Friday Ramblings: Protect your junk.

As if the rain was not a sign enough that I shouldn't ride my bicycle after work, I somehow re-strained my lower back muscles today. And I have a frikken' desk job. How the hell...

When I got back from work today, I went straight to the bed. I was lying down with a pillow under my stomach (to relax my back muscles) and using Catherine's electronic massage thing. Catherine had recently ordered some Kinesio tape (stuff olympic volleyball players made famous) for her shoulder and threw some on my back in a weird "H" pattern. Hopefully that'll help me move around a bit, but I'm stiff.

Right when I made the good decision to not ride because of my back, the skies cleared up. It was already 6:40, so I would have missed most of the mayhem at Hains anyways. Oh well. I hadn't planned on sprinting tonight, to rest, but I wanted to stretch the legs and say hi to a few pals. Oh well.

Some complacency after a few years of rowing weakened my back years ago, and this happens occasionally, but less than annually. I can never predict it. The muscle to the right of my spine, directly above the sacrum, just spasm and lock up. This means I have to walk like a geriatric and it's a painful transition between sitting and standing. Of course, I can't really lift much either.

With a race coming up tomorrow morning, I'm fairly disappointed. Hopefully it won't affect my legs much but it will definitely affect my ability to surge and jump out of the saddle. We'll have to see. My legs have been feeling great and I'm riding confidently. With the rain this week, it was an excellent opportunity to totally take a break and recover. I've been relaxing, watching tv, and eating ice cream. Marvelous.

I didn't plan to race Ft. Ritchie but couldn't say no. I figured I'd use it as a gauge compare myself to the other Cat 4s ahead of the longer, hillier road races. So much for that. We'll just see if my back holds up at all. I know for sure that I definitely need to make core work a regular routine after my rides and protect myself from injury. I don't like being a gimp.

Speaking of protecting your junk, onto something fun: DZ Nuts.

I've never actually tried the stuff, but I'm a huge Dave Zabriskie fan so I have to give the guy's product a plug here. I was perusing YouTube for cycling clips and came across a number of great DZ Nuts chamois cream commercials.

This is not a product review whatsoever. Again, I've never used the stuff, but anyone with the guts to have some perverted fun with their business gets my respect. If the catchy saddle-bearing-testicles logo doesn't get your attention, I encourage you to check out the video on their site (advertisements they've placed on YouTube).

Here's a sampling of my favorites. This first one brings with it the style of Basic Instinct:




Although you've gotta watch this video on the DZ Nuts site to understand why you shouldn't taste the stuff, here's another fun YouTube clip:




If you didn't have enough on YouTube yet and you want something a bit more serious, here are some links to a great three-part interview with Robbie McEwen. Most folks either love or hate the guy, but it's hard not to like him after watching these videos:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 (This one's all equipment sponsor plugs.)

I hope y'all have a good weekend, and hopefully I'll survive Ft. Ritchie to put up a good race report. Thanks for reading, and see you on the road.