I'll Post More Often.....Promise!

I have been diagnosed with a hypothyroid. Basically it means that I have cooked my thyroid gland, and it isnt regulating my hormone levels, and bodily funtons as it should. This explains most of my symptoms and a lot of the odd things that have been happening.

Its not clear to me what really caused it. Whether it was from too much hard training, too much stress, or it could have been something that was steadily declining since I was younger. I suspect the whole Guadeloupe fiasco played a part in it though....I never felt the same after visiting that place..on and off the bike.

My condition is pretty slight. It do have all the symptoms and are definatly effected by them, but I notice it the most when training and riding really hard. I doubt anyone living a normal life would notice a HUGE problem, but when your body works frequently at the highest points its capable of, its then you notice slight changes.

So, I'm going to get the verdict of what type of medication on Thursday. From what I've been able to gather I can either go synthetic or natural(The natural med is made of group up pig thyroids). I've been basically spending all my time re-searching all these things. Usually multiple times of the day I'll start reading medical trials and studys then find that I've just spent 3 hours on the internet reading about 18-word chemicals, hormones and treatment plans, and case studies.

If an underactive thyroid doesnt kill me, or bike racing, then for sure radiation from too much internet time shurley will.

With all this going on, I've been riding pretty consistantly. The legs feel slow, but at least now I have an explination. I joined with riding group for a great Saturday ride. They took me on the Oregon roads I wanted to see, and knew were around, but havnt been able to find.

Of course I was treated with typical Oregon weather as well, made up of rain, sun, cloud, sun, 10-minute downpour.....repeated all day.

This area has some crazy nice rides and loops, it was just a matter of finding them I guess. There is also a shit-ton of climbing as well that I didnt realize was around. We probalby climbed over 2000m, which makes the ride no walk in the park. The ride turned out to be a little over 5 hours, and for that whole time we probably only rode through crap traffic for about 30minutes, while getting out of, and comming into town.

One of the fast guys in the group who has been giving me the info on the riding scene around here also went to the Tour de L'Abitibi twice as a junior. Its funny, the more I travel and ride with different groups, it seems everyone has gone to that race.

With that I'm out for a ride. Hopefully I can get this thing figured out and get back on track!

Moving On

(Nice climb)

Well its been an odd few weeks. I haven't been posting as I have been waiting for some blood tests to come back. When we arrived back form California, I was looking foreword to a week of rest. Well that week came and went. Usually after a rest week you feel a little odd, but the legs usually feel pretty good. They end up better than they have been as the idea is that your recovered from all the training you have been doing.

Well, after that week of rest I didn't feel good, but felt even worse...horrible even. There were some other things going on that I couldn't really ignore any longer and a rest week didn't seem to fix any problems. So, I went to a couple clinics and have been giving blood and talking with doctors. So far I've given 5 samples of blood over the course of a week and a half. I look like a junkie.

The big test results come back tomorrow and I have one final one tomorrow morning to give to see whats up. What the doctors think that I've cooked my adrenal gland or pituitary glad meaning my hormones are kinda out of wack. The main hormone I would be lacking would be testosterone which is vital for recovery and muscle building, not to mention day to day operations of this rig. That would explain a lot of things, and would explain feeling terrible during the later parts of Redlands.

So, that's whats been up. After a week of not riding(doctors orders) I hopped on the bike the past few days for light rides. I didn't feel great, but not bad either. The weather has been great here lately as well.

Because of a few appointments and horrible legs I skipped out on going to Sea Otter with the boys. I have been hanging around Portland exploring the city since most of the docs visits are there. It really is a cool place and there is a lot of good energy in the city. The cycling scene is great too and I'm excited to start exploring the riding routes.

That's basically been my life the past few weeks. I've mainly been trying to relax and de-stress.

On a ride last week Roman, Josh and I went to the legendary VooDoo donuts. You may have seen it on the Food Network on the "Diners, Dives, and Drive ins" show. Its basically a hole in the wall that makes delicious donuts. I think a job requirement is to have tons of tattoos and piercings and to 'hate the man'

I resisted as much as I could but I managed to steal half of Romans Bacon and Maple donut. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo delicious. After that we asked them about the mythical 'Bucket of Donuts' which sells for $5 for a full bucket of day-olds.

So after paying $4 for 2 donuts, we paid $5 for a bucket......3 minutes later.

The tricky part was getting the donuts home. Roman took charge and we successfully got the deliciousness home. I'm proud to say the donuts have sat on the table in the bucket for a full week since the boys left and I've resisted the temptation to eat one. Yes.

The Migration

250th Post on the Fine Grind

(While in Redlands we visited the Loma Linda childrens hospital)

The boys and I finished up Redlands with mixed results. The last stage was a killer day. Basically I got dropped on the first climb and suffered in the back pack for the rest of the day. Many guys didn't finish and I rolled out in the GC 88th, which was a finish, but still a half hour down.

The legs were definitely tired as we hit the first climb and there was simply no climbing or intensity left in them after the Crit.

The next day the team spilled out of our host houses who were great all week, and we started to make the hike up North. Josh, Roman and I decided to take a leisurely pace and did some sightseeing around Hollywood, the Coast, and San Fransisco. We stayed an extra night on the road but after much dodaling we still had to kill it driving all night to make it home on Wednesday Morning at 7am. The drive was pretty ridiculous and I think most of us are still feeling it today.

I got a chance to explore Portland today(we live in Vancouver Washington, just across the bridge from Portland), and its a neat little town. Roman and I just got back from the coffee shop, and I can see myself spending some time there. There is a theater just down the street that has $3 movies.

The house is a pretty sweet team house. There are 3 beds in the basement which will be my home for the next little while. Each of us have our own little space to spread out. After month of sleeping on terrible beds I finally have a killer killer bed. I slept like a baby for a solid 10 hours straight last night.

The family room is the hub of the house where the TV is always on and there are about 4 laptops always running. There is also a signed Yellow Jersey from Lance Armstrong to Norrene's Mom hanging on the wall.

As expected its rainy and cold.