Hindsight...
..is 20/20.
Well, I planned to get a couple of hard efforts in last weekend to put the final touches on my preparation for the Masters Road Champs here in Socal this coming Saturday.
It all started probably 6 years ago, maybe...
That's when I got tired of getting my ass handed to me in the Pro 1,2 races - and I thought the only way I wouldn't get my ass handed to me was to recreate the mega hours on the bike I had done in the past. I didn't want to do that again...
So, that's when I swallowed the pride and took a downgrade from a cat 1 to a cat 3. I still wanted to ride my bike a bit, but didn't want to grovel and suffer and ultimately get destroyed by the pros on a weekly basis.
Well, this past weekend, that decision to take the downgrade threw a bit of a spanner in the works during the Cat 3 Barrio Logan Crit.
Two laps to go, and I was sitting probably third wheel, when a rider from the UC cyclery/?? flooring team who was on the front (or maybe second wheel), and by himself - decided he wanted to get acquainted with the pavement for no particular reason...
I had nowhere to go and t-boned him at 45kph - went over the bars and landed hard on my right elbow/hip - and, as we all know, the elbow bone is connected to the shoulder bone. I couldn't really move my arm/shoulder so I made a trip to the ER. ER doc took some x-rays, and diagnosed an AC separation. Yeah, that diagnosis didn't turn out to be correct - my regular doc today correctly diagnosed it as a rotator cuff injury, and it seems as if it is healing pretty well. I basically immobilized the area for 60 hours, loaded up on ibuprofen, and iced the heck out of it.
I was pretty upset when it happened, since there was no reason for this crash - I sure hope that the rolled tire I saw on this rider's bike in the aftermath wasn't the cause (fwiw, there were several other crashes in that race, and I considered stopping mid-race...) - and the result of this crash put my near term goal of the masters road champs in jeopardy. I'm feeling a bit more positive now, though.
It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me the past few days. I've gone from anger to denial ("I'm not hurt - I'll be fine in a day or so"), to resignation, and back to the possibility of racing this weekend...
I pedaled on the trainer today, and to my surprise, once I got the blood flowing in the ol' shoulder area, it seemed to loosen up a bit. I tried to make some power and things seemed to get better as time progressed.
I'll give it a go tomorrow outside up couser to see where the power is, and how the shoulder feels while working the bars out of the saddle - but the jarring from real roads might make it a short one... Smooth, slow movements are OK, the quick, or unexpected motions are not so good.
As I type this, and with a bit more perspective and positive vibes - it's just bike racing, and healing should be my first concern. That's easy to say, huh?!
Hindsight is 20/20 and I shouldn't have done that crit - the competitor inside got the better of me - but here I am, not 100% healthy... There's only one thing I can do...
And that's to keep moving forward!
Well, I planned to get a couple of hard efforts in last weekend to put the final touches on my preparation for the Masters Road Champs here in Socal this coming Saturday.
It all started probably 6 years ago, maybe...
That's when I got tired of getting my ass handed to me in the Pro 1,2 races - and I thought the only way I wouldn't get my ass handed to me was to recreate the mega hours on the bike I had done in the past. I didn't want to do that again...
So, that's when I swallowed the pride and took a downgrade from a cat 1 to a cat 3. I still wanted to ride my bike a bit, but didn't want to grovel and suffer and ultimately get destroyed by the pros on a weekly basis.
Well, this past weekend, that decision to take the downgrade threw a bit of a spanner in the works during the Cat 3 Barrio Logan Crit.
Two laps to go, and I was sitting probably third wheel, when a rider from the UC cyclery/?? flooring team who was on the front (or maybe second wheel), and by himself - decided he wanted to get acquainted with the pavement for no particular reason...
I had nowhere to go and t-boned him at 45kph - went over the bars and landed hard on my right elbow/hip - and, as we all know, the elbow bone is connected to the shoulder bone. I couldn't really move my arm/shoulder so I made a trip to the ER. ER doc took some x-rays, and diagnosed an AC separation. Yeah, that diagnosis didn't turn out to be correct - my regular doc today correctly diagnosed it as a rotator cuff injury, and it seems as if it is healing pretty well. I basically immobilized the area for 60 hours, loaded up on ibuprofen, and iced the heck out of it.
I was pretty upset when it happened, since there was no reason for this crash - I sure hope that the rolled tire I saw on this rider's bike in the aftermath wasn't the cause (fwiw, there were several other crashes in that race, and I considered stopping mid-race...) - and the result of this crash put my near term goal of the masters road champs in jeopardy. I'm feeling a bit more positive now, though.
It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me the past few days. I've gone from anger to denial ("I'm not hurt - I'll be fine in a day or so"), to resignation, and back to the possibility of racing this weekend...
I pedaled on the trainer today, and to my surprise, once I got the blood flowing in the ol' shoulder area, it seemed to loosen up a bit. I tried to make some power and things seemed to get better as time progressed.
I'll give it a go tomorrow outside up couser to see where the power is, and how the shoulder feels while working the bars out of the saddle - but the jarring from real roads might make it a short one... Smooth, slow movements are OK, the quick, or unexpected motions are not so good.
As I type this, and with a bit more perspective and positive vibes - it's just bike racing, and healing should be my first concern. That's easy to say, huh?!
Hindsight is 20/20 and I shouldn't have done that crit - the competitor inside got the better of me - but here I am, not 100% healthy... There's only one thing I can do...
And that's to keep moving forward!
Labels: racing
posted by kraig at
8:17 PM
2 Comments:
Sorry to hear about the injury Kraig. I hope you heal adequately to race this weekend. Since it might still hurt to pull on the bars in a sprint, you'll just have to go off the front and win solo!
thanks for dropping in, Marco!
There is no joy in mudville, today... :-(
Good luck up in Bakersfield - that course should suit you well, maybe!?
Keepin' positive around these parts, and I'll just shift my focus to my achilles heel: flat TT's! :-)
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