himespau 

When I had my first (and only so far) colonoscopy, they also said that they didn't want me eating any fiber the couple days before. Not sure why. I sort of thought it as they wanted my body to be totally shocked by the laxatives so everything would come out all at once rather than being used to pooping. Sorry for the gross imagery. Either that or they thought that if I was too regular from too much fiber, it might present as an inflammation. Could also be they looked at my weight (I'm not just too fat for cycling, my BMI says I'm legitimately overweight - down from obese a couple years back) and figured I wasn't eating much fiber anyway (they'd have been wrong) and wanted me not to be doing anything differently.

carpediemracing 

I'm no doctor so I don't know anything about this stuff. I was just curious if the test is easier, or the prep, or something.

I'm also legit overweight, even more so when my mom died. I was about 215 lbs at that time (I'm technically 5'6.5" so 5'6" or 5'7") and so round I didn't recognize myself in a picture when I was "down to 200 lbs". Now I'm 174-176, so still technically not great from a BMI point of view. As comparison I was 158 the year I upgraded to 2, that was now 12-13 years ago (my mom died 20 years ago so my weight fluctuates a lot at times). Based on BMI charts, and how I felt/looked at 158, I could probably be in the 150 range and be perfectly healthy.

topflightpro

This is it. I was instructed to eat a low-fiber diet for the five days before the colonoscopy. No fresh fruits or vegetables - only canned or mushy ones. No whole wheat - white bread and regular pasta. No nuts or seeds - smooth peanut butter was approved. It basically meant that processed foods were OK. It felt very unhealthy.

And then the full liquid diet the day before coupled with lots of Miralax - It was not fun. Drinking a half gallon of Gatorade was a challenge.

They used some intense anesthesia on me. I was completely out of it afterward. (Though I was apparently quite entertaining to my wife and the nurses.) My wife had one a few days after me at a different location. They used a much milder anesthesia, so she was fine.

wanders

I’m 10 years overdue and getting my first next week. Hope yours went well.

topflightpro

Good to hear from you. Hope things are going well in the Triad.

carpediemracing 

I hope the test goes well.

big john

Hey Patrick! Good to hear from you. I can't p.m. you but I hope you get this.

topflightpro

Finished my taxes this week. It's UGLY.

My wife got a new job that pays much better than her old job, and I got a very large promotion. And we apparently climbed into new tax bracket - but our individual witholding did not.

So, there go our plans to do the last renovation on our house or take a vaction.

TMonk

We have no idea what to expect this year. We bought a house, and my wife got laid off and has been collecting some unemployment. It's going to be more complicated than usual.

kensuf

It's exactly 365 days since I went for a ride. The last two times I was run off the road by cars, the last one shook me up enough that I haven't gotten back on it. I was cruising on a road that had absolutely zero traffic and was wide open with visibility for miles, she came up slowly next to me, then cut right in front of me to turn into her house.

I've been running a fair bit lately. 8 miles on Monday, 5 miles Tuesday, 5 miles last night with sprints worked in. I'd like to get back on the bike, but my wife's also worried about the car thing.

bampilot06

Naturally you burnt this ladies house down, right?

kensuf

Just because I'm from Florida does not mean I'm a pyromaniac. Well, maybe it does...

himespau 

I feel you. As weather starts to get nice again, I start thinking about heading back outside with the sunlight and the fresh air. Heck, I just bought a new helmet. Then, I think about how stupid it was that I got hit in May 2021 (stopped at a light, the lady stopped behind me suddenly decided the light had changed when it hadn't and ran into me and I got a short ride on her hood at probably not more than 15-20 mph at the absolute most). That low speed collision messed my back up and wrecked my bike (still dealing with insurance). Thinking about what might happen at moving speeds on the empty, hilly, curvy roads I like to ride (no one to see me for a while if the driver leaves), and heading back down to the basement to get on Zwift seems pretty damned appealing every time.

Haven't ridden outside other than a couple MUP rides with the family, a few rides in the subdivision with them, and a couple shakedown rides up and down my street when I was building up my new bike (that promptly got put on the trainer).

13-14 years ago, I was walking home from work and walked past the aftermath of a fatal bike/bus collision (and walked passed the ghost bike every day for the next year+ until we moved), and somehow I was easily able to convince myself it couldn't happen to me, but, now, I don't know. I miss it, but...

I don't exactly feel afraid of heading out onto the road, but the excuses of why the trainer is a better choice keep coming easier and easier.

bampilot06

I thought that was the normal reaction. I apologize.

You could buy a really big truck and then run her off the road.

bampilot06

So far have done 3 crits this year and one road race.

The road race was first. 3 laps of an 11 mile loop. Pretty gnarley “hill” at mile 2. They didn’t close the oncoming traffic lane so you have 75 cyclists crammed into one lane. First lap I unfortunately was not in the front end of the pack. The guy enfront of me decided to come to a dead stop on the hill. Killed all forward momentum, but I dialed it up and was able to catch back up to the main group. Lap 2 I was in the first 1/4 of the back. Safest section of road on the whole course, and a guy 2 riders up goes down. I held my line and ran him over, well his bike, over. Bent my wheel and jacked my fork. Race was done for the day. I had recently traded in my Cervelo C2 for the trek emonda ALR just for racing. The cervelo C2 had a lot of miles on it, and the wife gave me the approval so I said why not. So this was the first race with this bike and that sucked.

The next day was crit number 1. The madone and the emonda were both in the shop so I was down to my Ritchey breakaway or this old trek 5200 I had built from spare parts. I brought both to the race, but ended up racing the Trek. The ritchey is my favorite bike and I really can’t stand the thought of that breaking so I opted to raced the 5200. I didn’t have particularly a lot of miles on this bike, so I was skeptical. The bike performed awesome. Fast acceleration, responded well, cornered well. Super impressed. Also very light, I think out of my 5 bikes it’s the lightest. I now want to get more of these frames to build. I made the mistake of getting the front with like 5 laps to go. I thought there was only 3 and was confident I could hold it. When I came around after the first time I saw 4 I knew I done messed up. I peeled off, and did my best to recover in the 3.5 laps to go. No podium for me.

Next crit was a road race track. I signed up for 2 that day. First was 3/4. I wasn’t feeling it and I was in the red the whole race. It was a struggle, finished like 25 or something. Next was the masters 35/45. This went a lot better, The field got mapped early so the race was lost in the first 15 mins but I finished 7th in my age group and 18th over all.






I threw this RSL seat post on it the other day, and thought to myself, that’s too much set back. But I am stubborn and have zero patience so I ran with it.

Too much set back. Will have to put the old easton post back on.

Flatballer

Interesting you guys talking about this. My wife suggested I should ride again. And it's been on my mind lately. Been 3.5 years since I injured my back (slipping on my driveway in cleats started it) and I had to stop riding. I think it would be good for me. We cleaned up the garage today so I could get to my bike and have space to work on it, I put air in the tires, charged my Edge (and connected it to my new phone), charged my pedals. I'm looking forward to it, but I do hate the danger and the stupidity of people. It's possible I'll hate it, but I don't really have a great place for a zwift setup.

Hopefully next weekend I'll get out, and hopefully I won't get hit by a car.

TMonk

No room in the garage? I'm also a huge proponent of Zwift and spend nearly half of my riding time on it, despite the good weather we have in SoCal.

Flatballer

Perhaps, if I got something I could break down and set up easily. Don't really want a laptop in the garage year round. And the space needs to be flexible somewhat. Maybe if I start riding enough then I'll look into what all I'd need.

topflightpro

I rarely ride on the road anymore. And when I do, it's usually over in the industrial park neaby that is absolutely empty on the weekends.

I'm almost always in the garage on the trainer. Sometimes I drive out to the local park to ride the gravel road loop, and sometimes I'll go mountain biking with my wife, but I don't see myself spending much time out on the road any more.

topflightpro

Aren't you near T-Town? Could you start riding there?

Flatballer

Sorta. Like an hour. Not too far to race as the kids get older if I really wanted to, but way too far to train regularly. I used to love racing at Rock Hill. The track bike is still in the attic just in case.

merlinextraligh

Didn’t you use to cave dive? Just sayin.

Flatballer

That just tells you how bad the cars are.

kensuf

Shoot, I teach people how to cave dive. The scariest part is driving to Peacock Springs.

TMonk

Fairly certain I have a hernia. Symptoms are mostly mild, sometimes a bit uncomfortable, but not debilitating. Seeing doc in a bit over a week.

Damn getting older! At least I can race against other people with my same predicament now, so that's a plus.