Splish Splash I was Taking a ................

Had to be out of town earlier this week for some business in Memphis, TN. My business partner & I stayed at The Peabody Hotel, downtown. Nice place, BUT! They have this really cool tradition. Every day at 11am, the march about 9 ducks from their home at "Duck Palace" on the roof, down the elevator to the lobby. They roll out the red carpet and the ducks waddle into the fountain, smack dab in the center of the hotel. They stay there till exactly 5pm, when "The Duckmaster" tells the tale of the ritual, and then the little guys hop out of the fountain, walk on the red carpet, into the elevator and back home for the evening. It was pretty silly. I tried to get some good photos, but the lighting was poor, and everyone was taking flash photos, so they are not that good, sorry.

Nurse Barb called me last night & said the "drugs were in the works"! These are the anti-inflammatory meds that I hope will cleanup some of this tendinitis, arthritis etc. that is going on. Mikey & I did a 2 hour ride this morning, fairly easy, and I feel tired, but OK now. We shall see tomorrow, how that ride goes.

Start my official training program with my coaching group on Tuesday. The Badger, Coach Stan-O-Leenie, Dr. Reid & The Turtle will all be in for the long haul. We have a battery of fitness tests, to see where everyone is at in their conditioning. Is there a number less than 0? How about negative 0? Well, if that's the case, the only place I can go is up I guess?

Pain by any other name is still Pain

I committed to a ride this am, after being "badgered" by The Badger himself. He knows where to stick the knife in, and then twist so gently. This was the first one since my "flare up" earlier in the week. Dr. Maxey gave me some non-steroidal anti-imflammatories, and they seem to help, but not 100%. I had to do some blood work, to rule out an infection, and then I can go to the better stuff when the results get back. Here's the ride line up for this am:

Little Mikey, The Badger & Me. Did a really nice 30-something miler, nothing too hard, as they did all of the pulling & I sat in the draft. I need to get back into some shape, as I plan on doing one final race of the year in a couple of weeks, and maybe some cyclo-cross riding??? We shall see.

Off to See the Wizard........

Went to see Nurse Barb this am. I felt like a car had hit me when I walked in, and once she appeared & called my name, I felt a whole lot better. Nurse Barb & I have been teasing & picking on each other for about 3 years now, and she can dish it out about as good as she can take it.

She's pretty cool, and always makes a trip to see Dr. Maxey enjoyable.

So we start off with the routine stuff, questions, x-rays, blah, blah, blah. I felt like the Turtle was at the Turtle Hospital getting the work over.

I explain to Mad Max what's going on with the right leg (fin) etc. We review the x-rays, do the stretching, pulling etc.

Tendinitis. Get some blood work done, then we'll prescribe some anti-imflammatories, here's some narcotics for the pain, and off we go!

I hope this works. I have re-joined my cycling coaching group, Vision Quest Coaching, and plan to be racing & ripping my competitors legs off in 2008. I don't mean that in a figurative sense, I mean literally!

Down, But Not Out!

The Turtle has not been feeling well lately. I think I ate some bad lettuce, or it was The Badger putting the screws to me the last couple of weeks. Anyway, I am off to see my favorite nurse, Nurse Barb tomorrow, and see what she can do for me. Usually just the sight of her cheers me up to the point that I feel a WHOLE lot better.

Update soon.