It's all in your head!

I haven't run more than about 5.5 miles since having a hip issue following the 2010 Denver Rock n Roll half marathon.

During training for that race my hip would start hurting at the 6 mile mark but I got through it and finished the half in 2:03.  Afterward, I made up my mind that I would just run for exercise and no more than 6 miles.

Then came a bike crash in July 2012 and I was running more than riding.  This led to faster run times which meant shorter workouts when running less than 6 miles.

Fast-forward to yesterday. It was cold and rainy (remnants of hurricane Sandy) but I was determined to get in my lunch-time run.  I logged onto Mapmyrun to find my usual 5 miler to make sure I was going the right way and noticed that I also had a 6 mile option plotted.  I decided that I'd see how I felt at the 3 mile mark and then decide on the 5 or 6 mile route.

Now dressed and a little cold I started out a little fast to speed-up my warm up time.  Within a mile I hit a Strava.com segment that I wanted to win so I sped up a little more knowing that I could ease into a long-run pace afterward (it didn't work, I missed it by 5 seconds).  When I got to the 3 mile mark I was feeling good so I took the turn to get in the extra mile.

When I got back on the main route, 4 miles into the run, I wasn't sure that the route would end up being 6 miles so I took a route that I hadn't mapped out.  Not knowing how far I was going to run sufficiently tricked my brain.  I was even able to finish the last 400 meters in a near sprint.  Checking my StravaRun app I was pleasantly surprised at the 6.7 miles at just over a 9 minute pace!!

I don't think I would have run as strong if I KNEW I was on a 7 mile route.

Lesson learned? Every now and then go off-the-map and just see what happens.

Three more weeks :(

Heard today that it will likely be 3 more weeks before my wrist is healed enough to handle the strain of cycling.  Good thing is that they want me out of the splint, using the wrist and doing exercises.  Hopefully it will heal faster now.  I've never been so impatient with an injury!

I'm still planning on doing the Victory Junction Camp Challenge Ride on September 8th!  I've jokingly told my sponsors that I might just be leading the kiddie ride around the parking lot, but I'll be there!  I know the 100K is out though, so I'll be either doing the 50K or the 25K depending on how I feel by the end of that week.

I had a new idea for fundraising and last week I sent out a post to my business owning friends to see if anyone was interested, but so far there are no takers.

Since that didn't seem to work out I started collecting for a "benefit yard sale".  The donated items are sold at my yard sale and proceeds will go to Victory Junction Camp in the donors name.  It'll involve a little record keeping on my part, but its worth it.

Keep your bike rubber-side down.

Moot.

Bone Chip :-(

Two weeks out post-crash and the wrist wan't any better than it was in day 3 so I decided to see a specialist.

After new X-rays and a lot of time sitting in a room with no wi-fi or 3G access (shouldn't every business have wi-fi by now), the doctor comes in to study the films.  After looking at them for a while and then testing my range of motion and looking at them again, he determines that I ended up with a chipped bone in my wrist.  He pointed out the irregular shape in the bone and a shadow of where it looks like the chip is located.  Of course he could have told me anything and I wouldn't have known any better but it made sense.

The net of it all is that I'm in a splint for a few weeks.  I REALLY need it to get "good enough" in two weeks so that I can train for the Victory Junction Camp Challenge !  Otherwise I'll have to downgrade my mileage to the 15 mile beginner's route or the kiddie lap around the camp.  :-)

Not my actual X-ray.  They wanted to charge me $20 for a copy.

First Crash

I guess it had to happen at some point, I finally had a crash.  I'm sure I "fell off my bike" many a time growing up and I know I had that "oh shit I'm falling and I can't unclip" fall twice since I started "clipping in" on road bikes.  This was the real deal though.

In gearing up for a 60 mile benefit ride, Victory Junction Camp Challenge, I wanted to get in a solid 40 mile plus day so I headed over to the Brugger's Bagels / Carribou Coffee parking lot with 20 other cyclists for a nice Saturday ride.

Every time time I've gone out with this group, the Thorns and Roses, we all start out together at an easy pace and then after a few miles the A group, Thorns, start pulling away.  On that Saturday however there were different plans as one of the Thorns went off the front only a mile into the ride.  Wanting to see how my conditioning was holding up I jumped into the now 4-man breakaway.  I was actually feeling really strong and even earned a KOM on a Stava.com segment in Apex.  A few miles later though I realized I wasn't quite up to the Thorn level and needed a little help to keep up on one long hill.  After that we road a fairly quick pace on some small rollers and long flats.  Just before "the event" we came across the cycling portion of a Triathalon going in the opposite direction.  It was fun watching them try to be serious and focused as we waived and called out "good morning". :-)  Then we turned past their starting point and the Apex police directing traffic and headed toward the Nuclear power plant.

Less than a mile after the turn I remember hearing a loud "CRACK" and a brief thought of "shit my frame broke", then nothing until one of the guys was kneeling over me telling me not to move.  Pretty much everything hurt, but after a couple of minutes I was able to stand and we started picking up the parts of my bike that went flying. (seat, safety light, water bottle)  On inspection we deduced that at some point one of the two bolts holding the saddle to the seatpost came loose and fell out.  The remaining bolt wasn't enough to do the job and the "crack" that I heard was it snapping.  I must have had a lot of weight on the back of the seat because the only thing that makes sense is that when my body shifted from the lack of a seat being there I fell to the back and the right.  

The damage?  A sprained wrist, road rash on my right hip, elbow and shoulder, deep scuffing on my right shoe, ripped jersey and a cracked helmet on the right side where I hit the pavement.  The road definitely won that battle, but I did manage to leave a long blue streak from my helmet. :-)

It's now 13 days later and the road rash is healing quite well.  It looks like my wrist will slow me down the most.  As for the equipment, between Performance Bike and Loews Home Improvement I was able to get my seat-post reattached to my saddle.  I've replaced my Bell helmet with the same style I had but with the carbon fiber look.  After work today I'm heading to CyclingSpokenHere to make sure my frame is OK and if that checks out then I'll be going for a test ride this weekend!  

Of course now I'm 2 weeks off schedule from prepping for the VJC ride so once I'm all healled I'll have to put in some serious miles get in proper form.

Lessons learned:

1. Check the bolts that hold the saddle to the seat post.  I had NEVER looked at them other than to make the original adjust.  It'll be part of my pre-ride check list now.  
2. Wear a helmet every time you get on the bike.  This happened on a long group ride, but bike failure can occur anywhere.  I often ride without my helmet when I'm just going from 1 building to another on campus, but if the bolt broke on campus my head would have hit the ground just as hard.  

Its been way too long!

Or in Cajun, "mais long time no see yea!"

My long hiatus in blogging was partly due to laziness, too many other things on my mind and injury. Today's post is about the latter. I injured my ankle in November of last year jamming it in some strange way when just taking a step from the road to the curb.

In December we tried a steroid pack (5 day anti-inflammatory) and it brought it down from hurting all day to only hurting in the morning.

Of course now its the middle of March and the pain is exactly the same.

Yesterday I decided to ignore the Dr. and go for a short run (2 miles) at a slow pace. http://app.strava.com/runs/5178082

This morning I woke up and the ankle feels better than ever! Still a little tight, but no pain!

I'm not sure that this would work for other ailments but at least now I can add running back to my exercise routine!

Its all relative

Still damn hot today but a great ride.

The peloton left SAS at 11:30 sharp as usual with about 15 members. Once on Weston the group from Bandwidth joined in and the comment was made, "they're getting as big as us." In fact they had about 10 riders today. The now much larger peloton made their way down Weston at a slower than normal pace, took the right onto Chapel Hill rd and then the left onto Morrisville-Carpenter.

That's when someone up front decided we were going too slow for a Wednesday in 92 degree weather. The speed increased dramatically and everyone fell into a single file line until we finally had to stop at the Davis Dr light. The light was quick however and cut off the back 3rd of the group. Then the unbelievable happened for this ride and the group actually held up for the rest to rejoin!!

A few more minutes and it was time for the group to split into the A and B route (30 and 20 miles). The B group was split again but ended up with 6 at the HighHouse intersection until 2 decided to go across High House and do an extra 4 mile loop. The 4 remaining headed toward Davis and couldn't agree on the route so 2 split to continue on High House and cut through Preston like normal while the others took a left for a more direct route.

Dwight and Keith made their way through Preston talking about the heat, lack of leg strength and the hills that were coming up. Since Dwight was used to being the 2nd or 3rd strongest rider in the B group, taking the lead on Morrisville Parkway was a new experience. Rather than playing catch-up on the long climb back to Chapel Hill road he got to set a high pace and dropped his companion, not seeing him again until cooling down in the gym. Will, who had taken the more "direct route" had actually been slowly catching up and finally caught Dwight as they turned onto Harrison for the last half mile into SAS.

So, Dwight finally got to drop someone, but then Will showed him that he's not really all that.

Great ride!!

The Heat is on

I was forced to run in the early AM today as the temp was going to be in mid-90's by lunch and 100 for the high.

Good run though. Used the Chatham road to the Greenway Loop for a 38 minute run. Took quite a while to cool off with all the humidity.

Tomorrow's ride will be interesting with another 95+ day.