Mostly recaps of two wheeled rambles through the countryside, but sometimes thoughts on other things.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Great day outside, less than great ride though

Sometimes it goes that way for all of us, I think. The day started very early for me. Tossing in my sleep and finally waking, I decided coffee sounded way better than fruitless attempts to get back to dream land. I got up (it was about 3:30) and made a pot. Alex was chatting away on his cell phone with some one, so he had not yet been to bed. At 5:15, I left for Wetumpka, to wrangle mountain bikes in preparation for today's Coosa River Challenge. It's a neat event, with running, rock climbing and rappelling, kayaking, mountain biking, and other stuff. 250 athletes were pre registered and more came today. Here's more on the event if you are interested:

http://www.coosariverchallenge.com/

The weather is perfect today. Temps in the 60s to 70s, light winds, and brilliant sunshine. I showed up in a long sleeve seersucker shirt, denim jeans, and a wide brim straw hat, and I wore gloves to haul bikes around. Why? Because the antibiotic pills I take make me sensitive to sunburn. You ask, "why are you taking antibiotics?" Well, because I have one heck of a saddle sore, that's why. As near as I can figure, I abraded some skin near the left sit bone some weeks back, and ever opportunistic staph bacteria took up residence there. At first it just looked like an ingrown hair so I pinched the zit and put a band aid with Neosporin over it. As the days went by, it started to get larger. I really noticed it last Saturday evening after Day 1 of the MS ride. I rode 80 miles on Sunday on what amounts to one sit bone, as I favored the sore side. After a couple of days of fruitless home care, I went in to the Dr on Wednesday. He shot me with 1000 units of rocephrin and put me on Bactrim DS tablets. The benefit was immediate. Swelling has gone steadily down all week, and I've tried each day to sit on a saddle. Through yesterday, it was still a no go, but I decided on the way home from the morning bike wrangle that I was GOING to ride today. The only issue was working out the details.

I took the Mark III because it is fun over short distances and light, and it has my most comfortable saddle on it. I just took the loop around Prattville. It's about 23 miles and 900' of climbing. There's one 20% grade, but the rest are in the 4% - 8% range. I still can't sit properly on a saddle so there was plenty of squiming around to relieve pain. My legs felt pep-less, Not sure why. Anyway, got 23 1/3 miles in ans some hills, and I am a cyclist once again.

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