Visit With Doc; Great News

Visited with my surgeon today. We take off the splint. Whoa nelly that felt great! "I make a lot of friends" says the tech. Wound check is good. No sign of infection. A relief. I lost a co-worker two years ago to staph after "routine" surgery. Doc and I debated on suture removal. He gave me a choice: remove the stitches today and keep the splint, or come back next week to remove stitches and move to a movable brace. That's a choice? Let's get it movin!



I'm now in a removable brace. Halley-looo-ya I can remove it and shower normally. That's a huge QOL improvement! Right now my arm is stiff. Including my uninjured wrist. This is from some (little) swelling and immobilization. Joints like to move. The elbow range of motion is pretty small. I've got exercises to do. I played around with it for about an hour and it's improving already. Although the ends of my motion range are kinda painful, the middle is pain free and smooth. Doc said "Not to brag, but it's a great repair." I don't mind him bragging.

I'm out of the splint, but the arm's pretty useless. No movement restrictions, but I'm not allowed any weight. But considering I'm 11 days out of surgery and out of immobilization is pretty awesome. I'll have more to report physically, and philosophically over the next few days.

Elbow, Olecranon, Tomaytoe, Tomato.

This is what my elbow looked like right after my crash. As you can see... that don't look right...

Technically I broke my Olecranon, and had Open Reduction and Internal Fixation (ORIF) Surgery. Here's some tech info on the surgery. First how they flense and filleted me. Warning surgical pictures!
Elbow - Surgical Approaches from eORIF.com

Not sure if the first or second approach was used. I'll ask on Friday. A couple concise outlines of the operation:
Plate Fixation of Olecranon Frx
Olecranon Fracture ORIF

And finally a
Nice Presentation

Ortho surgery is cool. The way you have to take into account structural loading and repair, it reminds me of auto body work. If I were to be a doc, this is what I'd want to do.

Seven Screws + One Bar

Post-Op Update

UPDATE: Picture > Here <

Surgery went smoothly on Monday. I wish there were more to say, but there wasn't anything remarkable. That's a good thing when having surgery! Seven screws and one plate has me back together. I'll have pix tomorrow after I go to work and scan them in.

Very little post-op pain. They place a nerve block in my shoulder. This was a teeny tube connected to a pump that continuously pumped novacaine on the elbow nerve. Supercool! I kept that until Wednesday morning; I pulled out the tube out. No pain medicine since Wednesday night.

At this point its more inconvience than pain. Everything takes longer. Showering is an hour plus event. Dressing no longer takes 10 minutes. More like an hour. Prepping food is a feat! But I'm making it okay. Just slowly.

Now the healing begins.

It Was Bound to Happen Sometime

I recall a conversation I had sometime ago with a former pro-racer about crashes. His advise was to accept them as inevitable. They are just part of the sport. And you need to accept their consequences or consider other sport. I've firmly kept riding, so you know my decision.

Tuesday the inevitable happened to me. I was riding, after dark with poor lights, while fiddling with something in my pocket, I locked up the rear wheel on the bike. I steered into it, but never got to the second part of that recovery - I high-sided the bike and landed mostly on my elbow.

I gathered my wits and rode about three miles to the nearest gas station and called a cab for a ride home. I cleaned up my roadrash, and iced my now engorged elbow. I had no trouble moving my arm, and it didn't hurt any worse than any other fall. But there was a distinct 'clicking' when I moved a certain way. Worried things would get worse... I drove to the ER.

When I walked in there was a lady that made "that" face. You know... that face your mom makes. I told her "hey don't do that! Makes it hurt". We shared a nice laugh over it. I had only a short wait until the Xray tech took me back. Kathleen was supercool. She looked at the growing hemotoma, shrugged, and said "with the way you're able to move that, you may have just hit a blood vessel. Hope! She left and quicky returned and said "You've completely f*cked up your elbow". Here she's pointing to my bone which is supposed to be attached to the horizontal piece...

They splinted me, set me up with some pain killers and sent me home. Obviously surgical. By the time they got around to splinting me, the swelling was worse. I could no longer bend my arm. The splint had my arm pretty straight. Put it this way, when I stood iy looked like I was gabbing my crotch. OK for standing and lying, but horrible for sitting. My shoulder was hurting more than my elbow(!) because of all of the ackward positioning.

Fast forward to today... I met with the surgeon today. First words out of his mouth "lets get you out of that splint!" I let out a "hooray!!" He had me lay down, cut away my splint and told me to relax my shoulder. I hadn't enven mentioned it was tight. He bent my arm and said "feel better?". I like this guy! We took some better xRays, and went over the gameplan. His surgical block time is on Thursdays, but he's scheduled me for Monday. Hoorah. I'm anxious to get that part over with.

So here I am. First broken bone, first surgery looming. Already I miss riding. But I'm trying not even think about how to bouce back. After surgery, and good bone healing will be the appropriate time. Time... fot once... is something I suddenly have plenty of...

I like commuting to work on my bike

Getting My Dirt Fix In

Today was one of those days you don't want to end. Perfect weather. Trails in perfect shape. Legs feeling fresh and spicey. Regretting not driving up Saturday and camping out. Expected the place to be packed, but it wasn't (?).



I'm happy. I spent the majority of my awaken hours this day outdoors! And I can look forward to commuting on bike all week according the weather man... I hope he's right!
.

Sometimes a Man Needs His Beef

Roasting beef on sale at the grocery... stuff it with garlic, cover with red, black pepper, and salt.

Roast it...

Slice it...

Gotta like garlic if you're gonna eat at my place!
.

Changes In the Winds

The weather changes fast this time of year. The pics in today's post are from Tuesday. It was cloudless perfection. No pics from Wednesday's ride because it was raining. About 2:00pm it was bright and sunny. By 5:00pm leadout, misting rain later turning into steady rain. The rains have not yet grown cold. No complaints. When doing a challenging threshold ride, they feel nice and refreshing. The slippery roads make the normally boring road ride much more mentally engaging. I'm glad I'm a mountain biker when the rains come.

I'm still reeling from the Terlingua cancellation. Perhaps if there is anything good about it, it forces me to evaluate my goals for next year. I have never had specific goals about racing, but I want them now.

I worked out some very meaningful goals that related to Terlingua. They can't readily substitute into another race. There is only one Tres Cuevas! It's great to have ONE BIG RACE in big red letters on your calandar to keep you going through the long winter months.

My goals have to morph. But to what? I'm not quite sure.
.

Mourning.

http://www.desertsportstx.com/masomenos.php

It is with a heavy heart that Desert Sports must announce the cancellation of the 2010 Starlight Theater Mas O Menos 100k Moutain Bike Fest.

It's been a great ride, since back in teh day (way back i n'04) when we first convinced the fine folks at the CASI site that this whole mountain bike thing was a possibility. We had visions then of how great it could be... but we never truly imagined how fabulous it would turn out! Dancing! Riding in sixty foot rattlesnakes! Racing! Eating!

CRAP! This is my favorite race of the year. There's nothing better than getting away from the cold, rain and spending a wonderful week camping out in the desert!

It was a festival-like atmosphere in one of the most unique places I've ever been. I've been excited about going back since I turned north on Hwy 118 last February. It's the perfect way to light the fires and kick start the spring season. Alas, it will not be... and. I. am. sad.

MR2 Headlight Motors

Spilled the bike yesterday on the way home from work. Luckily, I was wearing commuter shorts. That saved me from the road rash. Didn't save me from the bruise and pains on my hip. I'm seriously sore today. Enough to not want to get on the bike, or drive to Ruston. Blah. After beaucoup asprin... I decided fix the headlight motor on the MR2. I pulled off the headlight motor, which was not working at times.

I suspected an electrical problem. And after removing the cover, this was what I saw...

Lotsa corrosion. Some brake cleaner and working over with a scrub pad yielded this...

Still a lot of corrosion. The copper plating is gone at the parking spot. But I though why not try. No go.

Hmm... Here's why folks that work on old cars are packrats. I saved a motor that had a bad bearing on the worm gear. Let's see what's inside. First, I have to get out the power tool to get the stripped screw loose...

After some efforts, a small abrasion, I crack it open and find...

It's pristine! Glad I saved it. Now I simply remove the lift arm, and tap out the gear. Be careful here. When you loosen the arm bolt, hold on to so you don't torque against the plastic gear. Sure way to crack it.

Much better condition here...

I just swapped the gears into the good housing, and put it all back together. The result...

It was a good afternoon on a picture perfect fall day. This job took twice as long as it should have, but I'm moving pretty slow today with the soreness. I did a lot of planning to ensure all my tools were within arms reach today!

For a Wet and Dreary Wednesday...

... homemade chicken soup is the perfect prescription.

The UPs and DOWNs of Training

I'm ready for cold weather. Those that know me are now in shock! Yes, I said it. I'll say it again. I'm ready for cold weather. This summer's heat was one to remember. And I'm tired of it. Here we are in October, with temperatures in the mid-90's. I think training through the summer's hottest heat may not have been the smartest idea. As I near the end of the season, I'm tired. Seriously, seriously tired.

The training has been weak and sporadic the last two weeks. It's felt more like work than fun. Training shouldn't be this hard. The hardest part of training isn't actually doing the training. That part is fun. At it's worst, I'm outdoors riding my bike. That's where I feel the best, even if the ride is intense. But for the last couple of weeks the hard part has been mustering up the motivation to get moving. Maybe it's the heat?

I'm tired, but not worried. Earlier in my training this type of down period worried me. Scared that I'd give up the sport. But not now. I know that with a few days rest I'll be itching to get back on the bike. I already am in most ways. These ebbs and flows are just part of the training process. Everyone gets them (I think?) but few are willing to admit it. Key point is to shed the guilt we as athletes put on ourselves for not training. It takes some honesty. Honesty to see that if you're training, but not doing a good job of it... you're better off resting. Gathering the motivation to rest is hard. How does one get psyched up to rest? That's an underrated skill in this business.

Luckily I've got some time before the Ruston race. YettiCross is canceled, because Harris County Flood Control are jerks. [SEE HERE], and there's college football on TV all day Saturday. Seems like a great time for a break.

Racer's Program for Dating

If you aren't reading Embrocation Cycling Journal you should be. It's very well wirtten. An example: A racer's porgram for dating.

Bicycle racing is already a lonely pursuit. There are long hours training and long drives to and from races. If, like me, you are struggling to find your place in the peloton, there can occasionally be lonely time spent off the back of races.

Now, if you’re single, you’ve got to throw the following into the mix of misery: solitary nights sitting at home when non-racing friends venture out to enjoy a normal night life, leaving you behind to clean and lube your bike, because you’re racing tomorrow and adult beverages, late nights, and drunken snacking are not conducive to fast racing.

[. . .]

To avoid lonely evenings in the season’s busiest months, I respectfully suggest the following dating program for anyone currently single and racing, racing and contemplating being single, or currently single and contemplating racing. You’ve got a coach to create your training program. Consider this your program for dating-while-racing. . .

...read the rest at: http://www.embrocationmagazine.com/racer-s-program-for-dating

Getting Funky On The Bike Like an Old Batch of Collard Greens

Two hours on the YCX course today. Emphasis on attacking the hills, and smooth riding. My dismounts still suck. Mah. Also figured out it's actually far easier to dis/remount on the right (wrong) side on the big run up. That way the remount is with the bike below on the slope, rather than trying to hop on with the saddle chest high!

I probably saw ten different people riding during my time out there. Looks to like the trails are becoming quite popular. That's good! I hope it brings out more folks to the races.

It was quite warm today. I've never been as ready for fall as this year. This summer's heat is one to be remembered.

Pushing the Thresholds

Today's ride is designed to push the threshold up just a bit. The cooler temps are really nice! Only 85F at ride time today!

The days are getting shorter. And I'm preparing. The PowerTap display has no backlight. Riding intervals afterdark is tough business. You can only check your power whenever you pass under a street light! The Garmin 705 has a backlight, and can read a 2.4+ PowerTap. My rhode PT is 2.4; meaning it can't be read... until now.

I ordered an updater from Saris. This updater upgrades the PT hub to ANT+ so the Garmin can read it. They send the updater and a new cover. The only change to the new cover is the label. It says "2.4+", where as the original says "2.4". Silly to me. I don't really care what it says!

Real simple upgrade process. Remove the cover. Pull out the battery basket. Plug in the updater. Throw the switch. Remove it. Put the battery basket back on.

Then put the cover on. I like to use a bit (and just a bit) of silicone grease on o-rings to ensure a weatherproof seal. The update the computer head firmware and it's done. It immediately paired on the Garmin. Now I've got backlit power display! One step closer to being ready for the fall.

30-30s

Peeking out my window, the pavement's dry. But the radar's painting rain. There's little doubt about what my future holds...

I prefer the mountain bike in the rain, so I take it. I do 3 sets of ten 30sec on (30sec off) intervals. Usually this more of a lung workout than a leg workout. But with the revolt still ongoing, the legs end up cooked!

Tomorrow's CX race is now definately downgraded to a maybe ...

Fizzle.

Tough intervals tonight. Not sure what's going on with my body right now. It seems to be in full revolt. I plowed through well enough. But I'm really hoping to break out of this funk soon.

Multi-Goaled

Today's goal was 2-hours of tempo work on dirt. I also wanted to pre-ride our modified CX course. The solution? Two hours of tempo work on the CX course, of course!

There's a new run up on the course...

A new route to avoid construction on the bayou trestle bridge...

And a new return loop that avoids the flood control district's easment. They objected to the races. All I can say is that with rain predicted for Tues/Wed this will be a challenging course. It's laid out great. Tough, but not in an unpossible way. It seems super hard when you're poking along, but at race pace, it's easier. Just right!

It's nice to have this just a few blocks from home. I started out on the mountain bike. I was able to ride for a bit over an hour, run home, refill water bottles, and then get some more laps in on the CX bike. Good stuff. I'm starting to think this course may be faster on the MTB...

Maintenance Day

Brutal describes Friday's training ride. By the end the accumulated week's fatigue rose to the forefront. After some R&R Friday evening, I delcare Saturday a maintenance day. Mostly I rode my couch. Watch college football. And replaced a bottom bracket that was victim of Huntsville's sand.

Tomorrow is some tempo work. The legs are feeling ready after today's rest.