Cycling Sawatzki

A few more photos from Friday's Ride & Festivities!

Sara Sawatzki — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:19:00 GMT

I managed to scrounge up a few more photos from Friday for your viewing pleasure. And by scrounge up I mean I heisted them from my teammate Jeff! (Thanks, Jeff!)

Here we are getting ready for our Friday morning ride.

Here we are on our ride!

Here was the welcome crew cheering us on to our Inspiration Dinner. Side note: I TOTALLY do not remember the red carpet, but that is awesome!

Here we are actually at the dinner.

And here we are getting a pep talk at the end of the evening with information on the ride the following day.

Event Weekend Day Two: FRIDAY!

Sara Sawatzki — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:17:00 GMT

Miles Logged: 21

Total Miles Logged So Far: 1,021

FRIDAY:

(This is the whole crew from L to R: Sharon, Diane, Stacia, Terry, Rhonda, Janine, Caitlin, Brent, Pamela, Jeff, and myself)

Friday started off pretty dang early: a9 a.m. ride! Okay that's not really early compared to the 2:45 wake-up the day before...but I was still playing catch-up dangit...I nearly slept through my alarm too!

We were going to go out and just do whatever distance wefelt like doing. Sharon and I, who both were pretty under-trained forthis thing considering she was working pretty much full time on herdissertation and me with my surgery and all, decided that 20 mileshould do the trick.

Let me tell you what, I have never seensuch beautiful riding conditions. Sunny, cool, beautiful scenery inthe country-side. And most importantly: FLAT. Oh so very wonderfullyflat. Sharon and I had a good time. I was SO thankful that I hadsomeone to ride with, because let me tell you what, if you have 8hours of riding time on your own you will lose your flippin mind. Butanyway, it was awesome we laughed and talked about the tall, skinnytrees and crazy-big birds. And just had a nice, casual, smooth rideon a portion of the metric century route.

Here I am trying to stay upright while biking and smiling for the camera. I'm not good at bike-eye-smile coordination.

When we got back from our ride a bitlater we were standing outside the hotel when a women approached usand asked us if we wouldn't mind being interviewed for the Channel 7news. Sharon and I agreed...and i'm sure we looked just TOTALLyawesome what with all the sweat and whispy hair we had going onpost-ride. But we gave it our best....spandex and all. Sadly, we wereboth at our “Inspiration Dinner” that evening and couldn't catchthe coverage of it. Probably for the best.

In any case...after our ride Stacia,Caitlin, Pamela and myself hopped over to Jimmy's Cafe for some lunchwhile quite a few of the others went to Ocean City to catch someBeach waves. I would have gone too, except I was waiting for mycompany to arrive!! But truthfully, I was more excited about thecompany than the beach, and I kinda wanted to wait for the followingday when I biked to the Ocean rest stop to see the beach! It wouldjust make it all the more special.

My brother Andy, sister-in-law Darcyand my ADORABLE niece Delia were the first of my entourage to arrive!We hung out for awhile and Delia was super excited about seeing mybike and insisted on sitting on it. It was super cute. She also madefaces at me like she usually does including the latest one I taughther, the monkey face. While making that face at me she was trying notto laugh but gave in after a few second and, because the poor thinghad a cold, accidentally blew the most massive amount of snot I haveever seen out of her nose. It was truly unreal. haha, but she wassuper cute anyway

She was also pretty damn excited about seeing my bike...but she felt my helmet was inadequate because it didn't have an Elmo sticker like hers.

Laura arrived shortly after that and weall hung out for a bit until I had to go grab my race registrationbecause the geniuses that run the Seagull Century Ride neglected tosend out the team-in-training packets until just a few days beforethe race...they all arrived on Thursday back in Lincoln and Omaha.Greeaaaat. But they made us make-shift numbers anyway!

7275 BABY!

After that was finished I parted wayswith Andy, Darcy, and Delia for the night as they were headed tocheck into the rental house they got on the Ocean and I was preppingfor my “Inspiration Dinner”

We all met in Stacia's room beforeheading down to the lobby to go to the dinner which was in theconference room part of the hotel.

Immediately when we got off the elevator we heard hootin' and hollerin' and a bunch of noise maker kind of things and were all just like “what the deuce is going on??”

When we turned the corner there wereTONS of Team-in-Training people dressed up in a bunch of wackyTeam-in-Training gear forming a channel by which all participants hadto pass. And as we all walked by they were shouting and cheering “GOTEAM NEBRASKA!!!” and congratulating us on making it. It was somoving. Even beyond what I would have expected. It was just such anice way to start off the evening, with a lot of noise and fun and itjust made you feel so good to be there and receive this giant pat onthe back for all that we had accomplished over the last 5 months.

The inspiration dinner was just sowonderful too. And i'm not even talking about the food...though thedelicious pasta carb-loading dishes were AMAZING....but it was justsuch a touching and motivating evening with all the speakers they hadlined up. Julie, not Nebraska Julie but the national Team in Trainingdirector, gave a talk in the beginning about how much we all raisedand what it all meant.

There were 192 Team-in-TrainingParticipants for the century ride. And as a group we raised....

Wait for it.....

Wait for it cause it's real good...

Over $550,000!!!!!!

Wow. I would not have guessed it wasthat much! But how awesome to know that this room full of people had,in a time of economic paranoia and depression, we were able to pooltogether over a half of a million dollars for this cause! I justthought that was phenomenal.

Then National Julie listed off thenames of the Top 5 Fundraisers. After number five was announced at$6000 Nebraska Julie turned to me with a frown and said “You werenumber 6!” haha. I don't care, I still think it's totally awesome Imade the Top 10! I felt honored! And besides, as I said before, Idon't need no stinkin' recognition!

The top winner for the evening was amiddle-aged, cancer survivor who had managed to raise over $22,000!!!WHAT THE WHAT??? That is just SO awesome! As a reward, he was given abrand new Schwinn bicycle that was decked out in Team-in-Trainingcolors and logos. It was an AWESOME bike!!

Next we had a speaker with an Insurancecompany who has encouraged his company to have their sole donationsgo to the Leukemia & Lymphoma society and encourage theiremployees to participate in the TNT events. He gave a cool speech andslide show presentation on what you should expect on the road thefollowing day for all the newbies in the room like myself, which waspretty entertaining. Full of crazy pictures. And then talked abouthow he NEEDED team in training because it makes you matter. What acool way of putting that. I could see how it could easily bemisconstrued as a selfish thing, but being on the other side of thiswhole experience now, it's easy to see what he means. It's good tofeel like you're making a difference, that what you do for somethinglike this totally MATTERS. So often in life the fact that “wematter” gets swept under the rug. So it's nice to have somethinglike this organization that gives you that in life.

The next speaker was the uncle of thenational honored hero for the event, a young girl named Olivia who at4 years old was diagnosed with Leukemia. Two and a half years latershe is now cancer-free! Her uncle talked of the struggles throughoutthe process and about the happiness and strength that came out of it.It was followed by a really moving slide show of pictures during her2 years of cancer treatments. Pictures of her with stuffed pony's andtiaras, having chemotherapy injections, dance recitals, and picturesof her port. A girl who was equally beautiful bald as she was withhair. After the presentation TNT presented her with a GIGANTIC pandabear with a team-in-training t-shirt and she comes running up, hertwo front teeth missing, a gigantic grin on her face and just grabsthe panda bear and is so excited and happy. It was absolutelyadorable.

The dinner was just so much fun, soinspiring and a perfect reminder for why we were here, why we weredoing this and why we should go out there and have FUN the next day.

After the dinner is was off to ourrooms to prep for the ride the following morning. I immediatelystarted packing my camelbak with all essential biking needs! Here's a look at all my gear:

100 oz of water

Tons of Power bars, energy jelly beans,and an emergency packet of energy gel (so very nasty)

My camera

My cell phone

Some money for food and incidentals

A mini bike pump

Several bike tools in case of flattires

Sunscreen

and my Sunglasses

Plastic bags to put our cell phones,cameras, etc. in for rainy situations

I got my biking shorts, jersey, socks,shoes, gloves and helmet ready to just throw on in the morning. Itwould be an early rise: 5:45 a.m. wake up call so that I could getready and get down to the lobby to meat my team at 6:30.

But first! My brother Matt and mysoon-to-be Sister-in-Law Joy needed to arrive! They rolled in around10:30 and we chatted it up for a bit. Joy brought me cookies forafter the race which was awesome because they looked delicious! Joy was also SUPER excited to meet Laura, of puke-catching, pee-dumping Denver fame!

Then it was off to bed!

Event Weekend Day One: Thursday

Sara Sawatzki — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:36:00 GMT

I'm sitting on the plane on my way backto Omaha at the moment, reflecting on the last 4 days. It's hard tobelieve that it is already over. But let me tell you what, I had thetime of my life. Every moment of it. Except those ten miles rightaround 75. Those were rough. ha but I got over it.

I guess the only way to tell this storyto all of you is to begin at the beginning...

From the dawn of time...

just kidding.

Thursday:

Man, thursday morning came far, FAR tooearly. I had to wake up at 2:45 to get ready and head out the door by3:15 to drive an hour up to the Omaha airport to catch my 6:00 a.m.flight. It was fun to see the whole team together. Everyone was soexcited and the energy even early in the morning was motivating.

Of course that only lasted a fewminutes once we were on the plane and everyone was fading in-and-outof sleep.

But anyway, it was cool because it wasthe first time the whole Seagull team (Omaha and Lincoln)were able toall be together. Some of the people I hadn't had the chance to meetand others I hadn't seen since before the Gall bladder incident of2009. Here are the players:

Julie: Team-in-TrainingDirector, and a hilarious and motivating person!

Brent: Our coach and fearlessleader

Jeff: The soon-to-be Lincolncycling coach and also the father of our honored hero Kirsten

Terry: Hilarious guy with awicked dry sense of humor. He's married to Janine Zimmer...

Janine: Janine is Terry's wife,she's such a wonderful person just really personable and always has asmile on her face. Terry & Janine's son has Leukemia and isfighting like a champ.

Caitlin: Caitlin is Pamela'sfriend and just really a genuine person. She is a fan of ElizabethGilbert's book “Eat, Pray, Love” so i knew I'd like her!

Pamela: Pa mela was qutie thecharacter. She joined TNT because she'd always wanted to do BRAN butcouldn't convince anyone to do it with her so she opted for the 100mile ride instead after convincing her friend Caitlin to join. Shealso had been reading about the Ponies on Asseteague Island since shewas ten and wanted to make it there to see them.

Stacia:This girl is a riot. She's hilarious and motivating...always the onewho is cheering everyone on the loudest.

RhondaThisgirl is a MACHINE!! She totally rocked out on the bike ride andfinished first on our team!! She enjoys her Captain Morgan's, hencewhy we refer to her as “The Captain”

Diane: Diane is so sweet. She'ssoft-spoken and wonderful but such a champ man! She can move likecrazy on a bike!!

Sharon: Oh,Sharon. What the heck would I have done without this girl??? Shebecame my riding buddy when we both discovered we rode at the samespeed...thus forming “Team Slow!” She's hilarious and fun to talkto.

They were all such a cool group of people! I adore them all!

Here's a photo that Caitlin took of Pamela, Stacia and myself beforeshe realized that I was with the group (we hadn't met before.) She thought I was just weird or something making my way into her shots. It was kinda funny.

And here's one after she realized who I was...I was named Athlete of the Week the day before...I was KINDA a big deal! haha. Caitlin is on the far left.

I honestly don't remember too muchabout the flight...as I slept through large chunks of it. The parts Ididn't sleep through involved the sever turbulance we experienced. Itwas crazy. There was like a monsoon or something going on in St.Louis.

Here we are sitting around eating bagels and such in the St. Louis Airport, Coach Brent is the one sitting next to me:

In any case, I think we were all relieved when we touched downin Maryland!! It seemed so surreal to me...and i know it did to atleast a majority of the others on my team, that we were actuallyhere! THIS was the weekend!!

From the airport we made our way to thecar rental place and broke up into 3 groups of 4. I joined “TeamAvenger” which consisted of Jeff (our chauffeur), Rhonda (thecaptain), Sharon (the navigator) and myself scrunched into a DodgeAvenger with all of our luggage!

Speaking of The Captain, here she is!

Someone had the brilliant idea of goingout for seafood since we were on the shore! And brilliant it was! Wehad heard rumblings of this restaurant that was a local favorite andevidently it was only 5 miles away from the airport. Well, and houror so later when we finally found the place we discovered it was wellworth the wait...You probably saw something about this in my earlier post.

Everyone loaded up on crab legs,oysters, clams, muscles and shrimp. It was awesome and a perfect wayto start out this trip! I order their award winning lump crab cakewhich was literally the size of a baseball. It was SO good.

Here are Stacia and Sharon having a puppet show with the clam shells:

From there we made our way to our hotelin Salisbury, MD, home of the Seagull Century Ride!! We checked intoour rooms and immediately went downstairs to unpack our bikes thathad been delivered earlier. And lo and behold, my bike was in perfectshape! Excellent start to the trip!

Now, let me explain something abouttraveling with Nebraskans. Travel plans need to be made to fit aroundfootball schedules. The Nebraska V. Missouri game was Thursday nightand it was essential that we found our way to a sports bar promptlyso that we didn't miss the game.

When in Maryland, do as the Nebraskansdo!

So, someone asked the concierge behindthe front desk where a local sports bar was and said that it was justabout a half a mile down the road.

Half a mile my arse.

I swear that we had to have walked atleast two miles to this place! And BTW...I was wearing flip flopsbecause I figured we weren't traveling far. My feet hurt SO bad! Butanyway, we got into this sports bar and they gave us the sweet setup:our own room with a HUGE projection screen TV and about 8 other 42inch TVs surrounding the room so you could watch it at every angle.It was CRAZY! We stayed there until about midway through the 3^rdquarter when the score was Nebraska: 0, Missouri: 9. Little did weknow that only moments later the game would take off and Nebraskawould crush Mizzou! Dangit! But we enjoyed our drinks and food! Then it was off to bed for our ride the following morning!!

Part II coming soon!

In The Land of Mary

Sara Sawatzki — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:05:00 GMT

Okay some backlog...we landed in BWI at about 11:45 or so...rented our cars and then proceeded to take a nice detour of the MD country side while trying to follow each other in cars (3 cars, 4 to a car). We wound up driving around in circles for a bit...then eventually found our way to this restaurant called Harris' Crab House. It's a local favorite.

I ordered crab cakes...because that's what you flippin' do in Maryland!!! I got the "award winning" one too!!

It was the size of a baseball my friends!!! And Oh so amazingly delicous!

TNT Director, Julie and fellow teammate Sharon got a little crabby themselves

Okay more to come about this later...gotta go to a sports bar with the team!

I'll write more tonight!!!

All my bags are packed...

Sara Sawatzki — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:58:00 GMT

Total miles logged: Zilch!!
Total miles to go: 100, baby!!
Total times I might soil myself thinking about those miles: many

Okay, so I have spent the last hour or so getting ALL of these photos ready for a clever ditty about my ride and it is NOT WORKING!! The photos won't load.

It's 10:00 p.m. and I have to get up uber early to drive to the airport!! Yikes. I think I am going to give up on this post for right now. But I will post it eventually. Just mad that I spent an hour doing it when I could have been sleeping!

But! I am off to Maryland tomorrow!! YAY!!!

I'm so excited!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated!!! I've raised over $5,500!!!! And today, I was named Athlete of the Week for Team-in-Training!!! YAY!!!

Okay more to come tomorrow evening from my hotel!

Isn't it GRAND!

Sara Sawatzki — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Miles logged on exercise bike: 29.5
Total miles logged: 1,000 BABY!!!!

So tonight was a monumental night! I crossed the 1,000 miles biked mark!!

Whoa!

I know when I originally signed up for this I was supposed to go about 1,800...stupid surgery...but still...I am totally content with the 1,000 I have done!

That is nuts!

So to give some perspective on exactly how far that is, I've taken a clue from my super awesome future sister-in-law, Joy, who sent me an email after my update about the 950 miles I had already done. She basically let me know exactly how far that is. So here are some of the things she said as well as a few additional ones.

What 1000 miles is

1,000 miles is the distance between Lincoln, NE to Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania
1,000 miles is the distance between Abbotsford, British Columbia (Wash/Canada border) to Grenada, California
1,000 miles is the distance between Miami, Florida to Fredricksburg, Virginia
1,000 miles is the distance between Vancouver, British Columbia and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (which is arguably the coolest/dorkiest name for a place ever!!)

Or internationally speaking:

1,000 miles is the distance between Madrid, Spain and Milan, Italy
1,000 miles is the distance between Messina Italy (the very tip of the peninsula) to Munich, Germany.

It is, however a few miles shy of making the "long journey from Milan to Minsk" (if you sang "Rochelle, Rochelle" after that you are AWESOME. if not, you should go watch Seinfeld right now!)

Anyway it's a LONG, long distance! Pretty exciting stuff!

I hear there I get a goodie back along with my jersey. I am excited about this! I might have to track said goodie back down tomorrow afternoon! Oh the excitement!

ONE WEEK TIL TAKEOFF!!

So it begins...

Sara Sawatzki — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:58:00 GMT

Total miles on my recumbant indoor bike: 20!!

Total miles logged so far: 970.5!

Yesterday I dropped my bike off at my teammates place. She generously offered to take it up there as she was taking hers and another one of my teammates' bike up there! Which was a relief because I did not think I would have been able to make it up to Omaha by 5:30 on a workday. She and I talked a bit about how excited we are and how it feels weird that we are shipping our bikes off already!

And it really, really does!

I can report to you that my bike was successfully packed into it's wedge-shaped box! Apparently we were supposed to write our full name (including middle name) on the boxes and since my teammate, Diane, didn't know my middle name she made one up for me! So it'll be a fun little surprise when I get to Maryland!

It feel so weird to not have my bike...kinda like what am I supposed to do now?

Then I recalled a vague recollection of an exercise bike that sat and collected dust while my butt grew bigger a few years ago. And indeed it was downstairs...living out a second job as a shelving unit to various blankets and boxes of stained glass. Poor thing.

So I dusted that bad boy off, reloaded it with some batteries to get the computer part of it working and went to town while I watched the television sensation Glee. (You don't want to get me started on the many reasons I love that show! )

It was fun to use it. Different though. I can definitely see the advantages of why the smaller seat is better for long-term riding. The bigger the surface the quicker you lose feeling in your hind-quarters and feet. I guess in grown-up terms that means the smaller the seat, the better the circulation.

But it was nice though. Definitely helped with my anxiety over not being able to train over the course of the next week! I do still think I will rent a bike on Saturday and maybe Sunday to get some actual riding in!

I'm edging ever so closely to that 1000 mile mark!! Awww yeah!

We leave for our journey to Maryland in ONE WEEK from a few hours from now! ONE WEEK!!!! How did this go by so quickly??? I am just so excited and thrilled and nervous and happy to be participating in this!

I will end this email with very, very good news!

My dad went in for the results of his post-chemo PET scan and got REALLY REALLY GOOD news! The numbers for his cancer activity levels that, when he started in April, had been at 30, are now down to just 1.5 with 1 being absolutely perfect!! The doctor isn't really worried about the .5 factor, but is sending him to another doctor for a second opinion just to be sure (he feels confident that the other doctor will feel the same way). So! He's off the chemo! He had his gross PICC line removed from his arm and just this morning was able to enjoy a shower without the use of farm industry gynelogical gloves (the kind that go up to your shoulder) that he had to use to keep water from his PICC line. He was pretty damn happy about that! He had another follow up PET/CT scan in December to monitor it! But we are all EXTREMELY relieved, happy, and just overjoyed! The news of this also came on his 60th birthday. What a great birthday gift!

Lucky Buckeyes!

Sara Sawatzki — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:12:00 GMT

Miles logged Saturday: 20
Miles logged today: 40
Total Miles logged thus far: 950.5 (holy crap i'm so close to the 1000 mark!!!!)

Okay so admittedly I was supposed to ride with the Lincoln and Omaha group this Saturday, but I didn't. I would have loved to. And, if I hadn't had a major surgery in the middle of my training that prohibited me from getting my necessary amount of saddle time that would have provided me with the ability to go faster than a slug, then I totally would have gone.

But alas, I didn't.

The course was a super hilly one. I knew because the last time I was on it I did it with my breaks on..

It's been hard since my surgery because I missed out on so much of the group fun because it was like I got so behind that I couldn't possibly ride with the rest of them who were already twice as fast as me to begin with.

I didn't go on Saturday's ride because I knew that I would just get 1000% pissed off because I'd be behind everyone and people would be waiting for me or something dumb which would just piss me off more. So, because I was quickly losing touch on why I enjoy bicycling anyway, I opted not to stress myself out.

Did i go the 80 miles I was supposed to?

No.

Do I care? Not really. I know I can complete this race. It was never about coming in first. As a matter of fact if I come in anything above last place in this thing I will be SHOCKED.

But today I went out for a ride, and for the first time in a long time I decided not to give a rats arse about how fast I was going or how far. And for the first time in a long time, I really enjoyed the ride.

I saw some strange things, too! Including two separate men walking around with metal detectors! Who uses those anymore, anyway??

I also saw a black squirrel! I haven't seen one of those for years! Nor have I ever seen one in the city limits of Lincoln!

Here's the funny part though. I've gone on this particular path of the trail many times in the last few weeks and always I pass this one area where I thought a bunch of fruit had dropped from a tree.

Now, when I ride over the top of fruit it usually just smashes and I don't know the difference on my mighty perch. BUT! As I was going by this particular area with what I thought was fruit on the trail having dropped from the tree above...I noticed something different.

And i realized it JUST before I was about to hit one of them.

BUCKEYES!!!!

Now, let me take you back a bit. When I was a little kid and my parents would take me to the farmer's market, I was OBSESSED with lucky buckeyes. This was largely due to the fact that the first time my mom let me pick one out of one of the vendor's baskets and purchased it for me, I walked maybe 100 feet and found a $20 bill. Oh man, I was SOLD. I thought they were the answer to all my monetary pre-teen troubles! (I didn't have allowance after all, I had to be creative!) And by-and-large those buckeyes did come in handy! I was ALWAYS finding money in vending machines, newspaper machines and just lying on the ground. It was insanity.

Back to present day:

I screeched to a halt just before I was about to hit one of them!

This picture really doesn't do justice...they were ALL over.

CLEARLY these buckeyes had to be lucky because poor, clutzy, accident-prone-on-a-bicycle me did not in fact hit them and fall to her ultimate demise.

Here's the cool part about buckeyes...they come in these crazy potato-like pods!

Maybe I am the only one who thinks this is cool because I'm a huge nerd and all....but the rest of you are going to have to suffer through this demonstration because i think it's wicked cool.

So here's what they look like in their pokey pods:

Notice the potato like qualities. Here...i've taken it upon myself to photograph an actual poatato to prove my point.

Anyway, the next few photos feature the buckeyes at various states of undress. So avert your eyes if you must...

Here we demonstrate how the pod peels back off in thirds. Look how they fit perfectly into their little pod places!!

There can be one, two, or even three buckeyes to a pod!! WHOA!

WAIT A MINUTE! THat one had FOUR! Double whoa! (yes, I am a dork)

I even took the liberty to take an artsy shot. I call this one Yin & Yang. Come on...you'd have to be a total square to not think this one's cool!!!

I might have gotten a smidgen carried away with my buckeye scavanging. But look! They're SHINY!!!

Anyway. I thought they were super cool!

You're probably asking yourself, "What does this have to do with Cycling, Sawatzki?"

Absolutely nothing. (Just like what war is good for! )

But! It was a super cool diversion on my bike ride!

My bike race is in less than two weeks now! Oh man!

AND more importantly, my bike gets shipped off on Wednesday! Yes, THIS wednesday! I'm thinking about renting a bike just so I can get over the 1000 mile mark before my race!

More to come on those details.

I will leave you with a pick from last weeks 76 mile ride:

Back in the Saddle Again

Sara Sawatzki — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:17:00 GMT

Total miles yesterday: 20
Total Miles Today: 76.5!!!!!according to the map it was 78 though...
Combined miles in 24 hours: 96.5!!!
Total miles so far: 890.5!!!!

Okay sum up of Friday's ride: Gross like the last one. I swallowed I don't even know how many bugs. It was worse than the day before but I decided I just needed to suck it up and deal with it. But i swear that at one point a bug flew in my mouth and crashed against the back of my throat and I came so close to puking on my handlebars. But, I got 20 miles in while my adorable niece that is visiting was napping. I didn't want to miss out on Auntie/Niece time!

Then today came.

I'd be lying if I said I was excited about today's ride. 75 miles. The most I have done in the last 5 weeks since my surgery has been 31 miles. Come to think of it, the total miles post-surgery that I have logged totaled 75!!

Anyway, I started out on the ride with the idea that if I needed to stop I could. But I really didn't want to resign myself to that.

My century ride is in 3 weeks from today!!!

I told myself that if I could make it the 75 miles today, there is NO way that I would not be able to make the 100 by my ride.

I had to do it.

When I started off this morning from my house to the location where my team was meeting, it was still dark out and was hovering around 50 degrees. And when you get moving on a bike in that kinda condition, it feels FRIGID. Luckily, the sun came out soon enough and by the time we got to Bennet I had to take my jacket off.

We rode on until we got to Palmyra and then we took 66 south, which turned out to be an accident. My coach had remembered a ride that she had gone on earlier this spring that was beautiful and quiet. Turns out she got what city it was located at wrong. This road was supposed to connect back to Hwy 2.

Although it was absolutely stunningly beautiful and so much nicer than having semi trucks rush by, it did have one drawback: HILLS!!!!

I know everyone believes that Nebraska is totally flat....heck I used to believe that myself...but all of you nay-sayers, I challenge you to get on a bike and see for yourself.

If there is anything I have learned from this summer it is that I now know what it felt like when suddenly the earth they had become to know as flat, was, in fact, round.

Anyway, I struggled a bit. Moreso because I haven't done much in the way of hills lately (just been sticking to the trails) so it was a combo of the longer distance and the hills that was near lethal.

But like I said we took the wrong road. It ended up leading to absolutely nothing but dirt/gravel roads.

So, we rode back. I will say this: the ride back was fantastic. Almost all downhill (the only time gravity is my friend).

And when we made it back to Hwy 2 we rode on out past Unadilla and turned around and came back. I struggled around the 55-65 range. It was rough. I don't think I was eating enough. I was tired. I wanted to curl up in bed and take the world's longest nap.

So my coach and I decided to make another stop at a gas station in Bennet and on the exit ramp I had to get off my bike and walk for the last part of it. I hurt all over.

But I refueled and rested for a bit. Escaped to the bathroom so that I could sit down. I very rarely have to actually use the bathroom because despite the fact that I drank over 200ml of water and gatorade, I tend to sweat equal parts.

After the brief brake we jumped back on and rode off. I decided I needed to mentally just focus on the fact that I had gond 65 miles already. Nearly 10 more than I had previously ever gone!

At the beginning of today's ride my coach said to me that if I can't bike with my legs, I should bike with my heart. Well I took that into account those last 10+ miles. It felt good to watch my odometer pass over the 70 mile line. And the 71. And 72, and all the way until the end.

I had briefly contemplated riding some extra to get to 80, but then my better judgement got the best of me. Thank god.

I've never been so happy to finish a ride. And the shower I took afterwards, never felt so good!

And neither did the chicken salad sandwich(es) my mom made for me. Oh man. That is THE best recovery meal.

So, I had my beer, I ate my sandwiches, and somehow I managed to muster up enough energy to play with my neice all evening! Probably because she's the coolest.

It's nice though because I totally feel like I can actually accomplish those 100 miles. Especially considering that the terrain in Maryland is really flat. Or so they tell me ***eyes narrowed suspiciously****

Also on a huge news note:

I REACHED MY FUNDRAISING MINIMUM!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a little less than $1,000 to go to my goal!!! Awww yeah!!

Coming in the next day or to is a Thank you email to all of you who I haven't yet sent thank yous out to! They are coming. But Also you get a shoutout here!

Also coming in the next day or two is a post on how Chamois Butt'r (aka Butt Butter) is THE best invention ever. As is knowing that you aren't supposed to wear underwear with bike shorts! I'm sure you are all looking forward to this possibly distrubing post! hahaha.

I despise bugs...

Sara Sawatzki — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:23:00 GMT

....especially when I am forced to inhale or ingest them either through my mouth or my nose.

That pretty much sums up today's ride.

9 miles.

Total so far: 774.

I was literally covered in swarming gnats. I had to brush several hundred off of my shirt.

They were plastered onto my arms.

They were in my hair.

And I don't even want to talk about how many of them I managed to trap down my shirt.

It. Was. GROSS.

But the 9 miles I got in was a fast 9 miles. I think I averaged at least 14.3 mph. I was riding angry because of medical bills. Grrr.

Hopefully the bug fog will have lifted for my next ride! Because this just isn't going to fly.

Bah dum...tssss. That pun was totally intended. Deal with it.

Rome Wasn't (Re)built in a Day

Sara Sawatzki — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:00:00 GMT

Miles pre-canada vacation: 15
Miles today: 31
Total miles logged: 765

So, until I get some more of my photos from my flakey Canadian friend (*cough*JONATHAN!!!!*cough*) I will just leave you with this one image of my vacation in Canada:

Ahhh Canada....how I missed thee. I will follow up soon with a blog about that adventure. Lots of craziness....

But for the time being...

I will write about my biking! Shocking, I know.

I went out for my first ride today for quite some time. I did two very short rides before I left for Canada, and had intentions of going to a gym but then i had bad allergies or something going on and couldn't breathe. Also I had several flight cancellations. Long story.

Anywho...it's been hard getting back on my bike since my surgery. I feel like I have missed too much. I just need to get over the psychological part of it though.

I did do 30 miles though! which is more than i've done in a month's time. It felt good to get back out there. I'm sure I could have gone farther, but I didn't want to push myself. Occasionally I'll get little pinches in the area where my incisions/gallbladder used to be...but nothing horrible. Just annoying.

Also...i'm less than $100 away from my minimum fundraising goal!! (I am hoping to get $1,000 more though!!)

I am planning to get a thank you blog going here really soon. As well as catch up on the many thank you notes I need to get out to all of you awesome donors!!

My goal for this week is to bike 20 miles a day. I think that way I will be able to do the 70+ mile group ride on Saturday!!

More pictures and stories of vacation coming once said flakey canadian friend comes to his senses!!!

Operation Vacation....Errrr....Vacation Operation: Everybody Must Get (Gall)Stoned!I

Sara Sawatzki — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:07:48 GMT

Miles Logged 8/7: 9.7
Miles Logged 8/8: 25
Total Miles Logged So Far: 719!!!!!

Warning: This is the longest blog EVER....but I assure you it is entertaining and worth the read....

Okay...I have to apologize for the delay in bloggitude here...I assure you I have a perfectly good excuse which I will get to in a minute.

But first, let's begin where I left off:

Saturday 8/8 I went out for a ride. It was like a million degrees out at 6 a.m. It was absolutely disgusting weather for riding and I was NOT in a good mood. But I did get a cool shot:

I really don't recall what my issue was that day, but I gave up after 25 miles because of the heat and I just wasn't feeling great in general. Which sucked. I haven't given up yet, so it was a bit of an ego bruise.

Though maybe there was a reason I wasn't feeling well...

That evening I was up late talking with my Canadian friends (who I am going to get to see all of in just over a weeks time!!! YIPPEE!!) and around 3 a.m. I finally got off the phone (having the majority of my friends live on the west coast takes it's toll on my sleeping habits.) Almost immediately it happened:

Sharp pain in my upper abdomen that felt like something had exploded. I have had little episodes like this before and usually it involves me having to throw up and then I am totally fine. Why I have never sought medical help for this is due to my inability to trust doctors, and just a general assumption that no matter what my issue is whenever I go into the hospital there is NEVER anything I can do but stay the course. But I digress...

This pain was different. Sharper more severe. I immediately came upstairs and had to throw up....but this time the pain didn't go away it got worse. And so I started freaking out a bit...I couldn't breath and the pressure in my abdomen was making my chest hurt. So i'm thinking Oh my god, I'm having a heart attack!! Where is my FREAKING Life Alert Button!!!! But, obviously that couldn't be the case, I'm twenty freakin' five. Not allowed. So after a short time of trying to calm myself from my little freak out and inability to breath, I wake my mom who insists on taking me to the hospital.

I probably would have been more apprehensive to go had i not thought I was dying....last time I went to St. Elizabeth's Emergency Room Dr. Moron misdiagnosed my ruptured ovarian cysts...despite my pleading with him that that was in fact what they were...which was bad because the leading side affect of ruptured cysts is death by internal bleeding. So Dr. Moron gives me a print out of some verbage from WebMD telling me I have what is called "In between period cramps." If I wanted to have my inner feminist pissed off that bad I would have just called my Canadian Friend Jon who would have just said something snarky like "What are you PMS-ing or something???" Seriously, $157 that jackass got from me. Anyway, again, I digress...

SO, abdominal pain.

We go to the ER and they give me demerol or some sort of pain killer via IV, take my blood, check my abdomen and determine that I have had a gall stone attack.

Gall stone? What the WHAT!?

Turns out it's more common than what you'd think. Anyway, essentially what happened was that one of my stupid gall stones decided to take a little trip down my biliary duct. It must have been a big one too. So the doctor tells me that they don't see anything on my ultra sound that shows that it is lodged (I have serious doubts about the extent to which they actually LOOKED at the friggin' images...but that's another story). He says that I will have to have my gall bladder removed at some point because I still have some stones in there and I ask him two things:

A.) Can I still travel to Denver in two days time. Answer: yes, absolutely.
B.) Can I still complete my training for my century bike ride: Answer: yes, absolutely.

Phew.

So the next couple days were rough. I was still in a GREAT deal of pain, and essentially I couldn't eat because it felt like I had just had a good 3 portions of Thanksgiving Dinner in one setting. It was awful. They gave me vicodin but that crap only makes me throw up...they tried some anti-nausea stuff, but it didn't work so great. Oh well...I'm a tough girl, I can take it.

So I get on a plane to Denver. Yippee! Vacation!

I must admit I was in a great deal of discomfort for the first portion of my trip...okay that's a lie, I was in discomfort the whole time...but i'll get to the second half in a minute.

Let's focus on what I got accomplished in Denver:

1.) Got to work with my teams in the Denver office for TWO days!
2.) Got to go to Red Rocks Amphitheater and watch Donnie Darko!
3.) Got to go to some cool restaurant and watch my food be wasted because I could only manage to eat one or two bites...but they were delicious bites
4.) Got to see 500 Days of Summer which is my new favorite movie.

Some highlights of the trip in picture form:

RED ROCKS!!! Such a cool place!!

A view of the screen where the movie was projected. The evenings show also was accompanied by a live comedian as well as a very *ahem* interesting band. I couldn't quite place the music but I'd describe it as Beatnik Suicide Rock. It was disturbing. Yet mesmerizing. haha.

Laura and I at Red Rock.

Okay...this is a funny photo...because this was taken maybe 4 or 5 hours before I went to the Emergency Room...oh but i'm getting ahead of myself again. The point here is that I have a problem where I smiled even when I am SUFFERING. There were a few points during that meal where I thought I was going to die. You can see I am distressed because my chest is turning lobster red. But I am stubborn....I'm on vacation DAMNIT!

There's a slightly more pained look on my face here if you look closely...but this is one of my absolute favorite pics of Laura and me! We're awesome!

Okay, so here's what happened after we went to see 500 Days of Summer...

I was in a great deal of pain. Then I was in a great deal more pain. Laura and I spent some time doing research on the interwebs and decided that I really needed to go to the hospital because this pain was Ridonk (yeah, I just said that).

So we arrive at the ER sometime around 12. It was funny...okay well not so funny...but Laura joked that when we go in there that I should act like i'm in a lot more pain so that we don't have to wait. Well, there wasn't really anyone else there so I was like sweet...I don't have to wait! Also I couldn't breath at this point so it was kind of ideal. And then a rather large man came stumbling into the ER and was having severe chest pain. I turned to laura and was like "Sorry, Laura, I really cannot compete with a Heart Attack...even I am not that cruel."

So I finally got myself a nice little itty bitty room in the ER where they took an ultrasound and found out that, yes, I did have gall stone issues...apparently LOTS of them. But the doctor was convinced that I just needed to give it more time because the gall stone attack pain can last for a week or more. Then he got a call on his phone, steps out of the room for a minute comes back in and says something like:

"Yeah, situation has changed a bit. You're going to have to have surgery here."

What the WHAT!?

I'm pretty sure that my blood pressure skyrocketed at that moment...I might have seen it go to something like 156 over 98. Yikes.

Turns out I had Pancreatitis. A gall stone had gotten loged in the duct and wasn't allowing bile to be secreted or something. Anyway it resulted in the pancreatic enzyme levels that are normally around 200 to skyrocket to 7,500. They absolutely could not let me leave the hospital, I had to be admitted.

And so began the TWELVE hour waiting in the ER for a room to open up in the GastroIntestinal or whatever it's called floor to open up...al the time I was laying on a Stretcher or something that had a metal slab with a thin padding on it. It was UNCOMFORTABLE.

And Laura...poor sweet Laura...who's vacation was now ruined too....she slept in a chair they brought in for her and dealt with me moaning in agony, puking, and getting agitated as to why we were still in the ER.

Laura's a nurse. And a DAMN good one too. I got to see first hand! It's kind of nice traveling with your own peronal Nurse! They had me doped up on Deladed, a rather strong pain killer akin to Morphine. The problem with pain killers is that they make me ralph almost instantly. The first time I had the pain killers they gave me Zofran, an anti nausea drug before and that helped. But the second time I got the pain meds, because it hadn't been the 6 hours between when you're supposed to have the Zofran, they gave me the Deladed without it and about 30 seconds later I was going all Exercist with my puking. But Laura, oh Laura, my best friend in the world, she hopped up and grabbed the little vomit pans and swooped right in there and caught my puke, replacing with a new pan as necessary! I swear to you she was so swift that not a SINGLE drop of vomit made it anywhere but in those pans! It was amazing!

And as much as it sucked to puke with sever abdominal pain, it felt good to get whatever was in there out.

And so that's how the next few hours went. More Zofran, more Deladed....more Zofran, MORE DELADED. I had to be put on oxygen because my oxygen levels got low, and Laura amused herself by taking photos of me in a completely deluded state of mind. I'd say that she was taking advantage of my state, except, in my haze, I was encouraging her!! Little did I know that it would appear that the IV fluids made me grow an extra chin...but that's reallly neither here nor there.

At one point...propbably right around the time that I looked like THIS:

Or perhaps this:

Or maybe even this:

I told Laura that I was really getting freaked out by the blue coyote in the corner of the room and something needed to be done. Now, I don't recall ANY of this, but Laura swears up and down that it happened.

Finally around 11 a.m. the next day they moved me up to my room! Which, holy crap, was like the nicest hotel room i've ever seen compared to the ER. And the bed....oh sweet cloudy softness!! Needless to say, after the move and more drugs I was MUCH happier when this happened! Oh true apothocary...thy drugs are quick!!!

So because I waited so freakin' long for a room, and because there were NO other rooms open...I totally scored the penthouse of hospital rooms. It was awesome. Hardwood floors, big comfy bed, fold out comfy futon for Laura to sleep on, a table and chairs, flat screen TV with full cable and movies on demand, a jacuzzi, and a view of both the mountains and the city skyline!!

So Laura and I spent the next 3 days in this room. On Friday (the day after I went to the ER) they noted that my lipase levels had skyrocketed again to nearly 11,000. Yikes. They couldn't operate on me until those levels lowered. And the only way those levels could lower is by letting the pancreas rest.

What does that mean?

NO FOOD, NO DRINK!!!

AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I didn't eat for 3 days (and prior to that I had maybe one solid meal split over 5 days). And I didn't drink for three days either. But they were kind enough to let me have ice chips. And thank god for Laura going back to the hotel to get my tooth brush and tooth paste. Yucky dry taste. bleh.

So Laura and I tried to make the best out of our situation. We laughed and had a good time. The nurses, doctors and medical staff were all amazing and fun to be around, so that made it easier to deal with our ruined vacation.

Of course there was the occasional vomit drill. When we first got to the room they made the mistake of giving me Deladed and Zofran at the same time which made me vomit...only we couldn't find the vomit buckets...Laura went looking for some when I started feeling queezy. And I tried to get up from my bed and make my way to the garbage can, but did you know they plug those damn IV units intot he wall??? I couldn't figure out why the heck I couldn't move, so I ended up just puking on the floor and Laura, dear sweet nurse/best friend Laura, she cleaned up my puke off the floor while I continued to dry heave into the bucket. It went on like this a couple more times until they figured out to give me the anti nausea stuff a minute or two before the heavy pain killers. And there was much rejoicing!

I finally got to see the Surgeon on Sunday morning, and having had a miraculous turn around in the middle of the night (I must have past that monsterous gall stone in my sleep finally!) the doctor informed me that my lipase levels had dropped to around 4,000 and that he would be operating on me momentarily!

Normally this would bring on the panic! But, for me this was a welcome thing. TAKE THE DAMN THING OUTTA ME!!!!!!!

Laura and the Nurse wheeled me down to Pre-op and everything moved so quickly, they put an oxygen thing over my mouth and the next thing I know I'm waking up in post op.

The nurses are all talking about stuff and I'm trying to figure out what the hell just happened and why my stomach hurts so much...and the nurse is all asking me if I want ice chips and I'm like "whoa...i don't even know what's going on" so she goes away and comes back again in a few and I decide that it's probably a good idea since the tube that they stuck down my throat has left my mouth both dry and scratchy.

Oh sweet ice chips!

Thankfully I wasn't nauseous as is common coming out of the anesthesia. The nurses were bustling about talking about the size of my gall stones...bigger than golf balls!! The next thing I know the nurse says "wanna see the pictures of your gall stones!?" without waiting for my groggy response she shoves the photos in my face!

"Ohhgrrr mahrrr GAWD!" I groggled (I don't think that's a word, but it works.

I will only show you one photo that is least disgusting. It's a close up of one of the two big gall stones (there was well over a dozen or two, two bigger than golf balls, one ping pong ball sized and a whole slew of marble sized ones.) The yellow coloring is from a dye they had to inject to make sure they got all the stones.

Isn't that AMAZING?!?! It looks like an alien brain, or a popcorn ball!! So cool!!

So anyway the next few hours consisted of Laura feeding me ice chips and me groggling on about things, i'm sure much to Laura's amusement.

The worst part about laproscopic surgery is the CO2 that they pump into your abdomen...it makes you feel TOTALLY bloated and also makes you have sharp stabbing pain in between your neck and your right shoulder of all places!!! And i mean serious sharp stabbing pain like someone is putting a knife in you....and no pain killers can help it, you just have to writhe around and adjust yourself until it feels better. Which leads to awkward positioning.

Anyway, the time came for me to have my first post op meal. Oh my god. I mean, I was FAMISHED, I felt like Gandhi without a cause! So I ordered my turkey sandwich, a bowl of soup, jello, and crandberry juice. And some poor 12 year old kid brought me my food, and I was all kinds of out of it and turned to him and said:

"Oh my god, I haven't eaten in THREE DAYS!!!!! YOU are seriously my HERO right now!!!!!!!!!!" He laughed nervously and slowly backed away. Poor kid. haha.

Now, I've had only a handful of near-religious experiences, but nothing came close to this. I never thought hospital food could taste so good! But I ate almost everything on my plate. It was PHENOMENAL!!! I don't think I will ever be happier to eat in my life!!

So I was scheduled to leave on Sunday to fly back to Nebraska. Nope. Not happening.

The CO2 that was KILLING me then, would have expanded and been WAY worse on a plane. SO I had to buy a one-way ticket at twice the cost of my original round trip one. GRRR.

But here's where stuff got strange. My mom has been having the SAME problems with her gall bladder. Attacks at night, almost had to go to the ER herself once or twice!! So my mom's doctor said she shouldn't fly out on a plane to meet up with me because she could have another attack herself and that wouldn't be good. So my awesome brother Matt flew out EARLY EARLY Sunday morning since my SUPER AWESOME friend Laura had to go back to North Carolina (also, funny story, those who didn't think Laura and I were sisters thought that Laura was my "significant other" lol) So I bid farewell to Laura who honest to god was a total life saver during all of this!!

And then Matt and I, after i was discharged from the hospital, got a hotel room with a kitchen and vegged out for the next few days. Matt would get me out of the hotel once or twice a day to go for a walk here or there so at least I got to see some more of Denver. We walked a little bit on the 16th street mall and went to see an IMAX movie at the Natural Science museum, but almost all of the rest of the time was spent sleeping under the influence of vicodin. It was a magical time. Matt was super awesome though about taking care of me and making fun of my Quasimoto walk because standing up hurt too much. We had a good time, despite the stupid circumstances!! And it was good to see him, too!

And then Wednesday rolled around and I had to catch my flight home. Matt, again, was awesome because he carried my carry on luggage for me to my gate (he was also flying out that day a little later in the afternoon). The flight home was pretty short and relatively pain free (thank you, Vicodin).

So now I am back home and back to work. My abdomen is still a bit sore, but the tiredness has worn off a great deal.

I'm not sure when I am going to hop back on the bike, but I hope it's soon!!!

What a vacation though. Man i know how to party! haha. I have another vacation coming up a week from Thursday...here's to hoping that it goes a little better than this last one!!

Until I ride again,

Cheers!

70-percent, Return Smile, Moonlight Sonata and my Bestie

Sara Sawatzki — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:46:57 GMT

Miles logged yesterday: 21.6
Time: 1h 38m
Avg. Speed: 13.2
Total Miles Logged: 684.3

So I totally got distracted last night and didn't get my blog updated (i'm a slacker, it happens sometimes).

My dad had his penultimate round of Chemo yesterday and got along great! They had taken another CT scan on Monday and the progress is looking really good! The tumor in his abdomen has been reduced by 70%! Yipee!! Jabba the Gut is going down!!

Also yesterday I had an amazing time on my ride, despite considering not going out for a ride that evening. I was glad I did!

I definitely felt the advantage of the 81 miles I rode this past weekend. DEFINITELY. Because it all felt like a breeze. I went on some of the hillier trails around here I haven't been on in a good month or more and the hills that I used to barely be able to get up are now so easy I hardly have to try!! It's definitely nice to see some payoff to all the hard work!!

It's funny though...there is this older guy I see out on the trail almost every time I go out bike riding. This man always has a scowl on his face, but I always smile at him....and get nothing in return. But today I passed him and gave him my obligatory "I WILL BREA

K YOU" smile, and guess what???? HE SMILED BACK! Totally made my day!

It was really getting dark by the time I was almost home, and the full moon (or really close to full anyway) was out! I tried to get a picture with my camera phone of the moon near the water park off hwy 2 and 27th, but it was all messed up. But i accidentally got a super cool shot! The moon is the top arc...

In other news: I have a muscle in my calf that I TOTALLLY didn't know existed!!! Popped outta nowhere!!

Some thank yous!

I want to thank Kitty (who pushed me over my $3,000 raise mark!!!!), Brett, and Michelle all for donating!! you guys are awesome! Thank you so much!!

And a special thank you to my bestie Laura, who made a really generous donation the other day!! Laura is also a bicyclist...earlier this year (or was it late last year? good god i can't keep track of time) she and her uncle biked from the northernmost point of Oregon down into California! She's awesome.

As a matter of fact, she's actually played a large role in why I bought a bike in the first place!! I went out to visit her in North Carolina back in March and we went to the beach. She suggested we rent some beach cruiser bikes. I hadn't been on a bike in YEARS. At least 5. Well, i did make a failed attempt while in La Grande...but it didn't go well. But I had SUCH a blast that very shortly after that I bought my mountain bike! And then two weeks later I found out about Team-in-Training! And the rest is history!! Everything happens for a reason!

Here is Laura and I at the beach on our sweet rides!

And here we are again at the beach: Yes, we have matching hats, and Yes, we have matching pendants (Laura made them! they're awesome!)

Thank you Laura for inspiring and donating!!! You rock!!

You might be asking why I make such a fuss of Laura...well, besides the fact that she's just all around awesome....next week, Laura and I are headed to Denver for VACATION!!!! I am SOOOO excited!!! I won't have my bike with me though, which will be hard! But, I am bound and determined to use the hotel fitness center's equipment!!! Game face: ON!

But, before that fun can begin I have a 55-60 mile ride on Saturday and a 30 mile bike ride on Sunday!! Yikes! But...I bought new biking shorts! So hopefully that might aleviate some of the pain i felt last weekend. Also purchased: a 100 oz. CamelBak (double the size of my other one!) Saturday it is supposed to get up to around 100 degrees...and i don't want to mess around, so i'm breaking out the big guns! It's also a pretty color. I'll take pictures of it tomorrow and, if you're lucky, pictures of me in my groovy new shorts!!

Name that tune!

Sara Sawatzki — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:22:00 GMT

Miles logged: 27
Time: 2h 20m
Avg. Speed: 12.1 (i could be remembering that wrong..it might have been 11.5)
Total miles logged: 662.7
Total Miles Logged This Weekend: 81!!!

*A little note: as some of you know, I am doing a fundraiser for naming my bike...my first donation came in a little while ago so for the time being my bike shall heretofore be called Rosemary until further notice!

There were many things different about today's ride versus yesterdays....but there was one singular constant: WIND. I don't know why the wind hates me and Rosemary...but it does.

It was hot and gross and sticky out. I went through 2 camelbaks, and 3 bottles of water...that's literally how much I was sweating. Gross.

Rosemary and I started out on the usual trail by my home and worked our way up to the Zoo, and then back around the other side, over the river and through the woods to Holmes Lake.

We rode around a bit there looking for a shady spot to consume more of my water supply that was already running low, and consume a power bar. I offered one to Rosemary, but she declined...opting instead for a rest against a picnic bench:

After a good long rest, and much to the chagrin of Rosemary, I decided it was time to go. So, I went in search of the vending machine where I could purchase another bottle of water for my camelbak. But, apparently someone had broken into the machine because the little flap was broken off and it didn't appear to want to take my money. Insert panic attack! Which was stupid because there are a million places I could get water from...but a low supply of water in crazy heat makes me a wee bit paranoid.

So I decided to turn around and head back to Antelope Park, about 4 miles back the direction I just came from.

So then that machine ate my money...but luckily I had just enough money to buy a bottle of water and a bottle of gatorade.

And then Rosemary n' Me were off again! Back towards Holmes Lake and up and over and around the other way...Did i mention that it was hot out?

So...this was the first major recovery ride I have partaken in...genearlly we only had 10 or so miles for a recovery ride after our long Saturday rides...but I either haven't felt like it or just haven't been able to do them since they bumped up to 20 or 25 miles.

Today was a 25 mile recovery ride...and I was determined to do it.

So...what I wasn't prepared for was how much it was going to hurt my arse. I mean the 54 mile bike ride as a general rule will hurt like a kick in the pants...but a 27 mile bike ride in 93+ degree weather and that makes a perfect storm. Needless to say I have been icing down my arse for quite a while now. Unpleasant.

But Rosemary and I continued on, despite the pain in the arse. I rode past Scooter's that had a sign up about trying their Smoothies...I muttered something under my breath and carried on.

Then we stumbled upon this creater just about a foot to the side of the trail, working in it's tan:

Dad later said that it was a Muskrat, which I had previously been under the impression that it looked like a ferret, but what do i know!

I tried to get a closer look, but Rosemary started belting out "Muskrat Love" and the thing rolled it's eyes and turned away!

And then we made it back home! I don't think I have ever sweat as much in my life! I mean, seriously, i looked like Robin Williams on a comeback tour comedy night!!! Minus the arm and chest hair, of course. But it was BAD! the tops of my hands were sweating!! My Legs were sweating!!! I didn't even know those things could sweat!!!

But I relaxed and enjoyed a nice delicious burger for dinner! it was magical.

****************************

And now...without further ado...my first Name that Tune contest!!

See if you can figure it out:

This should be extremely easy...but we'll see what happens! Andy...if you're reading this, you above all should know this one!

Wind Gods and Polish Dogs: A saga with photos

Sara Sawatzki — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:38:00 GMT

Miles Logged: 54
Time: 4h 26m
Avg. Speed: 12.1
Total Miles Logged: 635.7

Today was our journey to the land of kolaches, polish dogs, and polka.

First off...here's our route that we took to get there...don't be fooled by the difference in miles the map says...I think I miscalculated where we hopped off onto the limestone trail....

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ne/-wilber/955124917961013028"&amp;gt;08/01/2009 Route&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/ne/-wilber"&amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Wilber, Nebraska&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

So yeah perfect weather again this morning. Seriously, it's the beginning of August and I swear it was in the low 60s this morning! CRAZY! And yet back in the good old Pacific NW it's been over a hundred for a week!! The world is turning upside down!

I haven't gotten any riding in this week (whoopsie...) so the first 10 or so mile were a little rough for me. But then we turned down highway 101 and we got a really nice tailwind working for us.

But as always on the first half of any bike ride, a tailwind isn't exactly welcome...it provides an ominous and formidible thought: the return trip into the headwind! Yikes. But I tried not to think about that much and enjoy the fact that I was coasting around 20 mph for that section!

So we got to the Czech festival in Wilber, Nebraska right around 10 a.m. There wasn't quite a huge crowd yet, but there were definitely people in traditional Czech clothes, and there were definitely a very enthusiastic polka band:

There was polka dancing too! These two ladies were getting their groove on:

This girl, not as much...but she was adorable in her little Czech outfit, so we'll forgive her:

And here is a picture of the band and their groupies, seated on the left:

And here is an accordian player who had a sweet setup in the back of some rigged out school bus that had been painted white...and those two ladies were still cuttin' a rug:

There was even a this stand which I avoided like the plague, for obvious reasons:

After a good 30 minutes of deliberating on weather or not my intestinal tract could handle a polish sausage plus a 35 mile return trip...Rhonda and I decided to split a 1/4 lbs. handmade polish sausage dog. I figured my gut could handle the 1/8 lbs.

Now brace yourself...what i'm about to dish up to you is probably the world's first panoramic view of a polish dog:

Can you dig it? Oh man it was SO worth it...and MIRACULOUSLY, it sat totally fine in my stomach on the ride back! (Huh-RAY!)

Wait a bloody minute...what is missing from this Czech festival?? Oh yeah, that's right....BEER!!!! I dont know in what world 10 a.m. is too early for beer, and I don't want to be any part of a place that isn't. But alas, there was no beer at the festival until later. Enter the biggest disappointment of my day! haha. I got over it quick.

And here are some pictures of a few of my teammates, my coach, and myself:

Me, Rhonda, and Chinda, my cycling coach.

And here's myself, Rhonda, and Jeff hanging with the band...

And here we are taking a load off and eating our food. I don't know what the heck is with my face in this...but it's kinda funny. Also, Rhonda's boyfriend, Ron, joined us for the festivities!

And good times were had by all!

We scurried on out of there...oh maybe 11:30-ish. I never know, because I lose track of time when I'm riding.

We headed out highway 41 that way and man I was coasting for awhile there! I easily was going 20 mph for the first maybe 5 miles. And then....

THE WIND.

Oh the horror!! I'd take a climb over the alps over a ride into a crazy headwind ANY DAY!

It was rough...my speed slowed way down. But you know what, it didn't annoy me as much today as it usually does! we just kept on trucking. Rhonda and Jeff went on ahead and Chinda stayed behind and rode with me. It was fun...we were going along at a leasurly pace, so we were able to have good conversation.

Close to the end of the ride we spotted a few wild turkeys on the side of the road gobbling around. And quickly discovered that there were easily 15 or 20 of them disappearing into the soy field...it was like Field of Dreams, except wild turkeys instead of dead baseball players, and soy beans instead of corn! Oh the madness!

Chinda at one point shouted out to the turkeys: Hey! One of you want to come back home to my oven!?

Needless to say, the scrambled out of there pretty quick. haha.

And so did we! On our final stretch back to the cars...54 miles, baby!! Next weekend: 60! Awww yeah! There is talk of a trip to a Vineyard...my hopes is that it will involve wine, as opposed to the beer-free Czech fest.

But...I did get my beer after all:

Okay you caught me....it wasn't really technically a "beer"...it was a Hornsby's Hard Cider....so sue me!

Short Rides and Dreams of Polka Bands

Sara Sawatzki — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT

Miles Logged: 10
Time: 44m
Total miles logged: 581.7

Just took a quick ride today after work. Nothin' fancy just me and Rosemary, my bike. Really pleasant weather, though. I wished I could have gone for more miles. Hopefully tomorrow I can.

But in bigger news...Our Saturday group ride is going to be LEGENDARY!!!! We are biking down to Wilber for the Czech Festival...beer n' brats (hold the brats because that will make me ralph on the ride home, sadly). But there will be polka bands, dancing, and accordian competitions!!! oh man!! You probably think I am being sarcastic, but I am not joking! haha. I think the second song I ever learned was the "Dumplings and Kraut today, at the Bohemian Cafe" which is the theme song for a Czech restaurant in Omaha. Good foods, good times.

Had some super awesome donations today!

Sharon and Nick - Sharon is a co-worker of my dad's and he does nothing but sing her praises! Thank you so much for donating!!!

Marti & Herb - my sister-in-law's parents!! You guys rock!!

Kara - my co-worker. She's doing a 5k walk to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and an all around awesome person! I will post her donation website when it goes up in case any of you are interested in expanding your donation horizons

The Games: a photo essay

Sara Sawatzki — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:47:00 GMT

Friday Miles Logged: 5
Saturday Miles Logged: 50
Time: 3h 40m
Avg. Speed: 13.6
Total Miles Logged so far: 571.7

Well I made it through my half-century for the cornhusker state games without any brake failure or epic falls. As a matter of fact it was a perfectly smooth and wonderful ride. Which was nice after a few weeks of straight hardships. I felt for certain that this was going to be the day that my bike finally got a flat and I'd have to struggle for hours to figure out how to change the tube (I do have the necessary gear for that). I told my dad the other day that it's a good thing that I haven't had to change it yet and he seems to be wishing it will happen to me just so that I would have to write a funny blog about it!

So I've got a bunch of photos this time! My mom came along and we both stayed up at her friend's cabin that was on the small, rural road that my bike ride would go up (what are the chances?!) So my mom got some good action shots of me! So i'm excited about having those on here now!

So here they are with intros:

Here is the cabin house that my mom's friend Carleen let us stay at. She came out too and partied it up with us. She's awesome. Always says what she thinks, and always entertaining. AND on top of letting us stay at her cabin she also donated to our fundraiser!!! Like i said, she's the coolest!

Here I am in the morning before my ride getting everything loaded into the car.

Here's the park where we started out the bike ride. It was funny because they said that all the half-century and quarter century bike riders were supposed to meet at 7:30 for an informational meeting. But it was more come and start off as you please. The "informational meeting" consisted of the guy asking my name and saying "okay, check back in when you get back. Have a good ride"

So I started off on my merry way!

It truly was a perfect morning, cool and sunny. And the lighting from the sun just made the scenery all the more beautiful.

My mom and her digital camera do not always get along. So there were a lot of random mis-taken pictures, like this one:

Here I am chugging along surrounded by the soy fields.

This i think is actually my favorite shot in all of them! Just good scenery and good action shot! (way to go mom! )

When I passed by Carleen's place she and my mom were standing out there to cheer me on, and mom got this shot of me being passed by another cyclist. Charming. haha. I've grown accustomed to that, though. I certainly was not looking to finish first!

Ok, this was going to be a REALLY cool shot that I took with my camera phone...but I stupidly put my camel back on my front and it makes it look like I am far larger than I am in that area. so...if you ignore that, this might be a cool shot. haha.

More from my camera phone on the bike ride. I was surrounded by corn fields on both sides. It was really cool.

Lots of random little dirt roads along the way....

This is me on the return ride passing by Carleen's again.

I was going so fast my mom couldn't even capture me going by! Notice the strategically placed Team in Training water bottle in my pak. I dont' like to risk it with hydration. So I carry around lots of water.

And here I am at the finish with my medal! woo hoo!

And then I went back to the cabin and ate chicken salad sandwiches until I was stuffed! Oh man, nothing has ever tasted so delicious. Which was good after my attempt at eating one of those power gel things. Oh my god, I almost ralphed on the side of the road.

And now to my thank yous!!

Carleen! She's phenomenal! She let us stay at her cabin and gave us a really awesome donation!! So cool!!

Andy & Darcy & Delia: My brother, sister-in-law, and niece made a super awesome donation to Team Sawatzki! According to Andy it was Delia's idea. Thank you guys so much!!!

My fundraising total is now at over $2,400!!! and Team Sawatzki is up to $3, 500!!!!! Holy crap!!!

Cornhusker State Games, Rosemary, and Titanium Donations!

Sara Sawatzki — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:32:00 GMT

Miles logged today: so far, 0...going for a ride later but couldn't wait to post!!

In a few minutes I am headed up to Elkhorn, NE!! My mom and I are staying at one of her best friend's cabin and getting ready for my half-century ride that will take place there tomorrow!!! holy crap! I haven't been on a bike since my epic fall (see previous blog) but I am confident that something like that isn't going to happen...i've decided not to allow it!!

So! I will be posting more details here about that tomorrow evening! yay!

As for Rosemary...

I've decided, based on a suggestion from a facebook friend who wishes to remain anonymous, that I am going to host a fundraising event where people donate money to name my bike for a week or a day or however long (probably based on the donation amount...i haven't worked out the logistics of it yet ) I will be posting more on that soon!

But, in the meantime, I have received a donation from said anonymous donor in exchange for naming my bike Rosemary for a week (or until someone else donates for this reason!) So...tomorrow I will have a post on Rosemary and I's first adventure as a named-duo! Hopefully it will be an adventure unlike last weekends misadventure!!

Also...HUGE thank yous today:

Terri & Dave - thank you so much for donating! I don't know these people personally, but my dad knows them through business!

Nancy & Steve - Nancy is my co-worker and Steve is a co-worker of my dad's...and Nancy is quite possibly the nicest person I have ever met! Thank you both so much for donating!!!

And here is the super big one people...my mom and I just had our first TITANIUM DONATION ($1,000!!!!) on our Team fundraising page form AeroVision, a company that my dad works with up in Michigan! Oh man...i'm beyond blown away!!!

I continue to be blown away by donations...whether it's $1 or $1000 it is all absolutely wonderful!! And I cannot thank everyone enough!!!

Now...on to Elkhorn! Catch ya on the flip side!

Epic Fall

Sara Sawatzki — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:11:00 GMT

Saturday's Miles Logged: 10.15

Sunday Ride Miles: 45.6

Total miles so far: 516.7!!!!!

What a weekend.

Saturday was going to be our group ride. I was really looking forward to it, considering the tragedy of my last group ride and the break lock incident of 2009. However, in my infinite wisdom, I had chinese take out the night before.

Kids, don't eat chinese take-out the night before a group bike ride.

I had it too late in the evening, which was the majority of my problem. There wasn't anything wrong with the food but it was like a gut bomb in my abdomen. I ended up throwing up in the middle of the night after tossing and turning for hours on end. I felt better in the morning, but I was still a bit iffy...and you don't want to get caught out 20 miles out on your bike feeling way worse than iffy.

So, I made an executive decision to not go on the ride. Which was for the best. I opted instead for the very rare option to sleep in until noon. It was beautiful. I felt much better when I woke up from that nap. I managed to get out and do a quick 10 miles...I was glad I hadn't gone on the group ride because even that late in the evening I just wasn't feeling up to par.

So, my group ride plans down the drain, I decided to go out and do the 45 miles on my own early Sunday morning.

God, it was ABSOLUTELY beautiful weather! I mean perfect! And I know I say that a lot, but seriously, it was in the low 60s when I started out my bike ride. It almost seemed too cool for the first little bit.

I decided to throw speed out the door and just focus on getting to my mileage goal. When it comes down to it, I am definitely not in this for time. It'll be a miracle if I can get across that finish line!

I went up to Holmes Lake first and went on a bike trail across the east side of 70th street that I hadn't been on before. It was really nice, but far too short.

But I did get to go past the Oncologist's building where my dad gets his magic potion:

Then, after touring around that path, I went back over and just coasted around Holmes lake for a bit. It was really nice out there so I stopped over on a bench and had a breather.

I went ALL over the town of Lincoln, it felt like. To Holmes Lake twice, to the zoo, down to southpoint and back to the Zoo, and then, with only a few miles left, I decided to stop at Scooter's (a local coffee place) to buy a Fruit n' Ice (the name is self-explanitory) to take back home with me to have as a treat since i had about 2 miles to go to get home.

Now, a little backstory:

For the past month, I have been attempting to go get a fruit n' ice at Scooters, and they were either closed for holiday, a huge car chase ended in a crash in front of it and was swarming with news cameras (and believe me I wasn't about to let all of Lincoln see me in spandex), or it had closed 5 minutes before I got there. The fruit n' ice gods were against me.

So, I should have known it would be trouble.

I put the fruit n' ice in my cup holder and went along my merry way.

At mile 44 I was thinking how wonderful of a ride it had been, and how much my arse hurt.

And then it happened.

I couldn't even tell you what caused it. I probably got my tire in a rut or something. Who knows. But i lost control of my bike. Went careening into the other lane, and down the side of the grassy hill above Highway 2.

At some point my bike and I parted ways, and I went catapulting in the air.

At the same time, my fruit n' ice went shooting out in front of me, landing almost exactly in time for my chest to compress down on it and for the ENTIRE contents of my fruit smoothie to literally EXPLODE onto my face.

It was EPIC.

I quickly got up and brushed off the evidence, and quickly looked around, trying to maintain a cool composure like "Yeah, what's up, nothing to see here folks..." THANK GOD nobody saw that horrific incident. Well, that's probably not true. Im sure someone saw it and got the laugh of their life, but nobody I could see saw it.

I recovered quickly. My legs only suffered a few scratches and bruises, and my bike was fine after I fixed the handlebar that had turned inward. I fled the scene as quickly as I could.

I spent the rest of my 1.5 miles home laughing nearly hysterically on my bike, replaying in my mind the event that had just happend. I'm sure there was more than one person who thought I was on drugs, cackling away on my bike. But I couldnt control it. It was hilarious.

Lessons Learned:

DON'T get the Fruit n' Ice...especially when it hasnt worked out in the past.

DON'T eat chinese take out, because you probably wouldn't have ever fallen otherwise.

DO wear helmets...even if you have to wipe off dripping fruit n' ice from them, they serve their purpose.

Bugs and Brats

Sara Sawatzki — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:37:00 GMT

Miles Logged: 15.6
Time: 1:09.05
Avg. Speed: 13.4
Total Miles logged: 460.95
Waskully Wabbits spotted: 35
Bugs that flew up my nose: 2
Bugs that flew in my eye: 1
Annoying kids that got in my way: 3

I like kids...generally speaking they're pretty awesome. But one of them almost took me out today. I was cruising along at about 17-18 mph and this pack of three kids (about ages 8-10) was coming along towards me on their own side of the trail...so i think no problem, they aren't all over the place like most of the kids.

And then...

one of them, who i KNOW made eye contact with me and knew i was there, justs out in front of me to turn around just as i was about to pass them. I had to slam on my breaks because the other kids were passing by me on the left and a tree was on the right...and i breaked so hard that the back end of my bike actually lifted off the ground!! Seriously...these kids should NOT have been out on their own...it was almost 9 p.m. as it was. Grrr. Parents need to keep better tabs on their kids.

lol but enough of my rant on rugrats. haha

I actually had a pretty good ride! it was my first since my traumatic ride with the breaks on. My thighs have healed. And gained super powers too it seems!!! I was totally cruising along at 18-19 mph most of the time!!! It was awesome...so the trauma actually had a payout: I now can go a lot faster with my superhuman thigh muscles!

Score!!

Note to self: I need to start taking more pictures for this blog!!!

Oh and some thank yous!!

Brad & Terri! My soon-to-be-sister-in-law's brother and his awesome girlfriend!! I'm so glad I got to meet you both last christmas and I look forward to seeing you at the wedding!! It's going to be legendary!!! Thank you so much for your donation!!!

Jason & Christine who are friend of Matt and Joy! Thank you so much for donating!!! All you people who I have never met totally rule!! I hope I get to meet you at the wedding!!!