Thankful

Wow August really... It has been a long time.  So many amazing adventures and I just have not take the time to write them all down.
Backpacking

New road bike

 girl riding road bike

a fish like I have never seen

long recuperation of ankle...  Blah Blah Blah

Thanksgiving weekend has just passed and I have so much to be thankful for in addition to an amazing father, friends and girl friend.  I have a job that I enjoy and have the ability to get up every day and breathe. I have also been faced with a few challenges this year and it is these challenges that have led me to  many questions as of late.
 Recovery, will it ever happen???  At some  point a few weeks ago I decided that I was not making progress with PT and decided to stop going and start living.  I flew in from a business trip and immediately loaded the car and took off to enjoy one final night in the Sierra's before mother nature took back all that she graces us with for the winter months. Early in the year I had set my sights on getting up to Twin Lakes, only to be shut out by a long thaw and bad weather.  This time it was different and I was treated to many firsts along the way. My first night hike, especially solo, an amazing sunset

Great vista's in the morning

and amazing meals with views that are hard to put into words

I even managed to sneak out before the storms came in. Upon my return I decided to continue to buck the system and get on with life.
Long road rides, will I ever get back to it? Grabbed the road bike and put in a solid 60 mile effort. road along the coast, felt the wind in my hair, smelled the salt climbed the hills, and pushed myself to what I consider complete failure as I had to sit by the side of the road and recover for 15 minutes at one point just to carry on, once back under way it was a slow and painful grind to get home.  Success yes, but one that resulted in a lot of pain in the knee that has not bothered me in quite some time. I backed off a bit and spent some time riding with the girl
 MTB, the biggest question of them all.  Extremely frustrated and simply over not being able to hear the sound of bicycle tires rolling over dirt and through rocks I grabbed a mountain bike and headed out to see what would happen.  No better but no worse ether and it felt so good to be back on dirt, back where I belong. Still a fair amount of pain to overcome, an extreme lack of fitness and a ton of business travel did not work in my favor however I hit up some local spots and finally a night ride at a local loop and had a great time, riding with friends that I had not seen in months, many months yet we could pick up exactly where we left off.  I had been missing aspect for a long time and this made me jump in with both feet.

Busted out 6 laps at the Fully loop for the 7th annual Tour de Tryptophen in support of Tyler Blick and his fight with leukemia. I had a ton of support from my friend Chris his family and Renee as well who hung in there when the temps dropped. It all panned out to be an amazing experience.  Unfortunately I developed extreme knee pain as I was still dialing in the fit of the new whip so I had to call it at 6 but with almost 70 miles on my deeply chilled and freshly reacquainted to dirt bones a warm shower was a great thing, not to mention answering the MTB question once and for all I felt great.  I consider this a huge success in that I far exceeded my initial expectation however I left very frustrated as I still had some in the tank and was not able to perform to my full potential.  I am coming back.  I removed all doubt in my mind this evening as I stood up and felt the Blacksheep surge it's way under labored pedal strokes to the top of the world, cleaning Cholla and the rest on a SS for the first time in nearly a year.

 My heart rate pegged at 187 as I hit the top but damn did it feel amazing to be alive and I was treated to an beautiful sunset as the sun slowly sank behind Catalina island

My questions have been answered and I am extremely thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving