With 1 race to go Mel's leading the elite women's race by 15 minutes and Ben is in 11th pos in elite men but perhaps starting a new career in modelling??
pix found on FB..not sure who took it.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Ganglions
are...what? according to www.emedecinehealth.com they are: a tumor or swelling on top of a joint
or the covering of a tendon (tissue that connects muscle to bone). It looks like a sac of liquid (cyst). Inside the cyst is a thick, sticky, clear, colorless, jellylike material. Depending on the size, cysts may feel firm or spongy.
And I managed to develop one on the end joint of my second toe, right foot. Don't know when or why....I just noticed it one day.in (I think) January. A quick consult with a podiatrist at work led me just to keep an eye on it, but twice since then it's caused me a bit of a problem, the last time taking me to my GP cos it looked infected.
Long story short...yesterday I went to a specialist whose specialty is foot lumps and bumps. Yes, it was a ganglion, no it wasn't attached to anything significant and yes he would drain it. It might return, they often do, and if it did and was a problem then we might have to do something more dramatic.
4 needle pokes later and it was clear that whatever was inside was not exiting via a needle so he proceeded to do what I've been dying to do for 5 months..he squeezed the stuff out. The convex lump turned into a somewhat bloody concave mess which he covered with a bandaid(!)..then he said.. keep it dry.and I think you should stay of the bike for 10 days!...'cos actually it was probably my new bike shoes and mega km's over Xmas that caused the problem. Off the bike for 10 days?...not a hope. OK I'll stick with the ergo but..no bike at all??
Straight into problem solving mode:
to be continued.....
And I managed to develop one on the end joint of my second toe, right foot. Don't know when or why....I just noticed it one day.in (I think) January. A quick consult with a podiatrist at work led me just to keep an eye on it, but twice since then it's caused me a bit of a problem, the last time taking me to my GP cos it looked infected.
Long story short...yesterday I went to a specialist whose specialty is foot lumps and bumps. Yes, it was a ganglion, no it wasn't attached to anything significant and yes he would drain it. It might return, they often do, and if it did and was a problem then we might have to do something more dramatic.
4 needle pokes later and it was clear that whatever was inside was not exiting via a needle so he proceeded to do what I've been dying to do for 5 months..he squeezed the stuff out. The convex lump turned into a somewhat bloody concave mess which he covered with a bandaid(!)..then he said.. keep it dry.and I think you should stay of the bike for 10 days!...'cos actually it was probably my new bike shoes and mega km's over Xmas that caused the problem. Off the bike for 10 days?...not a hope. OK I'll stick with the ergo but..no bike at all??
Straight into problem solving mode:
- Option 1 My first task post "ganglion bursting" was to go my favourite cobbler...one of the few genuine cobblers left in Melbourne and ask him to mega stretch an old bike shoe .....I pick it up today..
- Option 2 if that doesn't work I'll put a platform pedal on the right side and use an ordinary shoe or open sandal.
- Option 3 do 10 days of single leg riding :-(
to be continued.....
Sunday, May 13, 2012
woo!hoo! a new toy!
so I've gone the "tablet" route and bought the Asus eeslider SL101..comes complete with keyboard. And the reason for this rash purchase, when I've already got a laptop???...weight. the lap top gets a bit heavy when carting it around on my travels, whereas this baby is a measly 800gms or so. Case closed.
Today I raced the last of this group of 3 TT races in 3 weeks. All in the country and all pretty flat..Wang, Shepp and finally Benalla. For the Wangaratta race I had a rubbing front brake, for Shepp my seat had sunk down (I raised it 8 mil) and finally by Benalla I'd sorta got it sorted!..raised the forearm pads and moved them forward.
Anyhow..apart from racing the first 5km with raging case of indigestion..memo dont drink fruit juice before racing......I had a good race with a time I've not bettered since 2008. Mind you a favourable cross wind on the long leg helped.....the results are matched to the age standard for TT's and I beat mine by ~11 mins and won $30 for my efforts. My thanks go to the Hume vets club..it's really very good of them to put on a regular TT race..there were people from ACT, Cobram, Melbourne plus the local club members.
But that block of racing is over and now it's back to base training again.
61 days to go!
Today I raced the last of this group of 3 TT races in 3 weeks. All in the country and all pretty flat..Wang, Shepp and finally Benalla. For the Wangaratta race I had a rubbing front brake, for Shepp my seat had sunk down (I raised it 8 mil) and finally by Benalla I'd sorta got it sorted!..raised the forearm pads and moved them forward.
Anyhow..apart from racing the first 5km with raging case of indigestion..memo dont drink fruit juice before racing......I had a good race with a time I've not bettered since 2008. Mind you a favourable cross wind on the long leg helped.....the results are matched to the age standard for TT's and I beat mine by ~11 mins and won $30 for my efforts. My thanks go to the Hume vets club..it's really very good of them to put on a regular TT race..there were people from ACT, Cobram, Melbourne plus the local club members.
But that block of racing is over and now it's back to base training again.
61 days to go!
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
TT at Kialla
Have TT bike, will travel.
This weekend it was a shorter journey, but still required an early start from home. Kialla is just south of Shepparton and I envisaged, correctly as it turned out, a flat course.
This time I made sure my brake pads were well clear of the rims and this time I was happy with my effort. However, due to not quite understanding the start procedure and expecting as usual to be early off, I stopped my warm up waaaaay too early and so essentially the first part of the race was done "cold". As a result I had to back off a bit at about 2 km into the race as I knew my HR was peaking far too soon.
There was a sort of a tail wind along the first long straight of the square course, then a tail wind across the short top section and a very nasty final long leg before a struggle to the end.
Next week Benalla with the Hume vets, then a bit of a break to recover and get back to long training rides.
This weekend it was a shorter journey, but still required an early start from home. Kialla is just south of Shepparton and I envisaged, correctly as it turned out, a flat course.
This time I made sure my brake pads were well clear of the rims and this time I was happy with my effort. However, due to not quite understanding the start procedure and expecting as usual to be early off, I stopped my warm up waaaaay too early and so essentially the first part of the race was done "cold". As a result I had to back off a bit at about 2 km into the race as I knew my HR was peaking far too soon.
There was a sort of a tail wind along the first long straight of the square course, then a tail wind across the short top section and a very nasty final long leg before a struggle to the end.
Next week Benalla with the Hume vets, then a bit of a break to recover and get back to long training rides.
Monday, April 30, 2012
TT at Wangaratta and Alex update
Wangaratta
This is a race I've ridden before and so I was planning to use it as an indicator of my current fitness..however...when I got there...late as always...I discovered that they were not using the "T' course as it was now considered too dangerous. The reason given was: it's a 100kph road, with 2 u turns required and with cyclists on both sides of the road.....etc etc ..but since there were only 14 entrants my feeling was that this reasoning was a trifle precious......whatever. Instead we had a flatter course..2 laps of a square, which turned out to be 19.7km in total. No matter it would still be a good test.
My front wheel had shifted a bit on the journey and so after fixing that I set off for a brief warm up on the road to check the gears, brakes and direction of the wind. All *seemed * ok.
And they're off.
I was working hard, but a quick glance down at the Garmin 500 showed a slower speed than I should have been seeing...WTF? my legs were burning. (Side note: I had a killer gym session on Monday which left me unable to walk properly until Thursday..so perhaps that was the reason?)
I completed the race in a time that was definitely not what I wanted to see...dead roads and a bit of a head wind on one section, balanced on the other side of the "square" by a tail wind but the kph was ~2-3 lower than my ideal.....NOT happy. Cruising along cooling down I heard an odd noise from the bike and on checking closely, REALLY closely, 'cos at first glance there was nothing wrong, I realised that one of the front brakes was not sitting parallel to the wheel and was rubbing slightly at the back. I spun the wheel and ooohhh dear. Before the race I'd checked them by just looking down from above a hadn't done a spin check. Bugger.
Sunday was spent sorting out the problem and going for a test ride..much better.
Alex update
During my professional life of some 50+ years I have frequently told my patients to be "guided by pain/lack of pain" and "your body will tell you when it's ready to progress". All of which is true but not, it would appear, in Alex's case, 'cos here we are 9 days post op and since day 2 he's not needed to take any pain killers and as a result cannot be "guided by pain". He's been pushing the boundaries while I've been worriedly nagging in the background. At least when working I don't get to see what my patients are doing when I'm not around!
He goes back to the surgeon on Friday, which is 2/52 post op and he/we is/are going to need step wise clear instructions on what the limits are.
Currently he's busy selling things on ebay to raise money to pay me back for his medical bills. (!)
This is a race I've ridden before and so I was planning to use it as an indicator of my current fitness..however...when I got there...late as always...I discovered that they were not using the "T' course as it was now considered too dangerous. The reason given was: it's a 100kph road, with 2 u turns required and with cyclists on both sides of the road.....etc etc ..but since there were only 14 entrants my feeling was that this reasoning was a trifle precious......whatever. Instead we had a flatter course..2 laps of a square, which turned out to be 19.7km in total. No matter it would still be a good test.
My front wheel had shifted a bit on the journey and so after fixing that I set off for a brief warm up on the road to check the gears, brakes and direction of the wind. All *seemed * ok.
And they're off.
I was working hard, but a quick glance down at the Garmin 500 showed a slower speed than I should have been seeing...WTF? my legs were burning. (Side note: I had a killer gym session on Monday which left me unable to walk properly until Thursday..so perhaps that was the reason?)
I completed the race in a time that was definitely not what I wanted to see...dead roads and a bit of a head wind on one section, balanced on the other side of the "square" by a tail wind but the kph was ~2-3 lower than my ideal.....NOT happy. Cruising along cooling down I heard an odd noise from the bike and on checking closely, REALLY closely, 'cos at first glance there was nothing wrong, I realised that one of the front brakes was not sitting parallel to the wheel and was rubbing slightly at the back. I spun the wheel and ooohhh dear. Before the race I'd checked them by just looking down from above a hadn't done a spin check. Bugger.
Sunday was spent sorting out the problem and going for a test ride..much better.
Alex update
During my professional life of some 50+ years I have frequently told my patients to be "guided by pain/lack of pain" and "your body will tell you when it's ready to progress". All of which is true but not, it would appear, in Alex's case, 'cos here we are 9 days post op and since day 2 he's not needed to take any pain killers and as a result cannot be "guided by pain". He's been pushing the boundaries while I've been worriedly nagging in the background. At least when working I don't get to see what my patients are doing when I'm not around!
He goes back to the surgeon on Friday, which is 2/52 post op and he/we is/are going to need step wise clear instructions on what the limits are.
Currently he's busy selling things on ebay to raise money to pay me back for his medical bills. (!)
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
I'm a Physio not a nurse!
Soooo...once again I've changed jobs.
I swear if I EVER have an injury or illness that requires me being immobilised ALL my family had better bloody well step up to the plate!
Following a rushed appointment with Mr Frank Lyons, my new hero, Alex had his # clavicle operated on. His op was on Thursday afternoon at Vimy House and while I had planned on visiting him, since he hadn't got back to the ward by 5pm I realised there was little point and so decided to pop in briefly early Friday with some clothes before returning later for a longer visit.
I was almost there when Alex rang to say he was being discharged! both of us were a bit confused by this since we had been told that be would be discharged on Saturday. I did a hurried revamp of my day's plans and by 0930 we were on our way back home clutching meds and a list of exercises from the Physiotherapist.
That day was a bit difficult for Alex but we both got through it although he may have spiked a temp overnight. Then we got a phone call from the surgeon who, like us yesterday, was somewhat gobsmacked that Alex had been discharged. I can envisage some harsh words being spoken by him to the ward staff...! However nothing bad happened and Alex saved almost $1000. 5 days post op and Alex is doing more and more and now it's a question of stopping him doing too much too soon.
TT bike issues
Realising I can't always be using Alex's wheels for racing TT's..if only because he plans on entering the same races later in the year, I bought my self a set of Zipp Firecrest wheels..called a Zipp 600 they are actually a 404 front wheel and an 808 back wheel.
There is very little adjustment and with the wheel I had just bought and had not yet used, there needed to be quite a bit more space....sob, will this be the quickest ever ebay turn around
What to do??
Call in super bike mech (son Ben).
He fiddled and fiddled and fiddled. No easy fix possible with the current set up.
Solution No 1 was to change from yellow Swiss stop pads to Shimano pads..much struggling and swearing later (they're a really tight fit) and while better it wasn't the solution.
Solution No 2 grind down the pads.
Solution No 3 made by yours truly...would a different set of pad holders have a lower profile than the Bontragers? (looking at the Dura Ace ones on my road bike)..good thought, so Ben tries a spare set I have lying around (not Dura Ace ) and bugger me...it works and after a search for the adjustment screws which are cunningly hidden, we have lift off. Yaaay.
First test ride on Beach Road tomorrow, weather permitting, and then back to racing at Wangaratta on Saturday.
I swear if I EVER have an injury or illness that requires me being immobilised ALL my family had better bloody well step up to the plate!
Following a rushed appointment with Mr Frank Lyons, my new hero, Alex had his # clavicle operated on. His op was on Thursday afternoon at Vimy House and while I had planned on visiting him, since he hadn't got back to the ward by 5pm I realised there was little point and so decided to pop in briefly early Friday with some clothes before returning later for a longer visit.
I was almost there when Alex rang to say he was being discharged! both of us were a bit confused by this since we had been told that be would be discharged on Saturday. I did a hurried revamp of my day's plans and by 0930 we were on our way back home clutching meds and a list of exercises from the Physiotherapist.
That day was a bit difficult for Alex but we both got through it although he may have spiked a temp overnight. Then we got a phone call from the surgeon who, like us yesterday, was somewhat gobsmacked that Alex had been discharged. I can envisage some harsh words being spoken by him to the ward staff...! However nothing bad happened and Alex saved almost $1000. 5 days post op and Alex is doing more and more and now it's a question of stopping him doing too much too soon.
TT bike issues
Realising I can't always be using Alex's wheels for racing TT's..if only because he plans on entering the same races later in the year, I bought my self a set of Zipp Firecrest wheels..called a Zipp 600 they are actually a 404 front wheel and an 808 back wheel.
I found some Vittoria crono tyres and had them glued on and then tried to put the wheels on the bike, which is when I came across a major problem.....they wouldn't fit between the brake pads...too wide. The front wheel was not an issue ..I just needed to loosen off the brake cable, but the back wheel was quite a different kettle of fish.
Integrated rear brake
Rear brake is integrated into the frame for minimal drag and maximum efficiency.There is very little adjustment and with the wheel I had just bought and had not yet used, there needed to be quite a bit more space....sob, will this be the quickest ever ebay turn around
What to do??
Call in super bike mech (son Ben).
Solution No 1 was to change from yellow Swiss stop pads to Shimano pads..much struggling and swearing later (they're a really tight fit) and while better it wasn't the solution.
Solution No 2 grind down the pads.
Solution No 3 made by yours truly...would a different set of pad holders have a lower profile than the Bontragers? (looking at the Dura Ace ones on my road bike)..good thought, so Ben tries a spare set I have lying around (not Dura Ace ) and bugger me...it works and after a search for the adjustment screws which are cunningly hidden, we have lift off. Yaaay.
First test ride on Beach Road tomorrow, weather permitting, and then back to racing at Wangaratta on Saturday.
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