Losing a summer and tossing out a fall.

Aw yeah. Nurse from my Surgeon's office called. Clavicle is supposedly all healed according to my X-Ray. At least one bone in my body is OK.

Cross Practice tonight. It's like getting the control arm in your car fixed and leaving the shop and immediately driving like an asshole into curbs. Hopefully I can make right turns without worrying.
 
To all those who told me to take this season off, you're way smarter than me and your advise was on point. I think the only one who told me to go for it was EricO, I like his advise more.

Wasn't expected but I did Town Hall out in Bethlehem today. First DNF due to major crash! First DNF ever actually.

RACE RECAP!

Lined up 3/4 of the way back. Bottlenecks at the river crossing/gravel uphill wasn't so bad and didn't get held up on too much on the first lap. No idea what place I settled in at on the first lap, impossible to tell how many people I'm passing/getting passed in that first minute. Mostly passing people on laps 1/2/3 with only a few people who would pass me on the uphills/straights. I found my turning skills was WAY better than everyone I was riding around with. Battled it out in the turns & barriers watching other racers waste energy being inefficient but would have them pass me again on the straights.

End of lap 2 into 3 I think those people I was battling it out with started to break. I ended up having a conversation with a super bearded guy on Lap3 about if it was the last lap or not and I realized figuring out last lap is always impossible for me. Looking at the time and that it was the 3rd lap I knew we had a 4th lap. I couldn't understand him as he was out of breath but I think he was mentioning we should battle it out on the last lap. Following and then passing him through the weird dirt mount then gravel then uphill left turn I realized I just needed to get past him. Sprinted past him and dropped him eventually. Ended up getting past pretty much the entire group of people and then finished the 3rd lap.

So I was taking it pretty easy the entire race up until that point. First race, health issues, yadda yadda. Going super smooth around the turns, riding at 7/10 so I wouldn't get burnt out. I realized going into the 4th lap that I was feeling super fresh and decided to just bury myself and see how well I could do. Went over the river crossing, up the gravel hill, down hill into the right then left and then GAME OVER.

Started pushing it a bit, feeling way too good. I don't think I entered the left turn much faster than previous laps but I think I hit the small patch of dirt that was worn out a bit and slid out the front tire. I went down HARD. Luckily/Unluckily my face broke my fall.

Got up, tasted blood. Checked my teeth, seemed OK. Cut the inside of my lip pretty bad. Glasses bent to all hell, can't see shit. Grab bike CHAIN STUCK BEHIND CASSETTE AND CAN'T GET IT OUT. Pit is forever away and the two big hills are in between. Get off the course, dick around with chain for awhile, take off wheel finally get chain/wheel all back together. TOOK FOREVER. Bunch of racers are coming through, can't tell if it's the tail end of the race or next group coming through. Glasses severely bent, can't see shit. Decide to just DNF. I did 3/4, did really well until that point. I don't care about points, placement at that point doesn't matter.

  • Fell on the left side. That was good for my right clavicle. Which feels weird but I think it's been feeling weird for the last few days.
  • Fell on my face pretty fucking hard. 100% sure I have a concussion. Fall broken by my mouth and front of my helmet.
  • I have a toolbox in my car and fixed my glasses with my pliers. Need to get Lasik.
  • Race up until that point was great. Felt really good on the corners and barriers. I made up a lot of time on all the technical sections and was where I was really able to pass or drop people.
  • Saw @rsinger814 after the race, he got 3rd! Awesome.
  • Guy behind me who saw my crash said I was doing really awesome and noticed how well I was doing since I was wearing a Jersey that stands out. And that my crash was spectacular.
  • @MissJR probably lost a year of her life due to stress.
  • Garmin 820 crash notification actually works. One more thing to add to the confusion.
  • I should spend more time on cornering at higher speeds and playing around with tire pressure. I could have easily just not slid out.
  • Grabbing my 29er from the pit after the race and riding it for 15 seconds on the course I realized I don't think I want to ride that bike in a cross race. I now thing fat bikes in cross is dumber than I even previously thought.
  • I stopped wearing baggies for cross. HUGE benefit on dismounts/remounts. Wearing baggy shorts all year has given me one hell of a leg tan pattern. Looks like the stretch band at the bottom of the shorts is paper white but it's actually my leg... The lycra isn't so bad if I just don't look down.
Calendar for the new two week:
9/25/16 - Easy 35 mile road ride with my friend I usually do bike tours with. She has ridden twice this year and rides a Surly Cross Check. Should be chill.
10/1 Hippo - Registered
10/2 75% doing Caffeinated.
10/3-7 Iowa for work - Doubt I'll take my travel bike this time. I'll probably do Hot Yoga with the out of shape midwesterners.
10/8 Anything I want
10/9 Jorba Jam. Aw yeah.
 
Nice work getting out there. I'm very glad you are ok. I don't actually care about your health--I just don't want to feel the wrath of @MissJR since I was the only sitting on your shoulder one whispering "do it" in your ear.

It sounds like you were having a really good race up until that point. Finding that your turning skills are better than the people you are racing is a great problem. Free watts. Fitness will come as you do more high end work and you'll be flying.

Curious...what tires are you running?
 
She won't blame you. She knows I wasn't going to sit home watching TV these months then saw your post, jumped up and hopped on the bike. Her blame is where it belongs, with me.

Actually I think the fitness is an issue with the health issues. My blood work says I should be dead. I'd like to see how things work out once I get hidden health issues fixed (Insert complains about the medical industry here)...

PDX front, MXP rear tubed on Iron Cross wheels. Tire pressure is "Unknown pressure less than I usually run". I've been going ever so softer in the past two months but really, really should be keeping track of that. I definitely notice the difference in the lower pressures, can probably go a bit lower. I've had the belief that I'd rather run higher pressure than flat-out. Then again I crashed out and maybe lower pressure would have prevented that.

I'm mid/back of the pack Cat5. In the middle of the race I was wondering how much harder it must be in the faster races where everyone is probably picking the best lines.
 
To add to that, I wonder how much it may be worth swapping tires beforehand. Not sure if maybe an MXP in the front would offer more grip on turns in conditions like today. I do like consistency.
 
PDX should have plenty of bite. I like it in dusty loose stuff. Never hurts to experiment tho. Any idea what pressure? Do you ever hit the rim on roots during hot laps/race?
 
Good seeing you guys today. Keep showing up and racing. It gets easier the more you do it. ;)
 
Just this past week I actually bought an analog presta 0-30psi guage. I just suck at using it and remembering the #s.

I haven't been bottoming out.

And I'm sure @jShort is wrong, I expect it to get harder the more I do it, just hopefully faster.
 
I now firmly believe anyone who does a race recap makes it all up. I thought I did 3.x laps. Turns out it was 4.x laps looking at the GPS.
 
First @Delish no worries. I don't blame you. No wrath to incur. I know Steve will do what Steve wants to do regardless of which little angels or demons are sitting on his shoulders.

Second i am very proud of @Santapez . I do wish he would hold off on racing but... That ain't happening sooooo.... Next best thing is to cheer him on while biting my lip and wringing my hands.

Actually I didn't see him fall and I'm glad. I might have completely made an ass of myself yelling 911!!! while running towards him on the course. At that point in the race, I had already made my way over to the finish line to get a pic of him crossing. :/

He's got a few more races he's already signed up for. I'll be at as many of them as I can cheering him on... Might still make an ass of myself yelling 911!!!! if I see him fall... But I think that's my job to worry... And i might hop on and do a race or two myself. :)
 
Head mostly feels good, thanks. I definitely bruised the left side of my face but most of the other weirdness has gone away. I didn't bother seeking medical attention, I figure all they would do is say to rest.

Do we have any ability to do sand on Thursday?
 
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Dominique said:
What is this all about?? Can't just say this and not explain!

Hope you are feeling better though!
Click to expand...
I mentioned some stuff earlier but I can go into detail. I try to not really go into details because I don't want to come off as complaining or needy. Or making excuses. But if you're interested...

Last year at my "annual" checkup (first one in years) I had my blood work done and actually had it reviewed by a functional medical person. My doctor brought up the fact that the cholesterol was high and nothing else. Because all anyone cares about is cholesterol levels I guess. The other person I had review my bloodwork said the cholesterol was nothing to worry about but my Hemoglobin/Hemocrit was really low and was something I should work on as a cyclist/runner as it would really hold me back. This is a guy who Jeremy Power's trusts so...

This year after breaking my clavicle I went and got a DXA scan because I figured it may be a good idea based on the surgeon report. That's where I found out I have osteoporosis. Then went and got more (and more substantial) blood work in addition to going over the bloodwork I got while in the hospital myself.

So then I found out I'm Hypothyroid, have an auto-immune disease called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis where my body is attacking my Thyroid. I've got a bunch of other markers pointing to liver/kidney/stomach malfunction but not hoepfully yet on a grand scale. Lots of things related to my body not pulling in nutrients from food. Massive gut issues with no outward symptoms it seems. Some of the markers are so out of the normal range it's crazy. Even looking online some numbers I have are so high/low I can't find other people reporting the same. Going to an Endocrinologist this week, hopefully that leads to getting somewhere although I know it'll take more than an Endo. Dealing with doctors is the most frustrating thing of all I have found. I'll take crashing face first over dealing with doctors any day.

I'm actually a weird medicine geek when it comes to Podcasts. I've listened to a ton where things like HashiMoto's was covered in depth over the last year or two and COMPLETELY ignored them as they didn't pertain to me. Went back and listened to them as they do now... So I feel the same way with talking about this stuff, it doesn't really pertain to most people and they probably don't want to hear too much about it.

So I can't complain though. Hopefully I caught most of this stuff early. I'm 37 not 57. I probably perform physically/mentally better that than most people I see walking on the streets. Even though I have a body temperature of 95 degrees I don't seem to have symptoms that negatively affect me on a regular basis. I'm tired all the time but I guess I just push through it.

So biggest lesson I've learned from this is regular doctor's don't check for any under the surface issues. It's all based on reaction not prevention. If I had a full blood test for things like Adrenals/Hormones/Thyroid previous I could be fixing this stuff awhile ago.

Oh well. We all die sometime. I don't like to complain and look at the bright side. A few months ago I broke my clavicle into 5 pieces with basically no pain and even now I've only got minimal issues with movement/tightness. It probably broke due to the weak bones which led me to find out about these other issues and now I can take care of them. If I was a typical couch surfer I'd slowly fall apart and then find all this out when my hip broke getting off the couch in 20 years and by then the train would be fully off the tracks.

-Steve
 
Santapez said:
So biggest lesson I've learned from this is regular doctor's don't check for any under the surface issues. It's all based on reaction not prevention. If I had a full blood test for things like Adrenals/Hormones/Thyroid previous I could be fixing this stuff awhile ago.
Click to expand...

Curious as to where the tipping point is to where the testing stops though. Most likely, all of us have something and how far does one go to find these things that may or may not be an issue? While computers or doctors may be able to find a few items that lines up, do you start taking a drug to help avoid something and potentially, unknowingly aggravate something else? I mean, shit, to treat cancer at one point they thought you should cut away as much flesh with in a certain radius of the problem area to find out 20 years later that it didn't help.

In the future it will probably all be genetic testing and they will be able to give your parents, at birth, all the potential major diseases you may have and the percentage of the probability of getting said diseases. I can see the use for family illness issues but i also see the potential for drug companies to just having a field day prescribing and influencing drugs for found conditions.

For instance, my dad had a heart attack 5? year ago and my uncle (his twin) two months ago. My dad is active with crappy diet and uncle nonactive with crappy diet. Do I do something now or wait as i am active and have a good diet?

Just discussing here, not criticizing.
 
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