Blood, Sweat, and Beers

Well this post is going to kind of get back to the roots and the “Blood, Sweat, & Beers” theme.  All three are covered in the post and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Where as last week was dominated by the kind of work done in datacenter and on my macbook this week was more about the kind of work done on two wheels.  Luckily I am ahead on both of my work projects and Beth was off of job #1 for the week so I was able to get in a pretty awesome week of training.

With all the racing the past couple of weekends and work travel it had been quite a while since I put in a real big week of training and that’s what I wanted to do.  ”Crash” week training has worked well for me in the past, and since I am only focusing on one sport now it makes it even easier and less taxing on the body to knock out a block of big training.  So with Stage races coming up the next 3 weekends I got to work last week and capped it off with another couple of crits on Sunday.

The details aren’t exciting but during the week I logged a lot of miles, a hard TT sesh with pete on the trainers, hit crossfit 4 times, and then on Friday Beth and I headed to Palm Springs for Scott & Molly’s wedding… and of course knocked out some training while we were there.

pre-wedding campfire photo.

On Saturday, before the wedding, we knocked out a long ride with Ben, Becky, and three guys from Ben’s team.  The ride was hard with over 5,000 ft. of climbing and the guys from Ben’s team were pushing the pace on the climbs, on the rollers, and on the flats.  It was basically like racing, which was great for training, but was keeping me on the rivet all day.

After the big week of training (and the partying the night before) this ride smashed.  I was more than happy to roll back in to the smoke tree ranch and pass out.

A couple of hours after the ride we walked over to the ceremony.  It was awesome…. stoked for Scott & Molly.  As weddings go everybody was in “rare form” at the reception.

Sunday morning we were up relatively early.  Beth headed out for a long run with the girls and I packed up and headed to the Dare to Race Grad Prix (crit) in Ontario to race.  I had two more crits on the schedule and i was really looking forward to finishing up a hard week of training with some good racing.  I got there early, picked up my numbers, and got on the trainer.

My first race was the 30+ 4/5 race with a sold out field.  The first 20 minutes of the race were pretty mellow.  I covered some attacks, jumped on some wheels to try to get a way but nothing was sticking.  With 5 to go the pace picked up and 3/4 of the way through the lap a guy who I was with in the winning break last week made a move.  I jumped on his wheel, and another guy jumped on mine.  We started to get a gap when the guy on front waived me through on his right.  As I was pulling through on the right he looked over this right shoulder to see if we had a gap the swerved into me.  He hit me hard and I think he clipped my bars, not 100% sure.  All i know is the next thing I knew was tumbling on the ground and wound up facing the rest of field.  I put my hands in the air so everyone would see me and fortunately nobody hit me.

I was tangled in my bike and in shock.  I untangled myself and knew I needed to finish to get credit for the race.  I was still thinking clearly so this was a good sign.  If figured the second race of the day wasn’t going to happen so I had to rally, get myself back on my bike, and hope I was not going to get pulled.  As I was riding I started assessing the damage.  I was streaming blood from my mouth, and my skinsuit was was ripped to shreds (both butt cheeks, right shoulder, and right sleeve, both my gloves were shredded as well).  I was just hoping I didn’t lose any teeth and my bones & bike weren’t broken.  I tt’d the last 4 laps and rode straight through the chase group, but couldn’t make my way back to the pack.

I ended up finishing the race… in 57th, but that counts.  I rode straight to the med tent and the pain got worse.  They scrubbed all my wounds thoroughly.  It sucked at the time, but couldn’t be more thankful now.  The bleeding from my mouth was from my lip.  When I hit the ground I bit my lip and it was split wide open.  I had a good feeling I needed stitches.  While in the med tent the guy that took me out came over and apologized and I came to find out he caused another crash in the race.  I wasn’t bitter… yeah it sucked… a lot, but it’s bike racing.  Stupid crashed happen.  You know that when you sign up and get on the start line.  It could have been worse… a lot worse.

skinsuit. post race.

So after getting cleaned up i hit the road for home still trying to decide of I should go get stitches.  Kerri told me to text her a photo of my lip (she’s nurse) and when I did she immediately replied and said I needed stitches so I headed straight to the ER before going home.  I ended up sitting in the ER for a bit and then getting 4 stitches in my lip… the road rash was/is way worse.

the lip. post stitches.

pre shower.

post shower.  the worst part is under the towel.  trust me.

so my sunday didn’t go as planned, but I’ll be ok.  I wokeup  Monday morning and was shockingly not too sore.  Yeah the road rash sucks, but it will heal.  Luckily my bike is better off than me.  I took it to Velo Hangar Monday afternoon and Gordon checked it out.  Not a scratch.  Pretty amazing.

I can’t thank my wife & friends enough for all the texts, calls, and emails asking if I was okay and giving me advice.  I will still be racing this coming weekend in Tucson and looking forward to it.  Unitl then I will continue to nurse my wounds…