Off again.

On again, Off again is my repertoire this year. It seems that my training has been broken into 3 weeks of on and 3 weeks of off the bike this year. It started out gaining fitness, then losing it again, because of the weather, bike issues, then vacation, then rain, then work, family events, then health issues.

Well, I did say I would provide you some pictures of the trip to China.

Here is one from X'ian where we visited the museum where the Terracotta Soldiers were being unearthed and put back together from broken pieces. It's like trying to put together a puzzle with the same color.
It was truly an amazing site to see what humans are able to accomplish through their hard work and dedication.  They didn't have tools we have today, so this must have been one hell of a production line, or at least they performed it over many years of constant labor.   This site was only one of the three sites they had uncovered.  As you can see this is about the size of about a few soccer/football fields combined under one roof. 

On another tour, we got to visit a remote village in Yangshuo.  We met a farmer who was about 75-80 years old and fit as an ox.  He was very kind to share with us his house and we experienced how he lived.  He wanted to impress upon us how his fitness was.  At that point he picked up a large stone (around 250-300 lbs to my estimate) and dragged it several feet and back again.   Then he picked up a couple of stones he must have carved into weights (40-60lbs.) He performed several one hand military presses.  Pretty strong and fit!  I then decided to see how heavy the stone pillar was.  Well, to say the least it was heavy.  I picked it up a few inches, moved it about a half of a foot then released it as my arms/shoulders felt some major tingling and shocks.   It felt like I had stretched my muscles not totally properly.    Well, that was enough for me.  This guys was impressive, though he probably was used to all of the labor and has the strength which I am no longer used to since I don't lift weights anymore. 


Well, later that evening after our huge dinner, I went back to the hotel room, stuffed, then looked down at my belly.  There was a bulge coming out from my crotch which wasn't typically there.  I must have bust my belly.... I knew this was probably a hernia.  Oh no, we were less than half of the way through our tour.   So the next several days, I kept an eye on the hernia and hoping not to stress it so that I would end up in the hospital.  I can't attribute it to the lifting of the stone, as I didn't feel anything rip in my stomach or groin area, however it may be the cause. 

The next photos are from our trip in Guilin, a small city, population of almost 2 million, however very different from the larger cities like Beijing, X'ian, Shanghai as it didn't have quite as many skyscrapers and the pace of life was much slower. The scenes you see are from a boat trip we took down the Li River to a smaller town called Yangshou. The town was very picturesque. Here's a link to the view of the town from above:
As we were traveling down the Li River by boat.


There was lots to do as far as shopping was concerned as it seemed to be a market for everything. We did spend some time purchasing some painted scrolls there.

We also toured a large cavern, however was not really impressed as if you've seen one cavern you've seen them all.

One of the unique things in Guilin was to be able to see the silk factories where the silk was produced and spun as well as to go to a silk market where we of course were trapped to buy lots of silk stuff including bedding and clothing.

The next day we traveled back to Guilin to see the beautiful lakes where many of the Chinese celebrate their honeymoon.

We then traveled to Hong Hong were exposed to the Gateway to the East. Hong Kong was impressive just based upon the number of extremely high sky scrapers on the horizon. Everywhere you looked there were skyscrapers. It was a unique experience, however not really a place for tourists unless you are there to enjoy city life. There were little shopping bargains to be found as the cost of living is so high. There was a shopping market, however only for outlet stuff (closouts)and even that wasn't much of a bargain. The below picture is a view looking at Hong Kong City from a hotel on Kowloon Peninsula, where we were sitting having some late night eats drinks.

Our last stop was in Shanghai, a busy city, again with skyscrapers all over the place, similar to Hong Kong, however probably better shopping. We didn't

Anyway, enough about my trip to China. Basically it was off for 3 weeks then I got going again on my training, only to be broken up with all of the rain and weekend activities including my son birthday party, my anniversary weekend, more family stuff and of course last Friday, I got my hernia operation.
I went in on Friday morning, came out with a few small incisions in my belly for Laproscopic surgery, I was working in the evening catching up and then by Saturday, I was mowing the lawn and weeding. Stuff I'm not really supposed to do. It was time off to do those things instead of going for a ride or taking my kids to tutor lessons, play dates, etc... My doctor says I have to stay off of the bike for 2 weeks, and I know I will be going crazy thinking of the fitness I will lose.
I don't know when I will actually race this year and it is frustrating.
I'm actually thinking of retiring from racing if these things keep coming up to take me away from being able to race and train properly. Oh well. C'est La Vie!