Reactivated

I forgot this existed. I stopped doing this years ago because part of me felt it was too narcissistic, I couldn't say what I really felt how I wanted, or maybe because I just wasn't into it.

The last real posting here was 2011- a few things have changed since then. For new readers, I raced a lot (see the schedule a few posts back) in 2011. After getting burned out mentally and financially 2012 and beyond was full of ups and downs. Riding for fun, actually getting faster through riding on my own terms, and choosing races I really enjoyed. Strava became a thing, and fitted my riding style of going for big rides and trying to go fast on the climbs.

For about a decade I experienced some gi issues. Food getting stuck in my esophagus from time to time, pain at different times that I couldn't necessarily correlate to certain foods. It didn't really seem that big of a deal, I missed some events due to it. Weddings, rides, etc. But it wasn't that frequently. In winter of 2018 it got really bad and I had to get my esophagus dilated so food didn't get stuck in my esophagus. I found out I have a condition called Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EOE). It's basically where one's esophagus is allergic to certain foods and becomes inflamed/creates scar tissue over time with exposure.

So life became interesting all of a sudden. I didn't race my bike once in 2019, a first for me since 2000. Kind of weird. being dogged by weird pain at odd times and most of the time really took the wind out of my sails. Seeing different specialists, trying to pay for medicine that didn't help of I couldn't really afford to try, then becoming desperate and going for it. It's not totally debilitating but it can be bad at times and really sapped my motivation to get going, which is difficult for me to summon as it is.

Life is good too, Kelly and I were able to buy a house in late 2018, we run the shop, Rocktown Bicycles together and have great friends and customers we love to see and work with, and generally have it good. I have been able to get the EOE under control more or less and am still pursuing solutions in that department.

I have some new and big goals for 2020. After feeling like I lost a good year of my life I want to turn this into motivation on the bike. Being 32 also feels like some pressure is on to stay in shape. I will be posting whatever I want, more EOE stuff, bike stuff, car stuff, toy stuff. Sometimes it will be cross posted to the Rocktown blog if it's bike stuff.