Thursday, November 20, 2008

Cold induced uticaria

I saw this news story on CNN about a woman who gets hives in the cold. When her skin is exposed to cold air she breaks out in hives.

I've been having this thing where my toes and hands get hives in the cold weather. One cold weather ride usually triggers the hives and they stay off/on through the winter. It was interesting to see the story. They are trying a new treatment based on an asthma. When mine gets bad I use Benedryl.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

still here lurking

From a cycling/blogging point of view I've pretty much fallen off the face of the earth. Things are hectic with going to school part time, working full time, change at work and of course family. Not to mention the other various sundries of time suckers as well. The focused thoughts on cycling, training, and gear have been pushed to the side for the time being.

I miss it. Miss the hours of googling and thought process focused on some miniscule cycling issue. But for now it's relegated to some random ebay watching and mtbr trolling. I miss thinking, preparing, getting scared and doing some races. But I just can't get into that right now as racing takes over as a monopoly of my thought processes.

As winter begings to roll in I've gotten back in to a the gym a few days. My goal is to follow the Morris plan loosely for my legs, and do a random hodgepodge of upper body stuff. I had tried a Crossfitworkout a few weeks ago and was intrigued.

The stuff is messed up in a good way, and time efficient, and whole body. Painful as all get out too. A friend has started up a local gym and I might try it out. Some stability and a fixed schedule would do me good right now as randomness bouncing all over the place is not helping out in terms of general life balance.

In just a few weeks I've seen my riding performance fall dramatically. Interestingly, though I think it could come back pretty well with a few focused back to back ride followed by some rest. But I'm ok to let it go for now and build back again later.

Some random cycling thoughts to leave off with. I still think about trying a single speed. It might be something fun to try out to just get excited about. I love my Azure. Something about the geometry and the setup right now just feels so good. I've been trying to isolate what it is so it can be duplicated if needed. I hope to rebuild some lost power this winter, but still be able to maintain this stand up and dance sort of pedaling style when climbing.