Thursday, I got running again – outside, in real weather (mid 30’s and it felt warm). Towards the end of the run, though, I was winded something fierce.
If I’d done my usual and really pushed, I might have been concerned, but it was 2 miles at an 8:45 pace – shorter and slower than the 4 at 8:20 I’d been averaging before taking February off to deal with PF.
Note to the wise – rest appears to work with PF – now we’ll see if building slowly works to prevent it in the future. Oh, that and staying off of f’n treadmills.
Friday morning, I woke up feeling fine, except for some real soreness in my thighs. Figured it was only small tissue damage from running on real ground, testing the fine motor-control muscles that I haven’t exercised since December, as every step I took on a treadmill was exactly the same as the one before and after.
Boy, was I wrong.
About halfway into a conference call Friday morning, I started getting chilly. The lab runs cold sometimes, so I pulled on my jacket.
Then, the cold sweats and shakes started, and I knew I was screwed.
Made it through the call, and put out a fire (Oh, boy was it a fire – I will discuss over soda/beer if given the chance), and headed home to crawl into bed.
The drive sucked – the heated seats were cranked up to full the whole time, and the heat was on to the point it started to dry out my mouth. I stopped for one nap. Got home around 2 and crawled into bed.
Slept/shivered/sweated for 16 hours straight, getting up to pee and drink more water.
This morning, I felt nearly human again, enough to go drill. Drill was fine – starting a new job there that looks like I’ll fit perfectly. Made it home, and Jake, my oldest boy, says “Hey, daddy. Why don’t we go ride bikes?”
Hmmm, sunny, 50 degrees, I’m no longer feeling near death? Sure, I can keep up with a 6 year old on a singlespeed bike with 12″ wheels.
The ride was all that and a bag of chips. I rode my wife’s bike with the jumpseat for the little brother on the back. We tooled around the neighborhood, and even went a little bit on the farm road outside the ‘hood. Jake only walked one or two hills, and that’s more because his coat catching on his seat stopped him from standing up in the pedals.
Absolutely wonderful – there’s nothing more I can ask for than a boy who wants to ride with me. Now, to keep that enthusiasm alive.
And there’s plans laid – his birthday is at the end of the month, and there’s a bike on hold for him at Mystic Cycle Center.
Oh, and I’ve picked up a new mountain bike. I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, ’cause technically, it’s a department store bike, but I got a Forge Sawback 5XX from Target. Why did I go with the department store bike?
Mainly ’cause it’s got a complete Shimano Deore gruppo, disc brakes, and it’s less than $300. The exact same parts layout (likely with a lesser fork) would be $600 anywhere else. If the frame is a total wash, I can hang the parts on another frame, and come out ahead.
I don’t know that I’d recommend the Forge to someone who wasn’t already a decent wrench, though. The one that was shipped to me was pretty well built, with the following exceptions:
– Front disc rotor and calipers weren’t installed
– Bottom bracket was installed by f’n Godzilla
– Front derailleur needed adjustment.
The brake – not a huge deal. Discs rock – so much easier to adjust and install than anything else I’ve ever wrenched on. The front derailleur – again, not a big deal as they included documentation on EVERYTHING that came with the bike.
The bottom bracket, though? I’m a bit miffed about that one, as I had an LX BB and crankset that I was going to slap on the bike. I pulled the stock crankset (Truvativ, not a complete piece of crap, but slightly heavier than the LX), but could not, for the love of Pete, get the bottom bracket shell to move. AND I even read Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance before starting, so I remembered that the right side shell was left-hand threaded, so it’s leftie-tightie; righty-loosey.
I haven’t been riding other than down the street Thursday night after putting it together, but the bike seems to rock. It’s lighter than my 15 year old steel hardtail/hard fork bike, though not quite as sexy, and goes forward when I pedal.
The top tube seems a little shorter than I’m used to, but I’ve got about an inch I can move the seat back, so that’ll help. And, it might just be that I’ve been riding road bikes for the better part of the last decade, so I’m not used to the proper geometry. I do think that my original MTB was a skosh too big for me, too.
Other than that, it’s been a while since I’ve really ridden a MTB, so we’ll see how it goes.
So that’s it – sickness, love, and new wheels. Got to love spring. Really love the boys.