If it's not one thing, it's gotta be another :(

After I got cleared to start jogging (2min on, 3min off x3) I started having severe pain in my left hip. It was the same sensation I had when I had a stress fracture in my ischial tuberosity back in 2006. After 2 weeks of minor running, my post operated knee was totally fine, but I couldn't escape the piercing pain in my hip. I went and saw Dr. Pruitt and he told me that I needed an MRI after the X-rays showed up negative.

I went in on Monday afternoon for what I thought was going to be a completely routine MRI, but soon found out that wasn't the case. I was scheduled for an arthrogram. This is a procedure where iodine is injected into the joint space coating the inner lining of the joint structures and allowing radiologists to assess the anatomy and function of the joint.

This 30min exam is probably one of the most awful things in the entire world. No joke. You get positioned on the table on your back, then the skin around the joint is cleansed with antiseptic and a local anesthetic is injected into the hip. A needle with an aspiration syringe is then inserted into the joint space where the radiologist uses the syringe to drain the joint fluid. Next, the contrast material and air are injected into the joint space and the needle is removed to prevent the contrast material and air from escaping. You can honestly feel the needle going deeper and deeper into the pelvis through the hip as they insert all the fluid...The hip joint is then massaged to distribute the contrast material throughout the space. I might have dropped an F-bomb or two during this stupid thing.

Next was the actual MRI. You lay on this table all strapped up and get put into a giant tube-like machine that makes jackhammer sounds for 50min. Talk about a really shitty day.

Tuesday afternoon I got the results and found out that I have a severe stress injury in the hip and pelvis as well as lots of bruising and abnormal injury. It was probably from the stupid bike crash on my cyclocross bike 2 days before my knee surgery. I chose to ignore it because I figured I'd be resting and healing for my knee anyway but apparently it was a lot worse than I thought. So what does this mean? No running for 6-8 weeks...go figure. AHHHHHH, I seriously think someone is trying to sabotage my ability to run right now. Let's just hope all this crap is part of a down year and if I can make it through the next 2 days, 2009 will be over and the new year will bring lots of positivity. Keep your fingers crossed.

Sage Outdoor Adventures

Bryce's good friend Cole from high school started an Outdoor Adventure Company in the Vail area this past year guiding snowmobile and Segway tours in the winter and white water rafting tours in the summer with his family. Click on the pic above to check it all out!

Since there was an open slot on Sunday morning from 8-12pm, Cole took Bryce, Jerry and myself out in the high country on their high performance sleds to go rip it up.

When we started it was absolutely freezing (-5*) but as we kept riding it got warmer and warmer...and more beautiful for that matter.

Cole took us to the top of this unbelievable view. Only a quarter of a mile away was where Bryce and I summit-ed on our dirt bikes earlier this year. Freaking amazing.

Since the sleds are designed to be ridden in powder, that's what we did...or kind of.

Every single one of us got stuck at least once as it's honestly one of the hardest things I've ever tried. The concept of counter-turning in the deep snow is so hard and constantly shifting your body weight from one side of the sled to the other is even more complicated.

Of course I tried and tried and then eventually just decided that maybe more throttle was the way to go...apparently not. I was the only moron who actually dumped the sled sideways instead of just getting stuck :) Go figure! I didn't get hurt though!!!!

Cole is absolutely amazing not only to watch but to ride with too. He let us get on as he floated over the powder flawlessly. He did admit that it does take a ton of practice to master the turning so we stopped feeling bad for ourselves.

Big thanks to everyone at Sage for letting us go play on a perfect day and a HUGE thank you to Cole for taking us out on in between tours during the busiest time of the year. Congrats to him on his recent engagement and success with the new company. YOU ROCK!

Christmas 2009

After an easy trip to MI on Tuesday night, we had a fun dinner and a great night of teaching Bryce how to play Euchre. We spent the better part of Wednesday at the gym and shopping then played some pool at Mr. B's and had a great pizza dinner afterward.

Thursday was the annual Kummer family Christmas party where the whole clan comes over to eat and open gifts. Apparently my brother does pretty well with little kids...it's a good thing because it's my Momma's only chance for grand kids :)

Other than the pouring rain, Christmas morning was super relaxing and really fun. Bryce not only got as many gifts as me, but he even got his own stocking!!!

My Mom made a killer breakfast with fresh fruit, a delicious casserole, yummy pastries, etc to top the morning off.

The trip couldn't be complete without rummaging through my parent's closet and playing dress up in all their old ski outfits from the 80s...how do we look?!?

My little brother is officially a college graduate!!!

After 1 year at Purdue and 2.5 years at the University of Michigan, my bro walked the stage last weekend as an aerospace engineer. SCARY! He does look somewhat official in the gown, but I have to mention the story about all the spatulas on the wall behind him. In Ann Arbor, he lives with 5 people in this run down places that houses rockstar party animals as well as brilliant students (they're actually the same people, just split personalities). Apparently one night someone came home with 3 random spatulas and from then on, every house party they went to, they stole the spatula from the kitchen and hung it on the wall. No joke, the entire wall is covered with them...

Yes, he will soon be entering the 'real world', but first he'll be coming back to CO with Bryce and I for some snowboarding then heading to Australia and New Zealand for a little vacation before he begins his new job at the Edward Airforce Academy in CA. Big congrats to him for all his hard work and pretty much getting a 4.0 at one of the toughest Universities and most complex programs in the country!

Holiday Parties Galore

Let's just say that this picture can describe a million words...Joe is usually the quiet kid who keeps to himself. However, that was not the case at Allen's 'Cocktails on 6th' party on Saturday night. He was the life of the party and then some. Thanks Jose Supersteinez :)

As you can see, the party started off quite nice with lots of delicious hors d'oeuvres and everyone looking very spiffy.

As the night progressed, it got a little less fancy and a little more 'party-like'. Kelly made the comment that wearing crocs to a dress party is a huge party foul. I have to defend myself by saying the 5 inch stilettos by my foot is what I wore most of the night until the dancing began. I already couldn't walk in those damn things much less dance!

And it got a little crazier...
And it all came to an end...thanks Allen for a great party and thanks to all the boys for some stellar entertainment!

Below zero to 50s and sunny!

Thanks to Tom for organizing a super fun road/dirt road ride with a bunch of great people on this beautiful Sunday.

There wasn't a cloud in a the sky and almost no wind. The weather was perfect and the company even better. Especially when I make Tony suffer like he is here 6 weeks post surgery. Come on you wienie!

Don't Tom and I always take cute pictures?!?! I have about 20 pics of us in this same position...different attire of course.

Choosing Windows

I never thought having windows replaced in a house would be such a process! Wow...I think I might be a window expect now! After spending 3 hours last Saturday at our new place while 5 different companies came to get measurements, we finally got all of our estimates back. We met with a few companies for a couple hours back at my current house over the last couple days to see samples, go over options, get the quotes, etc and finally chose one.

We decided to go with Boulder Valley Siding. It's a local company that was very highly recommended with prices almost 40% lower than everyone else. The owner himself came over and gave us a 90min tutorial on everything and anything regarding windows and glass and brought tons of samples to look at and play with. We were really happy with his professionalism, his products, and his prices fit the budget. We also learned that buying windows from a manufacture that produces windows at altitude is key in Boulder and the windows he uses are made right in Loveland, CO - Amerimax. All in all, we will be having 6 single sliders, 2 double hungs and 2 patio doors replaced. After another quick measurement this week, the windows should be ordered and ready to be installed the weekend of January 8th! Woooohooooo.

FREAKING AWESOME!!!

It's Holiday Party Time!

Friday evening was Bryce's work holiday party at the Rock Bottom Brewery. It was super fun to meet all his co-workers and watch them give B a hard time about anything and everything. It was also really nice to see what a great group of people he spends most of his days with :)

And then there was the Annual 'Yeah I look hot in a speedo' White Elephant party with triathlon clan. As always, Billy was well under the influence and immitating Santa like a total rockstar. Yes, I did come home with another sex related book. Somehow that always happens :) Big thanks to Pete and Brad for making it happen!

More doctors?!?!

I had laser eye surgery in November of 2007 and until about 4 months ago, I couldn't have been happier. I haven't had the nerve to talk about my eye appointment 3 weeks back only because I thought it was just a fluke. I decided to get a checkup because I was have a really hard time reading road signs while driving, seeing the TV on the couch - really just focusing on anything more than 10 ft away - a few days after making my final payment from the original procedure. To my surprise, my right eye had regressed to 20/40. They gave me a contact to correct it and told me to come back in 3 weeks to see if it had corrected itself on its own...huh? At any rate, I did so on Thursday and it had actually gotten even worse. They only give free 'touch ups' (or do the procedure over) to patients within 1 year of the original surgery and told me it would be another $2500 to fix my eye. I'm sure you can imagine what was going through my mind and came out of my mouth at that point. Needless to say, I walked out of there with a note in my chart to call when I'm ready to have my right eye re-done for $350. I'm still not happy about it as the entire week after the surgery is the most painful and obnoxious feeling ever - you can't drive, be around light, no swimming, etc. I haven't decided when I will embark on this silly journey but it will be shortly after the New Year so I can start focusing on what really matters - TRAINING!!!!

Doc #2 - It honestly seems as though I can't even go to the dermatologist without have at least one mole removed. After getting a bit of eczema (dry skin patches), I went and saw Cathy Pacoca as always and without fail, she had to remove 2 more moles from my back and booty. I'll just blame my lack of swimming on that...hehe.

My roommates are dumbasses!

Jon brought home a crazy stupid hot sauce that calls for one drop from a toothpick for every gallon of chili. Him and Pamela went to a hot sauce tasting event and this was the hottest bottle available to try without signing some sort of waiver. Seriously?

I can't even handle medium salsa so this is nothing that sparked my interest, but Tingle couldn't wait to try it. She insisted that Jon put it on a tortilla chip (which is not recommended) but he did it anyway. She chomped down on the chip with 2 tiny little specs of sauce and immediately began freaking out because she thought her throat was closing and ran straight to the bathroom. As gross as it was, it was pretty hilarious at the same time. She kept telling us she thought her tongue was bleeding but we just laughed but when she opened her mouth, she really did have a huge blister right there.

Do I get to say I told you so?!?! She's pretty proud of herself and swears that this stuff is good for the metabolism. I think she's insane.

Randomness

Tom Torrance closed on his cool new house on Friday so I went and helped him move in! When's the house warming party?!?

It's been below freezing every day for the last week so we had a nice little trainer party in my living room Saturday morning with Bryce, Tietzel and Flora and watch the Hangover on a pirated Internet copy :)

We're still on the 'Martha Stewart' kick and have started painting all our furniture a nice semi gloss black! It's been an adventure for sure. We even had to make an emergency run to Home Depot to get a space heater so we didn't freeze to death in the garage. Only 4 more weeks til we close!!!!

For Real?!?!

Yesterday I had my first full body composition scan on a DEXA (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry) machine. DEXA is a fairly new technology. It is based on the three component model of body composition. It uses two X-ray energies to measure body fat, muscle, and bone mineral. When having the scan done, you lay still in the supine position on what looks like an x-ray table. $100 and 5 minutes later I received a 10 page report telling me what my body was made up of from my head to my toes.

I would never have agreed to do this now (as I haven't done any significant as far as working out in the last 5 weeks) but it was meant to be a baseline for where I want to be in the spring. It's a good thing because I almost fainted when I saw that I currently weigh 124lbs and have 27% body fat!!! Guess it's time to start eating a little less crap huh?!?

I'm making progress!!!

It may not be much, but at least it's a step in the right direction! As much as I wish I could put a paper bag over my head so that I don't look like a total gym rat bouncing up and down on the the elliptical, it's so exciting that I'm finally getting my range of motion back. I have my last PT session tomorrow and have made leaps and bounds since week 1. The recovery wasn't ALL that bad! Woohoooo :)

House Inspection

Saturday morning was the inspection for the new house. We've been told by numerous people that it can be a little intense and not so much fun, but we were ready for it. After 3 hours of running around taking photos and measuring every wall in the place, we finally got the recap of all the findings. Other than having really crappy windows (which we already knew), there weren't too many other issues at all. As a matter of fact, our Realtor told us that it was one of the best reports she's seen in a while.

Since we are going to replace the windows, we got the seller to bring $5000 in cash to the closing and escrow the sum into our mortgage. Now we'll get 2 credits from Uncle Sammy. $8000 for the house and $1500 for the windows...boooooyeahhh!

Check out the link below for more pics of the house.

NEW HOUSE

Thanksgiving Day in the mountains

After a great spin on the trainers, Bryce and I drove up to his house in Edwards, CO (just outside Vail), to spend Turkey Day with his family.

They live in Singletree - just across the highway from Beaver Creek and right on a rockin' golf course.

We took his beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog 'Bosco' out for several walks which was super fun. Since the golf course is closed for the year, he got to run around all over it and roll around in the snow.

Since the Binghams were vegetarian's for 20 years, they continue the tradition of eating 'Nut Loaf' every Thanksgiving. I do have to admit that it lived up to it's reputation of being absolutely delicious, however, this was the first time I have not eaten a big greasy turkey for my yearly feast :)

Tis the season for shopping!

I made some serious television purchases this morning for our new house and it's not even Black Friday :) The 37" Panasonic above and the 26" TV/DVD combo below were just too good of deals to pass up. As much as I love online shopping, I'm sure we'll do our share of sale shopping this Friday since we're heading up to the mountains to hang out with the Bingham family. OH BOY

A good update!

I spent the better part of my weekend with Bryce in Home Depot, Target, Lowe's, Concepts, you name it. I'm pretty sure we now know exactly how every room in our new house is going to look! We have some killer ideas and we're confident the place is gonna look amazing! Get pumped up :)

Although I still haven't gotten my heart rate above 100 bpm in 2.5 weeks, I was able to go for a little walk Saturday afternoon. It felt so good to be outside and I even saw this hilarious flag above! Unfortunately the good guys (UofM - but only bc my bro goes to school there) lost and it was a terribly boring game. I was, however, finally able to turn my leg over the bike pedal on Sunday evening which made for a very good ending to the weekend. I'm on the mend...wooohooo!

Boulder Center for Sports Medicine

A new partnership has formed! As of yesterday, BCSM has become one of new sponsors! Although I usually find myself there due to injury and the need for PT, the facility also offers endless ways to achieve your peak fitness in any sport. The Sports Science division of the center is one of the best physiological testing facilities in the country. It has an absolutely amazing staff as well with Neal Henderson as the director of the department. Neal is one of the most knowledgeable and supportive individuals I have ever met. He's not only my coach, but a long time friend and one of the greatest assets in my life. With his and the help of Andy Pruitt, Stephen Paul, Jason Americh, and Matt Schneider, I have been able to improve my level of training and racing throughout the past years as well as get through those 'bumps' (or injuries if you will) along the road. Thanks for everything you do BCSM. I'm super excited for this opportunity!