Broken Again

Its probably safe to say that everyday your learn something new.  Some days you even learn a life lesson.  Once again I find my racing season in doubt due to injury.   8 days ago I developed Achilles tendonitis in my left leg.  With my new stance on health I gave it 4 days of rest, re tested it and realized I needed to see a PT ASAP.  So I went to the UofM Medsport clinic to get my injury diagnosed.  From recommendations I went to see a fellow cyclist who happens to be a PT.  Sure enough he confirmed what I dreaded.  Achilles Tendonitis, the injury that can be a pain in the arse to get rid off.   The likely causes are what surprised me though.  First of all my hamstrings are not very flexible, I never noticed this though because my back on the other hand is super flexible.  Basically I need to focus on stretching better.  That was minor though and not likely the cause, the more likely cause was a certain massive contusion.  Yup, that injury I suffered at Iceman.  Turns out a bruise of that magnitude can wreck havoc on a muscle.  I thought I had rehabbed it with my bike training.  Nope, the tendon was slowly getting fed up with me.  When I left he recommended that I work on stretches for the time being.  Next week I plan to start a physical therapy plan to get me back up to speed and racing, but with the main goal of not training hard till I know the tendon is healed, strengthened and ready.  Who knows how long that will take, depends on how my body heals and reacts.  Back to the calf muscle though, the PT said I should be able to do 25 left foot calf raises easy for my fitness.  I tried two sets yesterday for kicks and failed with the left leg.  Today while using my massage roller on my calf I found a certain spot that was super sore.  Yup, right where I had the massive contusion on my left calf.  Lesson learned, if I ever get a massive bruise like that again I am going to seek an Injury clinic.  I had no idea a bad bruise could do this, now I know.

Opening Day

Saturday the 2011 season officially kicked off, which really was a huge relief for me.  This past winter has just plain sucked for me health wise.  I had problem after problem and once one healed another started.  I would like to say I was 100% coming into this weekend, but I wasn't.  The previous two weeks I had been battling a nasty respiratory cold that made my bronchitis flare up again.  To make matters worse I also injured my neck. So since November of last year I battled a hurt leg(5.5 weeks), bronchitis(2-3 weeks), kidney stone(1.5 weeks) and a nasty respiratory cold/neck(1.5 weeks).  The neck/back issues I am still dealing with.  With all that said, I felt good just to be lining up for the first official race of the year for me.  Willow Time Trial has always been a favorite of mine.  Mostly cause its a nice easy race to get rolling into the season.  The race is a flat 6 lap race over a 2.2 mile circuit, a little longer then a 20k.  The goal for the day was to improve on my time from last year.  Unfortunately there was an unfavorable wind.  This wind made the course something like 60 seconds slower. 

Despite me being stronger and having a nifty rear wheel disc cover I finished slower then my previous years time be some 40 some odd seconds.  The bigger issue for the day was my bike computer didn't work.  Since I was the first Cat 3 to start I spent most my time passing people.  I had no idea what lap I was on, luckily for me my teammate passed me right before the finish line so I knew it was my last lap.  At the end of the day I was 6th in category, which is good considering what I have dealt with this off season. Hopefully this is a good sign of a good summer.

Willow TT Results

Sunday was round two, Cone Azalia Road Race.  Pain is the word that best describes Cone.  Given my back/neck was not 100%, I probably should have not raced.  With the legs feeling good, I made a go at it anyways.  In the hours prior to the race a thunderstorm passed dropping a fair amount of rain.  Nothing better the wet dirt roads!  The race started out at a furious pace, it also started out with a mass of carnage and wrecks.  The first section of dirt road was like waging a war.  Bottles and people were going all over.  I saw at least a couple people go down.  My thought was to stay to the right and just keep hammering it.  Unfortunately the carnage caused me to lose touch with the front runners.  In the process of bridging back up I had a fellow racer collide with me.  Luckily I was able to bounce him off with my elbow and stay upright before he took out my front wheel.  After the dirt the race still remained chaotic.  Apparently two riders had slipped off the front, I had no idea since I was holding on for dear life.  I had hit many pot holes and thought for sure my bike was busted.  However at the end of the first lap I found myself as one of the small group of riders to survive the first lap.  Things turned sour for me fast though, I had hit to many pot holes and it had taken its number on my back and neck.  At the start of the 3rd lap I became unhitched from the chase group and spent 9 miles doing a TT.  At the end of the lap I called it a day before my back got any worse.  Unfortunately I also found out later I had DNFed while I was still 10th in the race.  If I had known that maybe, maybe I could have found a way to fight the pain.  I still finished 20th, and with my back intact.  I was also covered head to toe in mud, hopefully a picture will show up some day.  I would also like to thank all the volunteers including Marisa and her friends and Mom that came out to support putting on the race and cheering on the team.  Without there help we would have not been able to co sponsor the race.

Cone Azalia Results