plans for the fall 2010

summer has finally ended in central texas. the mornings are chilly and the evenings are beautiful, we are gathering firewood for our fireplace, and making plans for some november camping trips. i recently spent some time in providence for my sisters wedding, it was a really great time, abby and i are so happy for them!

the city was just like we left it, and full of people we miss, if only there was more time.

seeing pictures of new england cyclocross is killing me, really love that time of year. maybe i will make a visit next fall and race a little!

in other news, i have been laying pretty low lately, not doing much jiu-jitsu or bike racing, and the main reason is that for some time now i have had an inguinal hernia. at first the condition didn't cause much discomfort and the doctor i was seeing at the time gave me the green light to keep doing the running, riding, grappling, ect. well things have worsened, the pain and discomfort has gotten more frequent, and i have gotten to the point of shying away from racing and other activities for fear of complicating the situation.

thanks to the steeping room (where i work), texhealth, and the new health care legislation i am now insured, and pretty decently. when i recently went for my yearly physical the doctor (a real texan) told me i was, "healthy as a horse" with the exception of the hernia. he told me it was time to get the condition surgically repaired.

a few weeks later i had a consultation with a surgeon who explained to me the two main types of surgical options for this condition. laparoscopic vs. open.

the option i am choosing is the laparoscopic method, it involves smaller incisions, cameras and inflating part of my abdomen with air, which sounds nuts. it supposedly works well and patients have quicker recovery times this way. they staple some mesh over the weak area and most of the time thats it, more more problems, bye bye pain. thats the plan.

the down side is that they use general anesthesia as opposed to local. i never really thought about it before, but i am actually pretty freaked out by idea of being knocked out, and there is always a freak chance of something going wrong.

can't make decisions based on fear though, that never ends well.

i haven't scheduled the date yet, but i think this will go down in late october, leaving me fully up and running for busy winter months at the restaurant, and able to take spring classes at ACC without worrying about missing weeks of class.

two weeks is the estimate of how long i will be on "restricted" activity, thats not so bad. some people are able to get back to work in just a few days, but thats uncertain, so scheduling this is going to be tricky, but i start working on that today.

it will feel great to be able to run the half marathon i planned for this fall in the winter, the 3m in january maybe! to get some solid training in on my bike so i can return to racing for real in 2011. I still hope to be able to run the 2011 austin marathon. to stage race again. to get a blue belt in jiu-jitsu. to fell 100%.

so thats my update for now. wanted you all to be able to know what i am dealing with right now, if you are curious.

next update will be about the volunteer work i am starting this month with austin pets alive!

i hope you are all doing great, wearing sweaters, enjoying the fall.

summers end...

its the 14th of august, and here in austin it has been about 100 degrees every day for weeks. i have been doing lots of bike commuting, and it is pretty intense in this weather, but it is also really fun. there are some good trails and shortcuts i use to cross the 12 miles from my work to my house, and the post work exercise feels relaxing actually.

i pinned on a race number for the first time in 2010 two weeks ago at the driveway criterium, it went pretty well. i was faster than i thought i would be, but not fast enough in the end. still, i felt that the heat was my number one enemy, and with the summer ending and several more months to the long texas road season, i expect i will be out there again soon.

i have also been running, and have targeted an october half marathon, and plan to run a full some time this year, austin is in february, and the chance of getting up north to run a full in vermont is something i would like to make happen.

abby and i are loving our apartment and the complex we are living in, we swim pretty much every day, we go to exotic swim spots on sunday when we are off work together, we are actually enjoying this hot hot summer.

in just a few weeks we will fly to providence and get to witness my little sisters wedding, its exciting, and i really look forward to seeing folks.

if anybody who owns a 56cm road bike feels like letting me race it for them, i was thinking of dropping in on the ninnigrit race!

i guess thats the update. summer is ending, lots of projects are beginning, and i am looking forward to the fall and the dreamy texas winter.

see you all soon,

scotty-

more may days...

Abby and i have completed the move to our new apartment. it rules.

we have lots of space, a beautiful living room, a fireplace, a balcony porch, and use of pools and tennis courts, all for what we paid for a smaller place in providence!

we are slowly furnishing the place and having fun with the process.

now that the stress of moving is in the past i am refocusing on some personal goals. i am going to run a half marathon in june in san antonio, i am going to keep training hard at jiu-jitsu and compete in the fall naga tournament, and then switch to cyclocross for a few months. I miss high speed biking, but haven't had the time or money to buy a license and race the road yet this summer, maybe a few criteriums before all is said and done, but who knows.

looking forward to some possible visits from friends in june, and swimming in the springs to escape the afternoon heat!

i have also been working at getting back into school, more on that later, its time to head to alamo drafthouse to see exit through the gift shop, should be good!

May Days

here in austin the signs of summer have arrived! Its going to be 90 every day this week. barton springs is the place to be, and riding around on the bike means bringing extra clothes with you everywhere. Its really fun so far, talk to me in july and we will see what i have to say.

what have i been doing? you ask.

well, i have been doing a lot of jiu-jitsu. i had to take a break in mid april due to this weird ear condition where i got fluid trapped behind my ear drum! the pressure that the fluid caused in my head made me feel like i was getting punched in the back of the head every 3o seconds for about a week. awful, really bad, not good.

so i went to the clinic and they put me on some drugs. the label of the steroid they put me on (insert doping joke here) warned that use of the drug would lower the effectiveness of my immune system! rad!

sure enough, my ear clears up and i spend the next week and a half sick with a head cold. crap!

last monday i went back to working out and jiu-jitsu, and this past week was great but very difficult, hard workouts and the heat combined double the challenge. but the challenge is the whole point of choosing activities like road racing or grappling, we the people who like to do these kind of activities thrive on the discomfort we create for ourselves, we need it for some reason, we are probably not well mentally. but we like it.

aside from working on my skills with jiu-jitsu and thinking of competing at the september naga tournament, i have started to crave some speed biking and have tentatively marked septembers tour of austin as a nice comeback race!

as for day to day life in austin, i really miss my new england friends. i am shy. thats right, even though i talk your face off if i know you, i am very shy around those folks i don't know, and that makes being in a new city kinda hard. but i am working on it.

there is more to type, but i have to go to work now...may update part II is forthcoming...

spring, sprang, sprung

things are getting green again here in austin. just had my coffee in the green house and it was almost too hot in there already at 10am.

i am healing up pretty well from my accident and feel almost back to 1oo percent. in order to heal up i had to take it much easier on myself this week than i had planned. tuesday night jiu-jitsu was great but when the competition class started and i got slammed into the ground a few times as we worked on takedowns it became clear to me pretty quickly that i had to call it a night. my lower back was still not ready for getting thrown that hard, however, everyday i am feeling better. next tuesday i think i will be able to go full speed again.

one of the hardest parts of training for any sport is knowing when you need to stop training for a few days. no matter what the sport is that we are focused on there is inevitably an attitude that you need to "tough it out" or "not give up" when you feel hurt. sometimes toughing it out is appropriate, and sometimes it can cause you to become sidelined with a far worse injury.

I have been really getting focused on trying to learn and understand more jiu-jitsu, and it is frustrating to take days off and sit at home when you want to train. but, healing up and avoiding injury is top priority, especially when your main mode of transportation is your bicycle.

so, while sitting around the house this week i had the car towed into the shop for repair. it will be running again on monday giving me the occasional 4 wheel option. i made some progress with the insurance company of the women who smashed me, and i am hoping to get a free doctors visit out of the situation so i can be sure i am healing properly.

my iro (fixed gear commuter) really proved itself to be far stronger than i had expected. the crash was pretty serious and the only damage was to my handlebars, they are now toast, and will be replaced soon. riding a bike with crooked handlebars is not fun or safe.

jay carr has officially made plans to get down here in april which is awesome. mr. st. germain shouldn't be too far behind. all i have to do is convince everyone who visits to stay.

as for bike racing this year, i have not been doing any kind of training at all focusing on the two wheeling. i am sure i will want to make a visit to the weekly criterium series at some point, but for now thats all i have on the radar.

there is a NAGA tournament in may and i am going to see if i can get enough training in to feel ready to compete.

in fact it is time to go train right now.

dear austin, please stop smashing me with your car...

two car crash incidents in three days! neither were the fault of myself or abigail. just a strange coincidence that us being rear ended and then me getting smashed off my bike by a mini-van came on back to back days off from work.

i have some gnarly road rash, some deep cuts on my wrist, and a lot of aching and bruising, but the strange thing is how i basically feel fine. when the accident replays in my mind it seems like my bike must be wrecked or that i must end up with a broken wrist or elbow. luckily for me, i got up and walked it off, i feel very fortunate.

the driver of the mini-van and her friend spoke no english, and my only spanish is specific to restaurant use, since asking her to, "get me some clean silverwear," wouldn't shed any light onto why she honked at me and they plowed into me, i decided to let the cops do the talking.

when it turned out the woman had no drivers license they impounded her vehicle and then wrote her several citations, one of which was a "failure to yield to cyclist!" (i didn't know such a thing officially existed)

to be fair to the fine city of austin i must note that drivers here are exceptionally kind and nonaggressive with cyclist for the most part. it is a city flooded with cyclists of every level and the drivers have learned over the years how to share the road better, and the laid back austin lifestyle helps with that too.

in other news, i am working at the same restaurant still, but looking for new opportunities. I am training jiu-jitsu four times a week and getting in really good shape from the intensity of the workouts. For the time being my main athletic focus is going to be training for the NAGA (north atlantic grappling association) jiu-jitsu tournament that is in texas in may.

the weekly criteriums start up here in march and i will make some regular appearances and try to just enjoy going fast on a bicycle without any larger goals attached.

holidaze

i have not been keeping up with my training so well the past few weeks, travel, work (in two states), and the drinking and carrying on that comes along with the holidays and my 32nd birthday have all left me feeling slow and fat.

but here i am back in austin. time to get moving. i want to lose 10 pounds in the next few months which means less cheese, beer, and late night snacking. More running, training rides, and tasty salad style action.

the 3m half marathon is less than a month away and i am still hoping to run my fastest time so far on the largely downhill course, which sounds easy, but, if you had my knees you would know downhill isn't really awesome.

road racing starts in february here and ends in december. i don't have the money or patience to endure a season that long so i will do some early season racing close to home to get ready for bigger events.

i need a new road frame and i'm thinking of trying to get my circle A (aka jays circle A) down here in time to be the racing machine for 2010. I ride a 55cm, anybody with any suggestions, let me know.

tonight is new years eve, abby is in california still, so i don't have any plans really. watch some fireworks, try to avoid eating pizza, and probably watch bad tv.

watch out 2010, i am coming for you...