Holy Crap: I'm still alive

Hey all
It's been a really long time since my last posting, not sure why. Maybe I just got burned out putting thoughts to words. Although, I'm glad it was burn out from posting and not the dreaded cycling burn out. Funny how every one talks about not riding too hard in the winter cuz you might burn out in the summer. Not sure what that is or means, but its never happened to me. I love to ride: slow, hard, whatever, as long as you're on the bike with the wind in your face.

Speaking of hard winter riding: I'm still waiting for the Thrasher ride to slow up in the winter. Not sure the seasoned vets like Ad and Paul know what taking it easy in the winter time means.

So what have I been up to?

I completely bonked on the last lap of the Giro di Coppi and limped my way to the finish. Completely sucked and not happy with my performance.

I finished the Masters race at the ING Criterium. Was pretty happy with not getting dropped, and realized I can hang with them.

I spent two weeks in Tuscany in Oct, and got really, really bad sciatica. At times I could barely walk the pain was so bad radiating down my leg. When I got home, an MRI showed two huge bulging discs impinging my spinal nerves. Spent the entire month of Nov getting decompression treatments everday. And, then most of Dec getting chiropractic manipulations. Didn't ride for Nov and half of Dec.

Around mid-Dec, I started riding again on the trainer and then around Xmas time started getting outside for mostly solo rides.

Back is feeling a lot better, and have a series of exercises I do x3 a day to build the core muscles.