Living with MCL

Here it is Wednesday morning, the sky is totally overcast and the temperature is about 45°F. It was 42°F when I got up, so I didn’t go for my usual Wednesday ride with the club.

The ride leaves at 7 AM from the marina, which means I have to leave the house by 6:45 AM to get there in time. On days like this that’s just too early, considering the sun (when it decides to get up) doesn’t even rise until 6:58 AM.

So here I sit, contemplating riding on my own, trying to motivate myself. I don’t want to wait too long, because the wind picks up as the day goes on (and I don’t like the wind), but I do want to wait till it warms up some.

One thing I do know, it’s way too easy sitting here doing absolutely nothing, and the longer I do that, the more likely I’ll end up doing absolutely nothing.

I just don’t know, maybe I’ll go to the gym and do a spinning class. There’s one at 9 AM.

Not sure how much this might relate to having cancer, or in its treatment, but in every day life, and in the world of football, it’s a sure fire way to guarantee a loss.

I saw it about a month ago when Baltimore lost to New England in the final seconds of the game, and you can see it for yourself, in the body language of Hines Ward, as my beloved Steelers lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars last night.

After being down by 18 points, in the 3rd quarter, the Steelers played brilliantly, gaining the lead by one point, with just over 6 minutes remaining in the 4 quarter, using a varied attack of short passes, and the occasional run.

But with just over 3 minutes to go in the game, the Steelers resorted strictly to their running game, in an attempt to run the clock down, and ended up giving the ball back to Jacksonville with 2:38 to go.

The rest is history, but I think there is a valuable lesson to be learned.

Never second guess yourself. Your first instinct is usually the right one. And you always have to go with what you’re most comfortable with, and what’s working at the time.

Had the Steelers done that, they might have won the game.

posting on what seems to be an almost daily basis.

Not sure exactly why that is, especially after threatening to stop posting all together back in September, but oh well, here’s goes my 3rd post of the year, and it’s only the 4th of January. I just hope I’m not boring too many people.

It’s on days like this, when it’s raining, or threatening rain, or I don’t plan on riding, or doing much of anything at all, I like to go over who’s visiting my blog. I don’t get names, or personal information, but I do learn where everyone is from, and how they came to visit my site.

I was surprised when I reviewed the stats from the last few days, not because of where visitors were from (85% US, 5% the UK, and the balance from Canada, Germany, China, Romania etc.), but because of how they came to visit my site.

It seems about half the visitors stumbled across my site through the Huntington Beach Blog, which linked one of their posts on the happenings on New Years day in Huntington Beach, to my story on the annual New Years day bike ride.

That surprised me, because I can’t figure out how the publisher of the Huntington Beach Blog, came across my site.

And what I’m even more curious about is how many of those people, who accessed the story, were on the ride, and how many may actually know me?

My performance on the bike today was just pitiful. I was so embarrassed.

Normally I wouldn’t ride on Thursday, as that is one of the two days I go into work (Tuesday being the other day), but the plant is still shut down for its Christmas/New Years break, so I had the day off.

And since the rain is supposed to come in with a vengeance starting this evening, which means it’s unlikely I’ll get much riding in the next 3 days, and in spite of the fact this was my 3rd day in a row riding, and the Thursday ride is a speed workout, I decided to do the Thursday club ride.

Besides, I’m a strong rider, I was feeling good, and the weather was cooperating. There was no wind to speak of, and temps were in the high 40′s (°F). It was a nice morning for a ride.

I just don’t know what happened. Maybe it was the past two days of riding (although I didn’t think I worked that hard those days), or maybe it was the fact three or four of the strongest riders in the club were there, but there were also a number of other riders, I know I was as strong as, if not stronger than, and I’ve been able to keep up with the fast guys before, but I just didn’t have it today.

I even thought I was prepared as we entered the Bolsa Chica state beach parking lot (after a 5 mile warm up), for what was to come.

As the pace picked up, I had to bridged up to the first 4 riders, but that didn’t seem to be a big deal, and I settled in behind the last rider to recover.

But then that rider decided to pick the pace up, and went off the front. Initially nobody went, but that didn’t last long. Soon I saw myself dropping further and further back, unable to muster enough energy to hang, watching rider after rider pass me by.

It was at the point when I say the last 3 riders, all of whom I thought I was easily as strong as, if not stronger than, pass me by, and I couldn’t hang on, I knew I was in trouble.

It was so demoralizing. I kept trying though for a little while longer. I even thought there was some hope, when I saw the group slow down slightly in front of me, but alas, my attempts were futile, the group was just too far ahead.

I was toast!

So I just did another 30 miles down the coast alone, contemplating what happened, and what was to be.

And what was even more depressing, was when I got home and looked at my cyclometer, I saw my top speed was only 28.6 mph. I know I can go faster than that.

Maybe it’s good the rains are coming. I’m hoping a few days off the bike will be good for me.