Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Monday, November 21, 2005

OK, I'm officially getting tired of this crisis after problem after difficulty cycle that my life seems to be in right now.

Last weekend we were going down to the last big century ride of the year when, due to crash recovery silliness, traffic on the interstate backed up and we were rear-ended. The car was drivable but I'm sure that once we get it into the shop later this week we're looking at being without it for about two weeks and in a "intermediate sized" rental of some persuasion. The insurance company has been good to work with (the other driver's, not ours) but there's a lot of liitle details to be arranged adn everytime I go out to our less than one year old car I have to look at the damage and sigh. The fact that I don't have a license right now, of course, complicates everything tremendously.

This weekend went somewhat smoother until last night Max, my golden retriever, went into a seizure cycle. Max has had small seizures since he was about a year old and the vet told us a time would come when we would have to medicate him. I had just finished a two and a half hour training ride on the rollers and was about to make some dinner when my wife came into the room and told me that Max had had another seizure. We didn't think too much of it until he had a second one about 5 minutes later. As he was coming out of that we were concerned and a bit relieved when he went into another. And then another. We called the vet's emergency number but he wasn't back in town yet. He was supposed to be in any minute and the nearest emergency clinic was 45 minutes away so I decided to wait thinking that this would pass in under 30 minutes or the vet would call. Neither did so I carried my seizured dog to the car and we raced south. It was maybe the longest 40 minutes of my life; every 15 seconds he would spasm for 15 seconds and then relax for 15 seconds. Over and over and over again. All I could do was hold him and talk to him and hope he kept breathing and that his heart wouldn't explode. We got him down there and after several injections of various things we finally broke the cycle and knocked him out. As he finally settled down I felt like the vet had given me the sedative as a lot of the tension drained out of my body. We took him home and slept with him through the night (my wife not so much) and today he seems to be recovering pretty well. It looks like he'll be on seizure meds for the rest of his life now but he's OK after what was two hours of rigid body spasms.

So...UNCLE! Whatever's going on here, I'm really ready to be done now. Gravel trucks, trees on house, rear-end collisions, unfair and punative justice systems, other personal issues, sub-par students and dog conditions have worn me down. Officially, for the holiday season, I'm hunkering down and fortifying the castle. Right now I'm tired as hell of dealing with one crisis after another. So if you want to see me, you'll have to know the secret password, use the special handshake and have a decoder ring that can be purchased at the low, low price of only $998.98 plus tax, tag, title, transfer, shipping and handling (this offer not necessary for spouses or close friends and not valid for assholes and certain local law enforcement agencies). If you don't have that a six pack of a microbrewed adult beverage might do in a pinch if I'm feeling particularly generous, I don't have to do any work for it and I'm thirsty.

Anyways, the ride was great and Max seems to be getting back to his old, goofy self so the crises have been weathered but each one seems to add a little more grey to my bread, more lines around my eyes and more need for sleep. Maybe this long weekend I can get caught back up on my sleep and the dark circles that seem to be getting too prominent will fade a bit. Before then, I have exams to give and grade, messes at home to clean up and more meetings than God.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you need a decoder ring.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

So as November starts, so does a new training season. Usually I start back on Dec 1 or maybe right after Thankgiving but because my goals this season start in Febuary instead of April I need to ramp up my training a bit earlier. Right now everything will be long, steady distance with leg speed drills. No heart rates above 70% of my max which translates into about 140 bpm. Add to that some weight lifting, first to balance my body out and then to build some strength and you have my early season regime. The difference this year will be to throw some really long rides intot he mix. I'm going to try and do an 80-100 mile ride each week and then push that number up as time goes on.

The other thing I need to do is switch my road bike back to a 53/42 ring set instead of the 53/39 I have on now. The 42 is a better training gear for me due to my focus on time trialing and my early work on rolling courses. It'll do a better job of keeping me out of the big ring as I work on spinning at a higher cadence.

Thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |