Storm Coming 

Persistence

Today it was Tony's turn for a flat! As I started my ride this morning, I noticed there was glass on our circle from the recycling collection on Monday. It glass was is neat round "pools" as if the bottles had been broken and then poured out into the street. The pools were close to edge so when Tony joined me on the ride I told him to stay to the center of the road to avoid the pools of glass.

But those Englishmen don't listen to us Yanks. Tony loves the edge of the road often times hugging the left side of the road rather than the right. He also get up my right side during the ride. So I wasn't surprised when he got ahead of me on the circle and then stopped. A piece of glass was stuck in his tire. Unfornately for me he had no spare tube, so with my tube and Co2 we fixed his flat and off we went..This time Tony stayed in the middle of the road.

Palm Sunday

I feel my recent training is going welll. If I could just stay away from the doctors and surgeons, I would be able to train more. Saturday was my first time swimming this year since my surgery on my shoulder. It felt good to get back into the pool even though it was a short 1/2 hour work out. My surgery site was a little sore but no big deal. So my weakly totals look like this:

Bike 90 miles
Run 17 miles
Swim 1,500 yards

I went for my usual Sunday ride and met up with Tony. At about 7 miles into the ride I remembered it was Palm Sunday, duh! So I just did 1 loop and stopped at 15 miles. I had just enough time to get home, shower and make it to church. I was surprise that while there were a lot of people at church it wasn't packed. I guess next Sunday I better plan better and be to church early.

My goals for this week are:

1. Eat better. I think I'm over eating especially in the morning. So this week I want to eat better and more balanced food. Salads, veggies, etc.

2. Consistent Training - I found I was a lot faster today on my Monday ride. Actually I pulled most of the time for Tony. He said I was setting an awful pace for w Monday. When the ride ended our ave pace was 18.4 so I'm going to try to keep my ride speed above 18 this week.

3. Swim - I want to get more swims in but I just don't know when. Other than I'm off on Friday I don't know when I'll have pool time. Swim Friday, Sat and Sunday?

St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patty's Day!


Since I grew up in a Protestant and English we never celebrated St. Patty's Day. Rather my father would wear yellow for St. Shellie, who's day is celebrated by Englishman on March 18! Dad would always say it's going to rain on St. Patty's Day because "St. Shellie always pees on Patty!"

Well it is raining today and I ran 7 mile sin the rain. I feel a little tired and lack motivation today. Perhaps it is because I'm seeing a new doctor today. I'm seeing Dr.Henn a neurosurgeon in Ft. Myers. Hopefully he will tell me something about the thingie in my brain.

Ugh

Well I fix the flat tire last night. It wasn't what I thought it was originally. I thought it was the value system not accepting air. But it was in fact a large puncture which allowed the air to escape faster than I could put it in! Sooo I tried a nice patch but that literally blew off...So it was a new Continential tube. Once the new tube was in place, everything else went smoothly. It was still up this morning.


NEW PROBLEM

Today while taking my shower, well after the actual shower, I was looking at myself in the mirror (yes it's a guy thing) and there on my back is another tumor beginning! It wasn't there three weeks ago when I saw the surgeon for the surgery follow-up from removing the tumor on my shoulder blade. It wasn't there last week when I saw my dermatologist for a "full-body" scan. But it's there now! I can't believe it just as I'm getting ready to swim again and now this one!

BRAIN PROBLEM

As you know, I saw Dr. Lusk the nuerosurgeon. He is sending me for a second opinion because he's not really sure about his opinion and wants to 1. run up my bill and 2. get some one to agree with him. 3. hope some one has an idea about the thing in my brain. Of course he's hoping for a cyst and not a glioma.

Last night a doctor that works with Eric who is a nuerosurgeon called. He suggested that I go to Gainesville, Florida to see a team of doctors. But he doesn't work like I do and I have limited resources to chase down docs. So what to do. Maybe tomorrow will be the answer when I have my second opinion visit.

Would you believe???? DEARS!

Another FLAT! Yup I rode yesterday pumping up the tire as usual when I got home from work last night the tire (of course the read tire) was FLAT. What's with this? So...Tonight it's inspect the tire, rim etc....

When I went to run this morning, as I walked out the garage I notice the trash can that put out last night was GONE. The lid was there but the trash can full of trash was gone. I called our crack security team that patrols the neighborhood to report a missing trash can and I was told it was animals...Yea what bear takes the whole trash can with him?

So it turns out it was the little DEARS...You know "Oh not my little dear grandchild on spring break would take your trash can and drag it 8 houses down the street. Not my little dear he wouldn't pick-up said trash can full of garbage and throw it into the brand new Lincoln Continental sitting in the driveway. Not my dear!"

Animals!

The "little dears" also ripped up signs and destroyed some other property as well in the community. Maybe not dear on spring break but somebody's "little dears".

Weekend Update

I went to ride on Friday and had another flat. What's with the flats? I'm wondering if I'm doing something with the flor pump when I add air before each ride. It seems I can't get air into the tube. Perhaps I've bent or damaged the stem?

Saturday was a very nice day. I was suppose to run 10-12 miles. However, at the 5 mile mark I felt a little out of sorts. I took Cliff Shot which helped for the next 2 miles but then at 8 miles I decided to stop. Why push and get hurt?

Sunday was a ride day. Of course Saturday night was our dinner for eight so I got to bed late plus I had some wine with dinner! So Sunday I didn't want to get up as I had planned at 6:oo am. I slept late until 7:04 ! Tony was no able to ride so it was an LSD ride alone. Since I was alone and a little tireed from partying the night before I did 30 miles and stopped.

Good Week Training

It has been a good week here in Lake... Oh that's another story. I've had a good week training, which usually means a bad week is coming. Monday was a ride day with Tony, he was back from sin city. We did our Monday 25 miles. I felt pretty good at the end.

On Tuesday, a run day, I ran in a light rain. Of course I wore long tights, long shirt, a jacket and hat...It was one of those cold Florida mornings (42*). I was able to do 8 miles at a 10 minute per mile pace.

Wednesday, a ride day, it was raining cats and dogs! It was raining to hard to take the "Steel Monster" with her fat tires for a spin soooo it was off to the fitness center for a ride on the stationary bike. I rode for 50 minutes, that's all of the mindless spinning I could do. Since it is different that a real bike, my muscles were a little sore. I guess it's good to use those different muscles from time to time.

Thursday, another run day, it was clear and cool so with long sleeve shirt and shorts I ran 7 miles in 74 minutes. I guess I need the colder weather to go 8 miles. Tony called me on my cell on the way to the office to tell me he was sick and wouldn't be out on Friday and Sunday's LSD ride was up in the air.

Friday I found a flat tire on Roo. This is the 4th flat since Jan 1! I couldn't get air into the tube so I'm wondering if I'm doing something with the pump when I pump up the tires each day. So I changed the tube and was out the door for a 20 mile ride. I wanted to do 25 but I would have been late to the office.

The weekend plans are 12 mile run on Saturday should be about 2 hours. On Sunday I'm planning on a 60 mile ride, hopefully Tony will be able to ride. ]

Next week I'm going to start swimming again! Whoahooo! My suregery site on my back is healed enough that I think I can start swimming. I wonder how long it will take to be able to do 1/2 mile with out stopping.

Good News vs. Bad News

I had another MRI done on Monday. the Brain Surgeon wanted it done on the same machine as I had my first MRI, however somehow that got screwed up I spent Friday and most of early Monday morning trying to get it corrected. After much effort, I got the MRI done.

Wednesday I saw the Brain Surgeon. His news was mixed...I've got good news and I've got bad news. The good news is the tumor/cyst is not growing. It is still the size of a golf ball and apparently has no blood supply therefore not growing!

So on to the bad news! We spoke about removing it. I have had a lot of people that have wanted me to go to a major hospital or a teaching university hospita i.e. University of Penn in Philly or Emory Hospital in Atalnta. The Brain Surgeon reminded me that surgeons make money by operating...he said if you go to a university or teaching hospital the first thing the will do is operate. Since it is in the frontal lobes of the brain when your done you will be like a lobotomy patient "smiling a lot more". He said there is no reason to operate at the present time and there is no ethical surgeon who would attempt to remove it locally since it is in a difficult area of the brain.

The other bad news is that we can't rule out that it is a glioma. Glioma is a fast growing cancer! However since it didn't show up on the PET Scan it is a 20% chance that is is a glioma. So 80% chance that it is a cyst, 20% chance that it is a glioma. I'll bet on the 80!

So on to more testing....that's the other way doctors in Florida make money.... I'm scheduled for an EEG Brain Wave test and another MRI both at the end of the month. Then another meeting with the Brain Surgeon.

Late breaking update!

I have been a little remiss in update the blog for the past month. I guess because I don't have a lot of good numbers to post. My training was off due to my health and the weather. However this week I have feel like I've been running much better. I ran 7.5 miles yesterday and I'm planning a 12 miler for tomorrow.

The other day while running a tractor towing a trailer pasted me. On the trailer was a large vacuum cleaner labeled HPV... High Power Vacuum! Now tell me why do we have to use initials for everything these days? I'm using the HPV to clean the PWW (Pedestrian Walk Way) or use the HPV to clean out the SUV?

Well the sun has finally come out and it will warm up a little for the weekend.