355'th!!!!!!!!

I did it! I cracked the top 400 in the Centurion! That was exactly my goal! I couldn't be happier! I am totally full of shit!...........Please pick the most accurate statement of the previous three.
If you picked I am totally full of shit you are right. I must admit though that because of the knee trouble I had it was great just to be there. As for the knee my only explanation is maybe there was something floating around in there that jammed in a bad spot which caused my knee to lock. It's never happened to me before and hopefully it will never happen again.
The race was huge with 1219 riders in the 50 mile ride alone. It really is cool starting off in a massive peloton. When we got to the Grey 19 climb my weakness was exposed. I simply cannot climb with the top riders. I was passed by many riders on the climb and it's amazing how fast some of them can get up a hill. The winner came in with an incredible time of 2:22. I bettered my chip time from last year by less than a minute at 2:58:26 which is a bit disappointing but just the fact that I could ride makes me happy. My average speed was 28 kph and I was 19'th out of the 93 riders in my age group so I should be happy with that as well. All in all a great day.

It's not the teflon

To my great relief I can safely say the teflon ligament in my knee is still in one piece and that makes me very happy. I took the brace off last night and had some movement in my knee because the painkillers were starting to take effect. I could tell then that the source of the problem is on the outside of my knee. There is a spot that is super tender to the touch and will still prevent me from riding the Centurion but at least the prospect of a long period of time rehabbing is fading. I don't know if the anterior cruciate ligament has been somehow damaged and I don't remember doing anything that could have damaged it so it's a bit of a puzzle.
Thankfully I didn't need the knee to jump to a conclusion that was completely wrong. Maybe it's all in my head. Yea, it's psychosomatic. Maybe I need to talk to someone about my inner demons, my low self esteem, my feelings of persecution. Maybe it's time for...................DR. LUCY!!!!!!!!!

The teflon holding my knee together

It's over

I trained hard through the summer and I'm now in better shape than I have ever been and it has all been for naught. I was looking forward to beating my 50 mile time from last years Centurion  but that's not going to happen now.
Over 20 years ago I tore my anterior cruciate ligament and my medial collateral ligament completely in a skiing accident. I was a beginner and going way too fast when it happened at Osler Bluff ski club. The surgeon inserted a teflon acl which is the ligament that really stabilizes your knee. It has worked great for me until some very minor problems cropped up this year.
Now I have a major problem. My knee started to hurt yesterday afternoon for no good reason and as of now I have next to no movement in it. It is sore as hell and I have become a gimp. I can't be sure but I think the teflon ligament has broken inside my knee. This is a worst case scenario but I can't think of what else could have happened to create this much trouble with the knee. The last time I had the surgery it was 6 months before I could finally walk properly again. I have my fingers crossed hoping that I am wrong. Please.
I am now back from emerg with an appointment to see the orthopedic surgeon next week. They seemed a bit reluctant to mess with a knee that had reconstructive surgery done on it in the dark ages. They actually heard what was done to it and commented "hmm, old school". Lucky for me I saved my knee brace from the original injury and am now wearing it which allows me a little more freedom of movement.

The Doctor is in

The Centurion ride is coming up this weekend and I have been training hard in hopes of beating my chip time of 2:59:09 from last year. This past weekend I did a 90 km ride through Creemore, Badjeros and Feversham and a 50 km ride up Grey 19, around and back down the Pretty River road and home. Both rides I pushed myself and after Sunday's 50 km ride I was feeling spent but considering that I averaged 28.6 kph on my 90 km ride the day before it was understandable that I would be tired. It was a good tired.
I will do only one more sprint ride on Wednesday and then I will rest up, try to get some carbs in for a couple of days before the race and hopefully improve on last year although weather conditions could certainly play a part in that also.
I am also aware that many athletes use sports psychologists to aid them in their performances and so I figured why not, it wouldn't be the first time I've visited a head doctor. I have been known to be a bit bonkers from time to time.
I found a sports psychiatrist which I guess is the same thing as a psychologist and she promised that she could improve my sports performances by helping me to focus on the positive, block out the negative and to trust in myself more. I call her Dr. Lucy and I think she is going to benefit me immensely. The cost is not covered under OHIP but I think it will be worth the out of pocket expense.

Baring my soul

I plan on seeing her after the Centurion to work on some other issues I have like difficulty trusting people and team mates. She has a great trust building exercise where she holds the football and then I try to kick a field goal. She is confident it will be beneficial to me. I can't wait.

3 Stage

3 Stage is the prime mountain biking spot in the Collingwood area. I would venture to say that it ranks right up there with other top rated mountain bike areas in North America. It has everything from fast twisty turny single track to rocky difficult technical sections to long lung busting climbs, sometimes all on the same trail.
When I first started riding here 3 Stage was nothing more than a double track road and a few trails going through it. Then about 12 -13 years ago my friends (Cam, Lori, Terry, Steve) and I set out to make our first trail there. When we were done it was a little soft but within 2 weeks enough riders had seen it, ridden it and enjoyed it to pack it down and to this day it is still a fun trail. We made several more trails over the years with my favourite being what is now called the Millennium trail made in 2000. It's fast with some tough technical sections placed in there to keep you on your toes. Terry made the best technical trail in 3 Stage which starts by the yellow posts. I think it's called Terry's Techy now and believe me, if you can ride through it in either direction without a foot or hand dab you have done very well indeed.
Since our trail building days many more trails have been made so that you could ride in there for several hours without riding the same trail twice. The more recently built trails tend to be rockier and more technical because of advances in bike technology. Full suspension bikes with 5 inches of travel are not unusual now so what was a tough section to us on our old hard tails with 2 inch travel forks is now a piece of cake on a newer bike. I used to thread my way through technical sections but the new riding method is to simply go over them. It's not better or worse, just different.
Regardless of the type of bike you have one thing that will never change is 3 Stage is a great place to ride.

A great story

I was watching the Daily show the other day and there was a great story covered by John Oliver that I thought was just the best. A couple in Naples, Florida were served a foreclosure notice by a Bank of America branch in the area. They protested to the bank that it was incorrect but the bank continued to harass them about foreclosing on their home. The thing is, they had paid cash for their home when they had bought it a few years earlier so it was free and clear. They finally decided to sue but had difficulty finding a lawyer willing to take on the Bank of America which says a lot about law firms and whose pockets they are in. Eventually they found a young lawyer who had recently passed the bar exam willing to proceed with the law suit and they won. The bank was ordered to pay $3,000.00 to the couple as a penalty for harassing them. The bank decided not to pay which says a lot about corporate respect for the law. The couple, not about to be screwed by the morally bankrupt, ethically challenged scumbag bank went out and found a sheriff who was willing to carry out his duties and two repo men who had previously done jobs for the bank. It seems they were more than happy to be involved in this repo job. They went into the bank with the sheriff's deputies and a court order to seize anything that wasn't nailed down. The bank manager was visibly shaken apparently and finally decided to negotiate a deal which covered the expenses that had been incurred by the couple. It's nice to see the shoe on the other foot for a change. I love that story. If you can check it out on youtube. It's worth watching.

Little victories, lots of aches

It's about 30 hours since I finished my 90 km ride and there is little doubt that I used up just about all of the energy I required to get through today. I have been a veritable useless bag of shit for the entire day, barely moving from the recliner. Walking the dog felt like a major chore. I suppose my state of exhaustion wouldn't be quite so advanced if I had just let Methuselah ride away. But no, not me. I'm 56 now but I still think there is something I have to prove. Today has proved that if I ride hard for 90 km I will feel like a bag of shit the next day. There's a reason I'm not a rocket scientist.
It's now a day later and I woke up feeling rested so I figured what the hell, may as well go for a ride to see how the legs respond. I did what I call my sprint ride which is 35 km of flats over by the airport. My legs felt pretty good so the idea was to try and beat my 32 kph average on the same ride that I did about a month ago. There was a SW breeze which had some effect on me but near the end of the ride I thought the 32 kph might be beatable but I was wrong. My average was 31.1 which I still was happy with because yesterday I could hardly get out of my recliner. My cadence was the highest I've managed to date at 83 rpm so that is a positive. High cadence is supposed to be more efficient so for an old hammer style mountain biker like myself it has taken some effort to increase my rate of pedaling. All in all a good ride on a beauty day.