Over the Hill

It has been a long term and chronic request for me to drive to the finish point of this ride and pick up the pieces. I have to admit that the thought of it made me nervous, and the part about picking up the pieces was my wild imagination working over time. It is, afterall, a forty mile ride on a slim shoulder of a lonely desert highway that could pass itself off as Death Valley, gracing U2's Joshua Tree Album. The picture from the album (above) was shot in Death Valley but could be a twin to parts of Utah Hill. My oldest daughter keeps telling me that these areas are not conducive to human life. Maybe true in places like this one, but the goat went over the hill anyway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joshua_Tree

I found him at the grave yard with my aunt and uncle after he got off the Death Valley clone highway. He was alive and well, ready to hit the seafood buffet, and we did.

Total Immersion, Sexy Strassburg Socks and Such

Total immersion may sound like a religious way to wash off sins, but in this case it’s a bible about washing off old swim habits with new, more effective swimming strategies. Even goats can swim fast and easy using the secrets in this book. The Goat says it is required reading for all Olympic Swim Coaches. To say the least, he is a believer and is attempting the transition to the Total Immersion methods to work smarter instead of harder.

Instead of splashing, struggling, and working so hard to swim fast and hard, this book emphasizes the importance of moving naturally like a fish instead of like a barge. It teaches swimmers how to swim “down-hill” instead of dragging the bottom half of the body. It focuses on rotating the entire body back and forth instead of just turning the head when coming up for air. The other emphasis is stretching and making the body as tall as possible, gliding with the head lower under the water to create a sense of “swimming down-hill.”

http://www.totalimmersion.net/

A finely tuned body is always sexy, but some of the things it takes to get those results may be anything but sexy. The Strassburg Sock, for example, may be a wonderful and simple treatment for Plantar Fasciitis, but not exactly a recipe for Mc Lovin’. Apparently, turning up the stretching of the foot in this position with the aid of this incredibly sexy little girl stocking, can help with Plantar Fasciitis recovery time, even for a giant Billy Goat. Apparently, periodically wearing this elegant sock to bed or around the house while relaxing is the method of choice.

http://www.thesock.com/

The Goat has been using orthotics prescribed by the Podiatrist, and he says they have taken a lot of the stress of the ligament and decreased his pain. He went for a run yesterday and again today and says it feels better. The nerve of this guy telling me I have OCD because I can't handle crumbs on the floors or bad smells coming up from the basement. After seeing the training schedule he typed and saved as an excel file for the next year, I am going to find him a shirt that says Mr. OCD!

Every Road has its Thorn

Every road does have its thorn. We are lured by the beauty, tranquility, possibility, and adventure they lead us to regardless of the pain and/or suffering they may bring us. Did anything beautiful or rewarding ever come without a price tag of some sort? The important thing to consider is that we choose our own road, a sort of unspoken agreement with ourselves that we hold nobody else liable for our choices. And if by chance the road we have taken is filled with more thorns than beautiful journeys, we can always take a new one next time. It’s not the end of the road because the end is always the beginning.

A man who is used to the flat effortless bike rides of Florida must be reawakened with the magnificent variety the Southwest has to offer. The mother lode of great biking trails exists right here under our feet. It’s amazing how accessible, safe, and available these great bike paths are. Many of them are right in the middle of nature filled with wildlife, plants, and free of the hustle and bustle sounds of a city. The therapeutic refuge is top notch.

These trails are my sanctuary, but for the goat it is not enough. He always needs more, something bigger, something better, and something he can put more miles onto. Yesterday he took off on about a forty mile bike ride. Where the trails ended he began. Carrying a driver’s license, debit card, and my phone number might sound like a great idea in case of an emergency. But what happens when he loses it somewhere between here and there? Luckily, no chipmunks ate it, and he found it later when he took a drive looking for it.

The main obstacle of this post, aside from the lost pieces of plastic, truly is thorns. The Southwest is filled with them. They can put a quick end to road bike tires in a flash. Try getting one while pulling forty pounds of Burley and baby and then finding out that the goat “borrowed” your last replacement tube. It was a nice walk back in my cleats. At least I had covers. But the goat has had many more flats than me. He is the expert flat repair king. He has been searching for an insert or protection of some sort to decrease this annoying occurrence. The last one he had was more than annoying. It was dangerous since his front tire blew out while he was at high speeds. His wheel slid out from under him, and he barely avoided an ugly crash.

Apparently, the goat has found the potential cure. He found some bicycle tire liners at the bike shop. It’s made by Mr. Tuffy. http://www.bikepro.com/products/tubes/tubes-tuffy.html Now we just have to put them in the tires and see if it’s a cure.