Brain a bit scrambled, but still very excited!

As you might have read, Monday I decided to go for a bike ride in the snow and ended up slipping on some ice.  The dents in my helmet were from my head banging against the ice covered pavement.  

I had a splitting headache and was dizzy and nauseous but I drove myself home from the Greenbelt where I had been riding my bike.  I went home and stayed away and texted my hubby all afternoon so he would know I was okay and still awake.  That night we hosted poker at my house. One of our friends who plays poker is also a ski patroler up on our local ski hill.  Tracy talked to him (since apparently I wasn't listening to my him) and convinced Stephen, our friend, to come talk to me about my apparent concussion.  Stephen asked me, "If this had happened to your child, would you have taken your child to the doctor?"  Well, of course, the answer was yes.  So he made me agree to see the doctor on Tuesday if my head was still hurting.

Tuesday morning arrived, and my head was still hurting.  At 5:00 am, I called the doctor and left a message.  At 8:30 am, I had an appointment to see the doctor at 9:45.  This is unheard of on a regular day, but in the middle of flu season?  God must have been on my side!  On the way to the doctor, my head got worse and the nausea increased.  My head does not like driving in cars right now.  Sure enough, I have a concussion.  The doctor gave me a pain killer shot and an anti-nausea shot.  I came straight home and slept.  I slept all day only getting up to eat some; then would go right back to sleep.  I ended up in bed at 9:30 that night.  I slept all the way through the alarm clock the  next morning.  Then slept till 1pm when I decided I had probably get up and call Tracy and let him know I'm still alive.  Then I ate some food and went right back to sleep.  In 24 hours I was awake about 5 hours.

My speech has been slurred and very slow.  My brain has been completely foggy. I don't do loud noises.  If I am in the car, the radio has to be turned off.  The TV has to be turned down low in the house.  I am taking an anti-inflamatory medicine to help my brain unscramble.  

I have had concussions before, but nothing like this.  This is quite freaky.  Here it is, Thursday, and I am still out of it. I tried driving today; decided that was not such a great idea.  But I am feeling just well enough to be stir crazy in the house. So I decided to try my hand at sewing.  I have costumes to work on for this season of belly dance performances.  It felt like working on these "puzzles" (the costumes without any patterns or instructions) would be a good physical therapy exercise to help unscramble my brain.  It worked!  I was very pleased with the results.

I found an email from a friend asking me to call her regarding the Spring Ride and fundraising but I can't have long conversations right now.  I emailed her instead.  By the end of the email, my brain was all kinds of confused and even typing this I need to seriously concentrate to get my fingers to work properly.  Not to mention the amount of thinking my brain is having to do which is causing a headache.

Even though I didn't want to go to the doctor on Monday cause I knew what he would say (which is exactly what he DID say) I am still very glad I went.  At least I know that what I am feeling is still just from the concussion and nothing major and it could take me weeks (possibly) to completely  heal.  Let's hope not; I still have lots of training to do!

In the mean time, I decided to pop in the CD that Fuller Center for Housing sent me.  It had 2 speaking engagements that Millard Fuller did.  The first one was done just 2 years after Fuller Center for Housing had started and he was speaking in Shreveport, Louisiana.  His speech/sermon has totally inspired me.  We are here on this earth to be LIGHTS to the universe. We are here to do good: to do Jesus' work.  We are here to make sure "the least of these" is taken care of and not turned away. That is WHY I am doing this Spring Ride.  That is why I signed up.  And even with this concussion, that is WHY I sit here typing in my blog.

During my training, I have been reminded in several different ways that I can't do everything, but I can always do SOME THING.  I may not be able to train on my bike right now, but I can listen to Millard Fuller speak about his passion and get myself fired up because I realize this is my passion as well!  You may not be able to EVERYTHING, but YOU CAN DO SOME THINGS!!!  You can choose to donate to help me raise the $2000 to reach my goal. This $2000 will help restore a home that is in disrepair.  You can choose to pass along this blog and spread the word so that maybe one of your friends or family members can donate.  You can choose to pray for me and my fellow riders and keep us in your thoughts as we continue to raise awareness for the Fuller Center for Housing and ending poverty housing.  You can do something.  What do you choose to do?

Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.  Please continue to pray that I heal quickly from my concussion so that I can get back on my bike and train.  And thank you for donating at this link:

https://www.fullercenter.org/civicrm/contribute/pcp/info?reset=1&id=176

What's an outdoorsy girl to do when she has been cooped up inside for too long?

****Warning*****  I am typing this with a concussion (which I will explain later) so please excuse any typos that I am sure I will be making.

Okay, to be fair, I haven't been cooped up in doors all winter.  I have been outside hiking, running, snowboarding and enjoying the beautiful snow. However, I have not been able to take my bike out since after Christmas.  Boise got some crazy amounts of snow followed by a heck of an inversion that kept the temps in the single digits which kept the snow and icy roads around for the entire month of January.  I am aware we still have a few more days of January, but the roads are JUST NOW clearing up and I am beginning to see the bike lanes again, but there is still left over ice on the roads.  

This weekend, it actually warmed up to over 30 and we got some rain and some sunshine which helped to melt the snow and dry up the sidewalks.  I was so excited!  I was certain the greenbelt would have dried up so I made a plan to ride this morning.  Actually, I looked at the weather channel and it said we were expecting another round of snow, but it wouldn't arrive until this afternoon so I thought this morning would be my time frame.  I got all dressed up and headed outside this morning just to find it snowing already!  At first I thought I would just forgo my ride.  But I REALLY wanted to ride outside.  I miss it so much!  With the encouragement of my friend Kurt, who is also doing the Spring Ride for Fuller Center for Housing, I decided to go outside and play anyway!

With hand warmers in my shoes and in my boarding gloves, 3 shirts, 3 layers of pants, my boarding coat, my helmet, sunglasses and iPod, I was ready to go!   The greenbelt had chunky patches of dried slush covered with a fresh coating of dry powder.  It was a bit crazy with my bike fishtailing, but I could handle that.  Though I totally wished I didn't have my clip pedals and longed for regular ol' pedals and shoes at this point.  Cause I just new that when my bike decided to go down, I was going down with it. Oh well, I kept pressing on.  The bridges over the river were slick, but nothing I couldn't manage.  Then I hit it.  I thought I was in the clear with the fresh flat snow covered pavement.  But what I didn't know was that underneath that fresh flat powdery snow lurked the evil ice monster just waiting to throw me to the ground and show me who is boss!

 

I don't even know what happened.  All I remember was "BAM!" my head hitting and bouncing off the pavement with an "aaaoohhhh" escaping my lips as I slid a few feet with my right foot still clipped into my pedal.  OUCH!  I watched the birds singing and flying in circles over my head for a bit, then I shook them away and carefully stood up. My clip shoes don't give much traction and I was on thin ice, literally!  I made sure to take a picture.  What kind of blogger and adventurer would I be if I didn't take pictures of my insanity?  

After considering the pounding headache I now had in my head, my longing for riding my bike outside, and realizing I was just a little over a mile in and I had already fallen pretty hard.  I realized I likely had a concussion and going further would NOT be advisable.  Especially since my hubby was at work with no car to rescue me with if I really got bad further out.  So with a heavy heart and pounding head, I decided to take my broken pride home.  Back on my bike, I pushed my pedal down and felt my back tire just spin in place, and I prayed.  "Dear Lord, please just let me make it to my car without another incident." I might have even made a bargain with God. I don't quite remember.  It probably went like this, "If you just let me get back to my car safely, I promise to not ever do anything foolish like this again." (Of course, I had my fingers crossed behind my back so he couldn't see them!)

On my way back to my car, I saw a cyclist riding up towards me on a  fat bike.  I know ONE guy who rides them in town and knew he would be out riding today.  However, there is a huge cycling community here in Boise, the greenbelt is a favorite place to ride, and I also know there are others with a fat bike in town.  We were both bundled up for winter so when he got closer, I couldn't tell who he was.  We said hi to each other and kept on riding, but then I heard my name. "Martha?"  I stopped and looked back and he had stopped and looked at me.  It was my partner in insanity!  KURT!!!  Yay!!! We visited for a bit and laughed at my spill.  I was sad that I was going home and he was still riding cause he was taking the same route I had planned.  I would have much rather been riding with him, but I knew what my head was telling me, and as I sit her nauseous, dizzy and with a splitting headache in my quiet dark house, I realize my decision to come home was the right one.

It was quite the 2 mile adventure today!  Just goes to prove you don't have to go far to live an exciting life; you just have to get out of your house and be open to the possibilities!  Had I not gone out in the lovely snow covered greenbelt, I would not have seen the fat squirrels, the many ducks swimming in the partially snow covered river, the stillness of the snow covered bike path or the excitement of learning to ride my bike in the snow!  It was  short and joy filled 2 miles... even if I came home with a concussion!

In the words of Heather Small, "What have you done today to make yourself feel proud?"

Thanks for reading my crazy stories and cheering me on.  I am over half way to my $2000 fundraising goal!  Thank you!!!!  If you have not donated yet, there is still time and I would greatly appreciate it!  People keep telling me (apologetically) that they made a "small donation" but please know that there is not such thing as a small donation.  Each $1 counts and keeps the momentum going!  So, even if you can spare just $1, it will make a HUGE difference!  Here is the link where you can donate:

https://www.fullercenter.org/civicrm/contribute/pcp/info?reset=1&id=176

Honey its down right FRIGID outside!!!!!

Hey Everyone!

Training has been rather sporadic and not exactly what I had planned when I decided to do this ride.  I was doing FANTASTIC at getting my miles and time in the saddle in, then winter hit.  It didn't just kinda hit; it hit with a vengeance!

The Boise winters usually mean an inversion where cold air gets trapped in the valley and fog settles in.  But it doesn't usually get THIS cold and last THIS long.  I wake up in the mornings and its anywhere between 0 and 9 degrees!  The highs don't even get to freezing temps.  The last time I went out riding my bike, it was "freezing temps" and my toes got numb.  I swore I would not go back out until I got toe covers for my shoes.  That is when this inversion hit.  It's not only the extreme cold that has me blocked from road miles, but the snow that hit just before the inversion.  The roads out of my house are icy.  Even the main roads still have ice/slush in the bike lanes.  Some of the roads I take are still completely covered in ice.  This does not make for safe road biking conditions.  Even our greenbelt is still iced over.

We are getting too close for comfort to my Spring Ride.  I need to get time in the saddle. It's not my legs or physical endurance that worry me as much as it is my bottom side!  I am looking at 6-8 hours in the saddle and my bottom side needs to get used to that.  In an effort to train for this, I finally found an indoor trainer for my bike on Craig's List.

I got it all set up and have some some hours riding indoors.  Boy do I get sweaty!  Even with watching a movie, it is rather boring. I would much rather be outside playing in the fresh air.

                        
                           
In an effort to keep moving and stay limber, I even tried Bikram Hot Yoga.  I found out that I am stronger than I think I am!  That was a nice little boost!  I can do some of the poses I never thought I would be able to and I didn't even pass out or vomit during my classes! Success!

Of course, I am also working on getting my Zumba classes started back up so I am spending a couple of hours a day dancing and getting the choreography ready for that.

Then there is the snowboarding and hiking up in the mountains. Make no mistake, I am moving on a daily basis!  I just need to get my bottom side on my saddle and get that time in!  I'll do that tonight while I watch TV.

I am getting so excited for the ride.  I am reading The House that Love Built, the Biography of Millard and Linda Fuller and The Fuller Center for Housing.  The Fullers are such a huge inspiration and reading this book reminds me why I am doing this ride!  I am very blessed and humbled by all of the support and donations I am receiving.  I am almost 1/2 way to my big $2000 goal!  Thank you ALL for supporting me whether it is energetically or financially.  It means the world to me!  More importantly, your money will make a huge difference to a family who really needs it!  Thank you!

In case you haven't donated and are looking for a way to do so, please follow this link:  https://www.fullercenter.org/civicrm/contribute/pcp/info?reset=1&id=176