1st, Debi drove me to pick up my daughter. I was lucky to have her spring break overlap with my last week of recovery. We had great week together and I was able to be very mobile by the middle of the week. On Thursday I had my 4 week follow up doctors appointment. They said my healing is going very well and could not be better. That was good news. They gave me the okay to return to work and to start driving long distances. I met with the physical therapist after my doctors appointment and he gave me some exercises to work on. He gave me the home-office plan so I do not have to go into their facility for weekly appointments. The PT had neck surgery 6 years ago and was able to give me great information on his experience.

The day before Easter we got 4 inches of snow. I drove my daughter back in what started out to be really treacherous driving conditions as we passed 3 just-happened car accidents in a 2 mile stretch near Canton, NC. We wanted to turn around and take another route home as we reconsidered driving through the I-40 gorge at the NC/TN state line. Not a fun road to drive in poor weather conditions. But, we kept going and everything was just fine and not too bad...we were extremely cautious.

It was a 4 hour drive each way. I felt good, but my neck was bugging me a little by the time I got home. I was tired and took a long nap. I've been getting really tired about 4 PM.

I go back to work tomorrow. Hopefully I can re-arrange my office workspace and make it through the entire day. I will try to take it easy and relief any tension and stress as this first week gets going.

-Frank

Good Weekend and Progress

I have made some good progress over the weekend. I spent much of Saturday at the Assault on the Carolinas bike event spectating and watching my cycling friends climb to the top of Caesars Head near the NC/SC border on US 276. Debi was doing the metric century ride, so I was trying to support her on the ride by being at the top of the 7 mile climb. My friend Rob had come up from Atlanta to do the ride. So, it was an opportunity to catch up with him too.

After the ride several of us went out to dinner at Zambras in Asheville. To me, another typical hoity toity restaruant of Asheville with good food, so I guess they can have a pompous pretentious attitude about their food, drink and services. It was a great time and nice for me to be out and about for the first time in weeks, actually months since I don't get out often.

I slept very well in a bed for the first time too. I had also tried driving some miles over the weekend. So far, so good. I feel comfortable driving as long as it is not for too long.

I finally returned home on Monday to stay at my place for the first time since March 9th. It felt great to be home in my space without a pressing schedule. So, I basically relaxed and slowly started thinking about some projects that I hope to do while I am off the bike for some time. My food supply needed some refreshing, so I hit the grocery and ran a few errands to get back on track.

As of tonight, things are good and the week is flying by. My left leg near my hip is sore. I'm not sure why, but I'm thinking that it is because the muscles have not been used that much. I have actually lost some weight since just before the surgery, much of the weight I was trying to lose during the bike training I was doing over the summer. My appetite has dropped significantly since I am not riding. Food is fuel. I'm about 7 pounds lighter than I was at the end of February. My neck is still tender in that I can not make a quick head-turn or look up or to the side for long durations. So, I am just trying to take it easy through this week without too much moving around. But that is easier said than done.

-Frank

Not doing much of anything

Well, I did have some success sleeping in a bed last night, but still not completely comfortable. I still have not been home since the sugery other than to check my mail. I am hoping to get situated at home very soon. I am two weeks into my recovery and I have two more weeks to go before I return to work. There is not much more to report.

The spring weather is here. All my cycling friends are enjoying this exciting time of year when we finally break through the chains of winter. I've spent a ton of time scanning old pictures. It really takes a lot of time to go through them all and pick only a select few to scan into a digital format. There are a few more that I would like to do, but I was just getting a bit tired of spending so much time scanning. Below is a picture from 1991-ish.

All for now and more later.



-Frank

"Do Nothing"

"Do nothing" is what I heard today at my appointment with my doctor's medical assistant. She said that includes, "no driving". Darn! I really wanted to start driving. But, they insist that I do not start driving again until it has been a full two days that I've been off my percoset prescription. But, "I drive better when I'm on Percoset". No, I did not say that, but I was taking it before my surgery and didn't have any problems. I took their advice and will not be taking any percoset for the next two days. I'm pretty much down to one a day anyway. So, it should be easy for me.

I did have the staples removed from my left hip suture today. I did not know what to expect. I thought for sure that removing staples from the human body would a painful experience. Darn, I can't believe that I did not take a picture of the staples. Actually, I did not even really look at the suture myself. The thought of staples in my own flesh and muscle is not a site for me, so I realize now that I had pretty much ignored the visible appearance of the staples in my skin.

About an hour before my appointment Debi gave me some Lidocaine which is topical anesthetic cream to numb the area before they removed the staples. The medical assistant showed me the tweezer-looking tool that she was going to use before pulling them out. She said, "I've pulled out staples before, but never from a hip suture". I also recall Dr. Silver's Physician's Assistant saying after the surgery, "Dr. Silver did a bone graph from the hip and replaced the disc with it, that is a first for him". Gosh, you mean to tell me that I'm the first person they've tried this stuff on. Seems to surprise me a bit, but what can I do. I have to trust them. I did and still do.

"Is it going to hurt?" I said. "Should I hold on to something?" I said. The medical assistant said "yes, hold on to something if that will be......okay, got the first one". That quick! I said, "you did?!?" with surprisement. But, "I didn't feel anything, nothing at all". Great. There was going to be no pain in removing the staples.....got myself all worked up for nothing. She suggested that the lidocaine may be working really well. She was surprised that I did not feel anything. I guess I had about 8 staples to pull out and they came out quick.

After the staples were removed I did get a little queezy and had to sit down. But, I got back to normal and she put steri-strips on the suture that will come off themselves. I was free to leave, but without driving privileges that I had hope for. Just wanted to be able to drive to the grocery and back, that is about it.

After the appointment, John (who gave me a ride to the appointment, he's from Canada, retired here during the winter months with his wife, he's also a cyclist) and I contemplated about whether or not I should get my car and drive back to Hendersonville. He said he would follow me back, but I told him I would be a while at home before I could leave. We both indecisively tossed the idea back forth and finally, I said, "no, lets just go back to Hendersonville. I'll be okay." John offered to give me a ride sometime during the week when I felt it would be okay for me to drive. "I'll call you tomorrow and we'll shoot for Wednesday", I said. He was okay with that and said, "Maybe Tuesday I think it may be raining and I won't be able to ride anyway". Sounds good.

I had a number of things that I wanted to pick up from home. These are things that would keep me productively busy for the week. So, maybe I'll pick them up in a few days.

-Frank