First long ride in a while

I did my solo ride today. It was just under 50 miles. When I checked my stats, I realized that this was the first ride of any distance that I have done since August of last year. The first brevet of the season is in 4 weeks. It is 200K (125 miles) and I don't have any doubts about be able to complete it but the longer ones have me worried. I have not been doing as much riding as I did in 2007 and I am heavier, not to mention being older.

I think that I will use the same goals that I used in 2007:
Finish the 200K
Finish the 300K
Start the 400K
If I finish the 400K, start the 600K

Up Early

The kids woke me up at 7:00 this morning so I decided to go on the Saturday morning ride at Maplewood Bicycle. I ate a quick breakfast, got dressed, at was at the bike shop by 7:25. Unfortunately, Maplewood doesn't seem to be doing the Saturday morning rides anymore. They apparently have a mountain bike ride at Castlewood Park. I considered doing a solo ride but decided against it because I didn't have my wallet or cell phone with me.

After I got home I checked around on the internet but didn't see anyplace that was doing any organized rides this weekend. I did see that Trailnet was having an indoor spinning class (ugh). I decided to do a solo ride tomorrow (Sunday). I might ride to Granite City and back. This would be about 45-50 miles.

Foreshadowing: your key to quality literature

On my way home from Zac's house on Thursday night, I noticed that I had a stiff neck. I wondered why but didn't think any more about it. I woke up Friday morning with a sinus headache. For me, a sinus headache often starts in the back of my neck. If I had been thinking about I might have realized that this was the beginning of a sinus headache and taken some pseudoephedrine before I went to bed. I didn't do this and the woke up with a headache.

The worst part about waking up with a headache is that it means that I was sleeping with a headache and apparently that sleep doesn't count. Since I was was tired and in pain, I called in sick to work, took some medicine, and then went back to sleep.

I realize that a stiff neck is a symptom of a tension headache and not a sinus headache. I have decided to call them sinus headaches because the seem to be related to changes in the weather, sleeping doesn't help them, and sinus medicine helps them. Only pseudoephedrine works, not the replacement stuff. If the make it prescription only, it is going to be a real pain.

A bunch of small updates

Here a bunch of little things that have happened recently.

A.J. lost his first tooth. He was very excited to get a dollar from the tooth fairy.

I gave up soda for the year as a new year's resolution.

I haven't ridden my bike in almost two weeks because of weather and laziness.

I joined a weight loss contest at work. I'm still the weight I started at. It could be because of not riding.

I currently weigh 207. That's way to heavy for me.

I'm given up beer again for Lent this year. Maybe that will help with losing weight.

I had a very good anniversary, birthday, and Valentines day. Those all come very close together for me. Freckles's birthday is in there too. He's our dog. The kids like to celebrate that.