Any Given Saturday

Posted on by lindsay
I hurt my knee earlier this week while running through Reston Town Center. Less than two blocks of dashing merrily in flat boots and by the end of the night, I could hardly bend my leg. The ortho doctor said that I likely tore my cartilage or meniscus (to a minor extent), and went on to add, "Isn't it funny that you compete in a high risk sport, and yet you injured your knee running to your car?" Hilarious. So he gave me some free sample drugs and sent me home with orders for an MRI and to rest until my follow-up appointment next week. And I rested hard...for two days, until impatience and anxiety over missed training won and I gingerly rode for 90 minutes on Friday evening. All seemed well, so I got back on the bike for the scheduled training this morning and ended up feeling great. ...continue reading.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted on by lindsay
I love Valentine's Day. Candy, flowers, sweet things, red and pink, bubbles, ribbons, sparkles, puppies...I want to be marinated in this festive crap. I'm serious; I'm even sitting here wearing a ridiculous flower in my hair: Okay. That's too much. My teeth hurt from all of that sweetness. And to be honest, I grabbed that flower off one of my Chanel boxes and superglued it to a hair clip while riding the trainer this morning. So really, this is probably more appropriate: But it's still a great holiday. What? You hate it and think it's manufactured by Hallmark? That's so original! You must be the first person ever to boldly make that assertion! It's a good thing that there are no other holidays that are over-commercialized [Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, Every Other Holiday That Is An Excuse To Sell Cars At A Discount]. However, while you are taking ...continue reading.

Snippets

Posted on by lindsay
[1] On Monday, some tremendous asshole person in the parking lot of my office opened their car door into mine and left scuffs and red paint. I love my car and try to keep it pristine, so this was very upsetting. By Tuesday, attempts to locate the perpetrator had failed and I whined to a friend by email, saying that it had made me cranky for the past two days. He replied, "Somewhere in Africa, a child is without food..." [2] When I got home from work today, I asked the dogs, "Ready to go outside?" But then I stopped for a moment to put my groceries away and when I turned around to the open door of the refrigerator, Scout was trying to find a way to climb in. I guess when you are blind and it is winter, an open door through which cold air is coming seems like ...continue reading.

Epilogue

Posted on by lindsay
I used to read Dooce regularly, but in the last few years, that dwindled to only an occasional visit. On that visit the other night, I learned that Dooce and her husband recently separated. This was shocking; from what I remembered of her life, she was married to her best friend, her soul mate, her rock. And that may all still be true, but to the two people living that life, it wasn't enough to make sharing each day better than living them apart. Seven months ago, some things in my life changed significantly. They had already been shifting and breaking for months, maybe even a year or two prior, but that marked a turning point. I thought the change would be for the better, that everything would work out, that time and space would heal old wounds and lead to a joyous renewal of the good feelings of the past. That ...continue reading.

All I Want For Christmas Is To Be Faster Than You

Posted on by lindsay
Over the winter, I obsess about other people's training. This is less of a concern during the racing season, because the very nature of racing lets you know where you stand in relation to your competition. If somebody consistently beats you, they are probably faster (or you are doing it wrong). The winter provides no such mechanism for evaluation. Until racing season begins, there is no way to know whose winter training plan was better, who was more dedicated, and who spent too much time snuggling with the fruitcake and eggnog. As a result, two things happen for me. First, training becomes more robotic and less driven by passion; each workout is little more than something to get done. If I could remain unconscious while plowing through every interval and rep, I would. There isn't the fire that's present during the racing season, where training equals brief periods of high ...continue reading.

Things That Go Bump In The Road

Posted on by lindsay
I am coming down with a cold. This is a minor inconvenience, really, but as a cyclist in the throes of winter training, it is also derailing and frustrating. I wanted to (okay, that's a lie, perhaps 'felt the need to' is more fitting) go to the gym today to stay on schedule, but as the day progressed and my symptoms worsened, I settled for having an ice cream bar, two lattes, and a large serving of pumpkin seeds. [Side story: At my parents' house last night, my father was eating home-roasted pumpkin seeds out of a bag of more pumpkin seeds than I have ever seen. He explained that he collected the neighbors' old pumpkins and gutted them to get the seeds. The pumpkins, not the neighbors. He boasted that he still had several more pumpkins to carve so we could have even more seeds. Other subjects we covered ...continue reading.