Trek Women at Buckwallow

The Trek Women had our last ride at Buckwallow.  We had a small, but incredibly keen group in attendance.  Highlight of the day was when I went down a section of trail and told the ladies if they wanted a challenge to follow me, otherwise stay to the right.  I looked back and not only did everyone follow, but everyone cleared the section.  Personal highlight was clearing all of Bear Bluff for the first time.  Good to ride with some strong females, as sometimes my ego is all that's needed to step up my game and not wuss out on the rocks : )

Thanks Eden for the pics...

all smiles as the rain begins just as we finish our ride

being the only novice, Kim scored a private lesson with Erica

Sessioning some rocks

For sale: uber light race wheels - SOLD!

I am selling a set of 26" wheels.  We (Jeremy) built them last year and I have only ridden them a few times.  $675.  Regular retail over $1100
contact: tammyjrobinson at hotmail.com

SRAM XO cassette

Stans rims

WTB Laser Disc Lite hubs

For sale: hardtail -- SOLD!

I am selling my beloved hard tail... 15.5" Gary Fisher Frame.  $850
Contact: tammyjrobinson at hotmail.com

 it might be a little girly for the boys who aren't man enough for all the pink and white... but the pink bottle cage and cable housing are easily swapped out for other colours.

 Avid Elixr Carbon brakes and SRAM XO shifters

SRAM XO rear derailleur

Bontrager Race Lite Wheels

XTR cranks (sorry, the R has been smudged off due to my terrible pedal stroke)

Chain rings... XTR for middle and big; BlackSpire for grannie

XT front derailleur

Chris King headset

Manitou R7 Fork

not wanted on the voyage

I will spare you the gory details.  The mystery of my GI illness is solved.  I had a parasite.  I can confidently state the last sentence in the past tense.  Like I said, I'll spare you the details.

Slowly, my body is recovering.  I stopped training what seems like forever ago.  That was hard.  Especially as I didn't know what was wrong and the MD kept blowing me off.  I'm still waiting to get in to see a specialist!  Little did I know that when my MD told me he would refer me to an Internist, what he actually meant was: 'let's just wait a little longer and see how sick you actually get'.  You have to develop a loud voice when you're sick.  I am thankful for Naturopaths.

I am also beginning to be thankful for my time off the bike.  Especially now that, that time is not being spent between the couch and the bathroom.

So what have I been up to?...
I taught summer school to students who failed Grade 10 Math.  I am not a Math teacher, but am pretty proud that 12 of the 20 students who started the class passed.  I did not make it easy for them.  I made them work for it.  I made them learn every piece of the curriculum and they had to pass everything.  Definitely rewarding to see them so proud of themselves on the last day, knowing that there were no 'grant' passes.  For some of them, it was the first time they had worked for anything.

I've also had some fun...
My brothers came to visit from England.  I took them to battle the crowds and the heat at Canada's Wonderland.

The next day, we ventured to Hardwood for some riding and then for a raft adventure in Kempenfelt Bay.  Happy to say they had more fun on day 2.  

Then, it was time for some holiday.  Jeremy and I went up to Muskoka with bikes and swimsuits.

Stayed at this great place: http://www.treveneth.com/

In lieu of paying for your room, you are asked to donate the equivalent funds to the Northern Cancer Research Foundation.  

A Saturday morning wander through Barrie's Downtown brought me here.

331 people drumming in unison broke the Guiness Book of World Records!

Thanks Damien for sharing your knowledge and drum so that I could be part of this event!

Today, I am not racing Kelso.  And I sit out without the same sense of loss I felt at Hardwood or Buckwallow.  I'll be back out there soon.  But, in the meantime:

"Complaints about reality are immature."
— Timothy Findley (Not Wanted on the Voyage)

mom

"It looks like we found the problem.  Your tonsils are the size of golf balls."

They feel more like tennis balls.  I hadn't eaten anything more than soup in days and even that was hard to swallow.  I started feeling sick with a sore throat on Monday.  By Wednesday things started getting worse and as I got home from work, the shivering started.  My temperature was starting to rise and by that evening my fever was 102.5F!  I've never felt so sick - or at least, don't remember ever feeling so sick.  As the fever rose and my throat became more sore, I grabbed my cell phone and called Jeremy who was on the couch downstairs.  I couldn't imagine getting out of bed.

He came upstairs begrudgingly.  "When have you ever known me to not take care of myself when I'm sick?", I asked him.  "Help me".  He didn't know what to do.  I don't know what I expected.  My mom would have known, but I'd have to settle for my husband.

 "What do you want me to do?" he asks.
"Make me feel better", I replied.

Eventually this conversation turned into him going to Hardwood to race the Wednesday Night Championships.  I wasn't going to die, we decided, but my climbing fever was making me feel worse and worse.

Fast forward to Saturday, I finally called my mom to tell her I had Strep Throat.  She asked if I'd been eating and I said 'not much'.  She got right in her car and came down, despite my pleas for her not to.  The house is a disaster and I'm pretty sure there were things growing in the kitchen sink, it had been so long since I'd felt well enough to clean.

That's the great thing about moms.  She didn't care and when she arrived she set about making me feel better.  Four hours later, in a now clean kitchen, she'd made my favorite German dish... roladen - a yummy stew with thin slices of beef wrapped around pickles.  It was somehow perfect to make me feel better.

I don't know what her secret is, but my mom always knows what will make me feel better when I'm sick - all of it is psychological for sure as the only cure for me right now is the bottle of Amoxicillin on my kitchen counter.  Not to knock my husband's efforts, but he just isn't mom.

making the best of it

So, this illness, or whatever it is has been dragging its heels.  Just when I thought I was better, WHAM, GI started acting up again.  I'll spare you the gory details... but, thank you so much to those who have listened to them.  It's nice to not suffer alone.

Last week we had 2 Trek Women events planned.  I really didn't have the energy for either of them, but dragged my butt to both of them.  I guess it shouldn't be surprising how grumpy not being able to keep food in long enough for your body to get the goodness out of it makes you.  Getting out with the Ladies was awesome to make me forget how crappy I've been feeling.  They are all so excited to ride and watching them learn new skills and be excited about it was enough to erode my new-found grumpy disposition.

I had some great pictures of the rides, but they got lost.  Instead, here is a picture of tonight's dinner.  Not to show off my culinary skills, but to display my returning appetite.  I finished the whole dinner and half of the bowl of fruit AND my stomach did not rebel!  Trust me, that is pretty exciting.

Keep your eyes on the road

"OH SHIT, TAM!!!'

It's just after 4pm on Sunday and Jeremy and I are heading home from a great afternoon at Albion.  I had another fun day cheering on friends and yelling at my husband from the Feed Zone.

I am in the passenger seat gazing out the window.  I look around to see what has Jeremy so freaked out and see a white car flying through the air into the opposite ditch.  Thankfully, we are a few cars back from the accident and our involvement is only as bystanders.  Jeremy pulls the car over and calls 911, while I get out of the car to see if anyone needs help.

My first aid hasn't been recertified in years, but it all came back to me.  Assessing the scene, I walked by a couple of cars whose occupants are okay, but are trapped in their cars.  Unfortunately, a motorcyclist was involved and hit a car head on.  She flew off her bike into the ditch.  Her friend, who was unhurt was standing over her in shock when I arrived.  "I know some first aid", I told him.

I spent 45 minutes in the ditch with her until the paramedics were able to get a back board on her and carry her out to a helicopter.  In that time, she went from minimally breathing to needing CPR.

While stabilizing her at the side of the road, her friend tells me through tears that they were driving home from a charity ride when a car had swayed into oncoming traffic.  None of us knew why, perhaps the driver had a medical emergency of his own that caused the accident, but more than likely it was due to falling asleep, being on a cell phone, or playing with the radio.

We spend so much of our lives driving, that it is easy to forget that we not only hold our lives in our hands, but also of other people out there on the road.  This tragedy has reminded me how important it is to give the task at hand 100% focus.

I just learned that the motorcyclist did not make it.  My love goes out to her family and friends.