If It Weren't For Bad Luck...

...I wouldn't have any luck at all.  Seriously.  These past two weeks can be summarized like this:  hit the deck, resist medical care, finally agree to a hospital trip, excruciating pain, no food or drink, possibly surgery, 4 fractures, good drugs, bad food, good friends and crutches. I could just leave it like that, but then I wouldn't be true to my "rambling" ways. 

As far as what happened, I can only rely on witness accounts because I remember going really fast thinking I would maybe make a jump after the turn into the headwind and then oh-shit, asphalt, curled into the fetal position, bikes and bodies on top of me.  A brief aside: seeing the race roll past as you're laying on the ground lends an interesting perspective.  Witness accounts tell me that the girl in front of the pack swerved to miss a pothole/manhole cover and clipped my front wheel.  Really ?  We passed over that cover a dozen times in laps before.  RIDE OVER IT- yeah, it's bumpy but it's less bumpy than hitting the ground.  Really.
(dinner one night at hospital - thank you ,LJ, for saving me from this !)
One lesson learned in this debacle - Don't Listen to the Girl With the Concussion.  That would be me, by the way. The question: Do you want to go to the hospital ? I guarantee if you asked that in a crowded room, not one person would say yes. My reaction was that of any sane person: No.  And bless them, my friends and concerned citizens listened.  EMT's carried me over to a random lawn chair, where I proceeded to hang out for about an hour.  Trying to stand up, almost passing out from the effort and deciding to wait a little longer to see if things magically improved.  They didn't.  Eventually the adrenaline from the race started wearing off and the pain increased exponentially.  Dammit.  Something was very wrong. 


Z and LJ were super supportive and helpful, managing logistics of car jockeying.  Brigham put my mind at ease by assuring me that aside from a deraileur hanger and maybe truing a wheel, my bike was absolutely fine.  Christine helped LJ carry me to my awaiting car and Erin, seeing that I couldn't walk at all, came through with an assist.  Z quickly chauffered me to St. Agnes, the nearest hospital to my house.  Noting Christine's concern regarding my offensive odor, I somehow managed to change out of my lycra and into the sundress I wore to the race.  Don't ask why this was important to me, I had a concussion, remember ? 

Fast forward to the ER,,where more than one nurse complimented me on my dress. Transferring bed to table for xrays, then again for cat scans.  Having to explain that No, I could not twist sideways for a better shot.  Sobbing when they told me I was broken.  2 fractures on the pelvic bone.  Sobbing again when they added a 3rd fracture and (4) a lateral fracture to the sacrum for good measure.  The strange feeling of morphine as it enters the bloodstream.  LJ and Erik, kindly bringing food because thats what we do in hospitals, and then being informed by nurses that I could not eat or drink because I might need surgery.  ER does NOT believe in sleep.  Literally passing out when the PT girls had me stand up.  They learned to believe me when I said it wasn't a good idea.  FINALLY getting food/water after 25 hrs.  Unfortunately it was hospital food. 
The roommate who couldn't sleep without the TV on . The roommate who couldn't stop talking.  The visits from friends when I least expected them but most needed them.  Gorgeous flowers.  A Harry & David basket that provided sustenance in lieu of aforementioned hospital food.  A walker, then a wheelchair - I was hell on wheels, as you can imagine - finally, crutches.

I'm out and getting back in action- it's amazing how the human body heals itself after trauma.  BIG thank you to LJ and Z, who tag teamed me in the hospital and took care of logistics. Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes or made the time to call or visit. Half of what keeps me coming back to the madness that is bike racing is the community.  Teammate or competitor, in the end, we take care of our own.  Call me tenacious or call me crazy - I'm down but I'm not out. 

TGIF - 4/23/2010

I went to a concert in the recent past after a semi-last minute invite from a cute boy, to see a band that I semi-knew and liked what I did know of them. 


So, I'm all excited about the concert because I love live music and I think it'll be a great show.  It was - I didnt know all the songs but the lead singer was entertaining, showed a ton of talent by busting out into various songs that were not his genre, the sound was awesome and it was one of the better shows with regard to pyro-technics.  It was a blast - no pun intended.
 
I should take a quick side-bar to explain that I despise radio ... I may have mentioned this before so humor me while I rant again:  The DJs on regular radio are loud, obnoxious and laugh at themselves and each other, even though most of the idiotic things they're saying really aren't that funny.  It's kind of like a laugh track, only live ...  Laugh hysterically NOW.  No, NOW.  They play one or two songs, often ruining good songs by overplaying them, and then you are subjected to 10mins of advertisements, headlines, traffic, weather and who-knows what else.  What's really annoying is that the ads are usually louder than the music so you damn near get blown out of your car if you have the volume up because they happen to play a good song that they haven't ruined yet.   Okay - climbing off my soapbox now.

What does this have to do with anything ?  Well, it makes me reliant on friends to clue me in to new music, what's playing and what I might want to download to play on my ipod (which, other than NPR, is pretty much what I listen to on a daily basis unless I need traffic info on TOP).  This means I'm often a little behind and don't keep up on what people think of various bands/music.  I think this lets me make my own decisions as to whether I like the music/bands without being influenced by others.  This means that if you ever get ahold of my ipod, my musical tastes are laid bare for judgment ....

Me being me, I did some research on said band when I got to a computer the next day.  I had no idea that this band is one of those -either you love them or loathe them- bands.  Those that loathe them are pretty visceral about it.  Comments included that the lyrics were sophomoric, music unoriginal and/or was the same album to album, the lead singer must be violent, depressed or on drugs etc etc.  All the "respected" publications (eg. Rolling Stone) are pretty harsh about this band, and those who consider themselves music snobs seem to follow suit. 

On the other hand, they're pretty damn successful judging by album sales so they must have a following.

Personally, I think the music itself is decent most of the time but the lyrics are fantastic.  They often range from a little crude to really crude, but I find them to be mostly amusing.  There are a few pretty catchy "anthems" and some "down and dirty" songs, intermixed with a few slower, more poignant numbers.  Granted, my musical taste is pretty varied, from Beethoven to Eminem to Elvis to Kanye, so maybe that's why I can appreciate something that doesn't appeal to everyone.  

By now you're wondering what band I'm talking about- or maybe you've guessed ?

At Least It Didn't Rain...

This is a little late but that's the summary of Walkersville this year for me.  I should just end the discussion with that one sentence, but at the risk of being that kid that makes up all kinds of excuses for a poor performance, I won't.

I've been trying to make some changes in my work schedule to better accommodate after-work, out-of-doors riding, which seems to be working out fairly well.  So, thats a plus.

I've also made some changes in my eating habits - while I'd love to lose some of the weight I put on during my various traumas this past year, I actually made the changes because they make sense for long-term health.  I suppose it's a looser version of Paleo mixed with the Primal Blueprint-thing ... no grains so pretty low carb except for what you get from fruits and veggies.  Lots of protein and "good" fats.  I do feel better on a daily basis.  However, I learned very quickly and in a devastating way that those lifestyles do NOT work for competitive cycling.

My quick lesson was at Walkersville so here's my version of the race:  start out a little warmer than I had anticipated (yay) and a little more crowded than I anticipated (racing with the 50+ guys).  Somehow between the lead moto and the pack rolling out, a mini-van managed to get in there and proceeded to slam on the brakes when he realized he was being swarmed by cyclists.  Sweet.

By the way, the 50+ guys were all gentlemen, as I would have expected.  The trouble was that there are varying degrees of experience - some of the long-time racers ares smooth as butta, but others, often spotted wearing a Discovery kit, have the cash to get the gear but don't really have the experience to use it.  As a side note to my side note, PLEASE, for the love of all things good, use the brakes that work with carbon wheels if you're going to ride your deep-dish rims in a race or ride.  If the winds are gusting to 30mph, think twice about using aforementioned rims.  The combination of being blown all over the road and brakes squealing at the slightest touch made for a very stressful event.

Anyhoo, we stayed tempo - ie fairly civilized through the first lap.  Until we got to the downhill leading to the climb - where there was a vehicle parked in the middle of the road, apparently picking up the collateral damage from the race before ours.  Panic and chaos ensued as we all tried to avoid the car, carry some momentum into the hill and avoid crashing into each other (brakes squealing all over the place).  I got a little gapped off through that melee and found myself alone as I finished the climb.  Caught up to a guy, then Diesel-Diane (ABRT) pulled through - I silently offered a prayer of thanks and knew we were going to make a run for it.  I dug deep to help Diane as we chased, finally making contact after turn 1.  I was pleased as punch.  But tired.  Settle in and regroup in the pack, the second lap passed without incident and I gained some confidence that I was going to be okay.

Then the 3rd climb ... thats when the wheels fell off.  Not literally.  Although I kind of wished they had, 'cause then I'd have an excuse.  Got up the first two pitches painfully but ok; the last one shut me down.  I couldn't turn a gear, I couldn't push harder ...
F A I L.  I chased a bit, trying to catch up with friend and former teammate, Sara Z, but she hooked up with another rider and they had a little more momentum.  I rode alone through turn 1 and made it about halfway up the highway before I called it.

After talking to Coach Slavedriver, we concluded that it was lack of carbs - easily accessible glucose to fuel the muscles.  The hard chase on lap 1, a decent climb on lap 2 and an increased pace for the 3rd climb was more than I had in my system.  I need to do a modified version of the Paleo diet for athletes, which would include some grains/starches pre-race to increase available glucose and post race to aid in recovery. 
 
I can count on one hand the number of races I've pulled out of.  Despite any excuses, I was devastated to say the least.  It's difficult when you know where you've been and how fast you CAN go, but you have taken three steps backward and have to make those gains all over again.  Sigh.  Thanks mostly to my teammates, I'll get over it ... and I'll get faster.  I'm not quite ready to take my dollies and go home ...