Pear Shaped second half of the season

Wow. 10 days off the bike does a lot of things to you and none of them are good for your racing. Top end. My top end is down. For a 7min 300w effort, I usually average around 172bpm. Friday, for 298w, my HR average was 177bpm. I hope to be able to get it back to where it was by the last race of the season. If not, there is always next year. I can't complain, but I would like another 1st place finish. Going to talk to my coach about upgrading to CAT-3 before the end of the year so that I can race 4 races as a 3 before the season is out.

Off the bike

One of the things I haven't written about is the fact that I've been off of the bike since the 12th. I had a lingering issue from the crash that didn't manifest itself until I did the workout on the 12th. The injury is called a Scrotal Contusion. Yeah, It sucks as bad at is sounds. When I landed on my face, my bike landed on my "boys". The "fellas" were healing and my face hurt so bad, it masked any discomfort I was having down there. The workouts on the 11th & 12th exacerbated the problem and they let me know there was a problem. It wasn't a testicle injury, but an injury to a vein that feeds them. So the pedaling action, inflamed the area. Of course, I couldn't believe this was happening so I checked myself a couple of times that night & the next day before seeing the Doctor. The Doctor has seen this kind of injury before (guys are tough on themselves) and said that the number of time I "checked" myself just aggravated the injury even more--Great. But again, the doc said that's something that's also been a typical reaction to his patients that have received this type of injury. Rest & time off of the bike is what the doctor ordered. I can't give myself and "examination" until the 20th--doctors orders. My coach has made a plan so that I'm doing workouts off of the bike until the 23rd. The discomfort has gone away, but I'm going to play it safe and not get back on the bike until the 24th.

The doctor stated that if the discomfort/knot persists more than 6 weeks, then it's back for another examination and it's something more serious. Let's hope not.

B

From a Friend, Paul Laymon, when asked about what it takes to be a "Pro":

"You are part way there by saying it is harder to give up than not to try. Choosing things for yourself is the only real freedom we have in life. Choose that freedom and make up your own mind, then excel beyond where others stop.
It's a lonely journey, and you will lose more friends than you will make. However, those friends you make will help you "bury the body"
In the end, it isn't about the things we did, that's just another trophy, you won't remember them, it is about the people we meet along the way...good and bad."

-Paul Laymon.

I'll not for get your words. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to seeing you whoop-up the 50+ age-groupers.

-B

Hanes Park Crash 08/09/09

I had a terrible accident today. A rider shot across my front wheel (from left to right) and I went head first onto the ground. My face is trashed (30-40% road rash on right side of face), my jersey is ripped, my lip had to have two stitches, my temporary teeth were broken out and I suffered a concussion. I got knocked out I hit the ground so hard. I’ve got rash on my shoulder, knee & wrist as well. My wrists are banged up (from trying to catch myself) and my right leg has some road rash. I was rushed off to the ER in a Ambulance (pretty cool—haven’t done that in a while). The CAT scan showed everything was cool.

Shame really. I happened with 3 to go. It was around 34 minutes into the race when we were going up the hill. We were traveling around 19mph. All I remember was yelling at him, hitting the deck and looking at the curb thinking to myself “that’s going to hurt.” The EMT’s said I remembered everything when I got up and that I was coherent, but I only remember bits and pieces. I do remember yelling at the peleton as they stormed by me on the final lap so that’s a bit of a consolation. Needless to say, I’m not going to race this coming weekend. It’s 4 hours away and at the moment, I would rather train closer to home for my wife’s sake. I was over 3 hours away from home when this happened and she was at work so this really scared her. It opened my eyes as well. This was something that I could truly not control.

The thing is, my collarbone’s not broken. My wrists aren't’ broken (my teeth don’t count) and my bike is perfectly fine—I think. That being said, I don’t want to take the chance to miss my priority race because of some squirrely rider.

How was the race up until that point? Perfect. I put in a good long warm-up and my 2 minute threshold efforts were solid. As an aside, I think my threshold power is around 295-305w now. For the race, I was at the front the entire time around 10-15th spot. With 5 to go, I moved to 5-10th spot. I only had my nose in the wind once and that was short lived because of a preme. I felt great. The average HR for this race was 172bpm, speed 24.5 and it had 1 significant hill with 2 little risers. For me to stay in it shows that I am in form and smarter about hills racing in general. Also, I had a friend say that he would lead me out that sealed the deal. I crashed and my friend ended up winning so I’m very happy for him. I talked to him a bit after the race and he said I’m sure you are hurting. I told him that not being able to finish hurts more.