Looks like Ill be resting my knee for a few days after a couple nasty hits last night at soccer.  During the second half another player and I were heading for the ball and reached it at the same time.  He turned in towards me with the ball just as I was turning the opposite direction.  The two of us hit knee to knee with mine coming off the worse for wear.  I limped off the field and stretched it out and tried walking on it.  It felt more like a charlie horse in the end so nd I went back out onto the field a little later.  Within a few minutes of getting back out there I caught a shot right in the same knee in the same place.   Its funny how Murphy’s Law seems to always find a way.  I spent the night icing it up and this morning it was nice and stiff with some nice bruises plus lines imprinted from the soccer ball.  I figured Id take a day to let it calm down but after running some errands for lunch I can tell it feels pretty iffy so Ill take longer.

I’m heading to the Virgin Music Festival in Baltimore this weekend, so I’m planning on staying off the knee till I get back.  That’ll mean no running or cycling but I will keep swimming.  Since its no impact it shouldn’t be an issue for the knee.

Yesterday in addition to my soccer game I also put in 5.5 miles of running beforehand.

So we woke up Saturday morning and checked our gear and most of it was still wet.  There were changes of clothes but not much could be done about our shoes still being soaked.  Ron and Brad both weren’t feeling too motivated to get back out to the Booty loop.  I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I was disappointed.   My bike was on Ron’s car and his was the only way to get my bike to and from Raleigh.  So my plans were intertwined with Ron’s intentions. With the skies being overcast and rain looking likely plus our wet equipment and loss of campsite neither of them wanted to head back out.  We ended up watching the time trial of the Tour de France to see Contador retain his yellow jersey and Leipheimer put in one hell of a ride.  When it was over everyone decided to go grab lunch on the way home.  Of course when we got out of Charlotte the clouds cleared up and blue skies followed us home.

When we got back to Raleigh even Ron admitted that it may have been premature to have left and not gone back to continue riding.  His reasoning was that we go to the 24 Hours of Booty to put up maximum mileage and test ourselves and if there was no possibility of a lot of miles there wasn’t enough reason to go back.  When it got around to unpacking my car the rain finally started and after getting wet again I knew that I wasn’t up for another wet ride.  It wasn’t till later I found out that it hadn’t rained in Charlotte all day.

As a penance I rode 33 miles yesterday on the roads around Lake Jordan.  Booty showed me that riding the trainer wasn’t as good of a substitute as I thought.  I definitely need to spend more time on the road coming up.  Also I had forgotten just how much better it is riding on the road versus the trainer.

Its the middle of the 24 Hours of Booty, so why am I online.  Probably because there were huge thunderstorms that basically blew through our campsite crashing bikes bending tent poles and having all three of us struggling to at least maintain the 45 degree angle it was left in.  It took me about 1:45 minutes to get from Raleigh to Durham due to a tractor trailer wreck and explosion on I-40.  My friend Greg called me from New York to see if I was in it because he was watching it on CNN.  I ended up trying to cut over to a back road where I ran into another wreck and traffic avoiding I-40.  After an hour on that road I cut over to another where yet another wreck had just occurred but I got there just after it happened and traffic started.  These are the kinds of events that are more suited to fiction than real life.

So in the end a three hour trip was bordering on 4 to 4.5 hours if I hadn’t ended up speeding the whole way.  I rolled into Bootyville, the 24 Hours of Booty headquarters, an hour and 15 minutes before the ride was set to start.  This year the “bootyville” is two rows of shops and tents instead of one with a much larger crowd of participants.  Ron and Brad were already there with the campsite setup and ready to go.  So all I had to do was hang out, get into my gear, and all of us roll up to the starting line.    As usual there were photographers standing on ladders to take pictures of the field before the start.  We got close to the front but wont end up making the website like last year.  The first lap went fairly smooth even with the crowd but by the second things had slowed to a crawl due to the traffic of so many cyclists.  Our average speed was too low to even register, with us even having to unclip from our pedals to avoid falling.  The first drops of rain set in so we decided to go ahead and head in and eat the free dinner to let the crowd thin out and hopefully the rain to subside.  So in the first half hour of the event we had only gone 5 miles.  Not a great start but we knew that things would start moving once people got into the groove and the crowd spread out.

After dinner we got back out on the road and Brad and I were able to get our totals up to 2o miles while Ron got up to 13 miles, due to a pit stop, before all hell broke loose.  The thunderstorms rolled in and by the second lap of the rain I could barely see cyclists right in front of me.   Thats with the mandatory headlights and taillights. In addition, my brakes were so wet they were basically useless so I pulled of the course into the campsite to find Brad, Ron, my dad and his friend waiting crowded under the tent with Shiner Bocks in hand.  The storm got progressively worse and eventually my dad and his friend left while we ducked into the tent only to realize that we should have stayed and watched the main tent.  We got out just in time to catch the tent collapsing with our bikes knocked over.  We spent the next 20 minutes holding up the tent until the storm let off enough for us to break everything down and pack it up.

The three of us were so cold and miserable we decided to head over to my dad’s who lives in town to dry off and get warm.  We’ll be heading back to the course first thing in the morning to get some miles in until the rain thats forecasted for the afternoon comes in.  Here’s hoping to salvage some of the ride, because it is a great event.

This morning I took the next to last step to getting to Austin by booking my airfare.  Apparently there was a sale going on and the airfare from Raleigh to Austin came up to only $254 which was down from $445.  Talk about a great change in rate, plus we even got a direct flight from Austin to Raleigh coming home.  We used On The Mark Travel, 512-794-8800.  If you’re still trying to get your travel itinerary together Id give them a call.  Its who we’ve used for the past few years and we always get a good deal.

The only thing that has Ron and I nervous is that the free bike shipping has yet to be confirmed by American Airlines.  In every year past they’ve given everyone flying to the Ride for the Roses and Livestrong Challenge a free pass for their bikes.  According to the travel agent they’re still dragging their feet this year on giving the all clear.  If we don’t get to do our bikes for free it will cost $160 to ship them to and from Austin.  Luckily with the cheap flight this wont be as bad but free is always better.  I’m sure there will be a lot of ill will towards American if they decide to start charging for bike transport based on the reason everyone is going and the past several years being at no cost.

This past weekend has been a busy one.  It started off with the monthly charity poker tournament to raise money for my Livestrong Challenge ride.  Unfortunately we had a lot of people out of town so we only had four players playing.  It was bad timing but it had to be last weekend because this weekend is the 24 Hours of Booty in Charlotte, next weekend is the Virgin Music Festival in Baltimore, and the next is the Phillies/Braves series in Philadelphia.  So in the end, even with the low turnout, it was still a fun night.  We raised $30 for the LAF with Richard beating me out for the overall.  We followed up the main tournament with another H.O.R.S.E tournament for fun.  I wont bother getting into the details of H.O.R.S.E, because its confusing enough to play let alone explain.  Suffice it to say its a different game for each letter and I lost that one too.

Saturday I put in my long run that was scheduled for Friday.  I went up to Lake Lynn and ran laps there again for variety which is a circuit of about 2 miles.   My run called for 90 minutes and I managed to knock it out but my feet paid the price.  A while back I mentioned that I bought some new running shoes but didn’t start using them because i read my old shoes still had miles to go.  A few weeks ago I decided it was time to make the switch and started out with the new shoes.  I had a few small blisters from a long run in the old shoes that were aggravated by the new ones.  I figured it was just because the shoes were being broken in and the blisters hadn’t healed enough.  Now after a couple weeks I know it is the shoes.  Every single time I use them I get blisters and Saturday ended with a nice blood blister the size of two quarters end to end.  Needless to say those shoes are retired, but unfortunately I cant take them back since I waited so long before using them.  Ill be heading out to Inside-Out sports next paycheck to get refitted for a new pair and just use the tainted shoes as a casual pair.  Inside-Out is a local running/triathlon store that has a really good reputation for fitting shoes correctly.  New Balance did me right for my first two pairs but i’m getting up there in mileage and I dont want to risk a repeat of this last pair and be knocked out of commission from avoidable blisters.  Sunday was 90 minutes on the trainer for my cycling fix.

Monday I knocked out my first full mile in the pool, well it was 10 yards short but Ill call it a mile.  I did 70 laps that worked out to 1750 yards and a mile is 1760 yards.  As I’m writing this I just got out off the trainer for another hour and a half at a pretty good clip.  That was my last cycling session till the 24 Hours of Booty Friday.  I’m looking forward to getting over 150 miles which will be a nice dent in my weight loss bet.   And as a final update on that side I’m ranging between 190-195 while last week i was between 195-200.  Anyone on a scale knows that it will fluctuate all day long if you watch it.