Well, it has been a while

They say the first post back is the most difficult. Well, here goes nothing.

Needless to say, much has happened since April. Probably too much to add to this one blog post: there has been a little bike racing (mostly track), a little working on the house, a lot of schooling, and nightly dog wrestling.

Track season has come and gone w/ out a single solitary post from myself...shame on me. I had an absolute blast. Track has stolen my heart as my favorite form of bicycle racing. Cross seems to be a worthy second, which is just on the edge of the cliff. Maybe I will post something about cross before Froze Toes 09...only time will tell.

I have many projects that have commenced here at the house, however, none are 100% finished. I will post some pics, and hopefully finish some of these projects in a relatively timely manner.

School: where do I begin? Nothing has changed here. It is still the same kick in the pants it always is. I am still enjoying what I am doing, but this past trimester I think I developed seniorosis (read this for the difference...if you don't care, skip to the end of the parentheses--New research has lead medical professionals to realize that in the majority of patients (about 90%)who come in with "tendonitis" the problem is no longer tendonitis, but tendonosis which is a degenerative condition of the tendon.
Tendonosis is characterized by degeneration of the collagen fibers in the tendon (the fibers that provide the tensile strength), tendon weakness, abnormal growth of unhealthy blood vessels through the tendon, and most importantly no inflammatory cells. Basically the nice straight strong fibers of collagen become a tangled mess of strings with little pockets of "jelly" and small weak blood vessels. If you look at pictures of a healthy tendon it will be white and glistening, tendons with tendonosis are dull and brownish. Keep in mind that this is not an inflammatory process, so there is no reason for anti-inflammatories or injections.
Tendonosis is a more difficult problem to heal with only an 80% chance of resolving. Typical tendonosis can take anywhere from 8 weeks to 9 months to resolve depending on how long you have had the problem. There are quite a few treatment options out there right now but the best protocol seems to be: Relative rest, ice, friction massage, and exercise. I will go over each of these steps for you...
-Relative Rest: What this means is do NOT stop using the injured tendon - disuse leads to the tendon losing more strength - tendons need load on them to maintain and gain strength. You should decrease your activity level though, and try to avoid activities that severely irritate the problem.--that's right, not senioritis...I am such a dork!) So yeah, I am kind of burnt out. Along w/ the class load, I hosted 2 seminars, took part in 4 others, raced some weekends, worked on the house others, and only had one weekend completely to my (our) self(ves) this past trimester. So, this is the eve of my last day of break...ever; that is, until I graduate. Crazy huh?

TOM begins tomorrow; Thursday a group of us are heading down to St. James to party w/ the big wigs. We will likely catch the St. Chuck and STL stages as well. Should be great.

Well, I am going to quit while I am ahead. Maybe, just maybe you will see some posts from me in the near future. As usual, do not count on it!