A Long Road

I know I haven't posted text in a while. It isn't for lack of ideas, it may have to do with too many ideas. I can tell you that I want to write about a million and one things lately, but haven't been able to. Just to prove it to you, I will tell you some of the things I am not going to write about today.

I was added to the pastoral team at Lord of the Harvest on November 1. Though I am very excited about this I am not going to write about it now.

MTB-Life/Soul Cycles won another Michigan Endurance series. I was a part of it. I actually rode well for a fat guy, but, I am not going to write about that today either.

My boys also won the points series for two man endurance team. They did an awesome job. They really tried and pushed themselves pretty hard. I am very proud of them.

I coached a perfect season of soccer this year. We didn't win a single game. That being said, my girls, and the other girls on the team all played well. They worked hard and learned a lot about the game. But, this post isn't about that either.

I want to write a number of faith topics as well. I want to write about the error or placing Conservatism over Christ. I want to talk about this badly... Some other time.

I want to look at the church. I want to dive into the concept of the Bride of Christ. I will do this as I am studying it, but not today.

I want to talk about the log and the speck. It needs to be addressed. Just not in this post.

Okay, Rob... What in the world DO you want to write about today? Well, I will tell you. On August 1, I went to race. I entered as a solo racer for the Stony Creek Endurance race. I had no intention of winning. I am still very out of shape for that. I entered to push myself and see what I can do against other riders who are in shape.

Less than 10 miles into the race I was in trouble. I was having a lot of pain in my left knee. It hurt to pedal. By mile 30, I gave up and called it a day. It was very disheartening for me. I know I won't be as thin or as fast as I used to, but I hate the feeling of taking steps backward in my health when I am trying to get some things stabilized.

August then became a month of finding what happened to my knee. Several visits to a specialist and an MRI ended up not with results, but insults. I further learned that I am fat. I don't need a guy with a PHD to tell me the obvious. I need him to diagnose my knee and get me back in the game. He finally told me to go ride and see how the knee holds up.

September 1 I got back on the trail. Nathan and I went out to Stony Creek to spin some miles together. About 3 miles into it I had to shake my hands out from riding on the gravelly two track. I did this as I entered a fun section of single track known as the Pines. I was just coming out of a left turn and into a little rolling down hill when I went to put my right hand back on the bars. Unfortunately I didn't do it in time. It ended up being a long endo. So long, in fact, that I nearly wrote a book by the time the crash ended. I was thinking to myself, "Hmm, knee isn't bad... When I get back to the car, I am going to post ""Back in the Saddle Again"" on my facebook... Oh no! This is gonna hurt... Why??? I can't believe I missed the bars... Try not to land on my head and break my neck again...OOOOOOFFFFFF... Was I really going that fast... OUCH... I hope Nathan doesn't have a camera... OOOOOOHHH... How many times can one guy hit the ground anyway??? OW!!! Why can't I breath??? Did my handlebars just go through my ribs??? Not on that shoulder again... Andrea is going to kill me..." Until finally I ended up in a heap on the bottom of the trail.

Nathan came upon me and helped me get myself back together. We limped out of the trail as I broke my shifter, possibly losing it somewhere in my body. I was also hurt pretty bad. So, one month to the day later and I knew I was facing another setback. What I didn't know was how long I would be set back.

After about three weeks the ribs started to feel a little better. They felt well enough for me to try to spin on my trainer. As I tried I noticed it was hard to put weight on my right arm. I had noticed that it was hard to move, but didn't think much of it. I thought that I had hurt it, but it was still a little bruised and it would go away eventually.

October came and the middle of the month held the last of the Michigan Endurance races. The boys needed to race one more time for points (BTW, they got robbed this year as the promoter put them in a wrong class for one race forcing us to have to make a decision about which class to race as he refused to fix his error. Did I mention that it ultimately caused the boys to win the series but NOT get the title and jackets they earned even though it was his error. Way to go in not encouraging the future of the sport and your future bill payers..) We hooked up with the team and got the last race going. The team had had a little rough of a year so I did my best to cheer them up. I was sending out emails telling them that I was at 80% and should be ready to kill it by race day.

On my first lap I knew by the first bump that something was more than sore in my shoulder. I only rode the minimum of the day because that was all that my arm was capable of. I was in a lot of pain by the end of the night. I knew I had to go to the doctor.

I will not bore you with the visits or the MRI details. I will just say that this time I was not picked on for being fat. This time I was told I have some sever tearing in my rotator cuff, and that I needed surgery to get back to normal. Since I can't pick my arm up without help this is the boat I am in. The surgery is scheduled for this Friday. I don't want yet another set back to losing weight and getting healthy, but since I can't function properly right now this is mandatory. I am hoping I recover quickly and can get back to normal as it has been a very long few months. I have been averaging about 3 hours of sleep a night and am feeling a little out of it more and more each day.

But, this Friday offers me hope. If all goes well, I will be recovering and sleeping like normal very soon.