Lynda

February 2007 - Posts

• Scar Pic

  I did it. I peeled off the dressings for a looksie. No stitches! Maybe they glued me back together. Steve took this pic of me before I had come around from the anesthesia. He said he was gonna put the flower in my mouth for the pic but I woke up too soon - I get n… Read Full Post Here Technorati Tags: Cycling Posted Feb 27 2007, 11:39 PM by lynda with no comments

• Scar Pic

  I did it. I peeled off the dressings for a looksie. No stitches! Maybe they glued me back together. Steve took this pic of me before I had come around from the anesthesia. He said he was gonna put the flower in my mouth for the pic but I woke up too soon - I get no respect 'round these parts. Kidz are digging the new raft too   Here are the official Old Pueblo Race pics of me - see I was having a ton of fun until my smoosh... I love photo 2180. That is lap #3. I am on ChrisP's wheel and Dave is on my wheel. We were rolling along like butter. Posted Feb 27 2007, 11:39 PM by Lynda

• Healing Bizness

  It is quite a rollercoaster ride, good - bad - better - awful - repeat. I feel fine for a while but when I slide I go down hard and fast. Surgery went well and I was rolled out of the OR with my Ti plate at 9pm on Friday evening. The middle part of the bone was so pulverized my doc did a bone graft and some cementing. I'm still fuzzy on the details but did find out the bone grafted came from a bottle and not another part of my body - whew! I was booted out of the hospital at midnight as there were no beds available - that was a heady ride home with 14 mg of morphine in my veins. I haven't left the house since and am still wearing pyjamas. I think I'll get dressed tomorrow. Simple things like taking a shower are a huge procedure. Steve taped a plastic bag over my dressings and washed me. Emma has been helping out too. She took time out of her scootering session to brush my hair. I haven't eyeballed my scar yet. It is hermetically sealed under layers of bandages I was told not to pick at. It's taunting me to peek... So many folks have stepped in to help me heal it is touching. Wesley has virtualy been living at his pal Luc's house and been shuttled around by his mom, the neighbours have brought my family cooked dinner, even god sent over some missionaries to clean up my house and say a prayer for me. Thanks to folks sending flowers, they are all beautiful. These ones sent by the Sorella gals were bustin' out when I eventually got up on Saturday. They made me smile. DaveH knows me well and brought over 52 oz of M&M's (yikes) and 700mb of mp3 files(very very cool). I've spent many an hour lying on my back in a pain med induced haze listening. Some awesome new stuff - I love The Cat Empire and some old stuff I haven't listened to for a real long time - Echo and the Bunnymen. Fab combo. Steve has a new gal in his life and even with my drama going on I am not his center of attention. He's been checking I have water and drugs within arms reach then taking his new blow up babe to the lake at every chance. He has big plans for her. Posted Feb 27 2007, 12:13 AM by Lynda

• Healing Bizness

  It is quite a rollercoaster ride, good - bad - better - awful - repeat. I feel fine for a while but when I slide I go down hard and fast. Surgery went well and I was rolled out of the OR with my Ti plate at 9pm on Friday evening. The middle part of the bone was so pulverized my doc did a bone graft and some cementing. I'm still fuzzy on the details but did find out the bone grafted came from a bottle and not another part of my body - whew! I was booted out of the hospital… Read Full Post Here Technorati Tags: Cycling Posted Feb 27 2007, 12:13 AM by lynda with no comments

• Bionic Woman

  Surgery got bumped up. This afternoon I follow in Dave's footsteps to become the bionic woman and get my matching Ti plate. Thanks so much to everybody who has called, e mailed and left nice comments on my blog. It is real nice to have so many friends out there and feel part of a supportive community. Mountain bikers are a special breed of folks. Every message and call takes an inch out of the grumpiness I feel. Now I better go change the playlist on my mp3. I still have my OP playlist on there and I think it is a bit too rocking for this afternoon. 'til next week friends.... Posted Feb 23 2007, 12:21 PM by Lynda

• Bionic Woman

  Surgery got bumped up. This afternoon I follow in Dave's footsteps to become the bionic woman and get my matching Ti plate. Thanks so much to everybody who has called, e mailed and left nice comments on my blog. It is real nice to have so many friends out there and feel part of a supportive community. Mountain bikers are a special breed of folks. Every message and call takes an inch out of the grumpin… Read Full Post Here Technorati Tags: Cycling Posted Feb 23 2007, 12:21 PM by lynda with no comments

• 2007 Old Pueblo Race Report

  Short Story It was a dreamy ride for about 11:30 then not so dreamy. Long Story Our pit was awesome. Everybody bought a piece of the pie. We had perfect support, a pro mechanic and the best spot on the course. Josh did my support and Andy from Desert Cyclery was wrenching. Those guys were on me like a rash at pit stops and I was in and out like a flash. Thanks guys - you are pros. Thanks too to Brad who brought his camera and a ton of pos… Read Full Post Here Technorati Tags: Cycling Posted Feb 21 2007, 04:58 PM by lynda with no comments

• 2007 Old Pueblo Race Report

  Short Story It was a dreamy ride for about 11:30 then not so dreamy. Long Story Our pit was awesome. Everybody brought a piece of the pie. We had perfect support, a pro mechanic and the best spot on the course. Josh did my support and Andy from Desert Cyclery was wrenching. Those guys were on me like a rash at pit stops and I was in and out like a flash. Thanks guys - you are pros. Thanks too to Brad who brought his camera and a ton of positive mojo into our pit. Andy wrenched for me, Bernice, Dave, Fuzzy and helped out a whole bunch of folks. He can dial a bike like nobody else By the end of the weekend his hands were hamburger. My race went like a dream for the first half. I had an ambitious plan and was sticking it down perfectly. Every lap I was out there I ended up riding with some friends - Chris, Dave, Rayne, Fergy. Here are two of my favorite boyz I had the pleasure of riding with for a while. Then on my 10th lap about 11:30pm I took a corner too tight and fast and stuck my front wheel into a ditch. That one on the left just after the cattleguard and before the seven bitches. I glanced to the right to get a check on a guy passing me on the right in the corner instead of looking where I was going. My power file has me going 19.6 mph when I hit the dirt. No rolling, just smack and stick. The guy stopped and helped me up then we both got back on our bikes and rode. I finished out the lap about 14.3 miles and 1:28 which now seems like a crazy thing to have done. I kept saying to myself - this is gonna stop hurting in a minute like I had banged my elbow or something. Once I stopped at the pit Josh had a look at it - luckily he is an EMT too - talked some sense into me and gave me a wee bit of comfort while I had a good cry. I do cry... Right collar bone is shattered and left hand has significant damage too. Surgery on Monday. The toughest part of all was taking off my sweaty sports bra. Those things are tough to get off on a good day let alone with a broken left hand and finger and broken right collarbone. That took me so close to my pain threshold I nearly shouted for Andy to come in with the scissors. The silver lining was being able to watch Bernice put down 15 laps and pull off a 2nd place. She made me proud to be her coach. Dave rode in a strong 2nd too. Nice job guys. So that's my OP story. No big pink clouds involved this time... Posted Feb 21 2007, 04:58 PM by Lynda

• Pink Princesses and the Big Pink Cloud

  I love colors. Often my outfits don't match but are made up of crazy colors that make me smile. Pink is a smilie color. Pink Princess #1 Pink Princess #2 - this one is a beauteeee Stealth mode got boring so I called up Joel for a spin. He showed up with this new ride. Holy moly am I lusting after this frame. I want it baaad. Joel toys with me so. See taunting smirk in photo. It is one of those frames I have to touch and stroke. More color came thru UPS today (brown is not a smile color)   Ergon is a sponsor this year and this is the first arrival of the green goods. It is a unique green. I haven't found a name for it yet. Somewhere lurking between fluorescent and olive - fluorolive maybe? I think fluorolive and pink would be a fast combo! Next stop on the crack train is 24 hours in the Old Pueblo. Fast approaching in 4 days. Our pit is looking more like a party than a race. We have an RV, bbq, mechanic, ace support folks. It's gonna be a good time. I'm looking forward to riding thru the wee hours and into the morning on that big pink cloud I missed out at Moab. This race has a slightly different flow for me so my pre-race quote is not from my usual scribe Csikszentmihalyi but from Gary Mack: "We don't know what the future holds so why not act as if you're going to have a great one. Follow your dreams not your fears." Come over to our pit and say hi if you are at the race. If you catch up to a gal during the race with a braid and a big ol' www.teamhealthfx.com across her rear tell her she is looking dam fine. Shout hearty tho, Girls Aloud might just be pumping down her ear holes. Then give her a big bad pull down the road ;-) See ya'll in AZ Posted Feb 13 2007, 10:29 PM by Lynda

• Pink Princesses, Dreams and the Big Pink Cloud

  I love colors. Often my outfits don't match but are made up of crazy colors that make me smile. Pink is a smilie color. Pink Princess #1 Pink Princess #2 - this one is a beauteeee Read Full Post Here Technorati Tags: Cycling Posted Feb 13 2007, 10:29 PM by lynda with no comments

• Stealth Mode

  I've got lots to blog about but I've gone in stealth mode with 24 Hours in The Old Pueblo coming up. My riding partners have prolly wondered where I've gone (hi Joel, Dave and Paul!). It's a nice breather for them having me in stealth mode for a while anyhooo. What's different about this one? There is a killer womens field signed up and it is gonna be a race fer sure, not me just swinging laps around the course. Very cool. So … Read Full Post Here Technorati Tags: Cycling Posted Feb 08 2007, 06:30 PM by lynda with no comments

• Stealth Mode

  I've got lots to blog about but I've gone in stealth mode with 24 Hours in The Old Pueblo coming up. My riding partners have prolly wondered where I've gone (hi Joel, Dave and Paul!). It's a nice breather for them having me in stealth mode for a while anyhooo. What's different about this one? There is a killer womens field signed up and it is gonna be a race fer sure, not me just swinging laps around the course. Very cool. So far the start list looks like this: me a.k.a. The defending OP champion, Monique Sawicki a.k.a. 2005 National 24 hour solo champion, Sara Kaufmann, Bernice and hopefully a ton more wicked ladies I don't know - they don't publish a start list for this one. Last year we had 15 solo women and there were 72 solo men in the geared categories. How cool would that be to have 72 solo's in the womens field? Waaaay cool. So I haven't been riding as much tapering down for the race. Emma is a real clothes gal and we went on a girls shopping trip. She picked up some slippers, a pair of cool shades and a nice hat. She is a great wee shopper. Much better than me. I usually just mill around without buying anything. Wesley and his pals have been on mach10 as usual. They like to chalk up the sidewalk. Our driveway is usually covered in chalk. Now they are in first grade they are all writing well and getting more creative. I actually made sense of some of the scrawlings this morning on my way out.   "You better run away fast or I will kill you" Nice! Another beauty day down here in the desert and another lap of the Jem. Just one this time. By myself in stealth mode but here is a copy of the power file. Easy to Sheep Bridge then good pace back to the car. Luuvly.   Posted Feb 08 2007, 06:30 PM by Lynda