My training and workouts have taken a backseat to house remodeling the past two weeks. Monday night I finally finished all the interior work on my bedroom and last night began moving back in. This whole fiasco started when I decided to refinance the mortgage and the bank informed me that the house needed to be in a completed and good state to be appraised, or else the appraisers would leave bad comments and the bank might not be willing to give the loan. The house wasn’t in horrible shape, but the bedroom and hallway didn’t have a suitable finish floor and a lot of areas were missing trim. There were several other repairs around the house I put on a list, some not that big like cracks in the sheetrock, but others much more so, like holes in the siding and roof. As I started peeling away old floor layers, I began to realize how bad of shape the subfloor and even floor joists were in. There was a lot of old termite damage and frankly I was quite surprised to see that portion of the house even standing. It quickly became apparent that my weekend touch up would turn into a multi week project. I could’ve patched it up a little and threw some carpet down to pass appraisal, but that’s not the way I like to do things. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. I was going to expend the time, effort, and money to fix the damage and then finish out the room. I’ve always said, there’s not better way to get stuff done on the house than to have an ultimatum. I usually plan a party and that gets me to get stuff done, but this time it was more important. I had to fight through some long nights, long weekends, cold weather, multiple injuries, poor nutrition, cramped living quarters, and some frustrating material miscalculations, but I got ‘er done. Perseverance is the Caveman way. You can see some photos here.

So, I got to sleep on a bed last night for the first time in 2 weeks. I was sleeping on the floor, and my “normal” bed is simply an elevated piece of plywood so I can store stuff below, but psychologically, at least it feels more like a bed. I’m getting back to good food and less Sonic and Subway. I’m getting back to 8+ hours of sleep a night. Getting back to riding, P90x workouts, and stretching/Yoga. I enjoy house work and a change of pace, but I’m ready to get back to work in preparation for the upcoming 12 hour race. This weekend is the marathon MTB race at Comfort. Lance can thank me and all the other racers who shamed him here last year for his motivation to return to Pro cycling. I’m not in 100% yet, but I’d like to give it a try, perhaps on my $300 rigid singlespeed.

To commemorate yesterdays inauguration of our new President, I will close here with a quote from former President Bush that I like a lot. I’m not going to get into politics and whether I liked Bush or not, I just like the quote. I wish our new President well.

“The presidency was a joyous experience, but as great as it was, nothing compares to Texas at sunset”

Amen to that.