Week #18: Not So Normal

My main goal for last week was to reestablish a normal routine now that I'm fully set up in my new house and done with traveling for a while. Let me just say that I failed miserably. This was due to several factors, the greatest of which was that I did nerve damage to my hands at the Big Frog, and now I have sort of tingly/numb fingers, poor fine motor control, and really weak grip strength. On top of that, all of the stress of the past weeks finally go to me after I got home from Big Frog and I found myself getting hit when overwhelming bouts of exhaustion, stomach aches, and general ennui all week. Pair this with numb hands that currently won't allow me to operate SRAM road shifters, and all attempts at training went down the drain, with the exception of a SS mountain bike ride on Thursday night.

I also had to deal with the messed up bike from the Big Frog, and I spent all week procrastinating about going into the shop to get some Muc-Off with which to clean my bikes. I finally broke down and went in early Thursday morning, got them cleaned Friday night, and discovered that my geared bike was pretty much screwed. That pretty much scrapped any remaining thoughts I had of racing the DRT time trial at BCSP on Sunday, but that was fine since it got cancelled, anyway. I was hoping not to have to take a bike into Adam's shop for repairs quite this soon, but I had to do what I had to do and took it in this morning. Hopefully that won't be too weird.

With racing off the table, I still had a pretty good weekend. I went to Indianapolis so that my friend Sarah could do some acupuncture on my screwed up hands, and also just because I'd been wanting to go up and hang out with her for a while, anyway. I think the acupuncture helped some, but she thinks it's basically inflammation that will take some time to clear out. Now that things have calmed down, I need to focus on managing stress, getting better sleep, and good nutrition to try to give it a better chance to heal. For this weekend, though, it was enough to go out to dinner, have some drinks, not mountain bike because of the rain, and walk around the neighborhood touring open houses. Maybe not the best thing from a training perspective, but good for the soul.

One good thing that interfered with my training this week was the arrival of my new kitten, Clementine aka Clemmie. I missed my Tuesday night weight workout to stay home with her and Mushu for their first evening together to make sure they got along okay. Mushu spent a lot of time hissing at her for the first few days, but they are starting to come around, sleeping together and playing a bit.

So this week is once again going to be another attempt to reestablish normal. I went so far as to post the above note on my refrigerator to help me manage the household on top of work and training. I figure it's best to break it all into small chunks and not let thing pile up. I'm going to go on road ride after work today, even though I still can't shift normally. I have to take my hand off the bar and punch the shift lever with my fist to go to an easier gear, but I guess I'll make it work. I'll get all of this stuff figured out eventually.